SCENE IV. Rome. An Apartment in Cæsar's House. Enter OCTAVIUS CÆSAR, LEPIDUS, and Attendants. Cæs. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know, It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hate One great competitor: From Alexandria This is the news; He fishes, drinks, and wastes 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 His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven, Cas. 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 tippling 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 An tony No way excuse his soils, when we do bear Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones, Lep. Enter a Messenger. 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 belov'd of those That only have fear'd Cæsar: to the ports 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 dear'd, by being lack'd. This common body, Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream, Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide, To rot itself with motion. Mess. Cæsar, I bring thee word, Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates, Make the sea serve them; which they ear 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: Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more, Cæs. Leave thy lascivious wassels. Antony, When thou once Wast beaten from Modena, where thou slew'st 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, Lep. It is pity of him. Cas. Let his shames quickly Drive him to Rome: 'Tis time we twain Did show ourselves i' the field; and, to that end, Thrives in our idleness. Lep. To-morrow, Cæsar, I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly To 'front this present time. Cœs. Till which encounter, It is my business too. Farewell. Lep. Farewell, my lord: What you shall know mean time Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir, To let me be partaker. Char. Why, madam? Cleo. That I might sleep out this great gap of Cleo. Not now to hear thee sing; I take no pleasure In aught an eunuch has: 'Tis well for thee, That, being unseminar'd, thy freer thoughts May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections? Mar. Yes, gracious madam. Cleo. Indeed? Mar. Not in deed, madam: for I can do nothing But what in deed is honest to be done: Yet I have fierce affections, and think, Cleo. O Charmian, Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits he? Or does he walk? or is he on his horse? O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony! Do bravely, horse! for wot'st thou whom thou mov'st? And burgonet of men".-He's speaking now, |