Scene V explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Power and Ambition

  Caesar's manipulation and elimination of Lepidus demonstrates the relentless pursuit of power within the Triumvirate.

• Betrayal and Trust

  Caesar accuses Lepidus of treason based on letters to Pompey, betraying their alliance after using him.

Characters to notice

• Enobarbus

  Discusses the news of Lepidus's fall and Antony's mood with Eros.

• Eros

  Brings news of Caesar and Lepidus's war against Pompey and Lepidus's subsequent seizure.

• Mark Antony

  Walking in the garden, spurning rushes, calling Lepidus a fool, and threatening the officer who killed Pompey.

Key passages

• “Caesar, having made use of him in the wars ’gainst Pompey, presently denied him rivality; would not let him partake in the glory of the action: and not resting here, accuses him of letters he had formerly wrote to Pompey; upon his own appeal, seizes him: so the poor third is up, till death enlarge his confine.”

  After using Lepidus in the war against Pompey, Caesar refused to share the credit, then accused him of writing to Pompey and seized him, leaving the third triumvir imprisoned until death.

  Eros explains how Caesar betrayed and imprisoned Lepidus.

• “Then, world, thou hast a pair of chaps, no more; And throw between them all the food thou hast, They’ll grind the one the other.”

  The world now has only two jaws—Antony and Caesar—and whatever is thrown between them will be ground up as they clash.

  Enobarbus foresees the inevitable conflict between Antony and Caesar.