And after the banquet on the galley, when the exalted personages, “these great fellows,” as Menas calls them, have retired more than a little disguised in liquor, he, fresh from the Egyptian Bacchanals, stays behind to finish up the night in Menas’ cabin.
Yet he has a certain contempt for the very vices in which he himself shares, at least if their practitioners are overcome by them and cannot retain their self-command even in their indulgence. When Lepidus succumbs, this more seasoned vessel jeers at him:
There’s a strong fellow, Menas!
[pointing to the attendant who carries off Lepidus.]
Men. Why?
Eno. A’ bears the third part of the world, man: see’st not?
(II. vii. 95.)
Nor does he suffer love to interfere with business:
Under a compelling occasion, let women die: it were pity to cast them away for nothing: though, between them and a great cause, they should be esteemed nothing.
(I. ii. 141.)