The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

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The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 141

by William Shakespeare


  CASSIUS Will you go see the order of the course?

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  BRUTUS Not I.

  CASSIUS I pray you, do.

  BRUTUS I am not gamesome. I do lack some part

  Of that quick spirit that is in Antony.

  Let me not hinder, Cassius, your desires;

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  I’ll leave you.

  CASSIUS Brutus, I do observe you now of late.

  I have not from your eyes that gentleness

  And show of love as I was wont to have.

  You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand

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  Over your friend, that loves you.

  BRUTUS Cassius,

  Be not deceived. If I have veiled my look,

  I turn the trouble of my countenance

  Merely upon myself. Vexed I am

  Of late with passions of some difference,

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  Conceptions only proper to myself

  Which give some soil, perhaps, to my behaviours.

  But let not therefore my good friends be grieved

  (Among which number, Cassius, be you one)

  Nor construe any further my neglect

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  Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war,

  Forgets the shows of love to other men.

  CASSIUS

  Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your passion,

  By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried

  Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations.

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  Tell me, good Brutus, can you see your face?

  BRUTUS No, Cassius; for the eye sees not itself

  But by reflection, by some other things.

  CASSIUS ’Tis just,

  And it is very much lamented, Brutus,

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  That you have no such mirrors as will turn

  Your hidden worthiness into your eye,

  That you might see your shadow: I have heard

  Where many of the best respect in Rome

  (Except immortal Caesar) speaking of Brutus,

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  And groaning underneath this age’s yoke,

  Have wished that noble Brutus had his eyes.

  BRUTUS

  Into what dangers would you lead me, Cassius,

  That you would have me seek into myself

  For that which is not in me?

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  CASSIUS Therefore, good Brutus, be prepared to hear.

  And since you know you cannot see yourself

  So well as by reflection, I your glass

  Will modestly discover to yourself

  That of yourself which you yet know not of.

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  And be not jealous on me, gentle Brutus.

  Were I a common laughter, or did use

  To stale with ordinary oaths my love

  To every new protester; if you know

  That I do fawn on men, and hug them hard,

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  And after scandal them; or if you know

  That I profess myself in banqueting

  To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.

  [Flourish, and shout]

  BRUTUS

  What means this shouting? I do fear the people

  Choose Caesar for their king.

  CASSIUS Ay, do you fear it?

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  Then must I think you would not have it so.

  BRUTUS I would not, Cassius, yet I love him well.

  But wherefore do you hold me here so long?

  What is it that you would impart to me?

  If it be aught toward the general good,

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  Set honour in one eye, and death i’th’ other,

  And I will look on both indifferently.

  For let the gods so speed me as I love

  The name of honour more than I fear death.

  CASSIUS I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,

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  As well as I do know your outward favour.

  Well, honour is the subject of my story.

  I cannot tell what you and other men

  Think of this life; but for my single self

  I had as lief not be as live to be

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  In awe of such a thing as I myself.

  I was born free as Caesar, so were you;

  We both have fed as well, and we can both

  Endure the winter’s cold as well as he.

  For once, upon a raw and gusty day,

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  The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores,

  Caesar said to me, ‘Dar’st thou, Cassius, now

  Leap in with me into this angry flood

  And swim to yonder point?’ Upon the word,

  Accoutred as I was, I plunged in

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  And bade him follow; so indeed he did.

  The torrent roared, and we did buffet it

  With lusty sinews, throwing it aside,

  And stemming it with hearts of controversy.

  But ere we could arrive the point proposed

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  Caesar cried, ‘Help me, Cassius, or I sink!’

  I, as Aeneas, our great ancestor,

  Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder

  The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber

  Did I the tired Caesar: and this man

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  Is now become a god, and Cassius is

  A wretched creature, and must bend his body

  If Caesar carelessly but nod on him.

  He had a fever when he was in Spain,

  And when the fit was on him I did mark

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  How he did shake. ’Tis true, this god did shake:

  His coward lips did from their colour fly,

  And that same eye, whose bend doth awe the world,

  Did lose his lustre: I did hear him groan:

  Ay, and that tongue of his that bade the Romans

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  Mark him, and write his speeches in their books,

  ‘Alas,’ it cried, ‘give me some drink, Titinius’,

  As a sick girl. Ye gods, it doth amaze me

  A man of such a feeble temper should

  So get the start of the majestic world

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  And bear the palm alone. [Shout. Flourish.]

  BRUTUS Another general shout?

  I do believe that these applauses are

  For some new honours that are heaped on Caesar.

  CASSIUS Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world

  Like a colossus, and we petty men

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  Walk under his huge legs and peep about

  To find ourselves dishonourable graves.

  Men at some time are masters of their fates.

  The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars

  But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

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  ‘Brutus’ and ‘Caesar’: what should be in that ‘Caesar’?

  Why should that name be sounded more than yours?

  Write them together: yours is as fair a name:

  Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well.

  Weigh them, it is as heavy: conjure with ’em,

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  ‘Brutus’ will start a spirit as soon as ‘Caesar’.

  Now in the names of all the gods at once,

  Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed

  That he is grown so great? Age, thou art shamed!

  Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!

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  When went there by an age, since the great flood,

  But it was famed with more than with one man?

  When could they say, till now, that talked of Rome,

  That her wide walks encompassed but one man?

  Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough,

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  When there is in it but one only man.

  O, you and I have heard our fathers say

  There was a Bru
tus once that would have brooked

  Th’eternal devil to keep his state in Rome

  As easily as a king.

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  BRUTUS That you do love me, I am nothing jealous:

  What you would work me to, I have some aim:

  How I have thought of this and of these times

  I shall recount hereafter. For this present,

  I would not, so with love I might entreat you,

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  Be any further moved. What you have said

  I will consider: what you have to say

  I will with patience hear, and find a time

  Both meet to hear and answer such high things.

  Till then, my noble friend, chew upon this:

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  Brutus had rather be a villager

  Than to repute himself a son of Rome

  Under these hard conditions as this time

  Is like to lay upon us.

  CASSIUS I am glad

  That my weak words have struck but thus much show

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  Of fire from Brutus.

  Enter CAESAR and his train.

  BRUTUS The games are done, and Caesar is returning.

  CASSIUS As they pass by, pluck Caska by the sleeve,

  And he will, after his sour fashion, tell you

  What hath proceeded worthy note today.

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  BRUTUS I will do so: but look you, Cassius,

  The angry spot doth glow on Caesar’s brow,

  And all the rest look like a chidden train:

  Calphurnia’s cheek is pale, and Cicero

  Looks with such ferret and such fiery eyes

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  As we have seen him in the Capitol

  Being crossed in conference by some senators.

  CASSIUS Caska will tell us what the matter is.

  CAESAR Antonio.

  ANTONY Caesar.

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  CAESAR Let me have men about me that are fat,

  Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep a-nights.

  Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look:

  He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.

  ANTONY Fear him not, Caesar, he’s not dangerous.

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  He is a noble Roman, and well given.

  CAESAR Would he were fatter! But I fear him not:

  Yet if my name were liable to fear

  I do not know the man I should avoid

  So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much,

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  He is a great observer, and he looks

  Quite through the deeds of men. He loves no plays

  As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music.

  Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort

  As if he mocked himself and scorned his spirit

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  That could be moved to smile at anything.

  Such men as he be never at heart’s ease

  Whiles they behold a greater than themselves,

  And therefore are they very dangerous.

  I rather tell thee what is to be feared

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  Than what I fear: for always I am Caesar.

  Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf,

  And tell me truly what thou think’st of him.

  Sennet. Exeunt Caesar and his train.

  CASKA You pulled me by the cloak. Would you speak

  with me?

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  BRUTUS Ay, Caska, tell us what hath chanced today

  That Caesar looks so sad.

  CASKA Why, you were with him, were you not?

  BRUTUS I should not then ask Caska what had

  chanced.

  CASKA Why, there was a crown offered him; and being

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  offered him, he put it by with the back of his hand,

  thus, and then the people fell a-shouting.

  BRUTUS What was the second noise for?

  CASKA Why, for that too.

  CASSIUS

  They shouted thrice: what was the last cry for?

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  CASKA Why, for that too.

  BRUTUS Was the crown offered him thrice?

  CASKA Ay, marry, was’t, and he put it by thrice, every

  time gentler than other; and at every putting-by, mine

  honest neighbours shouted.

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  CASSIUS Who offered him the crown?

  CASKA Why, Antony.

  BRUTUS Tell us the manner of it, gentle Caska.

  CASKA I can as well be hanged as tell the manner of it.

  It was mere foolery: I did not mark it. I saw Mark

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  Antony offer him a crown – yet ’twas not a crown

  neither, ’twas one of these coronets – and, as I told

  you, he put it by once; but for all that, to my thinking,

  he would fain have had it. Then he offered it to him

 

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