1    Your hostages I have, so have you mine;
2    And we shall talk before we fight.

3    Most meet
4    That first we come to words; and therefore have we
5    Our written purposes before us sent;
6    Which, if thou hast consider'd, let us know
7    If 'twill tie up thy discontented sword,
8    And carry back to Sicily much tall youth
9    That else must perish here.

10   To you all three,
11   The senators alone of this great world,
12   Chief factors for the gods, I do not know
13   Wherefore my father should revengers want,
14   Having a son and friends; since Julius Caesar,
15   Who at Philippi the good Brutus ghosted,
16   There saw you labouring for him. What was't
17   That moved pale Cassius to conspire; and what
18   Made the all-honour'd, honest Roman, Brutus,
19   With the arm'd rest, courtiers and beauteous freedom,
20   To drench the Capitol; but that they would
21   Have one man but a man? And that is it
22   Hath made me rig my navy; at whose burthen
23   The anger'd ocean foams; with which I meant
24   To scourge the ingratitude that despiteful Rome
25   Cast on my noble father.

26   Take your time.

27   Thou canst not fear us, Pompey, with thy sails;
28   We'll speak with thee at sea: at land, thou know'st
29   How much we do o'er-count thee.

30   At land, indeed,
31   Thou dost o'er-count me of my father's house:
32   But, since the cuckoo builds not for himself,
33   Remain in't as thou mayst.

34   Be pleased to tell us--
35   For this is from the present--how you take
36   The offers we have sent you.

37   There's the point.

38   Which do not be entreated to, but weigh
39   What it is worth embraced.

40   And what may follow,
41   To try a larger fortune.

42   You have made me offer
43   Of Sicily, Sardinia; and I must
44   Rid all the sea of pirates; then, to send
45   Measures of wheat to Rome; this 'greed upon
46   To part with unhack'd edges, and bear back
47   Our targes undinted.

48   That's our offer.

49   Know, then,
50   I came before you here a man prepared
51   To take this offer: but Mark Antony
52   Put me to some impatience: though I lose
53   The praise of it by telling, you must know,
54   When Caesar and your brother were at blows,
55   Your mother came to Sicily and did find
56   Her welcome friendly.

57   I have heard it, Pompey;
58   And am well studied for a liberal thanks
59   Which I do owe you.

60   Let me have your hand:
61   I did not think, sir, to have met you here.

62   The beds i' the east are soft; and thanks to you,
63   That call'd me timelier than my purpose hither;
64   For I have gain'd by 't.

65   Since I saw you last,
66   There is a change upon you.

67   Well, I know not
68   What counts harsh fortune casts upon my face;
69   But in my bosom shall she never come,
70   To make my heart her vassal.

71   Well met here.

72   I hope so, Lepidus. Thus we are agreed:
73   I crave our composition may be written,
74   And seal'd between us.

75   That's the next to do.

76   We'll feast each other ere we part; and let's
77   Draw lots who shall begin.

78   That will I, Pompey.

79   No, Antony, take the lot: but, first
80   Or last, your fine Egyptian cookery
81   Shall have the fame. I have heard that Julius Caesar
82   Grew fat with feasting there.

83   You have heard much.

84   I have fair meanings, sir.

85   And fair words to them.

86   Then so much have I heard:
87   And I have heard, Apollodorus carried--

88   No more of that: he did so.

89   What, I pray you?

90   A certain queen to Caesar in a mattress.

91   I know thee now: how farest thou, soldier?

92   Well;
93   And well am like to do; for, I perceive,
94   Four feasts are toward.

95   Let me shake thy hand;
96   I never hated thee: I have seen thee fight,
97   When I have envied thy behavior.

98   Sir,
99   I never loved you much; but I ha' praised ye,
100  When you have well deserved ten times as much
101  As I have said you did.

102  Enjoy thy plainness,
103  It nothing ill becomes thee.
104  Aboard my galley I invite you all:
105  Will you lead, lords?

106  Show us the way, sir.

107  Come.

Aside
108   Thy father, Pompey, would ne'er have
109  made this treaty.--You and I have known, sir.

110  At sea, I think.

111  We have, sir.

112  You have done well by water.

113  And you by land.

114  I will praise any man that will praise me; though it
115  cannot be denied what I have done by land.

116  Nor what I have done by water.

117  Yes, something you can deny for your own
118  safety: you have been a great thief by sea.

119  And you by land.

120  There I deny my land service. But give me your
121  hand, Menas: if our eyes had authority, here they
122  might take two thieves kissing.

123  All men's faces are true, whatsome'er their hands are.

124  But there is never a fair woman has a true face.

125  No slander; they steal hearts.

126  We came hither to fight with you.

127  For my part, I am sorry it is turned to a drinking.
128  Pompey doth this day laugh away his fortune.

129  If he do, sure, he cannot weep't back again.

130  You've said, sir. We looked not for Mark Antony
131  here: pray you, is he married to Cleopatra?

132  Caesar's sister is called Octavia.

133  True, sir; she was the wife of Caius Marcellus.

134  But she is now the wife of Marcus Antonius.

135  Pray ye, sir?

136  'Tis true.

137  Then is Caesar and he for ever knit together.

138  If I were bound to divine of this unity, I would
139  not prophesy so.

140  I think the policy of that purpose made more in the
141  marriage than the love of the parties.

142  I think so too. But you shall find, the band that
143  seems to tie their friendship together will be the
144  very strangler of their amity: Octavia is of a
145  holy, cold, and still conversation.

146  Who would not have his wife so?

147  Not he that himself is not so; which is Mark Antony.
148  He will to his Egyptian dish again: then shall the
149  sighs of Octavia blow the fire up in Caesar; and, as
150  I said before, that which is the strength of their
151  amity shall prove the immediate author of their
152  variance. Antony will use his affection where it is:
153  he married but his occasion here.

154  And thus it may be. Come, sir, will you aboard?
155  I have a health for you.

156  I shall take it, sir: we have used our throats in Egypt.

157  Come, let's away.