Page 2417 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

And so rebel to judgment.

Enter a Messenger.

LEPIDUS
Here’s more news.

MESSENGER
Thy biddings have been done, and every hour,
Most noble Cæsar, shalt thou have report [35]

How ’tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea,
And it appears he is belov’d of those
That only have fear’d Cæsar: to the ports
The discontents repair, and men’s reports
Give him much wrong’d.

CÆSAR
I should have known no less; [40]
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, [45]
Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide,
To rot itself with motion.

(Enter a second Messenger.)

MESSENGER

Cæsar, 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 [50]

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.