Imatges de pàgina
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Murther in healing wounds: Then, noble partners,
(The rather, for I earnestly befeech)

Touch you the fourest points with sweetest terms,
Nor curftness grow to the matter.

ANT.Tis fpoken well:

Were we before our armies, and to fight,
I fhould do thus.

CAS. Welcome to Rome.

ANT.Thank you.
CAS.-Sit.

ANT. Sit, fir.

CAS.-Nay, then.

ANT. I learn, you take things ill, which are not fo Or, being, concern you not.

CAS.-I must be laugh'd at,

If, or for nothing, or a little, Í

Should fay myself offended; and with you

Chiefly i'the world: more laugh'd at, that I should Once name you derogately, when to found your name It not concern'd me.

ANT. My being in Egypt, Cafar,

What was't to you

?

CAS. No more than my refiding here at Rome Might be to you in Egypt: Yet, if you there Did practise on my state, your being in Egypt Might be my question.

ANT.-How intend you, practis'd?

CAS. You may be pleas'd to catch at mine intent, By what did here befall me: Your wife, and brother, Made wars upon me; and their contestation

Was them'd for you, you were the word of war.
ANT. You do mistake

your

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business; my brother never

Did urge me in his act : I did inquire it;
And have my learning from fome true reports,

That drew their fwords with you. Did he not rather
Difcredit my authority with yours;

And make the wars alike against my stomach, Having alike your caufe? Of this, my letters Before did fatisfy you. If you'll patch a quarrel, (As matter whole you have not to make it with) It must not be with this.

CAS. You praise yourself,

By laying to me defects of judgment: but
You patch'd up your excuses.

ANT. Not fo, not so:

I know you could not lack, I am certain on't,
Very neceflity of this thought, That I,

Your partner in the cause 'gainst which he fought,
Could not with grateful eyes attend those wars
Which 'fronted mine own peace. As for my wife,
I would you had her spirit in fuch another:
The third o'the world is yours; which with a fnaffle
You may pace eafy, but not fuch a wife.

ENO. 'Would we had all fuch wives, that the men might go to wars with the women.

ANT. So much uncurbable, her garboils, Cæfar, Made out of her impatience, (which not wanted Shrewdness of policy too) I grieving grant, Did you too much difquiet: for that, you must But fay, I could not help it.

CAS.-I wrote to you,

When, rioting in Alexandria, you

Did pocket up my letters; and with taunts
Did gibe my miflive out of audience.

ANT. -Sir,

He fell upon me, ere admitted; then
Three Kings I had newly feafted, and did want
Of what I was i'the morning: but, next day,
I told him of myfelf; which was as much
As to have ask'd him pardon: Let this fellow
Be nothing of your ftrife; if we contend,
Out of our question wipe him.

CES.-You have broken

The article of our oath; which you shall never
Have tongue to charge me with.

LEP.

Soft, Cafar.

ANT. -No,

Lepidus, let him speak;

The honour is facred which he talks on now,
Suppofing that I lack'd it but on, Cæfar;

The article of my oath,

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CAS. To lend me arms, and aid,when I requir'd them; The which you both deny'd.

ANT. Neglected, rather;

And then, when poison'd hours had bound me up
From mine own knowledge. As nearly as I may,
I'll play the penitent to you: but mine honesty
Shall not make poor my greatness, nor my power
Work without it: Truth is, that Fulvia,
To have me out of Egypt, made wars here;
For which myself, the ignorant motive, do
So far ask pardon, as befits mine honour
To ftoop in fuch a case.

LEP. Tis nobly spoken.

MEC. If it might please you, to enforce no further The griefs between ye: to forget them quite,

Were to remember that the present need
Speaks to atone you.

LEP. -Worthily fpoken, Mecenas.

ENO. Or, if you borrow one another's love for the inftant, you may, when you hear no more words of Pompey, return it again: you fhall have time to wrangle in, when you have nothing else to do.

ANT. Thou art a foldier only; speak no more.

ENO. That truth fhould be filent, I had almoft forgot. ANT. You wrong this prefence, therefore fpeak no more. ENO. Go to then; your confiderate stone. CAS. I do not much miflike the manner, but The matter of his speech: for't cannot be, We shall remain in friendship, our conditions So differing in their acts. Yet, if I knew What hoop fhould hold us stanch, from edge to edge O'the world I would pursue it.

AGR. Give me leave, Cafar,

CAS.-Speak, Agrippa.

AGR. Thou haft a fifter by the mother's fide, Admir'd Octavia: great Mark Antony

Is now a widower.

CAS. Say not fo, Agrippa;

If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof

Were well deferv'd of rashness.

ANT. I am not marry'd, Cæfar: let me hear

Agrippa further speak.

AGR. To hold you in perpetual amity, To make you brothers, and to knit

your

hearts

With an unflipping knot, take Antony
Octavia to his wife: whose beauty claims
No worse a husband than the best of men;

Whose virtue, and whofe general graces, fpeak
That which none else can utter. By this marriage,
All little jealoufies, which now seem great,

And all great fears, which now import their dangers,
Would then be nothing: truths would then be tales,
Where now half tales be truths: her love to both
Would, each to other, and all loves to both,
Draw after her. Pardon what I have spoke;
For 'tis a ftudy'd not a present thought,
By duty ruminated.

ANT.-Will Cafar speak?

CAS. Not 'till he hears how Antony is touch'd With what is spoke already.

ANT. What power is in Agrippa,

If I would fay, Agrippa, be it so,
To make this good?

CAS.-The power of Cæfar, and
His power unto Octavia.

ANT. -May I never

To this good purpose, that so fairly fhews,
Dream of impediment !_Let me have thy hand:
Further this act of grace; And, from this hour,
The heart of brothers govern in our loves,

And fway our great defigns!

CAS.-There is my hand.

A fifter I bequeath you, whom no brother
Did ever love fo dearly: Let her live

To join our kingdoms, and our hearts; and never

Fly off our loves again!

LEP. Happily! Amen.

ANT. I did not think to draw my sword 'gainst Pompey;

For he hath lay'd strange courtefies, and great,

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