So Antony loves. Ant. My precious queen, forbear; And give true evidence to his love, which stands An honourable trial. Cleo.. So Fulvia told me. I pr'ythee, turn aside, and weep for her; Ant. You'll heat my blood; no more. Cleo. You can do better yet; but this is meetly. Ant. Now, by my sword, Cleo. And target,-Still he mends; But this is not the best: Look, pr'ythee, Charmian, How this Herculean Roman does become The carriage of his chafe. Ant. I'll leave you, lady. Cleo. Courteous lord, one word. Sir, you and I must part,-but that's not it: Sir, And I am all forgotten. Ant. But that your royalty Holds idleness your subject, I should take you Cleo. 'Tis sweating labour, To bear such idleness so near the heart Therefore be deaf to my unpitied folly, And all the gods go with you! upon your sword Sit laurel'd victory! and smooth success Be strew'd before your feet! Ant. Let us go. Come; Our separation so abides, and flies, That thou, residing here, go'st yet with me, Away. [Exeunt. 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 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 as the spots of heaven, More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary, Rather than purchas'd; what he cannot change, Than what he chooses. 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 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, As we rate boys; who, being mature in knowledge, Lep. Enter a Messenger. Here's more news. Mes. Thy biddings have been done; and every hour, Most noble Cæsar, shalt thou have report C Cæs. I should have known no less: It hath been taught us from the primal state, love, Comes dear'd, by being lack'd. body, This common Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream, Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide, Mes. 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: Cæs. Antony, Leave thy lascivious wassels. When thou once Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against, 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, 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, Assemble we immediate council: Pompey Thrives in our idleness. Lep. To-morrow, Cæsar, I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly To 'front this present time. Cæs. It is my business too. Till which encounter, 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 not, sir; I knew it for my bond. [Exeunt. |