"Twere pregnant they should squares between them

selves;

For they have entertained cause enough

To draw their swords: but how the fear of us
May cement their divisions, and bind up
The petty difference, we yet not know.

Be it as our gods will have 't! It only stands
Our lives upon, to use our strongest hands.
Come, Menas.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Rome. A Room in the House of Lepidus.

Enter ENOBARBUS and LEPIDUS.

Lep. Good Enobarbus, 'tis a worthy deed,
And shall become you well, to entreat your captain
To soft and gentle speech.

Eno.

I shall entreat him

To answer like himself: if Cæsar move him,

Let Antony look over Cæsar's head,

And speak as loud as Mars. By Jupiter,
Were I the wearer of Antonius' beard,

I would not shave't to-day.

Lep.

Eno.

For private stomaching.

"Tis not a time

Every time

Serves for the matter that is then born in 't.

5

Lep. But small to greater matters must give way.
Eno. Not if the small come first.

Lep.

-

Your speech is passion:

they should sQUARE-] i. e. quarrel. See Vol. ii. p. 405. Mr. Bruce refers me to the following passage, exactly in point, in one of the Earl of Leicester's letters, Harl. MS. No. 285, fo. 66, "How thinges haue bredd this lytle square, between these two so well affected princes, I cannott tell."

But, pray you, stir no embers up. Here comes
The noble Antony.

Enter ANTONY and VENTIDIUS.

Eno.

And yonder, Cæsar.

Enter CESAR, MECENAS, and AGRIPPA.

Ant. If we compose well here, to Parthia: Hark you, Ventidius.

Cæs.

Mecænas; ask Agrippa.

Lep.

I do not know,

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 the matter.

Ant.

'Tis spoken well.

Were we before our armies, and to fight,

Ant. I learn, you take things ill, which are not so;

Or, being, concern you not.

Cæs.

If, or for nothing, or a little, I

I must be laugh'd at,

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.

Ant.

What was't to you?

My being in Egypt, Cæsar,

Cæs. 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.

Ant.

How intend you, practis'd?

Cæs. You may be pleas'd to catch at mine intent, By what did here befal me. Your wife, and brother, Made wars upon me, and their contestation

Was theme for you; you were the word of war.

Ant. You do mistake your business: my brother

never

Did urge me in his act: I did enquire 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 to make it with,

It must not be with this.

Cæs.

You praise yourself By laying defects of judgment to me; but You patch'd up your excuses.

Ant.

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

6 As matter whole you have to make it with,] The meaning seems to be, "Do not find out a cause of quarrel where none exists: do not patch a quarrel when no patching is required, because the matter is whole.” Rowe put a negative into the line, "You have not to make it with ;" but Southern seems to have found no deficiency, and therefore made no correction, in his folio, 1685. All the folios, subsequent to the first, corruptly read, "to take it with." I am warranted by the opinion of Mr. Amyot in not, in this instance, deviating from the old text, which seems sufficiently intelligible, although nearly every editor since Rowe has deserted it.

Which fronted mine own peace. As for my wife,
I would you had her spirit in such another:
The third o' the world is yours, which with a snaffle
You may pace easy, but not such a wife.

Eno. Would we had all such wives, that the men might go to wars with the women!

Ant. So much uncurbable, her garboils, Cæsar,
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.
Cæs.

I wrote to you,
When rioting in Alexandria; you
Did pocket up my letters, and with taunts
Did gibe my missive out of audience.

Ant.

Sir,

He fell upon me, ere admitted: then
Three kings I had newly feasted, and did want
Of what I was i' the 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.

Cæs.

You have broken

The article of your oath, which you shall never

Have tongue to charge me with.

Lep.

Soft, Cæsar.

Ant. No, Lepidus, let him speak:

The honour's sacred which he talks on now,

Supposing that I lack'd it.

The article of my oath.

But on, Cæsar;

Cæs. To lend me arms and aid when I requir'd

them,

The which you both denied.

Ant.

Neglected, rather;

And then, when poison'd 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.

Lep.

"Tis noble spoken.

Mec. If it might please you, to enforce no farther
The griefs between ye: to forget them quite,

Were to remember that the present need
Speaks to atone you'.

Lep.

Worthily spoken, Mecænas.

Eno. 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.

Ant. Thou art a soldier only: speak no more. Eno. That truth should be silent, I had almost forgot.

Ant. You wrong this presence; therefore, speak no

more.

Eno. Go to then; your considerate stone3. Cæs. I do not much dislike the matter, but The manner of his speech; for it cannot be, We shall remain in friendship, our conditions So differing in their acts. Yet, if I knew

What hoop should hold us staunch, from edge to edge O' the world I would pursue it.

Agr.

Cæs. Speak, Agrippa.

Give me leave, Cæsar,

Agr. Thou hast a sister by the mother's side,

7

to ATONE you.] i. e. reconcile you. See Vol. vi. p. 240. 589, &c.

8

- your considerate stone.] It may be a question, whether Enobarbus means to call Antony "a considerate stone," or to say merely that he will be silent as a stone. If the former, we must, with Johnson, change "your" of the folios to you; but the latter affords a clear meaning without any alteration of the ancient text.