SCENE I. Rome. A Street. Enter FLAVIUS, MARULLUS, and a Rubble of Citizens.
Fla. Hence; home, you idle creatures, get
you home;
Is this a holiday? What! know you not,
Being mechanical, you ought not walk,
Upon a labouring day, without the sign
Of your profession ?-Speak, what trade art
1 Cit. Why, sir, a carpenter.
[thou?
Mar.Where is thy leather apron and thy rule?
What dost thou with thy best apparel on?—
You, sir; what trade are you
2 Cit. Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workI am but, as you would say, a cobbler. [man, Mar. But what trade art thou? Answer me directly.
2 Cit. A trade, sir, that, I hope, I may use with a safe conscience; which is, indeed, sir,
a mender of bad soals.
Mar. What trade, thou knave; thou naugh
ty knave, what trade?
2 Cit. Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me: yet, if you be out, sir, I can mend
Mar. What meanest thou by that? me, thon sancy fellow?
2 Cit. Why, sir, cobble you. Flav. Thou art a cobbler, art thou? 2 Cit. Truly, sir, all that I live by is, with the awl: I meddle with no tradesman's matters, nor women's matters, but with awl. I am, indeed, air, a surgeon to old shoes; when they are in great danger, I recover them. As proper men as ever trod upon neats' leather, have gone upon my handy-work.
Flav. But wherefore art not in thy shop to-day? Why dost thou lead these men about the streets?
2 Cit. Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes, to get myself into more work. But, indeed, sir, we make holiday, to see Cæsar, and to rejoice in his triumph.
Mar. Wherefore rejoice? What conquest
brings he home?
What tributaries follow him to Rome,
To grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels?
You blocks, you stones, you worse than sense.
less things!
O, you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,
Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and
Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements, To towers and windows, yea, to chimney. tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have
The live-long day, with patient expectation,
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome:
And when you saw his chariot but appear,
Have you not made an universal shout,
That Tyber trembled underneath her banks,
To hear the replication of your sounds,
Made in her concave shores!
And do you now put on your best attire?
And do you now call out a holiday?
And do you now strew flowers in his way,
That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood!
Be gone;
Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,
Pray to the gods to intermit the plague
That needs most light on this ingratitude. [fan t
Flav. Go, go, good countrymen, and, for this Assemble all the poor men of your sort *;
Draw them to Tyber banks, and weep your Of that quick spirit that is in Antony.
Into the channel, till the lowest stream [fears Let me not hinder, Cassius, your desires;
Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.
I'll leave you.
[Exeunt Citizens.
See, whe'r their basest metal be not moved;
They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.
Go you down that way towards the Capitol;
This way will I: Disrobe the images,
If you do find them deck'd with ceremoniest.
Mar. May we do so?
You know, it is the feast of Lupercal.
Flav. It is no matter; let no images Be hung with Cæsar's trophies. I'll about, And drive away the vulgar from the streets: So do you too, where you perceive them thick. These growing feathers pluck'd from Cæsar's Will make him fly an ordinary pitch; [wing, Who else would soar above the view of men, And keep us all in servile fearfuluess. [Exeunt. SCENE 11. The same. A public Place. Enter, in Procession, with Music, Cæsar; ANTONY, for the course; CALPHURNIA, PORTIA, DECIUS, CICERO, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, and CASCA; a great Crowd following, among them a Soothsayer. Cas. Calpharnia.— Casca.
Peace, ho! Cæsar speaks. [Music ceases. Calphurnia,
Cal. Here, my lord. Cas. Stand you directly in Antonius' way, When he doth run his course.—Antonius. Ant. Cæsar, my lord.
Cas. Forget not, in your speed, Antonius, To touch Calphurnia: for our elders say, The barren, touched in this holy chase, Shake off their steril curse.
Ant. I shall remember: When Cæsar says, Do this, it is perform'd. Cæs. Set on; and leave no ceremony out. Sooth. Cæsar.
Cas. Ha! who calls? Casca. Bid every noise be still :-Peace yet again. Music ceases. Cas. Who is it in the press, that calls on me? 1 hear a tongue, shriller than all the music, Cry, Cæsar: Speak; Cæsar is turn'd to hear. Sooth. Beware the ides of March. Cas. What man is that? Bru. A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.
Cas. Set him before me, let me see his face. Cas. Fellow, come from the throng: Look upon Cæsar. [once again. Cas. What says't thon to me now? Speak Sooth. Beware the ides of March. [pass. Cas. He is a dreamer; let us leave him; [Sennet. Ereunt all but BRU. and CAS. Cas. Will you go see the order of the course? Bru. Not I.
Cas. 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 Over your friend that loves you.
Cassins,
Be not deceived: if I have veil'd my look,
I turn the trouble of my countenance
Merely upon myself. Vexed I am,
Of late, with passions of some difference,
Conceptions only proper to myself, [viours:
Which give some soil, perhaps, to my beha
But let not therefore my good friends be
grieved;
(Among which number, Cassius, be you one;}
Nor construe any further my neglect,
Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war,
Forgets the shows of love to other men.
Cus. Then, Brutus, I have much mistook
your passion, [buried By means whereof, this breast of mine hath Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations. Tell me, good Brutus, can you see your face?
Bru. No, Cassius: for the eye sees not itself,
But by reflection, by some other things.
Cas. 'Tis just:
And it is very much lamented, Brutus,
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 Cæsar,) speaking of Brutus,
And groaning underneath this age's yoke,
Have wish'd that noble Brutus had his eyes.
Bru. Into what dangers would you lead me,
Cassius,
That you would have me seek into myself
For that which is not in me? [to hear:
Cus. Therefore, good Brutus, be prepared 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. And be not jealous of me, gentle Brotus: Were I a common laugher, or did use To stale with ordinary oaths my love To every new protester; if you know That I do fawn on men, and bug them hard, 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. Bru. What means this shouting? I do fear Choose Cæsar for their king. [the people Ay, do you fear it? Then must I think you would not have it so. Bru. 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? Bru. I am not gamesome: I do lack some If it be aught toward the general good,
+ Honorary ornaments; tokens of respect.
A ceremony observed at the feast of Lupercalia. Crowd. Flourish of instruments. ¶ The nature of your feelings.
Set honour in one eye, and death i' the other, | Now in the names of all the gods at once,
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.
Cas, I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,
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
In awe of such a thing as I myself.
I was born free as Cæsar; so were you:
We both have fed as well; and we can both
Endure the winter's cold as well as he.
For ouce, upon a raw and gusty day,
The troubled Tyber chafing with her shores,
Cæsar said to me, Darest 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,
Upon what meat doth this our Cæsar feed,
That he is grown so great? Age, thon ar
shamed:
[bloods! Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble When went there by an age, since the great flood, [man? But it was famed with more than with one When could they say, till now, that talk'd of Rome,
And bade him follow: so, indeed, he did.
The torrent roar'd; 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,
Cæsar cry'd, Help me, Cassius, or 1 sink.
1, as Eneas, our great ancestor,
Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder
The old Anchises bear, so, from the waves of
Did I the tired Cæsar: And this man [Tyber
Is now become a god; and Cassius is
A wretched creature, and must bend his body,
If Cæsar carelessly bat nod on him.
He had a fever when he was in Spain,
And, when the fit was on him, I did mark
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
Did lose his lastre: I did bear him groan: [world,
Ay, and that tongue of his, that bade the
Romans
[books,
Mark him, and write his speeches in their
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,
And bear the palm alone. [Shout. Flourish.
Bru. Another general shout!
I do believe that these applanses are [Cæsar.
For some new houours that are heap'd on
Cas. Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow
Like a Colossus; and we petty men [world
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.
Brutus, and Cæsar: What should be in that
Cæsar?
[yours?
Why should that name be sounded more than
Write them together, yours is as fair a name;
Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well;
Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjare thein,
Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Cæsar.
That her wide walks encompass'd but one man?
Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough,
When there is in it but one only man.
O! you and I have heard our fathers say,
There was a Brutus once, that would have
brook'd
The eternal devil to keep his state in Rome,
As easily as a king.
Bru. That you do love me, I am nothing
[aim;
jealous;
What you would work me to, I have some
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,
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;
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.
Cas. I am glad that my weak words
Have struck but this much show of fire from
Re-enter CESAR, and his Train, Bru. The games are done, and Cæsar is [sleeve;
Cas. As they pass by, pluck Casca by the
And he will, after his sour fashion, tell you
What hath proceeded worthy note to-day.
Bru. I will do so:-But look yon, Cassius,
The angry spot doth glow on Cæsar'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,
As we have seen him in the Capitol,
Being cross'd in conference by some senators.
Cas. Casea will tell us what the matter is.
Cas. Antonius.
Ant. Cæsar.
Cas. Let me have men about me that are
Steek-headed men, and such as sleep o'nights:
Yond' Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
Ant. Fear him not, Cæsar, he's not dan-
gerous;
He is a noble Roman, and well given.
Cas. '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
[Shout. So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much
Temperament, constitution. + Lucius Junius Brutas.
A ferret has red eyes.
He is a great observer, and he looks
Quite through the deeds of men: he loves
no plays,
As thon dost, Antony; he hears no music:
Seldom he smiles; and smiles in such a sort,
As if he mock'd himself, and scorn'd his spirit
That could be moved to smile at any thing.
Such men as he be never at heart's ease,
Whiies they behold a greater than themselves;
And therefore are they very dangerous.
I rather tell thee what is to be fear'd,
Than what I fear, for always I am Cæsar.
Come on my right band, for this ear is deaf,
And tell me truly what thou think'st of him.
Exeunt CASAR and his Train.
CASCA stays behind.
Casca. You pali'd me by the cloak: Would
you speak with me?
Bru. Ay, Casca; tell us what hath chanced
That Cesar looks so sad.
[to-day,
Casca. Why you were with him, were
you not?
Bru. I should not then ask Casca what bath chanced.
Casca. Why, there was a crown offer'd him: and being offered him, he put it by with the back of his hand, thus; and then the people fell a' shouting.
Bru. What was the second noise for?
Casca. Why, for that too.
Cas. They shouted thrice: What was the
last cry for?
Casca. Why, for that too.
Bru. Was the crown offer'd him thrice? Casca. Ay, marry, was't, and he put it by thrice, every time gentler than other; and at every patting by mine honest neighbours
Cas. Who offer'd him the crown?
Casca. Why, Antony.
Bru. Tell us the manner of it, gentle Casca. Casca. I can as well be hanged as tell the manner of it: it was mere foolery. I did not mark it. I saw Mark 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 again; then he put it by again: but, to my thinking, he was very loth
Cas. No, Cæsar hath it not; but you, and I,
And honest Casca, we have the falling sickness.
Casca. I know not what you mean by that;
but, I am sure, Cæsar fell down. If the tag-
rag people did not clap him, and hiss him, ac
cording as he pleased and displeased them, as
they use to do the players in the theatre, I am
Bru. What said he when he came to
Casca. Marry, before he fell down, when he perceived the common herd was glad be refused the crown, he plucked me ope his doublet, and offered them his throat to cat.An I had been a man of any occupation t, if I would not have taken him at a word, I would I might go to hell among the rogues:and so he fell. When he came to himself again, he said, If he had done or said any thing amiss, he desired their worships to think it was his infirmity. Three or four wenches, where I stood, cried, Alas, good soul!-and forgave him with all their hearts: But there's no heed to be taken of them; if Cæsar had stabbed their mothers, they would have done no less.
Bru. And after that he came, thus sad, away?
Casca. Ay.
Cas. Did Cicero say any thing?
Casca. Ay, he spoke Greek.
Cas. To what effect?
Casca. Nay, an I tell you that, I'll ne'er
look you i' the face again: But those that
understood him smiled at one another, and
shook their heads; bat, for mine own part, it
was Greek to me. I could tell you more
news too: Marullus and Flavios, for pulling
scarfs off Cæsar's images, are put to silence.
Fare you well. There was more foolery yet,
if I could remember it.
Cas. Will you sup with me to-night, Casca?
Casca. No, I am promised forth.
Cas. Will you dine with me to-morrow?
Casca. Ay, if I be alive, and your mind
hold, and your dinner worth the eating.
Cas. Good; I will expect you.
Casca. Do so: Farewell, both.
[Exit CASCA.
Bru. What a blunt fellow is this grown to be!
He was quick mettle when he went to school.
Cas. So is he now, in execution
Of any bold or noble enterprise,
However he puts on this tardy form.
This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit,
Which gives men stomach to digest his words
With better appetite.
to lay his fingers off it. And then he offered
it the third time; he put it the third time by:
and still as be refused it, the rabblement hooted,
and clapped their chopped hands, and threw
up their sweaty night-caps, and uttered such
a deal of stinking breath because Cæsar refused
the crown, that it had almost choked Cæsar;
Bru. And so it is. For this time I will leave
for he swooned, and fell down at it: And, for To-morrow, if you please to speak with me,
mine own part, I durst not laugh, for fear of I will come home to you; or, if you will,
opening my lips, and receiving the bad air.
Cus. But, soft, I pray you: What, did
Cæsar swoon?
Casca. He fell down in the market-place,
and foamed at mouth, and was speechless. Bru. Tis very like: he hath the falling
Come home with me, and I will wait for you.
Cas. I will do so:-till then, think of the
[Exit BRUTUS.
Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see,
Thy honourable metal may be wrought
From that it is disposed: Therefore 'tis meet
That noble milds keep ever with their likes :
For who so firm that cannot be seduced?
Cæsar doth bear me hard; but he loves
If I were Brutus now, and he were Cassius,
He should not humour+ me. I will this night,
In several hands, in at his windows throw,
As if they came from several citizens,
Writings all tending to the great opinion
That Rome holds of his name; wherein ob-
Cæsar's ambition shall be glanced at: [scurely
And, after this, let Cæsar seat him sure;
For we will shake him, or worse days endure.
[Exit.
SCENE III. The same. A Street.
Thunder and Lightning. Enter, from op.
posite sides, CASCA, with his sword drawn,
and CICERO.
Cic. Good even,
home?
Why are you breathless? and why stare you so!
Casca. Are not you moved, when all the
sway of earth
Casca: Brought you Cæsar
Shakes, like a thing unfirm? O Cicero,
I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds
Have rived the knotty oaks; and I have seen
The ambitious ocean swell, and rage, and foam,
To be exalted with the threat'ning clouds:
But never till to-night, never till now,
Did I go through a tempest dropping fire.
Either there is a civil strife in heaven;
Or else the world, too saucy with the gods,
lacenses them to send destruction. [ful?
Cic. Why, saw you any thing more wonder-
Casca. A common slave (you know him well
by sight,)
[burn
Held up his left hand, which did flame and
Like twenty torches join'd; and yet his hand,
Not sensible of fire, remain'd unscorch'd.
Besides, (I have not since put up my sword,)
Against the Capitol I met a lion,
Who glared upon me, and went surly by,
Without annoying me: And there were drawn
Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women, [saw
Transform'd with their fear; who swore, they
Men, all in fire, walk up and down the streets.
And, yesterday, the bird of night did sit,
Even at noon-day, upon the market place,
Hooting and shrieking. When these prodigies
Do so conjointly meet, let not men say,
These are their reasons,-They are natural;
For, I believe they are portentous things
Unto the climate that they point upon.
Cic. Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time:
But men inay construe things after their fashion,
Clean from the purpose of the things them-
Comes Cæsar to the Capitol to morrow?
Casca. He doth; for he did bid Antonius [row. Send word to you, he would be there to morCic. Good night then, Casca: this disturbed
Is not to walk in.
Casca.
Farewell, Cicero.
[Exit CICERO.
•Has an unfavourable opinion of me.
Cas. Who's there?
Casca.
Cas.
Casca, by your voice.
Casca. Your ear is good. Cassius, what
night is this?
Cas. A very pleasing night to honest men.
Casca. Whoever knew the heavens menace
[of faults.
Cas. Those, that have known the earth so full
For my part, I have walk'd about the streets,
Submitting me unto the perilous night;
And, thus unbraced, Casca, as you see,
Have bared my bosom to the thunder-stone:
And, when the croes blue lightning seem'd to
open
The breas 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.
[of life
Cas. You are dull, Casca; and those sparks
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 ordi-
Their natures and pre-formed faculties, [nance,
To monstrous quality; why, you shall find, [rits,
That heaven hath infused them with these spi-
To make them instruments of fear, and waru-
ing,
[Casca,
Tinto some monstrous state. Now could I
Name to thee a man most like this dreadful
night;
[roars
That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and
As doth the hon 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 Cæsar that you inean: Is it not,
Cassius?
Cas. Let it be who it is: for Romans now
Have thewest and limbs like to their ancestors;
Bat, woe the while! our fathers' minds are
And we are govern'd with our mothers' spirits;
Our yoke and sufferance show us womanish.
Casca. Indeed, they say, the senators to
Mean to establish Cæsar as a king: [morrow
And he shall wear his crown by sea and land, [then; In every place, save here in Italy.
Cas. I know where I will wear this dagger Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassins: Therein, ye gods, you make the weak most
Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do lefeat:
Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
Did you attend Cæsar homie
Why they deviate from quality and nature.
|