SCENE I. Caesar’s Camp before Alexandria.

Enter Caesar, Agrippa, Dolabella, Maecenas, Gallus, Proculeius with his council of war.

CAESAR. Go to him, Dolabella, bid him yield. Being so frustrate, tell him, he mocks The pauses that he makes.

DOLABELLA. Caesar, I shall.

[ Exit. ]

Enter Dercetus with the sword of Antony .

CAESAR. Wherefore is that? And what art thou that dar’st Appear thus to us?

DERCETUS. I am called Dercetus. Mark Antony I served, who best was worthy Best to be served. Whilst he stood up and spoke, He was my master, and I wore my life To spend upon his haters. If thou please To take me to thee, as I was to him I’ll be to Caesar; if thou pleasest not, I yield thee up my life.

CAESAR. What is’t thou say’st?

DERCETUS. I say, O Caesar, Antony is dead.

CAESAR. The breaking of so great a thing should make A greater crack. The round world Should have shook lions into civil streets, And citizens to their dens. The death of Antony Is not a single doom; in the name lay A moiety of the world.

DERCETUS. He is dead, Caesar, Not by a public minister of justice, Nor by a hired knife, but that self hand Which writ his honour in the acts it did Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it, Splitted the heart. This is his sword. I robbed his wound of it. Behold it stained With his most noble blood.

CAESAR. Look you sad, friends? The gods rebuke me, but it is tidings To wash the eyes of kings.

AGRIPPA. And strange it is That nature must compel us to lament Our most persisted deeds.

MAECENAS. His taints and honours Waged equal with him.

AGRIPPA. A rarer spirit never Did steer humanity, but you gods will give us Some faults to make us men. Caesar is touched.

MAECENAS. When such a spacious mirror’s set before him, He needs must see himself.

CAESAR. O Antony, I have followed thee to this, but we do lance Diseases in our bodies. I must perforce Have shown to thee such a declining day Or look on thine. We could not stall together In the whole world. But yet let me lament With tears as sovereign as the blood of hearts, That thou, my brother, my competitor In top of all design, my mate in empire, Friend and companion in the front of war, The arm of mine own body, and the heart Where mine his thoughts did kindle, that our stars, Unreconciliable, should divide Our equalness to this. Hear me, good friends—

Enter an Egyptian .

But I will tell you at some meeter season. The business of this man looks out of him; We’ll hear him what he says. Whence are you?

EGYPTIAN. A poor Egyptian yet. The queen, my mistress, Confined in all she has, her monument, Of thy intents desires instruction, That she preparedly may frame herself To the way she’s forced to.

CAESAR. Bid her have good heart. She soon shall know of us, by some of ours, How honourable and how kindly we Determine for her. For Caesar cannot lean To be ungentle.

EGYPTIAN. So the gods preserve thee!

[ Exit. ]

CAESAR. Come hither, Proculeius. Go and say We purpose her no shame. Give her what comforts The quality of her passion shall require, Lest, in her greatness, by some mortal stroke She do defeat us, for her life in Rome Would be eternal in our triumph. Go, And with your speediest bring us what she says And how you find of her.

PROCULEIUS. Caesar, I shall.

[ Exit Proculeius . ]

CAESAR. Gallus, go you along.

[ Exit Gallus . ]

Where’s Dolabella, to second Proculeius?

ALL. Dolabella!

CAESAR. Let him alone, for I remember now How he’s employed. He shall in time be ready. Go with me to my tent, where you shall see How hardly I was drawn into this war, How calm and gentle I proceeded still In all my writings. Go with me and see What I can show in this.

[ Exeunt. ]