Page 2438 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

A seeming mermaid steers: the silken tackle
Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands, [210]
That yarely frame the office. From the barge
A strange invisible perfume hits the sense

Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast
Her people out upon her; and Antony,
Enthron’d i’ the market-place, did sit alone, [215]
Whistling to the air; which, but for vacancy,

Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too,
And made a gap in nature.

AGRIPPA
Rare Egyptian!

ENOBARBUS
Upon her landing, Antony sent to her,
Invited her to supper: she replied, [220]

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, [225]
For what his eyes eat only.

AGRIPPA
Royal wench!
She made great Cæsar lay his sword to bed;
He plough’d her, and she cropp’d.

ENOBARBUS
I saw her once.
Hop forty paces through the public street,
And having lost her breath, she spoke, and panted, [230]
That she did make defect perfection,

And, breathless, power breathe forth.

MÆCENAS