AGRIPPA                     By this marriage

All little jealousies which now seem great,

And all great fears which now import their dangers,

Would then be nothing. Truths would be tales

Where now half-tales be truths. Her love to both

Would each to other and all loves to both

Draw after her. Pardon what I have spoke,

For ’tis a studied, not a present thought,

By duty ruminated.               (2.2.132-140)

Agrippa’s really getting into his stride: if Antony were to marry Octavia, Caesar’s sister, it’d solve everything, it’d be like waving a magic wand! All little jealousies which now seem great, those niggles and petty rivalries, and all great fears which now import their dangers, those real threats, the things that keep you awake at night with worrying—gone! resolved! everything back in its proper place and proportion. Truths would be tales where now half-tales be truths: the problem at the moment, see, is that everyone is relying on rumour and gossip, half-tales taken for truth, whispers for gospel, whereas if Antony married Octavia—well, hard facts and difficult truths might be taken lightly, even dismissed as fables. Win-win! Octavia would make everything fabulous, because her love to both (her ties of affection to both her brother Octavius Caesar and her husband Antony) would each to other—the two of them—and all loves to both draw after her; she wouldn’t just make Caesar and Antony bosom buddies, she’d make everyone else love them too! Magical Octavia, the good enchantress in comparison to wily Cleopatra. But (and now Agrippa has to extricate himself from this lather of happy anticipation, and also cover his back in this moment of flagrant politicking) pardon what I have spoke. Forgive me, forget I said any of it, for ’tis a studied, not a present thought, by duty ruminated. It’s all just theory, something I’ve wondered about in advance, out of my duty (to the empire, presumably), trying to think about how such an intractable, regrettable situation might be resolved. It’s not my spontaneous, in-the-moment proposition; I’m just thinking aloud. (If this is Caesar’s strategy all along, then once again Agrippa is speaking truth: it certainly is something that has been thought through well in advance.)