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.

        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 brows'd. 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' th' field; 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

        CLEOPATRA. Charmian!

        CHARMIAN. Madam?

        CLEOPATRA. Ha, ha!

          Give