ANTONY.
[To Caesar.] Thus do they, sir: they take the flow o’ th’ Nile
By certain scales i’ th’ pyramid; they know
By th’ 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.
You’ve strange serpents there?
ANTONY.
Ay, Lepidus.
LEPIDUS.
Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun; so is your crocodile.
ANTONY.
They are so.
POMPEY.
Sit, and some wine! A health to Lepidus!
LEPIDUS.
I am not so well as I should be, but I’ll ne’er out.
ENOBARBUS.
Not till you have slept. I fear me you’ll be in till then.
LEPIDUS.
Nay, certainly, I have heard the Ptolemies’ pyramises are very goodly things. Without contradiction I have heard that.
MENAS.
[Aside to Pompey.] Pompey, a word.