Antony and Cleopatra
 AGRIPPA. Good Enobarbus! 

 MAECENAS. We have cause to be glad that matters are so well digested. You stayed well by ’t in Egypt. 

 ENOBARBUS. Ay, sir, we did sleep day out of countenance and made the night light with drinking. 

 MAECENAS. Eight wild boars roasted whole at a breakfast, and but twelve persons there. Is this true? 

 ENOBARBUS. This was but as a fly by an eagle. We had much more monstrous matter of feast, which worthily deserved noting. 

 MAECENAS. She’s a most triumphant lady, if report be square to her. 

 ENOBARBUS. When she first met Mark Antony, she pursed up his heart upon the river of Cydnus. 

 AGRIPPA. There she appeared indeed, or my reporter devised well for her. 

 ENOBARBUS. I will tell you. The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne, Burned on the water. The poop was beaten gold; Purple the sails, and so perfumed that The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver, Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made The water which they beat to follow faster, As amorous of their strokes. For her own person, It beggared all description: she did lie In her pavilion, cloth-of-gold of tissue, O’erpicturing that Venus where we see The fancy outwork nature. On each side her Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids, With divers-coloured fans, whose wind did seem To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool, And what they undid did. 

 AGRIPPA. O, rare for Antony! 

 ENOBARBUS. Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides, So many mermaids, tended her i’ th’ eyes, And made their bends adornings. At the helm A seeming mermaid steers. The silken tackle Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands That yarely frame the office. From the barge A strange invisible perfume hits the sense Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast Her people out upon her, and Antony, Enthroned i’ th’ market-place, did sit alone, Whistling to th’ air, which, but for vacancy, Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too, And made a gap in nature. 

 AGRIPPA. Rare Egyptian! 

 ENOBARBUS. Upon her landing, Antony sent to her, Invited her to supper. She replied It should be better he became her guest, Which she entreated. Our courteous Antony, Whom ne’er the word of “No” woman heard speak, Being 
 Prev. P 24/101 next 
Back Top
Privacy Statement Terms of Service Contact