Scene
II
Rome. An ante-chamber in Caesar’s house.
Enter Agrippa at one door, Enobarbas at another.
Agrippa
What, are the brothers parted?
Enobarbas
They have dispatch’d with Pompey, he is gone;
The other three are sealing. Octavia weeps
To part from Rome; Caesar is sad; and Lepidus,
Since Pompey’s feast, as Menas says, is troubled
With the green sickness.
Agrippa
’Tis a noble Lepidus.
Enobarbas
A very fine one: O, how he loves Caesar!
Agrippa
Nay, but how dearly he adores Mark Antony!
Enobarbas
Caesar? Why, he’s the Jupiter of men.
Agrippa
What’s Antony? The god of Jupiter.
Enobarbas
Spake you of Caesar? How! the non-pareil!
Agrippa
O Antony! O thou Arabian bird!
Enobarbas
Would you praise Caesar, say “Caesar:” go no further.
Agrippa
Indeed, he plied them both with excellent praises.
Enobarbas
But he loves Caesar best; yet he loves Antony:
Ho! hearts, tongues, figures, scribes, bards, poets, cannot
Think, speak, cast, write, sing, number, ho!
His love to Antony. But as for Caesar,
Kneel down, kneel down, and wonder.
Agrippa
Both he loves.
Enobarbas
They are his shards, and he their beetle. Trumpets within. So;
This is to horse. Adieu, noble Agrippa.
Agrippa
Good fortune, worthy soldier; and farewell.
Enter Caesar, Antony, Lepidus, and Octavia.
Antony
No further, sir.
Caesar
You take from me a great part of myself;
Use me well in’t. Sister, prove such a wife
As my thoughts make thee, and as my farthest band
Shall pass on thy approof. Most noble Antony,
Let not the piece of virtue, which is set
Betwixt us as the cement of our love,
To keep it builded, be the ram to batter
The fortress of it; for better might we
Have loved without this mean, if on both parts
This be not cherish’d.
Antony
Make me not offended
In your distrust.
Caesar
I have said.
Antony
You shall not find,
Though you be therein curious, the least cause
For what you seem to fear: so, the gods keep you,
And make the hearts of Romans serve your ends!
We will here part.
Caesar
Farewell, my dearest sister, fare thee well:
The elements be kind to thee, and make
Thy spirits all of comfort! fare thee well.
Octavia
My noble brother!
Antony
The April’s in her eyes: it is love’s spring,
And these the showers to bring it on. Be cheerful.
Octavia
Sir, look well to my husband’s house; and—
Caesar
What, Octavia?
Octavia
I’ll tell you in your ear.
Antony
Her tongue will not obey her heart, nor can
Her heart inform her tongue—the swan’s down-feather,
That stands upon the swell at full of tide,
And neither way inclines.
Enobarbas
Aside to Agrippa. Will Caesar weep?
Agrippa
Aside to Enobarbas. He has a cloud in’s face.
Enobarbas
Aside to Agrippa. He were the worse for that, were he a horse;
So is he, being a man.
Agrippa
Aside to Enobarbas. Why, Enobarbus,
When Antony found Julius Caesar dead,
He cried almost to roaring; and he wept
When at Philippi he found Brutus slain.
Enobarbas
Aside to Agrippa. That year, indeed, he was troubled with a rheum;
What willingly he did confound he wail’d,
Believe’t, till I wept too.
Caesar
No, sweet Octavia,
You shall hear from me still; the time shall not
Out-go my thinking on you.
Antony
Come, sir, come;
I’ll wrestle with you in my strength of love:
Look, here I have you; thus I let you go,
And give you to the gods.
Caesar
Adieu; be happy!
Lepidus
Let all the number of the stars give light
To thy fair way!
Caesar
Farewell, farewell! Kisses Octavia.
Antony
Farewell! Trumpets sound. Exeunt.