Julius Caesar
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 govern’d 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.
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 arm’d,
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.
CASSIUS.
There’s a bargain made.
Now know you, Casca, I have mov’d 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 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 incorporate
To our attempts. Am I not stay’d 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 stay’d 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,
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._]
ACT II
SCENE I. Rome. Brutus’ orchard.
Enter Brutus.
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 soundly.
When, Lucius, when? Awake, I say! What, Lucius!
Enter Lucius.
LUCIUS.
Call’d 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 crown’d:
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 sway’d
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 hatch’d, would, as his kind grow mischievous;
And kill him in the shell.
Enter Lucius.
LUCIUS.
The taper burneth in your closet, sir.
Searching the window for a flint, I found
This paper, thus seal’d 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 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.
[_Opens the letter and reads._]
_Brutus, thou sleep’st: awake and see thyself.
Shall Rome, &c. Speak, strike, redress!_
“Brutus, thou sleep’st: awake!”
Such instigations have been often dropp’d
Where I have took them up.
“Shall Rome, &c.” 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 call’d 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 council; 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 moe with him.
BRUTUS.
Do you know them?
LUCIUS.
No, sir, their hats are pluck’d 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 dangerous 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 path, thy native semblance on,
Not Erebus itself were dim enough
To hide thee from prevention.
Enter Cassius, Casca, Decius, Cinna, Metellus Cimber 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 everyone 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 cares do interpose themselves
Betwixt your eyes and night?
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 yon grey lines
That fret the clouds are messengers of day.
CASCA.
You shall confess that you are both deceiv’d.
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.
BRUTUS.
Give me your hands all over, one by one.
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 engag’d,
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,
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 pass’d 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 rul’d 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 touch’d but only Caesar?
CASSIUS.
Decius, well urg’d. I think it is not meet,
Mark Antony, so well belov’d 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 us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius.