Shakespeare Portal

Act 1, Scene 4

Rome. An Apartment in CAESAR'S House.

  1. [Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, LEPIDUS, and Attendants.]
  2. Octavius Caesar
  3. 388 You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know,
  4. 389 It is not Caesar's natural vice to hate
  5. 390 Our great competitor. From Alexandria
  6. 391 This is the news:—he fishes, drinks, and wastes
  7. 392 The lamps of night in revel: is not more manlike
  8. 393 Than Cleopatra;, nor the queen of Ptolemy
  9. 394 More womanly than he: hardly gave audience, or
  10. 395 Vouchsaf'd to think he had partners: you shall find there
  11. 396 A man who is the abstract of all faults
  12. 397 That all men follow.
  13. Lepidus
  14. 398 I must not think there are
  15. 399 Evils enow to darken all his goodness:
  16. 400 His faults in him seem as the spots of heaven,
  17. 401 More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary
  18. 402 Rather than purchas'd; what he cannot change
  19. 403 Than what he chooses.
  20. Octavius Caesar
  21. 404 You are too indulgent. Let's grant it is not
  22. 405 Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy;
  23. 406 To give a kingdom for a mirth; to sit
  24. 407 And keep the turn of tippling with a slave;
  25. 408 To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet
  26. 409 With knaves that smell of sweat: say this becomes him,—
  27. 410 As his composure must be rare indeed
  28. 411 Whom these things cannot blemish,—yet must Antony
  29. 412 No way excuse his foils when we do bear
  30. 413 So great weight in his lightness. If he fill'd
  31. 414 His vacancy with his voluptuousness,
  32. 415 Full surfeits and the dryness of his bones
  33. 416 Call on him for't: but to confound such time
  34. 417 That drums him from his sport, and speaks as loud
  35. 418 As his own state and ours,—'tis to be chid
  36. 419 As we rate boys, who, being mature in knowledge,
  37. 420 Pawn their experience to their present pleasure,
  38. 421 And so rebel to judgment.
  39. [Enter a Messenger.]
  40. Lepidus
  41. 422 Here's more news.
  42. Messenger
  43. 423 Thy biddings have been done; and every hour,
  44. 424 Most noble Caesar, shalt thou have report
  45. 425 How 'tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea;
  46. 426 And it appears he is belov'd of those
  47. 427 That only have fear'd Caesar: to the ports
  48. 428 The discontents repair, and men's reports
  49. 429 Give him much wrong'd.
  50. Octavius Caesar
  51. 430 I should have known no less:
  52. 431 It hath been taught us from the primal state
  53. 432 That he which is was wish'd until he were;
  54. 433 And the ebb'd man, ne'er lov'd till ne'er worth love,
  55. 434 Comes dear'd by being lack'd. This common body,
  56. 435 Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,
  57. 436 Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide,
  58. 437 To rot itself with motion.
  59. Messenger
  60. 438 Caesar, I bring thee word
  61. 439 Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates,
  62. 440 Make the sea serve them, which they ear and wound
  63. 441 With keels of every kind: many hot inroads
  64. 442 They make in Italy; the borders maritime
  65. 443 Lack blood to think on't, and flush youth revolt:
  66. 444 No vessel can peep forth but 'tis as soon
  67. 445 Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more
  68. 446 Than could his war resisted.
  69. Octavius Caesar
  70. 447 Antony,
  71. 448 Leave thy lascivious wassails. When thou once
  72. 449 Was beaten from Modena, where thou slew'st
  73. 450 Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel
  74. 451 Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against,
  75. 452 Though daintily brought up, with patience more
  76. 453 Than savages could suffer: thou didst drink
  77. 454 The stale of horses, and the gilded puddle
  78. 455 Which beasts would cough at: thy palate then did deign
  79. 456 The roughest berry on the rudest hedge;
  80. 457 Yea, like the stag when snow the pasture sheets,
  81. 458 The barks of trees thou browsed'st; on the Alps
  82. 459 It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh,
  83. 460 Which some did die to look on: and all this,—
  84. 461 It wounds thine honour that I speak it now,—
  85. 462 Was borne so like a soldier that thy cheek
  86. 463 So much as lank'd not.
  87. Lepidus
  88. 464 'Tis pity of him.
  89. Octavius Caesar
  90. 465 Let his shames quickly
  91. 466 Drive him to Rome; 'tis time we twain
  92. 467 Did show ourselves i' thefield; and to that end
  93. 468 Assemble we immediate council: Pompey
  94. 469 Thrives in our idleness.
  95. Lepidus
  96. 470 To-morrow, Caesar,
  97. 471 I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly
  98. 472 Both what by sea and land I can be able
  99. 473 To front this present time.
  100. Octavius Caesar
  101. 474 Till which encounter
  102. 475 It is my business too. Farewell.
  103. Lepidus
  104. 476 Farewell, my lord: what you shall know meantime
  105. 477 Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir,
  106. 478 To let me be partaker.
  107. Octavius Caesar
  108. 479 Doubt not, sir;
  109. 480 I knew it for my bond.
  110. [Exeunt.]