Cle. I will be even with thee, doubt it not.
Eno. But why, why, why?
Cle. Thou hast forespoke my being in these wars,
And say’st it is not fit.
Eno. Well, is it, is it?
(III. vii. 1.)
More remotely too this gave Shakespeare the hint for Enobarbus’ other censures on Antony’s conduct of the campaign.
Thirdly, in the account of the various misfortunes that befell Antony before Actium, and the varying moods in which he confronted them, Shakespeare read:
Furthermore, he dealt very friendely and courteously with Domitius, and against Cleopatraes mynde. For, he being sicke of an agewe when he went and tooke a little boate to goe to Caesars campe, Antonius was very sory for it, but yet he sent after him all his caryage, trayne and men: and the same Domitius, as though he gave him to understand that he repented his open treason, he died immediately after.
This, of course, supplied Shakespeare with the episodes of Enobarbus’ desertion and death, though he altered the date of the first, delaying it till the last flicker of Antony’s fortune; and the manner of the second, making it the consequence, which the penitent deliberately desires, of a broken heart.