Act I · Scene IV
Rome. OCTAVIUS CAESAR's house.
Hover a speech to translate it — or press play to hear it performed.
Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, reading a letter, LEPIDUS, and their Train
OCTAVIUS CAESAR
You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know,It is not Caesar's natural vice to hateOur great competitor: from AlexandriaThis is the news: he fishes, drinks, and wastesThe lamps of night in revel; is not more man-likeThan Cleopatra; nor the queen of PtolemyMore womanly than he; hardly gave audience, orVouchsafed to think he had partners: you shall find thereA man who is the abstract of all faultsThat all men follow.
LEPIDUS
I must not think there areEvils enow to darken all his goodness:His faults in him seem as the spots of heaven,More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary,Rather than purchased; what he cannot change,Than what he chooses.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR
You are too indulgent. Let us grant, it is notAmiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy;To give a kingdom for a mirth; to sitAnd keep the turn of tippling with a slave;To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffetWith knaves that smell of sweat: say thisbecomes him,--As his composure must be rare indeedWhom these things cannot blemish,--yet must AntonyNo way excuse his soils, when we do bearSo great weight in his lightness. If he fill'dHis vacancy with his voluptuousness,Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones,Call on him for't: but to confound such time,That drums him from his sport, and speaks as loudAs his own state and ours,--'tis to be chidAs we rate boys, who, being mature in knowledge,Pawn their experience to their present pleasure,And so rebel to judgment.
Enter a Messenger
LEPIDUS
Here's more news.
Messenger
Thy biddings have been done; and every hour,Most noble Caesar, shalt thou have reportHow 'tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea;And it appears he is beloved of thoseThat only have fear'd Caesar: to the portsThe discontents repair, and men's reportsGive him much wrong'd.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR
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 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.
Messenger
Caesar, I bring thee word,Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates,Make the sea serve them, which they ear and woundWith keels of every kind: many hot inroadsThey make in Italy; the borders maritimeLack blood to think on't, and flush youth revolt:No vessel can peep forth, but 'tis as soonTaken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes moreThan could his war resisted.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR
Antony,Leave thy lascivious wassails. When thou onceWast beaten from Modena, where thou slew'stHirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heelDid famine follow; whom thou fought'st against,Though daintily brought up, with patience moreThan savages could suffer: thou didst drinkThe stale of horses, and the gilded puddleWhich beasts would cough at: thy palate then did deignThe roughest berry on the rudest hedge;Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets,The barks of trees thou browsed'st; on the AlpsIt 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 cheekSo much as lank'd not.
LEPIDUS
'Tis pity of him.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR
Let his shames quicklyDrive him to Rome: 'tis time we twainDid show ourselves i' the field; and to that endAssemble we immediate council: PompeyThrives in our idleness.
LEPIDUS
To-morrow, Caesar,I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightlyBoth what by sea and land I can be ableTo front this present time.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR
Till which encounter,It is my business too. Farewell.
LEPIDUS
Farewell, my lord: what you shall know meantimeOf stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir,To let me be partaker.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR
Doubt not, sir;I knew it for my bond.
Exeunt