READ STUDY GUIDE: Act I, scenes iv–v; Act II, scenes i–ii |
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Act I, Scene iv:
Rome. An Apartment in CAESAR'S House.
Rome. An Apartment in CAESAR'S House.
| [Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, LEPIDUS, and Attendants.] |
| CAESAR: |
| You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know, |
| It is not Caesar's natural vice to hate |
| Our great competitor. From Alexandria |
| This is the news:—he fishes, drinks, and wastes |
| The lamps of night in revel: is not more manlike |
| Than Cleopatra;, nor the queen of Ptolemy |
| 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. |
| LEPIDUS: |
| I must not think there are |
| Evils 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 purchas'd; what he cannot change |
| Than what he chooses. |
| CAESAR: |
| You are too indulgent. Let's 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 Antony |
| No way excuse his foils when we do bear |
| So great weight in his lightness. If he fill'd |
| His 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 loud |
| As his own state and ours,—'tis to be chid |
| As 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 report |
| How 'tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea; |
| And it appears he is belov'd of those |
| That only have fear'd Caesar: to the ports |
| The discontents repair, and men's reports |
| Give him much wrong'd. |
| 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 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. |
| MESSENGER: |
| Caesar, 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: |
| No vessel can peep forth but 'tis as soon |
| Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more |
| Than could his war resisted. |
| CAESAR: |
| Antony, |
| Leave thy lascivious wassails. When thou once |
| Was beaten from Modena, where thou slew'st |
| Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel |
| Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against, |
| Though daintily brought up, with patience more |
| Than savages could suffer: thou didst drink |
| The stale of horses, and the gilded puddle |
| 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, |
| The barks of trees thou browsed'st; on the Alps |
| It 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 cheek |
| So much as lank'd not. |
| LEPIDUS: |
| 'Tis pity of him. |
| CAESAR: |
| Let his shames quickly |
| Drive him to Rome; 'tis time we twain |
| Did show ourselves i' thefield; and to that end |
| Assemble we immediate council: Pompey |
| Thrives in our idleness. |
| LEPIDUS: |
| To-morrow, Caesar, |
| I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly |
| Both what by sea and land I can be able |
| To front this present time. |
| CAESAR: |
| Till which encounter |
| It is my business too. Farewell. |
| LEPIDUS: |
| Farewell, my lord: what you shall know meantime |
| Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir, |
| To let me be partaker. |
| CAESAR: |
| Doubt not, sir; |
| I knew it for my bond. |
| [Exeunt.] |
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