CAESAR                      There’s my hand.

A sister I bequeath you whom no brother

Did ever love so dearly. Let her live

To join our kingdoms and our hearts; and never

Fly off our loves again.

LEPIDUS                     Happily, amen.

ANTONY         I did not think to draw my sword ’gainst Pompey,

For he hath laid strange courtesies and great

Of late upon me. I must thank him only,

Lest my remembrance suffer ill report;

At heel of that, defy him.      (2.2.150-159)

 

A deal done and a manly handshake; this is a contract signed, in effect, and a bond created: there’s my hand, says Caesar to Antony. And he does, at last, speak of his fondness for his sister, which will become apparent in their later scenes: a sister I bequeath you whom no brother did ever love so dearly. (And yet he’s willing to use her entirely pragmatically, even cynically, in this way.) Let her live to join our kingdoms and our hearts—so her real value comes at least in part through what she enables Caesar, and Antony, to do—and never fly off our loves again, that is, may our love for each other never fly off, prove unstable and flighty and desert us. Happily, amen, chimes in Lepidus, relieved to have progress, taking it all at face-value, and also, perhaps, just grateful that the shouting and grandstanding have stopped.

 

Antony makes no further comment on the marriage; it’s a business deal, now out of the way, and so to the real matter at hand, the threat to the order of the empire posed by Pompey: I did not think to draw my sword ’gainst Pompey, says Antony; it’s a bit of a turn up to be joining with you to fight against him because, well, he’s been very complimentary to me recently, laying strange courtesies and great upon me, doing me extraordinary honours. So I’d better still thank him, I can’t forget to do that, otherwise it’ll be talked about, I’ll be disparaged for my discourtesy and my forgetfulness. But at heel of that—the minute the social niceties are out of the way—I’ll defy him, I’ll take the fight to him and join you in making war against him. Antony here reveals himself as a politician and a soldier who is not only pragmatic but ruthless, even Machiavellian. Caesar under-estimates him at his peril.