First Serv. To be called into a huge sphere,16
and not to be seen to move in 't are the holes
where eyes should be, which pitifully disaster
the cheeks.
A sennet sounded. Enter Cæsar, Antony, Pompey,
Lepidus, Agrippa, Mæcenas, Enobarbus, Menas,
with other Captains.
Ant. Thus do they, sir. They take the flow o' the Nile20
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 seedsman24
Upon the slime and ooze scatters his grain,
And shortly comes to harvest.
Lep. You've strange serpents there.
Ant. Ay, Lepidus.28
Lep. Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of
your mud by the operation of your sun; so is
your crocodile.
Ant. They are so.32
Pom. Sit,—and some wine! A health to
Lepidus!
Lep. I am not so well as I should be, but I'll
ne'er out.36
Eno. Not till you have slept; I fear me you'll
be in till then.
Lep. Nay, certainly, I have heard the Ptole-
mies' pyramises are very goodly things; without40
contradiction, I have heard that.
Men. Pompey, a word.
16-19 To be called . . . cheeks; cf. n.
19 S. d. sennet: set of notes played on a trumpet.
22, 23 dearth Or foison: scarcity or plenty