You see we have burnt our cheeks....
The wild disguise hath almost
Antick’d us all.
(II. vii. 126.)
A man of this kind will be externally faultless in all the domestic requirements, a good husband and a good brother, in so far as rigid fidelity to the nuptial tie and scrupulous care for his sister’s provision are concerned. He is honestly shocked at Antony’s violation of his marriage bond. We feel that if Cleopatra did really entertain the idea of subduing him by her charms, it was nothing but an undevout imagination. One might as well think to set on fire “a dish of skim milk,” as Hotspur calls men of this sort.
But the better side of this is his genuine family feeling. His love for his sister may be limited and alloyed, but it is unfeigned. It has sometimes been pointed out that his indignation at Octavia’s scanty convoy when she returns from Athens to Rome, is stirred quite as much on his own behalf as on hers:
Why have you stolen upon us thus? You come not
Like Caesar’s sister.... You are come
A market maid to Rome; and have prevented
The ostentation of our love, which, left unshown,