So your desires are yours.
OCTAVIA.
Thanks to my lord.
The Jove of power make me, most weak, most weak,
Your reconciler! Wars ‘twixt you twain would be
As if the world should cleave, and that slain men
Should solder up the rift.
ANTONY.
When it appears to you where this begins,
Turn your displeasure that way; for our faults
Can never be so equal that your love
Can equally move with them. Provide your going;
Choose your own company, and command what cost
Your heart has mind to.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE V. Athens. Another Room in ANTONY’S House.
[Enter ENOBARBUS and EROS, meeting.]
ENOBARBUS.
How now, friend Eros!
EROS.
There’s strange news come, sir.
ENOBARBUS.
What, man?
EROS.
Caesar and Lepidus have made wars upon Pompey.
ENOBARBUS.
This is old: what is the success?
EROS. Caesar, having made use of him in the wars ‘gainst Pompey, presently denied him rivality; would not let him partake in the glory of the action: and not resting here, accuses him of letters he had formerly wrote to Pompey; upon his own appeal, seizes him: so the poor third is up, till death enlarge his confine.
ENOBARBUS.
Then, world, thou hast a pair of chaps, no more;
And throw between them all the food thou hast,
They’ll grind the one the other. Where’s Antony?
EROS.
He’s walking in the garden—thus; and spurns
The rush that lies before him; cries ‘Fool Lepidus!’
And threats the throat of that his officer
That murder’d Pompey.
ENOBARBUS.
Our great navy’s rigg’d.
EROS.
For Italy and Caesar. More, Domitius;
My lord desires you presently: my news
I might have told hereafter.
ENOBARBUS.
‘Twill be naught;
But let it be.—Bring me to Antony.
EROS.
Come, sir.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE VI. Rome. A Room in CAESAR’S House.
[Enter CAESAR, AGRIPPA, and MAECENAS.]
CAESAR.
Contemning Rome, he has done all this, and more,
In Alexandria. Here’s the manner of’t:—
I’ the marketplace, on a tribunal silver’d,
Cleopatra and himself in chairs of gold
Were publicly enthron’d: at the feet sat
Caesarion, whom they call my father’s son,
And all the unlawful issue that their lust
Since then hath made between them. Unto her
He gave the ‘stablishment of Egypt; made her
Of lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia,
Absolute queen.
MAECENAS.
This in the public eye?
CAESAR.
I’ the common show-place, where they exercise.
His sons he there proclaim’d the kings of kings:
Great Media, Parthia, and Armenia,
He gave to Alexander; to Ptolemy he assign’d
Syria, Cilicia, and Phoenicia: she
In the habiliments of the goddess Isis
That day appear’d; and oft before gave audience,
As ‘tis reported, so.
MAECENAS.
Let Rome be thus
Inform’d.
AGRIPPA.
Who, queasy with his insolence
Already, will their good thoughts call from him.
CAESAR.
The people knows it: and have now receiv’d
His accusations.
AGRIPPA.
Who does he accuse?
CAESAR.
Caesar: and that, having in Sicily
Sextus Pompeius spoil’d, we had not rated him
His part o’ the isle: then does he say he lent me
Some shipping, unrestor’d: lastly, he frets
That Lepidus of the triumvirate
Should be depos’d; and, being, that we detain
All his revenue.
AGRIPPA.
Sir, this should be answer’d.
CAESAR.
‘Tis done already, and messenger gone.
I have told him Lepidus was grown too cruel;
That he his high authority abus’d,
And did deserve his change: for what I have conquer’d
I grant him part; but then, in his Armenia
And other of his conquer’d kingdoms, I
Demand the like.
MAECENAS.
He’ll never yield to that.
CAESAR.
Nor must not then be yielded to in this.
[Enter OCTAVIA, with her train.]
OCTAVIA.
Hail, Caesar, and my lord! hail, most dear Caesar!
CAESAR.
That ever I should call thee castaway!
OCTAVIA.
You have not call’d me so, nor have you cause.
CAESAR.
Why have you stol’n upon us thus? You come not
Like Caesar’s sister: the wife of Antony
Should have an army for an usher, and
The neighs of horse to tell of her approach
Long ere she did appear; the trees by the way
Should have borne men; and expectation fainted,
Longing for what it had not; nay, the dust
Should have ascended to the roof of heaven,
Rais’d by your populous troops: but you are come
A market-maid to Rome; and have prevented
The ostentation of our love, which