Note 205 — Chapter IV · THE POLITICAL LEADERS
Reading edition
I take this much discussed passage to refer to the friction that inevitably arises in such a gathering. The guests are of such different disposition or temperament, that especially after their late misunderstandings they are bound to chafe each other. We have an example of it. Pompey plays the cordial and tactful host to perfection, but even he involuntarily harks back to his grievance:
O, Antony, You have my father’s house,—But, what? we are friends.
I think the meaning of the second servant’s remark is that when such little contretemps occur, as they could not but do in so ill-assorted a company, Lepidus in his role of peace-maker interferes to check them, and drowns the difference in a carouse. But the result is that he befuddles himself.