Antony and Cleopatra Act Two – “The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne, burnt on the water; the poop was beaten gold…”

Antony and Cleopatra Act Two – “The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
 burnt on the water; the poop was beaten gold…”

We cross to Pompey’s house in Messina where Pompey reasons that his popularity with the people of Rome, his naval superiority and the fact that he believes Antony will not return from Egypt, all make his victory more certain.

“I shall do well:

The people love me, and the sea is mine;

My powers are crescent, and my auguring hope

Says it will come to the full. Mark Antony

In Egypt sits at dinner, and will make

No wars without doors: Caesar gets money where

He loses hearts: Lepidus flatters both,

Of both is flatter'd; but he neither loves,

Nor either cares for him..”

Menas then relates the fact that Caesar and Lepidus have been able to raise an army. Just then Varrius enters to tell Pompey that Antony has just arrived in Rome. Menas hopes that rivalry between Caesar and Antony will cause disharmony however Pompey thinks that:

“I know not, Menas,

How lesser enmities may give way to greater.

Were't not that we stand up against them all,

'Twere pregnant they should square between

themselves;

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't as our gods will have't! It only stands

Our lives upon to use our strongest hands.”

The scene then shift to Lepidus’ house in Rome where Lepidus tells Enobarbus that Antony should be cautious in his approach to Caesar and he entreats Antony to use “soft and gentle speech”. Enobarbus replies that he will entreat Antony to:

“… 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.”

Antony and Caesar then enter. Lepidus prefaces the conversation with a word of warning. Caesar starts the conversation by mentioning that Fulvia and Antony’s brother have raised a rebellious army against him and the fact that Antony had blatantly disregarded the messages he had sent to Alexandria. Antony defends himself. One of Caesar’s men Agrippa, suggests that Antony should now marry Caesar’s sister, Octavia because his own wife is dead. Antony agrees to this and Caesar and Antony shake hands in brotherly love and agree to attack Pompey.

Upon the exit of Caesar and Antony, Enobarbus relates to Agrippa life in Egypt and he describes Antony’s first meeting with Cleopatra. of the good life they lived in Egypt. He describes how Cleopatra first came to meet Antony.

“ 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'er-picturing that Venus where we see

The fancy outwork 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…

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.”

Enobarbus remarks that thinks that Antony will never really give up Cleopatra.

In another part of Caesar’s house, Anthony promises Octavia that although the world and his duties might divide them that he will remain true to her. Then Octavia and Caesar exit and an Egytian Soothsayer enters and tells Antony that he will return to Egypt in the future. When Antony asks the Soothsayer whether his own or Caesar’s fortunes shall rise higher, the Soothsayer answers:

“Caesar's.

Therefore, O Antony, stay not by his side:

Thy demon, that's thy spirit which keeps thee, is

Noble, courageous high, unmatchable,

Where Caesar's is not; but, near him, thy angel

Becomes a fear, as being o'erpower'd: therefore

Make space enough between you.”

Antony dismisses the Soothsayer and then contemplates the potential truth of the Soothsayer’s words and makes a decision to leave Rome and return to the East (Egypt):

“He hath spoken true: the very dice obey him;

And in our sports my better cunning faints

Under his chance: if we draw lots, he speeds;

His cocks do win the battle still of mine,

When it is all to nought; and his quails ever

Beat mine, inhoop'd, at odds. I will to Egypt:

And though I make this marriage for my peace,

I' the east my pleasure lies.”

Antony then tells Ventidius, to make preparations to make war against the kingdom of Parthia in the East.

Outside in the street, Lepidus commands Maecenas and Agrippa to get into their soldier’s uniforms and prepare to go to Mount Misenum to battle the army of Pompey.

The scene then shifts across the Mediterranean to Alexandria in Egypt, where Cleopatra makes merry with her servants Charmian and Mardian, and a eunuch. She thinks of Antony and compares him to a caught fish. Then a messenger enters bringing news from Rome. Cleopatra initially thinks that Antony is dead but reveals the news that Antony has married Octavia. She strikes and puts a knife to the throat of the messenger and says she does not believe him. Cleopatra eventually dismisses the messenger and then commands that Octavia’s beauty and other features are reported to her:

“Report the feature of Octavia, her years,

Her inclination, let him not leave out

The colour of her hair: bring me word quickly…

Bring me word how tall she is. Pity me, Charmian,

But do not speak to me. Lead me to my chamber…”

We then travel back to Misenum where Pompey and the triumvirs hold a war meeting with Caesar, Lepidus, Antony and others. Antony informs Pompey that he cannot win even though he has naval strength. Pompey is offered a deal that allows him to rule over Sicily and Sardinia if he is able to control the pirates in these areas and make tax payments to Rome. Pompey says that he was prepared to accept these conditions until Antony offended him by not acknowledging the gracious hospitality that Pompey hospitality gave to Antony’s mother on her journey to Sicily. Antony shakes hands with Pompey and thanks him. Pompey invites them all to join him on his ship for dinner. They exit and Enobarbus and Menas linger and discuss military matters, political machinations and Enobarbus insists that he thinks Antony will go back to Egypt.

At Pompey’s dinner party, some servants make comments about Lepidus’s drunkenness. Then Pompey enters with his guests as Antony plays expert tourist and discusses the curious habits of farming from Nile River region.

“They take

the flow o' the Nile

By certain scales i' the pyramid; they know,

By the height, the lowness, or the mean, if dearth

Or foison follow: the higher Nilus swells,

The more it promises: as it ebbs, the seedsman

Upon the slime and ooze scatters his grain,

And shortly comes to harvest.”

Lepidus repeats the popular belief that crocodiles are spontaneously made out of a combination of mud and the sun and he asks Antony for a full description to which Antony ironically replies:

“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 its own organs: it lives by that

which nourisheth it; and the elements once out of

it, it transmigrates.”

Menas talks secretly to Pompey suggesting that while they are drunk, they should kill the three triumvirs. He points out that this would make Pompey “lord of the world”. Pompey rejects this and says that if the deed done without his knowledge he would have praised it:

“Ah, this thou shouldst have done,

And not have spoke on't! In me 'tis villany;

In thee't had been good service. Thou must know,

'Tis not my profit that does lead mine honour;

Mine honour, it. Repent that e'er thy tongue

Hath so betray'd thine act: being done unknown,

I should have found it afterwards well done;

But must condemn it now. Desist, and drink. “

In an angry aside, Menas says that he will leave Pompey’s service. The revelers drink to one another. A song is played and people stumble out drunk, presumably to go to bed.