William Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra

ACT II. 7. SCENE VII. On board POMPEY'S Galley, lying near Misenum. (continued)

LEPIDUS.
I am not so well as I should be, but I'll ne'er out.

ENOBARBUS.
Not till you have slept; I fear me you'll be in till then.

LEPIDUS.
Nay, certainly, I have heard the Ptolemies' pyramises are very
goodly things; without contradiction I have heard that.

MENAS.
[Aside to POMPEY.] Pompey, a word.

POMPEY.
[Aside to MENAS.] Say in mine ear: what is't?

MENAS.
[Aside to POMPEY.] Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee, captain,
And hear me speak a word.

POMPEY.
[Aside to MENAS.] Forbear me till ano.n--
This wine for Lepidus!

LEPIDUS.
What manner o' thing is your crocodile?

ANTONY.
It is shaped, sir, like itself; and it is as broad as it hath
breadth: it is just so high as it is, and moves with it own
organs: it lives by that which nourisheth it, and the elements
once out of it, it transmigrates.

LEPIDUS.
What colour is it of?

ANTONY.
Of its own colour too.

LEPIDUS.
'Tis a strange serpent.

ANTONY.
'Tis so. And the tears of it are wet.

CAESAR.
Will this description satisfy him?

ANTONY.
With the health that Pompey gives him, else he is a very epicure.

POMPEY.
[Aside to MENAS.] Go, hang, sir, hang! Tell me of that! away!
Do as I bid you.--Where's this cup I call'd for?

MENAS.
[Aside to POMPEY.] If for the sake of merit thou wilt hear me,
Rise from thy stool.

POMPEY.
[Aside to MENAS.] I think thou'rt mad.

[Rises and walks aside.]

The matter?