For I believe they are portentous things
Unto the climate that they point upon32.
CICERO Indeed, it is a strange-disposèd time:
But men may construe things after their fashion34
Clean35 from the purpose of the things themselves.
Comes Caesar to the Capitol tomorrow?
CASCA He doth, for he did bid Antonio
Send word to you he would be there tomorrow.
CICERO Goodnight then, Casca: this disturbèd sky
Is not to walk in.
CASCA Farewell, Cicero.
Exit Cicero
Enter Cassius
CASSIUS Who’s there?
CASCA A Roman.
CASSIUS Casca, by your voice.
CASCA Your ear is good. Cassius, what45 night is this?
CASSIUS A very pleasing night to honest men.
CASCA Whoever knew the heavens menace so?
CASSIUS Those that have known the earth so full of faults.
For my part, I have walked about the streets,
Submitting me unto the perilous night,
And thus unbracèd51, Casca, as you see,
Have bared my bosom to the thunder-stone52:
And when the cross53 blue lightning seemed to open
The breast of heaven, I did present myself
Even in the aim and very flash of it.
CASCA But wherefore did you so much tempt the heavens?
It is the part of men to fear and tremble
When the most mighty gods by tokens58 send
Such dreadful heralds59 to astonish us.
CASSIUS You are dull, Casca, and those sparks of life
That should be in a Roman you do want61,
Or else you use not62. You look pale, and gaze,
And put on fear, and cast yourself in wonder
To see the strange impatience64 of the heavens:
But if you would consider the true cause
Why all these fires, why all these gliding ghosts,
Why birds and beasts, from quality and kind67,
Why old men, fools, and children calculate68,
Why all these things change from their ordinance69
Their natures and preformèd70 faculties
To monstrous71 quality, why, you shall find
That heaven hath infused them with these spirits
To make them instruments of fear and warning
Unto some monstrous state74.
Now could I, Casca, name to thee a man
Most like this dreadful night
That thunders, lightens77, opens graves and roars
As doth the lion in the Capitol:
A man no mightier than thyself, or me,
In personal action, yet prodigious80 grown
And fearful, as these strange eruptions81 are.
CASCA ’Tis Caesar that you mean, is it not, Cassius?
CASSIUS Let it be who it is, for Romans now
Have thews84 and limbs like to their ancestors;
But woe the while, our fathers85’ minds are dead,
And we are governed with our mothers’ spirits:
Our yoke and sufferance87 show us womanish.
CASCA Indeed, they say the senators tomorrow
Mean to establish Caesar as a king,
And he shall wear his crown by sea and land90,
In every place, save here in Italy.
CASSIUS I know where I will wear this dagger then:
Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius93.—
Therein94, ye gods, you make the weak most strong;
Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat.—
Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,
Can be retentive to98 the strength of spirit:
But life being weary of these worldly bars99
Never lacks power to dismiss itself.
If I know this, know all the world besides101,
That part of tyranny that I do bear102
I can shake off at pleasure103.
Thunder still
CASCA So can I:
So every bondman105 in his own hand bears
The power to cancel his captivity.
CASSIUS And why should Caesar be a tyrant then?
Poor man, I know he would not be a wolf,
But that he sees the Romans are but sheep:
He were no lion, were not Romans hinds110.
Those that with haste will make a mighty fire111
Begin it with weak straws. What trash112 is Rome?
What rubbish, and what offal113, when it serves
For the base matter to illuminate
So vile115 a thing as Caesar?— But, O grief,
Where hast thou led me? I, perhaps, speak this
Before a willing bondman: then I know
My answer must be made118. But I am armed,
And dangers are to me indifferent.
CASCA You speak to Casca, and to such a man
That is no fleering tell-tale. Hold, my121 hand:
Be factious122 for redress of all these griefs
And I will set this foot of mine123 as far
As who124 goes farthest.
They shake hands
CASSIUS There’s a bargain made.
Now know you, Casca, I have moved already
Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans
To undergo with me an enterprise
Of honourable dangerous consequence;
And I do know by this, they stay130 for me
In Pompey’s porch131, for now this fearful night
There is no stir or walking in the streets;
And the complexion of the element133
In favour134’s like the work we have in hand
Most bloody, fiery and most terrible.
Enter Cinna
CASCA Stand close136 awhile, for here comes one in haste.
CASSIUS ’Tis Cinna, I do know him by his gait.
He is a friend.— Cinna, where haste you so
CINNA To find out you. Who’s that? Metellus Cimber?
CASSIUS No, it is Casca, one incorporate140
To our attempts. Am I not stayed141 for, Cinna?
CINNA I am glad on’t142. What a fearful night is this?
There’s two or three of us have seen strange sights.
CASSIUS Am I not stayed for? Tell me.
CINNA Yes, you are.
O Cassius, if you could
But win the noble Brutus to our party—
CASSIUS Be you content. Good Cinna, take this paper
Gives paper
And look you lay it in the praetor149’s chair
Where Brutus may but find it150. And throw this
In at his window; set this up151 with wax
Upon old Brutus’ statue. All this done,
Repair153 to Pompey’s porch, where you shall find us.
Is Decius Brutus and Trebonius there?
CINNA All but Metellus Cimber, and he’s gone
To seek you at your house. Well, I will hie156,
And so bestow these papers as you bade me.
CASSIUS That done, repair to Pompey’s theatre.—
Exit Cinna
Come, Casca, you and I will yet ere day
See Brutus at his house: three parts of him
Is ours already, and the man entire
Upon the next encounter yields him ours.
CASCA O, he sits high in all the people’s hearts:
And that which would appear offence in us,
His countenance, like richest alchemy165,
Will change to virtue and to worthiness.
CASSIUS Him, and his worth, and our great need of him
You have right well conceited168. Let us go,
For it is after midnight, and ere day
We will awake him and be sure of him.
Exeunt
[Act 2 Scene 1]
running scene 2
; Enter Brutus in his orchard
BRUTUS What, Lucius, ho?—
Calls
I cannot by the progress of the stars
Give guess how near to day.— Lucius, I say!—
I would it were my fault to sleep so soundly.—
When5, Lucius, when? Awake, I say: what, Lucius!
Enter Lucius
LUCIUS Called you, my lord?
BRUTUS Get me a taper7 in my study, Lucius,
When it is lighted, come and call me here.
LUCIUS I will, my lord.
Exit
BRUTUS It must be by his10 death: and for my part,
I know no personal cause to spurn11 at him
But for the general12. He would be crowned:
How that might change his nature, there’s the question.
It is the bright day that brings forth the adder,
And that craves wary walking: crown him that15,
And then I grant we put a sting in him,
That at his will he may do danger with.
Th’abuse of greatness is when it disjoins
Remorse19 from power: and to speak truth of Caesar,
20 I have not known when his affections swayed20
More than his reason. But ’tis a common proof21
That lowliness is young ambition’s ladder22
Whereto the climber upward turns his face.
But when he once attains the upmost round24,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees26
By which he did ascend: so Caesar may;
Then, lest he may, prevent. And since the quarrel28
Will bear no colour29 for the thing he is,
Fashion it thus: that what he is, augmented30,
Would run to these and these extremities:
And therefore think him as a serpent’s egg
Which hatched, would as his kind grow mischievous33,
And kill him in the shell.
Enter Lucius
LUCIUS The taper burneth in your closet35, sir.
Searching the window for a flint, I found
This paper, thus sealed up, and I am sure
It did not lie there when I went to bed.
Gives him the letter
BRUTUS Get you to bed again, it is not day.
Is not tomorrow, boy, the first of March?
LUCIUS I know not, sir.
BRUTUS Look in the calendar, and bring me word.
LUCIUS I will, sir.
Exit
BRUTUS The exhalations44 whizzing in the air
Give so much light that I may read by them.
Opens the letter and reads
‘Brutus thou sleep’st. Awake, and see thyself.
Shall Rome, etc. Speak, strike, redress.’ —
‘Brutus, thou sleep’st. Awake!’
Such instigations have been often dropped
Where I have took them up.
‘Shall Rome, etc.’ Thus must I piece it out51:
Shall Rome stand under one man’s awe? What Rome?
My ancestors did from the streets of Rome
The Tarquin54 drive when he was called a king.
‘Speak, strike, redress.’ Am I entreated
To speak and strike? O Rome, I make thee promise,
If the redress will follow, thou receivest
Thy full petition58 at the hand of Brutus.
Enter Lucius
LUCIUS Sir, March is wasted fifteen days.
Knock within
BRUTUS ’Tis good. Go to the gate: somebody knocks.—
[Exit Lucius]
Since Cassius first did whet61 me against Caesar,
I have not slept.
Between the acting of a dreadful thing
And the first motion64, all the interim is
Like a phantasma65, or a hideous dream:
The genius and the mortal instruments66
Are then in council, and the state67 of man,
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then
The nature of an insurrection69.
Enter Lucius
LUCIUS Sir, ’tis your brother70 Cassius at the door,
Who doth desire to see you.
BRUTUS Is he alone?
LUCIUS No, sir, there are more with him.
BRUTUS Do you know them?
LUCIUS No, sir, their hats are plucked about75 their ears
And half their faces buried in their cloaks,
That by no means I may discover77 them
By any mark of favour78.
BRUTUS Let ’em enter:—
[Exit Lucius]
They are the faction. O conspiracy,
Sham’st thou to show thy dang’rous brow by night,
When evils are most free82? O, then, by day
Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough
To mask thy monstrous visage84? Seek none, conspiracy,
Hide it in smiles and affability
For if thou path thy native semblance on86,
Not Erebus87 itself were dim enough
To hide thee from prevention88.
Enter the conspirators: Cassius, Casca, Decius, Cinna, Metellus and Trebonius
CASSIUS I think we are too bold89 upon your rest:
Good morrow, Brutus, do we trouble you?
BRUTUS I have been up this hour, awake all night.
Know I these men that come along with you?
CASSIUS Yes, every man of them; and no man here
But honours you, and every one doth wish
You had but that opinion of yourself
Which every noble Roman bears of you.
This is Trebonius.
BRUTUS He is welcome hither.
CASSIUS This, Decius Brutus.
BRUTUS He is welcome too.
CASSIUS This, Casca; this, Cinna; and this, Metellus Cimber.
BRUTUS They are all welcome.
What watchful cares103 do interpose themselves
Betwixt your eyes and night104?
CASSIUS Shall I entreat a word?
They whisper
DECIUS Here lies the east: doth not the day break here?
CASCA No.
CINNA O, pardon, sir, it doth; and yon108 grey lines
That fret109 the clouds are messengers of day.
CASCA You shall confess that you are both deceived110:
Here, as111 I point my sword, the sun arises,
Which is a great way growing on112 the south,
Weighing113 the youthful season of the year.
Some two months hence, up higher toward the north
He first presents his fire, and the high east
Stands as the Capitol, directly here.
BRUTUS Give me your hands all over117, one by one.
Comes forward with Cassius
CASSIUS And let us swear our resolution.
BRUTUS No, not an oath: if not the face of men119,
The sufferance120 of our souls, the time’s abuse;
If these be motives weak, break off betimes121,
And every man hence to his idle122 bed.
So let high-sighted tyranny range123 on
Till each man drop by lottery124. But if these —
As I am sure they do — bear fire enough
To kindle cowards, and to steel126 with valour
The melting spirits of women, then, countrymen,
What need we any spur but our own cause
To prick us to redress? What other bond
Than secret130 Romans that have spoke the word
And will not palter131? And what other oath
Than honesty to honesty engaged132,
That this shall be, or we will fall133 for it?
Swear priests and cowards, and men cautelous134,
Old feeble carrions135, and such suffering souls
That welcome wrongs: unto bad causes swear
Such creatures as men doubt137. But do not stain
&nb
sp; The even138 virtue of our enterprise,
Nor th’insuppressive139 mettle of our spirits,
To think that or140 our cause or our performance
Did need an oath, when every drop of blood
That every Roman bears, and nobly bears,
Is guilty of a several bastardy143
If he do break the smallest particle
Of any promise that hath passed from him.
CASSIUS But what of Cicero? Shall we sound146 him?
I think he will stand very strong with us.
CASCA Let us not leave him out.
CINNA No, by no means.
METELLUS O, let us have him, for his silver hairs150
Will purchase us a good opinion,
And buy men’s voices to commend our deeds:
It shall be said his judgement ruled our hands.
Our youths and wildness shall no whit appear,
But all be buried in his gravity155.
BRUTUS O, name him not: let us not break156 with him,
For he will never follow anything
That other men begin.
CASSIUS Then leave him out.
CASCA Indeed, he is not fit.
DECIUS Shall no man else be touched161, but only Caesar?
CASSIUS Decius, well urged.— I think it is not meet162
Mark Antony, so well beloved of Caesar,
Should outlive Caesar. We shall find of him
A shrewd contriver. And you know his means165
If he improve166 them may well stretch so far
As to annoy167 us all: which to prevent,
Let Antony and Caesar fall together.
BRUTUS Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius,
To cut the head off and then hack the limbs —
Like wrath in death and envy171 afterwards —
For Antony is but a limb of Caesar.
Let’s be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius.
We all stand up against the spirit174 of Caesar,
And in the spirit175 of men there is no blood.
O, that we then could come by Caesar’s spirit
And not dismember Caesar! But, alas,
Caesar must bleed for it. And, gentle friends,
Let’s kill him boldly, but not wrathfully:
Let’s carve him as a dish fit for the gods,
Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds.
And let our hearts, as subtle182 masters do,
Stir up their servants183 to an act of rage
And after seem to chide184 ’em. This shall make
Our purpose185 necessary, and not envious,
Which so appearing to the common eyes,
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