Page:Antony and Cleopatra (1921) Yale.djvu/41

Antony and Cleopatra, II. ii

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 stone.

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 stanch, from edge to edge

O' the world I would pursue it.

Agr. Give me leave, Cæsar.

Cæs. Speak, Agrippa.

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

Admir'd Octavia; great Mark Antony

Is now a widower.

Cæs. Say not so, Agrippa:

If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof

Were well deserv'd of rashness.

Ant. I am not married, Cæsar; let me hear

Agrippa further speak.

Agr. To hold you in perpetual amity,

To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts

With an unslipping knot, take Antony

Octavia to his wife; whose beauty claims

No worse a husband than the best of men,

Whose virtue and whose general graces speak

That which none else can utter. By this marriage,

All little jealousies which now seem great,

 116 your considerate stone; cf. n.

119 conditions: characters

121 stanch: firmly united

