1 You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know, 2 It is not Caesar's natural vice to hate 3 Our great competitor: from Alexandria 4 This is the news: he fishes, drinks, and wastes 5 The lamps of night in revel; is not more man-like 6 Than Cleopatra; nor the queen of Ptolemy 7 More womanly than he; hardly gave audience, or 8 Vouchsafed to think he had partners: you shall find there 9 A man who is the abstract of all faults 10 That all men follow.
LEPIDUS
11 I must not think there are 12 Evils enow to darken all his goodness: 13 His faults in him seem as the spots of heaven, 14 More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary, 15 Rather than purchased; what he cannot change, 16 Than what he chooses.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR
17 You are too indulgent. Let us grant, it is not 18 Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy; 19 To give a kingdom for a mirth; to sit 20 And keep the turn of tippling with a slave; 21 To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet 22 With knaves that smell of sweat: say this 23 becomes him,-- 24 As his composure must be rare indeed 25 Whom these things cannot blemish,--yet must Antony 26 No way excuse his soils, when we do bear 27 So great weight in his lightness. If he fill'd 28 His vacancy with his voluptuousness, 29 Full surfeits, and the dryness of his bones, 30 Call on him for't: but to confound such time, 31 That drums him from his sport, and speaks as loud 32 As his own state and ours,--'tis to be chid 33 As we rate boys, who, being mature in knowledge, 34 Pawn their experience to their present pleasure, 35 And so rebel to judgment.
Enter a Messenger
LEPIDUS
36 Here's more news.
Messenger
37 Thy biddings have been done; and every hour, 38 Most noble Caesar, shalt thou have report 39 How 'tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea; 40 And it appears he is beloved of those 41 That only have fear'd Caesar: to the ports 42 The discontents repair, and men's reports 43 Give him much wrong'd.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR
44 I should have known no less. 45 It hath been taught us from the primal state, 46 That he which is was wish'd until he were; 47 And the ebb'd man, ne'er loved till ne'er worth love, 48 Comes dear'd by being lack'd. This common body, 49 Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream, 50 Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide, 51 To rot itself with motion.
Messenger
52 Caesar, I bring thee word, 53 Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates, 54 Make the sea serve them, which they ear and wound 55 With keels of every kind: many hot inroads 56 They make in Italy; the borders maritime 57 Lack blood to think on't, and flush youth revolt: 58 No vessel can peep forth, but 'tis as soon 59 Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more 60 Than could his war resisted.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR
61 Antony, 62 Leave thy lascivious wassails. When thou once 63 Wast beaten from Modena, where thou slew'st 64 Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel 65 Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against, 66 Though daintily brought up, with patience more 67 Than savages could suffer: thou didst drink 68 The stale of horses, and the gilded puddle 69 Which beasts would cough at: thy palate then did deign 70 The roughest berry on the rudest hedge; 71 Yea, like the stag, when snow the pasture sheets, 72 The barks of trees thou browsed'st; on the Alps 73 It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh, 74 Which some did die to look on: and all this-- 75 It wounds thine honour that I speak it now-- 76 Was borne so like a soldier, that thy cheek 77 So much as lank'd not.
LEPIDUS
78 'Tis pity of him.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR
79 Let his shames quickly 80 Drive him to Rome: 'tis time we twain 81 Did show ourselves i' the field; and to that end 82 Assemble we immediate council: Pompey 83 Thrives in our idleness.
LEPIDUS
84 To-morrow, Caesar, 85 I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly 86 Both what by sea and land I can be able 87 To front this present time.
OCTAVIUS CAESAR
88 Till which encounter, 89 It is my business too. Farewell.
LEPIDUS
90 Farewell, my lord: what you shall know meantime 91 Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir, 92 To let me be partaker.
