OCTAVIA                    Ay me most wretched,

That have my heart parted betwixt two friends

That does afflict each other!

CAESAR                      Welcome hither.

Your letters did withhold our breaking forth

Till we perceived both how you were wrong led

And we in negligent danger. Cheer your heart.

Be you not troubled with the time, which drives

O’er your content these strong necessities;

But let determined things to destiny

Hold unbewailed their way.  (3.6.76-85)

Octavia isn’t a poor me kind of woman; this isn’t a plea for sympathy, it’s a stark statement of fact, the grim situation she’s in. She thought she was on a peace mission, negotiating between two men who love her, and who should listen to her. Ay me most wretched: this is terrible, to have my heart parted betwixt two friends that does afflict each other! The conceit might be a conventional, straightforward one, the heart parted, but its very straightforwardness (and the internal rhyme) accentuates the pain. I’m being torn apart by this, this conflict between my husband and my brother, both friends because they are both family, and now each other’s enemies, afflicting, making war on each other. She cares about them equally, and there’s a certain measure of defiance and dignity in her continued loyalty to Antony; she doesn’t respond at all at this point to the news of Antony’s infidelity, his return to Cleopatra.

Welcome hither—does Caesar at all regret his turning the knife in what is in fact a very public humiliation for his sister? It can raise a laugh, his complete lack of response to her pain. Awkward. Whatever he says now, it’s cold comfort, with a dash of special pleading. Your letters did withhold our breaking forth till we perceived both how you were wrong led and we in negligent danger. Thanks to your letters (thanks for your letters, by the way), your attempts at reconciliation and peace-making, I did put off making the break with Antony, entering into open conflict and rivalry, until it was plain both how you were being taken advantage of and deceived, and also when it got to the point when not acting against Antony was sheer negligence on my part, putting us all at risk. Cheer your heart! (It’s not quite as inappropriate as cheer up, love, but it’s not much better. Chin up! Can’t be helped! Worse things happen at sea!) Be you not troubled with the time, which drives o’er your content these strong necessities. This is just the way things go, don’t let it get to you. Your happiness is, I’m afraid, dear sister, only a secondary consideration in the current climate. Needs must! Collateral damage! And what I most need to do now is to crush your husband. Most importantly, let determined things to destiny hold unbewailed their way. This is about destiny, what’s foreordained for me and for Rome. No point in lamenting, no point in crying over spilt milk. This is all about me, me and the empire. It’s my time.