The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

  Is not to walk in.

  CASCA

  Farewell, Cicero. Exit Cicero

  Enter Cassius, ⌈unbraced⌉

  CASSIUS

  Who’s there?

  CASCA A Roman.

  CASSIUS Casca, by your voice.

  CASCA

  Your ear is good. Cassius, what night is this?

  CASSIUS

  A very pleasing night to honest men.

  CASCA

  Who ever 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 unbracèd, Casca, as you see,

  Have bared my bosom to the thunder-stone;

  And when the cross 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 tokens send

  Such dreadful heralds to astonish us.

  CASSIUS

  You are dull, Casca, and those sparks of life

  That should be in a Roman you do want,

  Or else you use not. You look pale, and gaze,

  And put on fear, and cast yourself in wonder,

  To see the strange impatience 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 kind–

  Why old men, fools, and children calculate—

  Why all these things change from their ordinance,

  Their natures, and preformed faculties,

  To monstrous quality—why, you shall find

  That heaven hath infused them with these spirits

  To make them instruments of fear and warning

  Unto some monstrous state. Now could I, Casca,

  Name to thee a man most like this dreadful night,

  That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars

  As doth the lion in the Capitol;

  A man no mightier than thyself or me

  In personal action, yet prodigious grown,

  And fearful, as these strange eruptions are.

  CASCA

  ‘Tis Caesar that you mean, is it not, Cassius?

  CASSIUS

  Let it be who it is; for Romans now

  Have thews and limbs like to their ancestors.

  But woe the while! Our fathers’ minds are dead,

  And we are governed with our mothers’ spirits.

  Our yoke and sufferance 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 land

  In every place save here in Italy.

  CASSIUS (drawing his dagger)

  I know where I will wear this dagger then:

  Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius.

  Therein, 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 to the strength of spirit;

  But life, being weary of these worldly bars,

  Never lacks power to dismiss itself.

  If I know this, know all the world besides,

  That part of tyranny that I do bear

  I can shake off at pleasure.

  Thunder still

  CASCA So can I.

  So every bondman 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 hinds.

  Those that with haste will make a mighty fire

  Begin it with weak straws. What trash is Rome,

  What rubbish, and what offal, when it serves

  For the base matter to illuminate

  So vile 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 made. 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. My hand.

  Be factious for redress of all these griefs,

  And I will set this foot of mine as far

  As who goes farthest.

  They join 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 stay for me

  In Pompey’s Porch; for now, this fearful night,

  There is no stir or walking in the streets,

  And the complexion of the element

  In favour’s like the work we have in hand,

  Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible.Enter Cinna

  CASCA

  Stand close a while, 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 incorporate

  To our attempts. Am I not stayed for, Cinna?

  CINNA

  I am glad on’t. 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,

  He gives Cinna letters

  And look you lay it in the Praetor’s Chair,

  Where Brutus may but find it; and throw this

  In at his window. Set this up with wax

  Upon old Brutus’ statue. All this done,

  Repair 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 hie,

  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 alchemy,

  Will change to virtue and to worthiness.

  CASSIUS

  Him and his worth, and our great need of him,

  You have right well conceited. Let us go,

  For it is after midnight, and ere day

  We will awake him and be sure of him. Exeunt

  2.1 Enter Brutus in his orchard

  BRUTUS What, Lucius, ho!—

  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 soundty.—

  When, Lucius, when? Awake, I say! What, Lucius!Enter Lucius


  LUCIUS Called you, my lord?

  BRUTUS

  Get me a taper in my study, Lucius. When it is lighted, come and call me here.

  LUCIUS I will, my lord.Exit

  BRUTUS

  It must be by his death. And for my part

  I know no personal cause to spurn at him,

  But for the general. 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: that!

  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

  Remorse from power. And to speak truth of Caesar,

  I have not known when his affections swayed

  More than his reason. But ’tis a common proof

  That lowliness is young ambition’s ladder,

  Whereto the climber-upward turns his face;

  But when he once attains the upmost round,

  He then unto the ladder turns his back,

  Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees

  By which he did ascend. So Caesar may.

  Then lest he may, prevent. And since the quarrel

  Will bear no colour for the thing he is,

  Fashion it thus: that what he is, augmented,

  Would run to these and these extremities;

  And therefore think him as a serpent’s egg,

  Which, hatched, would as his kind grow mischievous,

  And kill him in the shell.Enter Lucius, with a letter

  LUCIUS

  The taper burneth in your closet, 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.He gives him the letter

  BRUTUS

  Get you to bed again; it is not day.

  Is not tomorrow, boy, the ides of March?

  LUCIUS I know not, sir.

  BRUTUS

  Look in the calendar and bring me word.

  LUCIUS I will, sir. Exit

  BRUTUS

  The exhalations whizzing in the air

  Give so much light that I may read by them.

  He opens the letter and reads

  ‘Brutus, thou sleep’st. Awake, and see thyself.

  Shall Rome, et cetera? Speak, strike, redress.‘—

  ‘Brutus, thou sleep‘st. Awake.’

  Such instigations have been often dropped

  Where I have took them up.

  ‘Shall Rome, et cetera?’ Thus must I piece it out:

  Shall Rome stand under one man’s awe? What,

  Rome?

  My ancestors did from the streets of Rome

  The Tarquin 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 petition 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 whet me against Caesar

  I have not slept.

  Between the acting of a dreadful thing

  And the first motion, all the interim is

  Like a phantasma or a hideous dream.

  The genius and the mortal instruments

  Are then in counsel, and the state of man,

  Like to a little kingdom, suffers then

  The nature of an insurrection.

  Enter Lucius

  LUCIUS

  Sir, ’tis your brother 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 about their ears,

  And half their faces buried in their cloaks,

  That by no means I may discover them

  By any mark of favour.

  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 free? O then by day

  Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough

  To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, conspiracy.

  Hide it in smiles and affability;

  For if thou put thy native semblance on,

  Not Erebus itself were dim enough

  To hide thee from prevention.Enter the conspirators, muffled: Cassius, Casca, Decius, Cinna, Metellus, and Trebonius

  CASSIUS

  I think we are too bold 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; Cinna, this; and this, Metellus Cimber.

  BRUTUS They are all welcome.

  What watchful cares do interpose themselves

  Betwixt your eyes and night?

  CASSIUS Shall I entreat a word?

  Cassius and Brutus ⌈stand aside and⌉ whisper

  DECIUS

  Here lies the east. Doth not the day break here?

  CASCA No.

  CINNA

  O pardon, sir, it doth; and yon grey lines

  That fret the clouds are messengers of day.

  CASCA

  You shall confess that you are both deceived.

  He points his sword

  Here, as I point my sword, the sun arises,

  Which is a great way growing on the south,

  Weighing 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.He points his sword. ⌈Brutus and Cassius join the other conspirators⌉

  BRUTUS

  Give me your hands all over, one by one.He shakes their hands

  CASSIUS

  And let us swear our resolution.

  BRUTUS

  No, not an oath. If not the face of men,

  The sufferance of our souls, the time’s abuse—

  If these be motives weak, break off betimes,

  And every man hence to his idle bed.

  So let high-sighted tyranny range on

  Till each man drop by lottery. But if these,

  As I am sure they do, bear fire enough

  To kindle cowards and to steel 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 secret Romans, that have spoke the word

  And will not palter? And what other oath

  Than honesty to honesty engaged

  That this shall be or we will fall for it?

  Swear priests and cowards and men cautelous,

  Old feeble carrions, and such suffering souls

  That welcome wrongs; unto bad causes swear

  Such creatures as men doubt; but do not stain

  The even virtue of our enterprise,

  Nor th’insuppressive mettle of our spirits,

&n
bsp; To think that or 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 bastardy

  If he do break the smallest particle

  Of any promise that hath passed from him.

  CASSIUS

  But what of Cicero? Shall we sound 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 hairs

  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 gravity.

  BRUTUS

  O, name him not! Let us not break 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 touched, but only Caesar?

  CASSIUS

  Decius, well urged. I think it is not meet

  Mark Antony, so well beloved of Caesar,

  Should outlive Caesar. We shall find of him

  A shrewd contriver. And you know his means,

  If he improve them, may well stretch so far

  As to annoy 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 envy afterwards—

  For Antony is but a limb of Caesar.

  Let’s be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius.

  We all stand up against the spirit of Caesar,

  And in the spirit 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 subtle masters do,

  Stir up their servants to an act of rage,

  And after seem to chide ’em. This shall make

  Our purpose necessary, and not envious;

  Which so appearing to the common eyes,

  We shall be called purgers, not murderers.