Pom. This health to Lepidus.

Ant. Bear him ashore.-I'll pledge it for him, Pompey. Eno. Here's to thee, Menas.

Men. Enobarbus, welcome.

Pom. Fill, till the cup be hid.

Eno. There's a strong fellow, Menas.

[Pointing to the Attendant who carries off LEPIDUS.

Men. Why?

Eno. He bears

The third part of the world, man; See'st not?

Men. The third part then is drunk: Would it were all, That it might go on wheels!

Eno. Drink thou; increase the reels.

Men. Come.

Pom. This is not yet an Alexandrian feast.

Ant. It ripens towards it.-Strike the vessels, ho!1

Here is to Cæsar.

Cas. I could well forbear it.

It's monstrous labour, when I wash my brain,

And it grows fouler.

Ant. Be a child o'the time.

Cas. Possess it, I'll make answer: but I had rather

fast

From all, four days, than drink so much in one.

Eno. Ha, my brave emperor!

[TO ANT.

Shall we dance now the Egyptian Bacchanals,
And celebrate our drink?

Pom. Let's ha't, good soldier.

Ant. Come, let us all take hands;

Till that the conquering wine hath steep'd our sense
In soft and delicate Lethe.

Eno. All take hands.

Make battery to our ears with the loud music :-
The while, I'll place you: Then the boy shall sing;
The holding every man shall bear, as loud

As his strong sides can volley.

[Music plays. ENO. places them hand in hand.

[1] Strike the vessels-means chink the vessels one against the other as a mark of our unanimity in drinking, as we now say, chink glasses. STEEV. So, in one of Iago's songs:

"And let me the cannikin clink." RITSON.

Vessels probably meant kettle-drums, which were beaten when the health of a person of eminence was drank; immediately after we have," make battery to our ears with the loud music." They are called kettles in Ham"Give me the cups;

let:

And let the kettle to the trumpet speak."

HOLT WHITE.

Cas. What would you more ?-Pompey, good night.
-Good brother,

Let me request you off: our graver business
Frowns at this levity.-Gentle lords, let's part ;
You see, we have burnt our cheeks: Strong Enobarbe
Is weaker than the wine; and mine own tongue
Splits what it speaks: the wild disguise hath almost
Antick'd us all. What needs more words? Good night.
Good Antony, your hand.

Pom. I'll try you o'the shore.

Ant. And shall, sir: give's your hand.
Pom. O, Antony,

You have my father's house,-But what? we are friends:
Come, down into the boat.

Eno. Take heed you fall not.—

[Exeunt Poм. CES. ANT. and Attendants.

Menas, I'll not on shore.

Men. No, to my cabin.

These drums!-these trumpets, flutes! what!

Let Neptune hear we bid a loud farewell

To these great fellows: Sound, and be hang'd, sound out.

[A flourish of trumpets, with drums.

Eno. Ho, says 'a !-There's my cap.

Men. Ho!-noble captain !

Come !

[Exeunt

[3] Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, says a pink eye is a small eye, and quotes this passage for his authority. Pink øyne, however, may mean red eyes eyes inflamed with drinking, are very well appropriated to Bacchus, So, in Julius Cæsar :

"such ferret and such fiery eyes."

It should be observed, however, that from the following passage in P. Holland's translation of the 11th Book of Pliny's Natural History, it appears that pink eyed signified the smallness of eyes: "-also them that were pinke-eyed and had verie small eies, they termed ocella." STEEV.

ACT III.

SCENE 1.-A Plain in Syria. Enter VENTIDIUS, as after conquest, with SILIUS and other Romans, Officers, and Soldiers; the dead Body of PACORUS borne before him.

Ven. NOW, darting Parthia,art thou struck ;4 and now Pleas'd Fortune does of Marcus Crassus' death Make me revenger.-Bear the king's son's body Before our army :-Thy Pacorus, Orodes, Pays this for Marcus Crassus.

Sil. Noble Ventidius,

Whilst yet with Parthian blood thy sword is warm,
The fugitive Parthians follow; spur through Media,
Mesopotamia, and the shelters whither

The routed fly: So thy grand captain Antony
Shall set thee on triumphant chariots, and
Put garlands on thy head.

Ven. O Silius, Silius,

I have done enough: A lower place, note well,
May make too great an act: For learn this, Silius ;
Better leave undone, than by our deeds acquire
Too high a fame, when him we serve's away.
Cæsar, and Antony, have ever won

More in their officer, than person: Sossius,
One of my place in Syria, his lieutenant,
For quick accumulation of renown,

Which he achiev'd by the minute, lost his favour.
Who does i'the wars more than his captain can,
Becomes his captain's captain: and ambition,
The soldier's virtue, rather makes choice of loss,
Than gain, which darkens him.

I could do more to do Antonius good,

But 'twould offend him ; and in his offence

Should my performance perish.

Sil. Thou hast, Ventidius,

That without which a soldier, and his sword,

Grants scarce distinction. 7 Thou wilt write to Antony?

[4] Struck-alludes to darting. Thou whose darts have so often struck others, art struck now thyself. JOHNSON.

[5] Pacorus was the son of Orodes, king of Parthia. [6] See note, Coriolanus, p. 96., MÅL.

STEEV.

[7] Grant-for afford. It is badly and obscurely expressed; but the sense is this. "thou hast that, Ventidius, which, if thou didst want, there would be no distinction between thee and thy sword. You would be both equally

Ven. I'll humbly signify what in his name, That magical word of war, we have effected; How, with his banners, and his well-paid ranks, The ne'er-yet-beaten horse of Parthia

We have jaded out o'the field.

Sil. Where is he now ?

Ven.He purposeth to Athens: whither with what haste The weight we must convey with us will permit, We shall appear before him.-On, there; pass along. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Rome. An Ante-Chamber in CESAR's House. Enter AGRIPPA, and ENOBARBUS, meeting.

Agr. What, are the brothers parted?

Eno. They have despatch'd with Pompey, he is gone; The other three are sealing. Octavia weeps

To part from Rome; Cæsar is sad; and Lepidus,
Since Pompey's feast, as Menas says, is troubled
With the green sickness.

Agr. 'Tis a noble Lepidus.

Eno. A very fine one: O, how he loves Cæsar!

Agr. Nay, but how dearly he adores Mark Antony !
Eno. Cæsar? Why, he's the Jupiter of men.
Agr. What's Antony? the god of Jupiter.

Eno. Spake you of Cæsar? How? the nonpareil !
Agr. O Antony! O thou Arabian bird !8

Eno. Would you praise Cæsar, say,—Cæsar;—go no further.

Agr. Indeed,he ply'd them both with excellent praises. Eno. But he loves Cæsar best:-Yet he loves Antony: Ho! hearts, tongues, figures, scribes, bards, poets, cannot Think, speak, cast, write, sing, number, ho, his love To Antony. But as for Cæsar,

Kneel down, kneel down, and wonder.
Agr. Both he loves.

Eno. They are his shards, and he their beetle.9 So[Trumpets.

cutting and senseless." This was wisdom or knowledge of the world. Ventidius had told him the reasons why he did not pursue his advantages; and his friend, by this compliment, acknowledges them to be of weight. WARB.

[9] That is, they are the wings that raise this heavy lumpish insect from the ground. So, in Macbeth:

"--the shard-borne beetle."

STEEV.

This is to horse.-Adieu, noble Agrippa.

Agr. Good fortune, worthy soldier; and farewell.

Enter CESAR, ANTONY, LEPIDUS, and OCTAVIA.

Ant. No further, sir.

Cas. You take from me a great part of myself;
Use me well in it.-Sister, prove such a wife

As my thoughts make thee, and as my furthest band
Shall pass on thy approof.'-Most noble Antony,
Let not the piece of virtue, which is set

Betwixt us, as the cement of our love,
To keep it builded, be the ram, to batter
The fortress of it: for better might we

Have loved without this mean, if on both parts
This be not cherish'd.

Ant. Make me not offended

In your distrust.

Cas. I have said.

Ant. You shall not find,

Though you be therein curious, the least cause
For what you seem to fear: So, the gods keep you,
And make the hearts of Romans serve your ends!
We will here part.

Cas. Farewell, my dearest sister, fare thee well;
The elements be kind to thee, and make

Thy spirits all of comfort! fare thee well.

Oct. My noble brother !—

Ant. The April's in her eyes: It is love's spring, And these the showers to bring it on :-Be cheerful. Oct. Sir, look well to my husband's house; and— Cas. What,

Octavia ?

Oct. I'll tell you in your ear.

Ant. Her tongue will not obey her heart, nor can Her heart inform her tongue: the swan's down feather, That stands upon the swell at full of tide,

And neither way inclines.

Eno. Will Cæsar weep?

Agr. He has a cloud in's face.

[Aside to AGRIP.

Eno. He were the worse for that, were he a horse ; 3

[1] As I will venture the greatest pledge of security, on the trial of thy conduct. JOHNS.Band and bond, in our author's time,were synonymous. MAL. [2] i.e. scrupulous. So, in The Taming of the Shrew :

"For curious I cannot be with you. STEEV.

[3] A horse is said to have a cloud in his face, when he has a black or dark coloured spot in his forehead between his eyes. This gives him a sour