Ant. Fortune is Caesar’s now; and what am I?

Vent. What you have made yourself; I will not flatter.

Ant. Is this friendly done?

Dola. Yes; when his end is so, I must join with him; Indeed I must, and yet you must not chide:  Why am I else your friend?

Ant. Take heed, young man,
How thou upbraid’st my love:  The queen has eyes,
And thou too hast a soul.  Canst thou remember,
When, swelled with hatred, thou beheld’st her first
As accessary to thy brother’s death?

Dola. Spare my remembrance; ’twas a guilty day, And still the blush hangs here.

Ant. To clear herself,
For sending him no aid, she came from Egypt. 
Her galley down the silver Cydnos rowed,
The tackling silk, the streamers waved with gold;
The gentle winds were lodged in purple sails: 
Her nymphs, like Nereids, round her couch were placed;
Where she, another sea-born Venus, lay.

Dola. No more:  I would not hear it.

Ant. O, you must! 
She lay, and leant her cheek upon her hand,
And cast a look so languishingly sweet,
As if, secure of all beholders’ hearts,
Neglecting, she could take them:  boys, like Cupids,
Stood fanning, with their painted wings, the winds,
That played about her face:  but if she smiled,
A darting glory seemed to blaze abroad,
That men’s desiring eyes were never wearied,
But hung upon the object:  To soft flutes
The silver oars kept time; and while they played,
The hearing gave new pleasure to the sight;
And both to thought.  ’Twas heaven, or somewhat more: 
For she so charmed all hearts, that gazing crowds
Stood panting on the shore, and wanted breath
To give their welcome voice. 
Then, Dolabella, where was then thy soul? 
Was not thy fury quite disarmed with wonder? 
Didst thou not shrink behind me from those eyes
And whisper in my ear,—­Oh, tell her not
That I accused her of my brother’s death?

Dola. And should my weakness be a plea for yours? 
Mine was an age when love might be excused,
When kindly warmth, and when my springing youth
Made it a debt to nature.  Yours—­

Vent. Speak boldly. 
Yours, he would say, in your declining age,
When no more heat was left but what you forced,
When all the sap was needful for the trunk,
When it went down, then you constrained the course,
And robbed from nature, to supply desire;
In you (I would not use so harsh a word)
’Tis but plain dotage.

Ant. Ha!

Dola. ’Twas urged too home.—­
But yet the loss was private, that I made;
’Twas but myself I lost:  I lost no legions;
I had no world to lose, no people’s love.

Ant. This from a friend?

Dola. Yes, Antony, a true one;
A friend so tender, that each word I speak
Stabs my own heart, before it reach your ear. 
O, judge me not less kind, because I chide! 
To Caesar I excuse you.