A Plain near ACTIUM. | |
| |
Enter CÆSAR, TAURUS, Officers, and Others. | |
| Cæs. Taurus! | |
| Taur. My lord? | 4 |
| Cæs. Strike not by land; keep whole: provoke not battle, | |
| Till we have done at sea. Do not exceed | |
| The prescript of this scroll: our fortune lies | |
| Upon this jump. [Exeunt. | 8 |
| |
Enter ANTONY and ENOBARBUS. | |
| Ant. Set we our squadrons on yond side o’ the hill, | |
| In eye of Cæsar’s battle; from which place | |
| We may the number of the ships behold, | 12 |
| And so proceed accordingly. [Exeunt. | |
| |
Enter CANIDIUS, marching with his land army one way over the stage; and TAURUS, the lieutenant of CÆSAR, the other way. After their going in is heard the noise of a sea-fight. | |
| |
Alarum. Re-enter ENOBARBUS. | |
| Eno. Naught, naught, all naught! I can behold no longer. | 16 |
| The Antoniad, the Egyptian admiral, | |
| With all their sixty, fly, and turn the rudder; | |
| To see ’t mine eyes are blasted. | |
| |
Enter SCARUS. | 20 |
| Scar. Gods and goddesses, | |
| All the whole synod of them! | |
| Eno. What’s thy passion? | |
| Scar. The greater cantle of the world is lost | 24 |
| With very ignorance; we have kiss’d away | |
| Kingdoms and provinces. | |
| Eno. How appears the fight? | |
| Scar. On our side like the token’d pestilence, | 28 |
| Where death is sure. Yon ribaudred nag of Egypt, | |
| Whom leprosy o’ertake! i’ the midst o’ the fight, | |
| When vantage like a pair of twins appear’d, | |
| Both as the same, or rather ours the elder, | 32 |
| The breese upon her, like a cow in June, | |
| Hoists sails and flies. | |
| Eno. That I beheld: | |
| Mine eyes did sicken at the sight, and could not | 36 |
| Endure a further view. | |
| Scar. She once being loof’d, | |
| The noble ruin of her magic, Antony, | |
| Clapson his sea-wing, and like a doting mallard, | 40 |
| Leaving the fight in height, flies after her. | |
| I never saw an action of such shame; | |
| Experience, manhood, honour, ne’er before | |
| Did violate so itself. | 44 |
| Eno. Alack, alack! | |
| |
Enter CANIDIUS. | |
| Can. Our fortune on the sea is out of breath, | |
| And sinks most lamentably. Had our general | 48 |
| Been what he knew himself, it had gone well: | |
| O! he has given example for our flight | |
| Most grossly by his own. | |
| Eno. Ay, are you thereabouts? | 52 |
| Why, then, good night, indeed. | |
| Can. Towards Peloponnesus are they fled. | |
| Scar. ’Tis easy to ’t; and there I will attend | |
| What further comes. | 56 |
| Can. To Cæsar will I render | |
| My legions and my horse; six kings already | |
| Show me the way of yielding. | |
| Eno. I’ll yet follow | 60 |
| The wounded chance of Antony, though my reason | |
| Sits in the wind against me. [Exeunt. | |
