finished_summaries/shmoop/The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra/section_6_part_0.txt
The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra.act ii.scene ii
act ii, scene ii
{"name": "Act II, Scene ii", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20210116191009/https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/antony-cleopatra/summary/act-ii-scene-ii", "summary": "At Lepidus's house in Rome, Lepidus talks to Enobarbus, Antony's confidante. Lepidus tries to get Enobarbus to convince Antony to go easy on Caesar, but Enobarbus is certain that Antony shouldn't back down. Caesar and Antony enter with their attendants, and the talk begins with Lepidus encouraging everyone to just be friends. Caesar is clearly unhappy--Antony's behavior in Egypt has made him a joke in Rome. Further, Antony's wife and brother waged war against Caesar, which was not cool. Antony insists his brother didn't consult him about the war, and his wife was a difficult woman who did what she pleased. Caesar continues to list his grievances, and is upset that Antony ignored his messages while away. Antony points out he was too drunk to deal with messages , but he did, to his credit, apologize to Caesar's messenger the next morning in a hung-over state. As they continue to argue, Maecenas breaks in and asks that they kiss and make up so they can deal with the whole Pompey situation, as imminent invasion is slightly more important than past slights. Agrippa, another of Caesar's men, suggests that the best way to put the past behind them is to have something that will bind them in the future. Caesar's sister Octavia is a widow, and they all decide it's a good idea for Antony to marry her. Never mind that Antony's wife is fresh in the grave, his heart is in Egypt, and he's generally a player. Octavia will be symbolic of the bond between Caesar and Antony, the glue that will hold them together. Antony accepts the marriage, and the men shake hands, promising to be brothers. Having traded the woman Octavia like a horse, they return to the present matter of the war. Pomey has recently been throwing gifts Antony's way. Still, he's an enemy. His force at sea is masterful and he's only getting stronger on land. The men agree to head toward Pompey's army at Misena, in southern Italy. Then they remember that Lepidus . Since he's supposed to rule the world with them, they invite him to come too. Once the big dogs leave, Enobarbus is left with Agrippa and Maecenas, whom he regales with \"dude, we were so drunk\" kinds of stories about fun times they had in Egypt. He describes Cleopatra's pomp and beauty, and the time Antony first met her. She showed up in a pimped-out ride on the water, and Antony, at the marketplace, invited her on a dinner date solely based on her fancy ride. Cleopatra refused his original invitation and asks him to dine with her instead. This was aggravating but intriguing, seeing as no women ever refused Antony. Antony was smitten as soon as he saw this woman, and then, as Shakespeare delicately puts it, \"He ploughed her, and she cropp'd,\" meaning he had sex with her and then she bore him a child. Enobarbus is sure that Antony is so beguiled by this wonderful woman that even marriage to Octavia won't keep him away from her long.", "analysis": ""}
SCENE II.
Rome. The house of LEPIDUS

Enter ENOBARBUS and LEPIDUS

  LEPIDUS. Good Enobarbus, 'tis a worthy deed,
    And shall become you well, to entreat your captain
    To soft and gentle speech.
  ENOBARBUS. I shall entreat him
    To answer like himself. If Caesar move him,
    Let Antony look over Caesar's head
    And speak as loud as Mars. By Jupiter,
    Were I the wearer of Antonius' beard,
    I would not shave't to-day.
  LEPIDUS. 'Tis not a time
    For private stomaching.
  ENOBARBUS. Every time
    Serves for the matter that is then born in't.
  LEPIDUS. But small to greater matters must give way.
  ENOBARBUS. Not if the small come first.
  LEPIDUS. Your speech is passion;
    But pray you stir no embers up. Here comes
    The noble Antony.

                Enter ANTONY and VENTIDIUS

  ENOBARBUS. And yonder, Caesar.

            Enter CAESAR, MAECENAS, and AGRIPPA

  ANTONY. If we compose well here, to Parthia.
    Hark, Ventidius.
  CAESAR. I do not know, Maecenas. Ask Agrippa.
  LEPIDUS. Noble friends,
    That which combin'd us was most great, and let not
    A leaner action rend us. What's amiss,
    May it be gently heard. When we debate
    Our trivial difference loud, we do commit
    Murder in healing wounds. Then, noble partners,
    The rather for I earnestly beseech,
    Touch you the sourest points with sweetest terms,
    Nor curstness grow to th' matter.
  ANTONY. 'Tis spoken well.
    Were we before our arinies, and to fight,
    I should do thus.                                 [Flourish]
  CAESAR. Welcome to Rome.
  ANTONY. Thank you.
  CAESAR. Sit.
  ANTONY. Sit, sir.
  CAESAR. Nay, then.                                  [They sit]
  ANTONY. I learn you take things ill which are not so,
    Or being, concern you not.
  CAESAR. I must be laugh'd at
    If, or for nothing or a little,
    Should say myself offended, and with you
    Chiefly i' the world; more laugh'd at that I should
    Once name you derogately when to sound your name
    It not concern'd me.
  ANTONY. My being in Egypt, Caesar,
    What was't to you?
  CAESAR. No more than my residing here at Rome
    Might be to you in Egypt. Yet, if you there
    Did practise on my state, your being in Egypt
    Might be my question.
  ANTONY. How intend you- practis'd?
  CAESAR. You may be pleas'd to catch at mine intent
    By what did here befall me. Your wife and brother
    Made wars upon me, and their contestation
    Was theme for you; you were the word of war.
  ANTONY. You do mistake your business; my brother never
    Did urge me in his act. I did inquire it,
    And have my learning from some true reports
    That drew their swords with you. Did he not rather
    Discredit my authority with yours,
    And make the wars alike against my stomach,
    Having alike your cause? Of this my letters
    Before did satisfy you. If you'll patch a quarrel,
    As matter whole you have not to make it with,
    It must not be with this.
  CAESAR. You praise yourself
    By laying defects of judgment to me; but
    You patch'd up your excuses.
  ANTONY. Not so, not so;
    I know you could not lack, I am certain on't,
    Very necessity of this thought, that I,
    Your partner in the cause 'gainst which he fought,
    Could not with graceful eyes attend those wars
    Which fronted mine own peace. As for my wife,
    I would you had her spirit in such another!
    The third o' th' world is yours, which with a snaffle
    You may pace easy, but not such a wife.
  ENOBARBUS. Would we had all such wives, that the men might go
to
    wars with the women!
  ANTONY. So much uncurbable, her garboils, Caesar,
    Made out of her impatience- which not wanted
    Shrewdness of policy too- I grieving grant
    Did you too much disquiet. For that you must
    But say I could not help it.
  CAESAR. I wrote to you
    When rioting in Alexandria; you
    Did pocket up my letters, and with taunts
    Did gibe my missive out of audience.
  ANTONY. Sir,
    He fell upon me ere admitted. Then
    Three kings I had newly feasted, and did want
    Of what I was i' th' morning; but next day
    I told him of myself, which was as much
    As to have ask'd him pardon. Let this fellow
    Be nothing of our strife; if we contend,
    Out of our question wipe him.
  CAESAR. You have broken
    The article of your oath, which you shall never
    Have tongue to charge me with.
  LEPIDUS. Soft, Caesar!
  ANTONY. No;
    Lepidus, let him speak.
    The honour is sacred which he talks on now,
    Supposing that I lack'd it. But on, Caesar:
    The article of my oath-
  CAESAR. To lend me arms and aid when I requir'd them,
    The which you both denied.
  ANTONY. Neglected, rather;
    And then when poisoned hours had bound me up
    From mine own knowledge. As nearly as I may,
    I'll play the penitent to you; but mine honesty
    Shall not make poor my greatness, nor my power
    Work without it. Truth is, that Fulvia,
    To have me out of Egypt, made wars here;
    For which myself, the ignorant motive, do
    So far ask pardon as befits mine honour
    To stoop in such a case.
  LEPIDUS. 'Tis noble spoken.
  MAECENAS. If it might please you to enforce no further
    The griefs between ye- to forget them quite
    Were to remember that the present need
    Speaks to atone you.
  LEPIDUS. Worthily spoken, Maecenas.
  ENOBARBUS. Or, if you borrow one another's love for the
instant,
    you may, when you hear no more words of Pompey, return it
again.
    You shall have time to wrangle in when you have nothing else
to
    do.
  ANTONY. Thou art a soldier only. Speak no more.
  ENOBARBUS. That truth should be silent I had almost forgot.
  ANTONY. You wrong this presence; therefore speak no more.
  ENOBARBUS. Go to, then- your considerate stone!
  CAESAR. I do not much dislike the matter, but
    The manner of his speech; for't cannot be
    We shall remain in friendship, our conditions
    So diff'ring in their acts. Yet if I knew
    What hoop should hold us stanch, from edge to edge
    O' th' world, I would pursue it.
  AGRIPPA. Give me leave, Caesar.
  CAESAR. Speak, Agrippa.
  AGRIPPA. Thou hast a sister by the mother's side,
    Admir'd Octavia. Great Mark Antony
    Is now a widower.
  CAESAR. Say not so, Agrippa.
    If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof
    Were well deserv'd of rashness.
  ANTONY. I am not married, Caesar. Let me hear
    Agrippa further speak.
  AGRIPPA. To hold you in perpetual amity,
    To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts
    With an unslipping knot, take Antony
    Octavia to his wife; whose beauty claims
    No worse a husband than the best of men;
    Whose virtue and whose general graces speak
    That which none else can utter. By this marriage
    All little jealousies, which now seem great,
    And all great fears, which now import their dangers,
    Would then be nothing. Truths would be tales,
    Where now half tales be truths. Her love to both
    Would each to other, and all loves to both,
    Draw after her. Pardon what I have spoke;
    For 'tis a studied, not a present thought,
    By duty ruminated.
  ANTONY. Will Caesar speak?
  CAESAR. Not till he hears how Antony is touch'd
    With what is spoke already.
  ANTONY. What power is in Agrippa,
    If I would say 'Agrippa, be it so,'
    To make this good?
  CAESAR. The power of Caesar, and
    His power unto Octavia.
  ANTONY. May I never
    To this good purpose, that so fairly shows,
    Dream of impediment! Let me have thy hand.
    Further this act of grace; and from this hour
    The heart of brothers govern in our loves
    And sway our great designs!
  CAESAR. There is my hand.
    A sister I bequeath you, whom no brother
    Did ever love so dearly. Let her live
    To join our kingdoms and our hearts; and never
    Fly off our loves again!
  LEPIDUS. Happily, amen!
  ANTONY. I did not think to draw my sword 'gainst Pompey;
    For he hath laid strange courtesies and great
    Of late upon me. I must thank him only,
    Lest my remembrance suffer ill report;
    At heel of that, defy him.
  LEPIDUS. Time calls upon's.
    Of us must Pompey presently be sought,
    Or else he seeks out us.
  ANTONY. Where lies he?
  CAESAR. About the Mount Misenum.
  ANTONY. What is his strength by land?
  CAESAR. Great and increasing; but by sea
    He is an absolute master.
  ANTONY. So is the fame.
    Would we had spoke together! Haste we for it.
    Yet, ere we put ourselves in arms, dispatch we
    The business we have talk'd of.
  CAESAR. With most gladness;
    And do invite you to my sister's view,
    Whither straight I'll lead you.
  ANTONY. Let us, Lepidus,
    Not lack your company.
  LEPIDUS. Noble Antony,
    Not sickness should detain me.                    [Flourish]
                     Exeunt all but ENOBARBUS, AGRIPPA, MAECENAS
  MAECENAS. Welcome from Egypt, sir.
  ENOBARBUS. Half the heart of Caesar, worthy Maecenas! My
honourable
    friend, Agrippa!
  AGRIPPA. Good Enobarbus!
  MAECENAS. We have cause to be glad that matters are so well
    digested. You stay'd 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 purs'd up his
heart,
    upon the river of Cydnus.
  AGRIPPA. There she appear'd indeed! Or my reporter devis'd well
for
    her.
  ENOBARBUS. I will tell you.
    The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
    Burn'd 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 beggar'd all description. She did lie
    In her pavilion, cloth-of-gold, of tissue,
    O'erpicturing that Venus where we see
    The fancy out-work nature. On each side her
    Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
    With divers-colour'd 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,
    Enthron'd 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 barber'd ten times o'er, goes to the feast,
    And for his ordinary pays his heart
    For what his eyes eat only.
  AGRIPPA. Royal wench!
    She made great Caesar lay his sword to bed.
    He ploughed her, and she cropp'd.
  ENOBARBUS. I saw her once
    Hop forty paces through the public street;
    And, having lost her breath, she spoke, and panted,
    That she did make defect perfection,
    And, breathless, pow'r breathe forth.
  MAECENAS. Now Antony must leave her utterly.
  ENOBARBUS. Never! He will not.
    Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
    Her infinite variety. Other women cloy
    The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry
    Where most she satisfies; for vilest things
    Become themselves in her, that the holy priests
    Bless her when she is riggish.
  MAECENAS. If beauty, wisdom, modesty, can settle
    The heart of Antony, Octavia is
    A blessed lottery to him.
  AGRIPPA. Let us go.
    Good Enobarbus, make yourself my guest
    Whilst you abide here.
  ENOBARBUS. Humbly, sir, I thank you.                    Exeunt






Act II, Scene ii
At Lepidus's house in Rome, Lepidus talks to Enobarbus, Antony's confidante. Lepidus tries to get Enobarbus to convince Antony to go easy on Caesar, but Enobarbus is certain that Antony shouldn't back down. Caesar and Antony enter with their attendants, and the talk begins with Lepidus encouraging everyone to just be friends. Caesar is clearly unhappy--Antony's behavior in Egypt has made him a joke in Rome. Further, Antony's wife and brother waged war against Caesar, which was not cool. Antony insists his brother didn't consult him about the war, and his wife was a difficult woman who did what she pleased. Caesar continues to list his grievances, and is upset that Antony ignored his messages while away. Antony points out he was too drunk to deal with messages , but he did, to his credit, apologize to Caesar's messenger the next morning in a hung-over state. As they continue to argue, Maecenas breaks in and asks that they kiss and make up so they can deal with the whole Pompey situation, as imminent invasion is slightly more important than past slights. Agrippa, another of Caesar's men, suggests that the best way to put the past behind them is to have something that will bind them in the future. Caesar's sister Octavia is a widow, and they all decide it's a good idea for Antony to marry her. Never mind that Antony's wife is fresh in the grave, his heart is in Egypt, and he's generally a player. Octavia will be symbolic of the bond between Caesar and Antony, the glue that will hold them together. Antony accepts the marriage, and the men shake hands, promising to be brothers. Having traded the woman Octavia like a horse, they return to the present matter of the war. Pomey has recently been throwing gifts Antony's way. Still, he's an enemy. His force at sea is masterful and he's only getting stronger on land. The men agree to head toward Pompey's army at Misena, in southern Italy. Then they remember that Lepidus . Since he's supposed to rule the world with them, they invite him to come too. Once the big dogs leave, Enobarbus is left with Agrippa and Maecenas, whom he regales with "dude, we were so drunk" kinds of stories about fun times they had in Egypt. He describes Cleopatra's pomp and beauty, and the time Antony first met her. She showed up in a pimped-out ride on the water, and Antony, at the marketplace, invited her on a dinner date solely based on her fancy ride. Cleopatra refused his original invitation and asks him to dine with her instead. This was aggravating but intriguing, seeing as no women ever refused Antony. Antony was smitten as soon as he saw this woman, and then, as Shakespeare delicately puts it, "He ploughed her, and she cropp'd," meaning he had sex with her and then she bore him a child. Enobarbus is sure that Antony is so beguiled by this wonderful woman that even marriage to Octavia won't keep him away from her long.