Cæs.
You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know,
It is not Cæsar's natural vice ^note to hate
Our ^note great competitor: from Alexandria
This is the news: he fishes, drinks and wastes
The lamps of night in revel ^note: is not more manlike ^note
Than Cleopatra, nor the queen of Ptolemy ^note
More womanly than he: hardly gave audience, or

Vouchsafed ^note to ^note think he had ^note partners: you shall find there
A man who is ^note the abstract ^note of all faults
That ^note all men follow. ^note

Lep.
I must not think there are ^note
Evils enow ^note to darken all his goodness: ^note
His faults in him seem as the spots of heaven,
More fiery ^note by night's blackness, ^note hereditary
Rather than purchased, what he cannot change
Than ^note what he chooses.

Cæs.
You are ^note too indulgent. Let us grant it is ^note not ^note
Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy ^note,
To give a kingdom for a mirth, to sit
And keep the turn of tippling with a slave,
To reel the streets at noon and stand the buffet
With knaves that smell ^note of sweat: say this becomes him,—
As ^note his composure must be rare indeed
Whom these things cannot blemish,—yet must Antony
No way excuse his soils ^note, when we do bear
So great weight in his lightness. If he fill'd
His vacancy with his voluptuousness,
Full surfeits and the dryness of his bones
Call ^note 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 ^note
As we rate ^note boys, who, being mature ^note in knowledge,
Pawn their experience to their present pleasure,
And so rebel to judgement. Enter a Messenger.

Lep.
Here's more news.

Mess.
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 beloved of those
That only have fear'd Cæsar: to the ports ^note
The discontents repair, and men's reports
Give him much wrong'd.

Cæs.
I should have known no less:
It hath been taught us from the primal state,
That he which is was wish'd until he were;
And the ebb'd man, ne'er loved till ne'er worth ^note love, ^note
Comes dear'd ^note by being lack'd. This ^note common body,
Like to ^note a vagabond flag upon the stream,
Goes to and back, lackeying ^note the varying ^{note note} tide, ^note
To rot itself with motion.

Mess.
Cæsar, I bring thee word,
Menecrates ^note and Menas, famous pirates,
Make ^note the sea serve them, which they ear ^note and wound
With keels of every kind: many hot inroads
They make in Italy; the borders maritime

Lack blood to think on't, and flush youth revolt ^note:
No vessel can peep forth, but 'tis as soon
Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more
Than could his war resisted.

Cæs.
Antony,
Leave thy lascivious wassails ^note. When thou once
Wast ^note beaten from Modena ^{note note}, where thou slew'st
Hirtius ^note and Pansa ^note, consuls, at thy heel
Did famine follow; whom ^note thou fought'st against,
Though daintily brought up, with patience more
Than savages could suffer: thou didst drink
The stale of horses and the gilded puddle
Which beasts would cough at: thy palate then did deign ^note
The roughest berry on the rudest hedge;
Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets,
The barks of trees thou browsedst ^note. On the Alps
It is reported thou didst 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 ^note lank'd ^note not.

Lep.
'Tis ^note pity of him.

Cæs.
Let his shames quickly
Drive him to Rome ^note: 'tis time ^note we twain
Did show ourselves i' the field; and to that end
Assemble we ^note immediate ^note council ^note: Pompey

Thrives in our idleness.

Lep.
To-morrow, Cæsar,
I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly
Both what ^note by sea and land I can be able ^note
To front ^note this present time.

Cæs.
Till which encounter,
It is my business too. Farewell. ^{note note}

Lep.
Farewell, my lord: what you shall know meantime
Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir,
To let ^note me be partaker. ^{note note}

Cæs.
Doubt ^note not, sir; ^note
I knew ^note it for my bond. ^{note note} [Exeunt. ^note

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