The Tragedy Of Julius Caesar

1 Enter Brutus.
2 BRUTUS.
3 What, Lucius, ho!
4 I cannot, by the progress of the stars,
5 Give guess how near to day.—Lucius, I say!
6 I would it were my fault to sleep so soundly.
7 When, Lucius, when? Awake, I say! What, Lucius!
8 Enter Lucius.
9 LUCIUS.
10 Call’d you, my lord?
11 BRUTUS.
12 Get me a taper in my study, Lucius:
13 When it is lighted, come and call me here.
14 LUCIUS.
15 I will, my lord.
16 [_Exit._]
17 BRUTUS.
18 It must be by his death: and for my part,
19 I know no personal cause to spurn at him,
20 But for the general. He would be crown’d:
21 How that might change his nature, there’s the question.
22 It is the bright day that brings forth the adder,
23 And that craves wary walking. Crown him?—that;
24 And then, I grant, we put a sting in him,
25 That at his will he may do danger with.
26 Th’ abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins
27 Remorse from power; and, to speak truth of Caesar,
28 I have not known when his affections sway’d
29 More than his reason. But ’tis a common proof,
30 That lowliness is young ambition’s ladder,
31 Whereto the climber-upward turns his face;
32 But when he once attains the upmost round,
33 He then unto the ladder turns his back,
34 Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
35 By which he did ascend. So Caesar may;
36 Then lest he may, prevent. And since the quarrel
37 Will bear no colour for the thing he is,
38 Fashion it thus: that what he is, augmented,
39 Would run to these and these extremities:
40 And therefore think him as a serpent’s egg
41 Which hatch’d, would, as his kind grow mischievous;
42 And kill him in the shell.
43 Enter Lucius.
44 LUCIUS.
45 The taper burneth in your closet, sir.
46 Searching the window for a flint, I found
47 This paper, thus seal’d up, and I am sure
48 It did not lie there when I went to bed.
49 [_Gives him the letter._]
50 BRUTUS.
51 Get you to bed again; it is not day.
52 Is not tomorrow, boy, the Ides of March?
53 LUCIUS.
54 I know not, sir.
55 BRUTUS.
56 Look in the calendar, and bring me word.
57 LUCIUS.
58 I will, sir.
59 [_Exit._]
60 BRUTUS.
61 The exhalations, whizzing in the air
62 Give so much light that I may read by them.
63 [_Opens the letter and reads._]
64 _Brutus, thou sleep’st: awake and see thyself.
65 Shall Rome, &c. Speak, strike, redress!_
66 “Brutus, thou sleep’st: awake!”
67 Such instigations have been often dropp’d
68 Where I have took them up.
69 “Shall Rome, &c.” Thus must I piece it out:
70 Shall Rome stand under one man’s awe? What, Rome?
71 My ancestors did from the streets of Rome
72 The Tarquin drive, when he was call’d a king.
73 “Speak, strike, redress!” Am I entreated
74 To speak and strike? O Rome, I make thee promise,
75 If the redress will follow, thou receivest
76 Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus.
77 Enter Lucius.
78 LUCIUS.
79 Sir, March is wasted fifteen days.
80 [_Knock within._]
81 BRUTUS.
82 ’Tis good. Go to the gate, somebody knocks.
83 [_Exit Lucius._]
84 Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar,
85 I have not slept.
86 Between the acting of a dreadful thing
87 And the first motion, all the interim is
88 Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream:
89 The genius and the mortal instruments
90 Are then in council; and the state of man,
91 Like to a little kingdom, suffers then
92 The nature of an insurrection.
93 Enter Lucius.
94 LUCIUS.
95 Sir, ’tis your brother Cassius at the door,
96 Who doth desire to see you.
97 BRUTUS.
98 Is he alone?
99 LUCIUS.
100 No, sir, there are moe with him.
101 BRUTUS.
102 Do you know them?
103 LUCIUS.
104 No, sir, their hats are pluck’d about their ears,
105 And half their faces buried in their cloaks,
106 That by no means I may discover them
107 By any mark of favour.
108 BRUTUS.
109 Let ’em enter.
110 [_Exit Lucius._]
111 They are the faction. O conspiracy,
112 Sham’st thou to show thy dangerous brow by night,
113 When evils are most free? O, then, by day
114 Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough
115 To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, conspiracy;
116 Hide it in smiles and affability:
117 For if thou path, thy native semblance on,
118 Not Erebus itself were dim enough
119 To hide thee from prevention.
120 Enter Cassius, Casca, Decius, Cinna, Metellus Cimber and Trebonius.
121 CASSIUS.
122 I think we are too bold upon your rest:
123 Good morrow, Brutus; do we trouble you?
124 BRUTUS.
125 I have been up this hour, awake all night.
126 Know I these men that come along with you?
127 CASSIUS.
128 Yes, every man of them; and no man here
129 But honours you; and everyone doth wish
130 You had but that opinion of yourself
131 Which every noble Roman bears of you.
132 This is Trebonius.
133 BRUTUS.
134 He is welcome hither.
135 CASSIUS.
136 This Decius Brutus.
137 BRUTUS.
138 He is welcome too.
139 CASSIUS.
140 This, Casca; this, Cinna; and this, Metellus Cimber.
141 BRUTUS.
142 They are all welcome.
143 What watchful cares do interpose themselves
144 Betwixt your eyes and night?
145 CASSIUS.
146 Shall I entreat a word?
147 [_They whisper._]
148 DECIUS.
149 Here lies the east: doth not the day break here?
150 CASCA.
151 No.
152 CINNA.
153 O, pardon, sir, it doth; and yon grey lines
154 That fret the clouds are messengers of day.
155 CASCA.
156 You shall confess that you are both deceiv’d.
157 Here, as I point my sword, the Sun arises;
158 Which is a great way growing on the South,
159 Weighing the youthful season of the year.
160 Some two months hence, up higher toward the North
161 He first presents his fire; and the high East
162 Stands, as the Capitol, directly here.
163 BRUTUS.
164 Give me your hands all over, one by one.
165 CASSIUS.
166 And let us swear our resolution.
167 BRUTUS.
168 No, not an oath. If not the face of men,
169 The sufferance of our souls, the time’s abuse—
170 If these be motives weak, break off betimes,
171 And every man hence to his idle bed.
172 So let high-sighted tyranny range on,
173 Till each man drop by lottery. But if these,
174 As I am sure they do, bear fire enough
175 To kindle cowards, and to steel with valour
176 The melting spirits of women; then, countrymen,
177 What need we any spur but our own cause
178 To prick us to redress? what other bond
179 Than secret Romans, that have spoke the word,
180 And will not palter? and what other oath
181 Than honesty to honesty engag’d,
182 That this shall be, or we will fall for it?
183 Swear priests and cowards, and men cautelous,
184 Old feeble carrions, and such suffering souls
185 That welcome wrongs; unto bad causes swear
186 Such creatures as men doubt; but do not stain
187 The even virtue of our enterprise,
188 Nor th’ insuppressive mettle of our spirits,
189 To think that or our cause or our performance
190 Did need an oath; when every drop of blood
191 That every Roman bears, and nobly bears,
192 Is guilty of a several bastardy,
193 If he do break the smallest particle
194 Of any promise that hath pass’d from him.
195 CASSIUS.
196 But what of Cicero? Shall we sound him?
197 I think he will stand very strong with us.
198 CASCA.
199 Let us not leave him out.
200 CINNA.
201 No, by no means.
202 METELLUS.
203 O, let us have him, for his silver hairs
204 Will purchase us a good opinion,
205 And buy men’s voices to commend our deeds.
206 It shall be said, his judgement rul’d our hands;
207 Our youths and wildness shall no whit appear,
208 But all be buried in his gravity.
209 BRUTUS.
210 O, name him not; let us not break with him;
211 For he will never follow anything
212 That other men begin.
213 CASSIUS.
214 Then leave him out.
215 CASCA.
216 Indeed, he is not fit.
217 DECIUS.
218 Shall no man else be touch’d but only Caesar?
219 CASSIUS.
220 Decius, well urg’d. I think it is not meet,
221 Mark Antony, so well belov’d of Caesar,
222 Should outlive Caesar: we shall find of him
223 A shrewd contriver; and you know, his means,
224 If he improve them, may well stretch so far
225 As to annoy us all; which to prevent,
226 Let Antony and Caesar fall together.
227 BRUTUS.
228 Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius,
229 To cut the head off, and then hack the limbs,
230 Like wrath in death, and envy afterwards;
231 For Antony is but a limb of Caesar.
232 Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius.
233 We all stand up against the spirit of Caesar,
234 And in the spirit of men there is no blood.
235 O, that we then could come by Caesar’s spirit,
236 And not dismember Caesar! But, alas,
237 Caesar must bleed for it! And, gentle friends,
238 Let’s kill him boldly, but not wrathfully;
239 Let’s carve him as a dish fit for the gods,
240 Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds.
241 And let our hearts, as subtle masters do,
242 Stir up their servants to an act of rage,
243 And after seem to chide ’em. This shall mark
244 Our purpose necessary, and not envious;
245 Which so appearing to the common eyes,
246 We shall be call’d purgers, not murderers.
247 And for Mark Antony, think not of him;
248 For he can do no more than Caesar’s arm
249 When Caesar’s head is off.
250 CASSIUS.
251 Yet I fear him;
252 For in the ingrafted love he bears to Caesar—
253 BRUTUS.
254 Alas, good Cassius, do not think of him:
255 If he love Caesar, all that he can do
256 Is to himself; take thought and die for Caesar.
257 And that were much he should; for he is given
258 To sports, to wildness, and much company.
259 TREBONIUS.
260 There is no fear in him; let him not die;
261 For he will live, and laugh at this hereafter.
262 [_Clock strikes._]
263 BRUTUS.
264 Peace! count the clock.
265 CASSIUS.
266 The clock hath stricken three.
267 TREBONIUS.
268 ’Tis time to part.
269 CASSIUS.
270 But it is doubtful yet
271 Whether Caesar will come forth today or no;
272 For he is superstitious grown of late,
273 Quite from the main opinion he held once
274 Of fantasy, of dreams, and ceremonies.
275 It may be these apparent prodigies,
276 The unaccustom’d terror of this night,
277 And the persuasion of his augurers,
278 May hold him from the Capitol today.
279 DECIUS.
280 Never fear that: if he be so resolved,
281 I can o’ersway him, for he loves to hear
282 That unicorns may be betray’d with trees,
283 And bears with glasses, elephants with holes,
284 Lions with toils, and men with flatterers.
285 But when I tell him he hates flatterers,
286 He says he does, being then most flattered.
287 Let me work;
288 For I can give his humour the true bent,
289 And I will bring him to the Capitol.
290 CASSIUS.
291 Nay, we will all of us be there to fetch him.
292 BRUTUS.
293 By the eighth hour: is that the uttermost?
294 CINNA.
295 Be that the uttermost; and fail not then.
296 METELLUS.
297 Caius Ligarius doth bear Caesar hard,
298 Who rated him for speaking well of Pompey;
299 I wonder none of you have thought of him.
300 BRUTUS.
301 Now, good Metellus, go along by him:
302 He loves me well, and I have given him reason;
303 Send him but hither, and I’ll fashion him.
304 CASSIUS.
305 The morning comes upon’s. We’ll leave you, Brutus.
306 And, friends, disperse yourselves; but all remember
307 What you have said, and show yourselves true Romans.
308 BRUTUS.
309 Good gentlemen, look fresh and merrily;
310 Let not our looks put on our purposes,
311 But bear it as our Roman actors do,
312 With untired spirits and formal constancy.
313 And so, good morrow to you everyone.
314 [_Exeunt all but Brutus._]
315 Boy! Lucius! Fast asleep? It is no matter;
316 Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber:
317 Thou hast no figures nor no fantasies,
318 Which busy care draws in the brains of men;
319 Therefore thou sleep’st so sound.
320 Enter Portia.
321 PORTIA.
322 Brutus, my lord.
323 BRUTUS.
324 Portia, what mean you? Wherefore rise you now?
325 It is not for your health thus to commit
326 Your weak condition to the raw cold morning.
327 PORTIA.
328 Nor for yours neither. Y’ have ungently, Brutus,
329 Stole from my bed; and yesternight at supper,
330 You suddenly arose, and walk’d about,
331 Musing and sighing, with your arms across;
332 And when I ask’d you what the matter was,
333 You star’d upon me with ungentle looks.
334 I urg’d you further; then you scratch’d your head,
335 And too impatiently stamp’d with your foot;
336 Yet I insisted, yet you answer’d not,
337 But with an angry wafture of your hand
338 Gave sign for me to leave you. So I did,
339 Fearing to strengthen that impatience
340 Which seem’d too much enkindled; and withal
341 Hoping it was but an effect of humour,
342 Which sometime hath his hour with every man.
343 It will not let you eat, nor talk, nor sleep;
344 And could it work so much upon your shape
345 As it hath much prevail’d on your condition,
346 I should not know you, Brutus. Dear my lord,
347 Make me acquainted with your cause of grief.
348 BRUTUS.
349 I am not well in health, and that is all.
350 PORTIA.
351 Brutus is wise, and, were he not in health,
352 He would embrace the means to come by it.
353 BRUTUS.
354 Why, so I do. Good Portia, go to bed.
355 PORTIA.
356 Is Brutus sick, and is it physical
357 To walk unbraced and suck up the humours
358 Of the dank morning? What, is Brutus sick,
359 And will he steal out of his wholesome bed
360 To dare the vile contagion of the night,
361 And tempt the rheumy and unpurged air
362 To add unto his sickness? No, my Brutus;
363 You have some sick offence within your mind,
364 Which, by the right and virtue of my place,
365 I ought to know of: and, upon my knees,
366 I charm you, by my once commended beauty,
367 By all your vows of love, and that great vow
368 Which did incorporate and make us one,
369 That you unfold to me, your self, your half,
370 Why you are heavy, and what men tonight
371 Have had resort to you; for here have been
372 Some six or seven, who did hide their faces
373 Even from darkness.
374 BRUTUS.
375 Kneel not, gentle Portia.
376 PORTIA.
377 I should not need, if you were gentle Brutus.
378 Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus,
379 Is it excepted I should know no secrets
380 That appertain to you? Am I your self
381 But, as it were, in sort or limitation,
382 To keep with you at meals, comfort your bed,
383 And talk to you sometimes? Dwell I but in the suburbs
384 Of your good pleasure? If it be no more,
385 Portia is Brutus’ harlot, not his wife.
386 BRUTUS.
387 You are my true and honourable wife,
388 As dear to me as are the ruddy drops
389 That visit my sad heart.
390 PORTIA.
391 If this were true, then should I know this secret.
392 I grant I am a woman; but withal
393 A woman that Lord Brutus took to wife;
394 I grant I am a woman; but withal
395 A woman well reputed, Cato’s daughter.
396 Think you I am no stronger than my sex,
397 Being so father’d and so husbanded?
398 Tell me your counsels, I will not disclose ’em.
399 I have made strong proof of my constancy,
400 Giving myself a voluntary wound
401 Here, in the thigh: can I bear that with patience
402 And not my husband’s secrets?
403 BRUTUS.
404 O ye gods,
405 Render me worthy of this noble wife!
406 [_Knock._]
407 Hark, hark, one knocks. Portia, go in awhile;
408 And by and by thy bosom shall partake
409 The secrets of my heart.
410 All my engagements I will construe to thee,
411 All the charactery of my sad brows.
412 Leave me with haste.
413 [_Exit Portia._]
414 Enter Lucius with Ligarius.
415 Lucius, who’s that knocks?
416 LUCIUS.
417 Here is a sick man that would speak with you.
418 BRUTUS.
419 Caius Ligarius, that Metellus spake of.
420 Boy, stand aside. Caius Ligarius, how?
421 LIGARIUS.
422 Vouchsafe good-morrow from a feeble tongue.
423 BRUTUS.
424 O, what a time have you chose out, brave Caius,
425 To wear a kerchief! Would you were not sick!
426 LIGARIUS.
427 I am not sick, if Brutus have in hand
428 Any exploit worthy the name of honour.
429 BRUTUS.
430 Such an exploit have I in hand, Ligarius,
431 Had you a healthful ear to hear of it.
432 LIGARIUS.
433 By all the gods that Romans bow before,
434 I here discard my sickness. Soul of Rome!
435 Brave son, derived from honourable loins!
436 Thou, like an exorcist, hast conjur’d up
437 My mortified spirit. Now bid me run,
438 And I will strive with things impossible,
439 Yea, get the better of them. What’s to do?
440 BRUTUS.
441 A piece of work that will make sick men whole.
442 LIGARIUS.
443 But are not some whole that we must make sick?
444 BRUTUS.
445 That must we also. What it is, my Caius,
446 I shall unfold to thee, as we are going,
447 To whom it must be done.
448 LIGARIUS.
449 Set on your foot,
450 And with a heart new-fir’d I follow you,
451 To do I know not what; but it sufficeth
452 That Brutus leads me on.
453 [_Thunder._]
454 BRUTUS.
455 Follow me then.
456 [_Exeunt._]