MAECENAS. We have cause to be glad that matters are so well digested. You stay'd well by't in Egypt.
ENOBARBUS. Ay, sir; we did sleep day out of countenance and made the night light with drinking.
MAECENAS. Eight wild boars roasted whole at a breakfast, and but twelve persons there. Is this true?
ENOBARBUS. This was but as a fly by an eagle. We had much more monstrous matter of feast, which worthily deserved noting.
MAECENAS. She's a most triumphant lady, if report be square to her.
ENOBARBUS. When she first met Mark Antony she purs'd up his heart, upon the river of Cydnus.
AGRIPPA. There she appear'd indeed! Or my reporter devis'd well for her.
ENOBARBUS. I will tell you.
   The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
   Burn'd on the water. The poop was beaten gold;
   Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
   The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,
   Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
   The water which they beat to follow faster,
   As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
   It beggar'd all description. She did lie
   In her pavilion, cloth-of-gold, of tissue,
   O'erpicturing that Venus where we see
   The fancy out-work nature. On each side her
   Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
   With divers-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem
   To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
   And what they undid did.
AGRIPPA. O, rare for Antony!
ENOBARBUS. Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,
   So many mermaids, tended her i' th' eyes,
   And made their bends adornings. At the helm
   A seeming mermaid steers. The silken tackle
   Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands
   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' th' market-place, did sit alone,
   Whistling to th' 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
   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
   For what his eyes eat only.
AGRIPPA. Royal wench!
   She made great Caesar lay his sword to bed.
   He ploughed 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,
   That she did make defect perfection,
   And, breathless, pow'r breathe forth.
MAECENAS. Now Antony must leave her utterly.
ENOBARBUS. Never! He will not.
   Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
   Her infinite variety. Other women cloy
   The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry
   Where most she satisfies; for vilest things
   Become themselves in her, that the holy priests
   Bless her when she is riggish.
MAECENAS. If beauty, wisdom, modesty, can settle
   The heart of Antony, Octavia is
   A blessed lottery to him.
AGRIPPA. Let us go.
   Good Enobarbus, make yourself my guest
   Whilst you abide here.
ENOBARBUS. Humbly, sir, I thank you.       Exeunt

(Antony and Cleopatra, 2.II.255-98)