Macbeth Soliloquy Glossary: To be thus is nothing (3.1.47-71) Mark Antony's was by Caesar (59)
Macbeth compares himself to Mark Antony and Banquo to Octavius Caesar, who defeated Antony in the civil wars. The allusion is to a passage in Plutarch's biography of Antony. Here is the passage, translated by Thomas North in 1579:
With Antonius there was a soothsayer or astronomer of Aegypt ... [who] told Antonius plainly that his fortune (which of it selfe was excellent good, and very great) was altogether bleamished, and obscured by Caesar's fortune: and therefore he counselled him vtterly to leaue his company, and to get him as farre from him as he could. For thy Demon said he .. is affraied of his: and being coragious and high when he is alone, becometh fearfull and timerous when he commeth neere vnto the other.
How to cite this article:
Mabillard, Amanda. Macbeth Soliloquy Glossary. Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2000. (date when you accessed the information) < http://shakespeare-online.com/plays/macbeth/soliloquies/mark.html >.
