ENOBARBUS [aside] Yes, like enough, high-battled Caesar will
Unstate his happiness and be staged to th’ show
Against a sworder! I see men’s judgements are
A parcel of their fortunes, and things outward
Do draw the inward quality after them
To suffer all alike. That he should dream,
Knowing all measures, the full Caesar will
Answer his emptiness! Caesar, thou hast subdued
His judgement, too. (3.13.28-36)
Any sense of excitement and encouragement at Antony’s decisiveness in sending a challenge to single combat to Caesar has to be instantly deflated by Enobarbus’s cynical, but realistic, aside. Yes, like enough, that’s obviously a brilliant idea. Of course high-battled Caesar, so obviously superior in the troops at his disposal, will unstate his happiness, entirely set aside his good fortune, disregard that fact that things are totally going his way, and be staged to th’ show against a sworder! What on earth would he rather do, than make a spectacle of himself, in public, as if he were merely a gladiator, fighting on command, and Antony a veteran of the arena, and a single swordsman against the might of Caesar’s army. (Caesar loathes making a spectacle of himself, and is horrified by attention-seeking behaviour in others.) Has Antony gone completely mad? Is he out of his mind? I see men’s judgements are a parcel of their fortunes: he’s lost his reason, even his common sense, now that he’s run out of luck, and things outward do draw the inward quality after them to suffer all alike. It’s as if the change for the worse in his circumstances—losing the battle and all—has warped his reason too, affected his character and personality. Everything’s going wrong for him now; he’s going from bad to worse. Antony’s deluded: that he should dream, knowing all measures, the full Caesar will answer his emptiness! He’s a veteran both political and military, for heaven’s sake, he’s seen it all, he knows every stage of fortune, up and down—and even so, he’s somehow imagining that Caesar, at the peak of his fortune, full to the brim with luck and reward, will somehow answer, respond to, make up for, his own emptiness! (There’s the implication too that Antony is an empty vessel, proverbially making the loudest noise, in his ridiculous, deluded challenge.) Caesar, thou hast subdued his judgement too. You didn’t just defeat Antony’s navy, you entirely overcame his reason. He’s lost the plot.