the drink.
But it raises the greater war between him and
his discretion.
Why, this is to have a name in great men's
fellowship: I had as lief have a reed that will do
me no service as a partisan I could not heave.
To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen
to move in't, are the holes where eyes should be,
which pitifully disaster the cheeks.
Thus do they, sir: 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.
You've strange serpents there.
Ay, Lepidus.
Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the
operation of your sun: so is your crocodile.
They are so.
Sit,--and some wine! A health to Lepidus!
I am not so well as I should be, but I'll ne'er out.
Not till you have slept; I fear me you'll be in till then.
Nay, certainly, I have heard the Ptolemies'
pyramises are very goodly things; without
contradiction, I have heard that.
Pompey, a word.
Say in mine ear:
what is't?
Forsake thy seat, I do beseech
thee, captain,
And hear me speak a word.
Forbear me till anon.
This wine for Lepidus!
What manner o' thing is your crocodile?
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.
What colour is it of?
Of it own colour too.
'Tis a strange serpent.
'Tis so. And the tears of it are wet.
Will this description satisfy him?
With the health that Pompey gives him, else he is a
very epicure.
Go hang, sir, hang! Tell me of
that? away!
Do as I bid you. Where's this cup I call'd for?
If for the sake of merit thou
wilt hear me,
Rise from thy stool.
I think thou'rt mad.
The matter?
I have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes.
Thou hast served me with much faith. What's else to say?
Be jolly, lords.
These quick-sands, Lepidus,
Keep off them, for you sink.
Wilt thou be lord of all the world?
What say'st thou?
Wilt