SCENE IV.
Cæsar's palace in Rome.
Enter Octavius Cæsar, Lepidus, and Attendants.
Cæs.
You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know,
It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hate
4 noteOne great competitor: From Alexandria
This is the news; He fishes, drinks, and wastes
-- 146 --
The lamps of night in revel: is not more manlike
Than Cleopatra; nor the queen of Ptolemy
More womanly than he: hardly gave audience, or
Vouchsaf'd to think he had partners: You shall find there
A man, who is the abstract of all faults
That all men follow.
Lep.
I must not think, there are
Evils enough to darken all his goodness:
His faults, in him, seem 5 note
as the spots of heaven,
More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary,
Rather than 6 notepurchas'd; what he cannot change,
Than what he chooses.
-- 147 --
Cæs.
You are too indulgent: Let us grant, it is not
Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy;
To give a kingdom for a mirth; to sit
And keep the turn of tipling with a slave;
To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet
With knaves that smell of sweat: 7 note
say, this becomes him,
(As his composure must be rare indeed,
Whom these things cannot blemish) yet must Antony
No way excuse his foils, when we do bear
8 noteSo great weight in his lightness: If he fill'd
His vacancy with his voluptuousness,
Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones,
9 noteCall on him for't: but, to confound such time,—
That drums him from his sport, and speaks as loud
As his own state, and ours,—'tis to be chid
As we rate 1 note
boys; who, being mature in knowledge,
Pawn their experience to their present pleasure,
And so rebel to judgment.
-- 148 --
Enter a Messenger.
Lep.
Here's more news.
Mes.
Thy biddings have been done; and every hour,
Most noble Cæsar, shalt thou have report
How 'tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea;
And it appears, he is belov'd of those
2 noteThat only have fear'd Cæsar: to the ports
The discontents repair 9Q0949, and mens' reports
Give him much wrong'd.
Cæs.
I should have known no less:—
It hath been taught us from the primal state,
That 3 note
he, which is, was wish'd, until he were;
And the ebb'd man, ne'er lov'd, 'till ne'er worth love,
Comes dear'd, by being lack'd. This common body,
Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,
4 note
Goes to, and back, lackying the varying tide,
-- 149 --
To rot itself with motion5 note.
Mes.
Cæsar, I bring thee word,
Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates,
Make the sea serve them; 6 note
which they ear and wound
With keels of every kind: Many hot inroads
They make in Italy; the borders maritime
7 noteLack blood to think on't, and flush youth8 note revolt:
No vessel can peep forth, but 'tis as soon
Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more,
-- 150 --
Than could his war resisted.
Cæs.
Antony,
Leave thy lascivious wassels9 note
. When thou once
Wast beaten from Modena, where thou slew'st
Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel
Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against,
Though daintily brought up, with patience more
Than savages could suffer: Thou didst drink
The stale of horses1 note
, and the gilded puddle
Which beasts would cough at: thy palate then did deign
The roughest berry on the rudest hedge;
Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets,
The barks of trees thou browsed'st: on the Alps,
It is reported, thou did'st eat strange flesh,
Which some did die to look on: And all this
(It wounds thine honour, that I speak it now)
Was borne so like a soldier, that thy cheek
So much as lank'd not.
Lep.
It is pity of him.
Cæs.
Let his shames quickly
Drive him to Rome: Time is it, that we twain
Did shew ourselves i' the field; and, to that end,
Assemble me immediate council: Pompey
Thrives in our idleness.
Lep.
To-morrow, Cæsar,
I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly
Both what by sea and land I can be able,
To 'front this present time.
-- 151 --
Cæs.
'Till which encounter,
It is my business too. Farewel.
Lep.
Farewel, my lord: What you shall know mean time
Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir,
To let me be partaker.
Cæs.
Doubt it not, sir; I knew it for my bond.
[Exeunt.
Samuel Johnson [1778], The plays of William Shakspeare. In ten volumes. With the corrections and illustrations of various commentators; to which are added notes by Samuel Johnson and George Steevens. The second edition, Revised and Augmented (Printed for C. Bathurst [and] W. Strahan [etc.], London) [word count] [S10901].
