Cæs.
You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know,
It is not Cæsar's natural voice, to hate
One great competitor. From Alexandria
This is the news; he fishes, drinks, and wastes
The lamps of night in revels; not more manly
Than Cleopatra; nor the Queen of Ptolomy
More womanly than he. Hardly gave audience,
Or did vouchsafe to think that h'had partners.
You shall find there a man, who is the abstract
Of all faults all men follow.

Lep.
I must not think
They're evils enough to darken all his goodness;
His faults in him seem as the spots of heav'n,
More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary,
Rather than purchast; what he cannot change,
Than what he chuses.

Cæs.
You're too indulgent. Let us grant it is not
Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolomy,
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; 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
So great weight in his lightness. If he fill'd
His vacancy with his voluptuousness;
Full surfeits, and the driness of his bones,
Call 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 boys, who being mature in knowledge,
Pawn their experience to their present pleasure,
And so rebel to judgment. 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
That only have fear'd Cæsar: to the ports
The discontents repair, 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 he which is, was wish'd, until he were:
And the ebb'd man, ne'er lov'd 'till ne'er worth love,
Comes fear'd, by being lack'd. This common body,
Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,
Goes to, and back, ^{e note}lashing the varying tide
To rot it self with motion.

Mes.
Cæsar, I bring thee word,
Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates,

Make the sea serve them, which they † ^noteear and wound
With keels of every kind. Many hot inrodes
They make in Italy, the borders maritime
Lack blood to think on't, and flush youth revolt.
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. When thou once
Wert beaten from Mutina, 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 horses, and the gilded puddle
Which beasts would cough at. Thy pallat 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 didst eat strange flesh,
Which some did die to look on; and all this,
(It wounds thine honour that I speak it now,)
Was born so like a soldier, that thy cheek
So much as lank'd not.

Lep.
'Tis pity of him.

Cæs.
Let his shames quickly
Drive him to Rome; time is it that we twain
Did shew our selves i'th' field, and to that end
Assemble we 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.

Cæs.
'Till which encounter,
'Tis my business too. Farewel.

Lep.
Farewel my lord,
What you shall know mean time of stirs abroad,
I shall beseech you, let me be partaker.

Cæs.
Doubt not, I knew it for my bond. Farewel. [Exeunt.

Previous section

Next section