doubts the chance
Of arms--

_Ant._ O think not on't, Ventidius!
The boy pursues my ruin, he'll no peace;
His malice is considerate in advantage.
O, he's the coolest murderer! so staunch,
He kills, and keeps his temper.

_Vent._ Have you no friend
In all his army, who has power to move him?
Mecaenas, or Agrippa, might do much.

_Ant._ They're both too deep in Caesar's interests.
We'll work it out by dint of sword, or perish.

_Vent._ Fain I would find some other.

_Ant._ Thank thy love.
Some four or five such victories as this
Will save thy farther pains.

_Vent._ Expect no more; Caesar is on his guard:
I know, sir, you have conquered against odds;
But still you draw supplies from one poor town,
And of Egyptians: he has all the world,
And, at his beck, nations come pouring in,
To fill the gaps you make. Pray, think again.

_Ant._ Why dost thou drive me from myself, to search
For foreign aids? to hunt my memory,
And range all o'er a waste and barren place,
To find a friend? the wretched have no friends.
Yet I had one, the bravest youth of Rome,
Whom Caesar loves beyond the love of women:
He could resolve his mind, as fire does wax,
From that hard rugged image melt him down,
And mould him in what softer form he pleased.

_Vent._ Him would I see; that man, of all the world;
Just such a one we want.

_Ant._ He loved me too;
I was his soul; he lived not but in me:
We were so closed within each others breasts,
The rivets were not found, that joined us first.
That does not reach us yet: we were so mixt,
As meeting streams, both to ourselves were lost;
We were one mass; we could not give or take,
But from the same; for he was I, I he.

_Vent._ He moves as I would wish him. [_Aside._

_Ant._ After this,
I need not tell his name;--'twas Dolabella.

_Vent._ He's now in Caesar's camp.

_Ant._ No matter where,
Since he's no longer mine. He took unkindly,
That I forbade him Cleopatra's sight,
Because I feared he loved her: he confest,
He had a warmth, which, for my sake, he stifled;
For 'twere impossible that two, so one,
Should not have loved the same. When he departed,
He took no leave; and that confirmed my thoughts.

_Vent._ It argues, that he loved you more than her,
Else he had staid; but he perceived you jealous,
And would not grieve his friend: I know he loves you.

_Ant._ I should have seen him, then, ere now.

_Vent._ Perhaps
He has thus long been labouring for yo