The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works
Page 147
Exeunt all but Antony.
ANTONY O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,
That I am meek and gentle with these butchers.
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Thou art the ruins of the noblest man
That ever lived in the tide of times.
Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood.
Over thy wounds now I do prophesy
(Which like dumb mouths do ope their ruby lips
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To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue)
A curse shall light upon the limbs of men:
Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy:
Blood and destruction shall be so in use,
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And dreadful objects so familiar,
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quartered with the hands of war:
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds,
And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge,
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With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines, with a monarch’s voice,
Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.
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Enter Octavius’ Servant.
You serve Octavius Caesar, do you not?
SERVANT I do, Mark Antony.
ANTONY Caesar did write for him to come to Rome.
SERVANT He did receive his letters and is coming,
And bid me say to you by word of mouth –
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O Caesar!
ANTONY Thy heart is big: get thee apart and weep.
Passion, I see, is catching, for mine eyes,
Seeing those beads of sorrow stand in thine,
Begin to water. Is thy master coming?
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SERVANT He lies tonight within seven leagues of Rome.
ANTONY
Post back with speed and tell him what hath chanced.
Here is a mourning Rome, a dangerous Rome,
No Rome of safety for Octavius yet.
Hie hence, and tell him so. Yet stay awhile –
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Thou shalt not back till I have borne this corpse
Into the market-place. There shall I try
In my oration how the people take
The cruel issue of these bloody men,
According to the which thou shalt discourse
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To young Octavius of the state of things.
Lend me your hand. Exeunt.
3.2 Enter BRUTUS and CASSIUS with the Plebeians.
PLEBEIANS We will be satisfied: let us be satisfied.
BRUTUS Then follow me, and give me audience, friends.
Cassius, go you into the other street
And part the numbers:
Those that will hear me speak, let ’em stay here.
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Those that will follow Cassius, go with him
And public reasons shall be rendered
Of Caesar’s death. [Goes into the pulpit.]
1 PLEBEIAN I will hear Brutus speak.
2 PLEBEIAN I will hear Cassius, and compare their
reasons
When severally we hear them rendered.
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Exeunt Cassius and some of the Plebeians.
3 PLEBEIAN The noble Brutus is ascended. Silence.
BRUTUS
Be patient till the last.
Romans, countrymen and lovers, hear me for my cause
and be silent, that you may hear. Believe me for mine
honour and have respect to mine honour, that you may
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believe. Censure me in your wisdom and awake your
senses, that you may the better judge. If there be any
in this assembly, any dear friend of Caesar’s, to him I
say, that Brutus’ love to Caesar was no less than his. If
then that friend demand why Brutus rose against
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Caesar, this is my answer: not that I loved Caesar less,
but that I loved Rome more. Had you rather Caesar
were living, and die all slaves, than that Caesar were
dead, to live all freemen? As Caesar loved me, I weep
for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was
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valiant, I honour him: but as he was ambitious, I slew
him. There is tears, for his love; joy, for his fortune;
honour, for his valour; and death, for his ambition.
Who is here so base, that would be a bondman? If any,
speak, for him have I offended. Who is here so rude,
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that would not be a Roman? If any, speak, for him have
I offended. Who is here so vile, that will not love his
country? If any, speak, for him have I offended. I pause
for a reply.
ALL None, Brutus, none.
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BRUTUS Then none have I offended. I have done no
more to Caesar, than you shall do to Brutus. The
question of his death is enrolled in the Capitol: his
glory not extenuated, wherein he was worthy, nor his
offences enforced, for which he suffered death.
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Enter Mark ANTONY with CAESAR’s body.
Here comes his body, mourned by Mark Antony, who,
though he had no hand in his death, shall receive the
benefit of his dying, a place in the commonwealth, as
which of you shall not? With this I depart, that as I
slew my best lover for the good of Rome, I have the
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same dagger for myself, when it shall please my
country to need my death. [Comes down.]
ALL Live Brutus, live, live.
1 PLEBEIAN
Bring him with triumph home unto his house.
2 PLEBEIAN Give him a statue with his ancestors.
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3 PLEBEIAN Let him be Caesar.
4 PLEBEIAN Caesar’s better parts
Shall be crowned in Brutus.
1 PLEBEIAN
We’ll bring him to his house with shouts and clamours.
BRUTUS My countrymen.
2 PLEBEIAN Peace, silence, Brutus speaks.
1 PLEBEIAN Peace ho.
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BRUTUS Good countrymen, let me depart alone,
And, for my sake, stay here with Antony:
Do grace to Caesar’s corpse and grace his speech
Tending to Caesar’s glories, which Mark Antony,
By our permission, is allowed to make.
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I do intreat you, not a man depart
Save I alone, till Antony have spoke. Exit.
1 PLEBEIAN Stay ho, and let us hear Mark Antony.
3 PLEBEIAN Let him go up into the public chair.
We’ll hear him. Noble Antony, go up.
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ANTONY For Brutus’ sake I am beholding to you.
[Goes into the pulpit.]
4 PLEBEIAN What does he say of Brutus?
3 PLEBEIAN He says, for Brutus’ sake
He finds himself beholding to us all.
4 PLEBEIAN
’Twere best he speak no harm of Brutus here.
1 PLEBEIAN
This Caesar was a tyrant.
3 PLEBEIAN Nay, that’s certain.
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We are blest that Rome is rid of him.
2 PLEBEIAN Peace, let us hear what Antony can say.
ANTONY You gentle Romans.
ALL Peace ho, let us hear him.
ANTONY
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears:
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
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The evil that men do lives after them:
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
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And grievously hath Caesar answered it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest
(For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men)
Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral.
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He was my friend, faithful and just to me;
But Brutus says, he was ambitious,
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill.
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Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.
Yet Brutus says, he was ambitious,
And Brutus is an honourable man.
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You all did see, that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says, he was ambitious,
And sure he is an honourable man.
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I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O judgement, thou art fled to brutish beasts
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And men have lost their reason. Bear with me.
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.
1 PLEBEIAN Methinks there is much reason in his sayings.
2 PLEBEIAN If thou consider rightly of the matter, Caesar has had great wrong.
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3 PLEBEIAN Has he, masters?
I fear there will a worse come in his place.
4 PLEBEIAN
Mark ye his words? He would not take the crown;
Therefore ’tis certain he was not ambitious.
1 PLEBEIAN If it be found so, some will dear abide it.
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2 PLEBEIAN
Poor soul, his eyes are red as fire with weeping.
3 PLEBEIAN
There’s not a nobler man in Rome than Antony.
4 PLEBEIAN Now mark him; he begins again to speak.
ANTONY But yesterday the word of Caesar might
Have stood against the world. Now lies he there,
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And none so poor to do him reverence.
O masters! If I were disposed to stir
Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage,
I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong,
Who (you all know) are honourable men.
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I will not do them wrong. I rather choose
To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you,
Than I will wrong such honourable men.
But here’s a parchment, with the seal of Caesar.
I found it in his closet. ’Tis his will.
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Let but the commons hear this testament –
Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read –
And they would go and kiss dead Caesar’s wounds,
And dip their napkins in his sacred blood,
Yea, beg a hair of him for memory,
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And, dying, mention it within their wills,
Bequeathing it as a rich legacy
Unto their issue.
4 PLEBEIAN We’ll hear the will. Read it, Mark Antony.
ALL The will, the will. We will hear Caesar’s will.
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ANTONY
Have patience, gentle friends. I must not read it.
It is not meet you know how Caesar loved you.
You are not wood, you are not stones, but men:
And being men, hearing the will of Caesar,
It will inflame you, it will make you mad.
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’Tis good you know not that you are his heirs,
For if you should, O what would come of it?
4 PLEBEIAN Read the will, we’ll hear it, Antony.
You shall read us the will, Caesar’s will.
ANTONY Will you be patient? Will you stay awhile?
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I have o’ershot myself to tell you of it.
I fear I wrong the honourable men
Whose daggers have stabbed Caesar: I do fear it.
4 PLEBEIAN They were traitors: honourable men?
ALL The will, the testament.
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2 PLEBEIAN
They were villains, murderers. The will, read the will.