MAECENAS    If beauty, wisdom, modesty can settle

The heart of Antony, Octavia is

A blessèd lottery to him.

AGRIPPA                                 Let us go.

Good Enobarbus, make yourself my guest

Whilst you abide here.

ENOBARBUS              Humbly, sir, I thank you.

Exeunt             (2.2.239-243)

Maecenas is stubborn, and stubbornly Roman: he has to believe that Octavia is superior to any woman—and, implicitly, perhaps more, he’s got to argue and even to believe that Antony himself will recognise her virtues and be worthy of her, that this is the perfect match, that Antony will ultimately be won over by beauty, wisdom, and modesty, be led by his better nature, his own innate (Roman) virtue. That he will settle, calm down, forget his enchanting Egyptian queen. And Octavia is, or will be, a blessed lottery to him: he’ll have really won the jackpot! There’s a hint of desperation here, perhaps, from Maecenas: he’s got to believe that Antony is still one of them, a Roman; that Antony can still come home. It’s also building suspense: is Octavia really going to match up to this picture? Is she more powerful than her treatment as a political pawn in this scene might suggest? Notably, Agrippa doesn’t back up Maecenas, and there may be an expressive glance at Enobarbus; after all, he certainly found the portrait of Cleopatra compelling. Let us go. Good Enobarbus, make yourself my guest whilst you abide here. Come and crash at my place (and you can tell me more stories of your wild Egyptian days—and nights). Humbly, sir, I thank you. Off they trot, off-duty for the moment—and this extraordinary, pivotal scene is at an end.