In tanto io cercherò per ogni via,
D’accattar appo il popolo favore,
E di farmi benevoli i soldati,
Acciò, mancando Cesare per morte
O naturale, ò violenta, i possa
Col mezzo lor por sù quel grado il piede,
Ov’ hà condutto lui benigna Stella.”—P. 72.
Antony disappears after this scene, and no mention is made of him again till near the end of the tragedy, where he is described as having fled to his house after the murder. Unfortunately, Pescetti fails to give Antony an opportunity to realize his ambition, but he provides material for the delineation of a counter player who would have delighted the Elizabethan dramatists. Pescetti certainly was not amiss in his estimate of the character, but it remained for a greater dramatist to exhibit him in action.
Antony does not appear in the fifth act of “Cesare,” but there is between several of his statements in Shakespeare, and those contained in Pescetti, a marked similarity in style and sentiment. Some of these have already been indicated. Among others, Antony over Caesar’s body, exclaims,
“Pardon me, Julius! Here was’t thou bay’d, brave hart;