The First Web Folio Edition of Shakespeare's Works
Brutus's tent. |
[Enter BRUTUS and CASSIUS] |
CASSIUS | That you have wrong'd me doth appear in this: | ||
You have condemn'd and noted Lucius Pella | |||
For taking bribes here of the Sardians; | |||
Wherein my letters, praying on his side, | |||
Because I knew the man, were slighted off. | 5 |
BRUTUS | You wronged yourself to write in such a case. |
CASSIUS | In such a time as this it is not meet | ||
That every nice offence should bear his comment. |
BRUTUS | Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself | ||
Are much condemn'd to have an itching palm; | 10 | ||
To sell and mart your offices for gold | |||
To undeservers. |
CASSIUS | I an itching palm! | ||
You know that you are Brutus that speak this, | |||
Or, by the gods, this speech were else your last. |
BRUTUS | The name of Cassius honours this corruption, | 15 | |
And chastisement doth therefore hide his head. |
CASSIUS | Chastisement! |
BRUTUS | Remember March, the ides of March remember: | ||
Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake? | |||
What villain touch'd his body, that did stab, | 20 | ||
And not for justice? What, shall one of us | |||
That struck the foremost man of all this world | |||
But for supporting robbers, shall we now | |||
Contaminate our fingers with base bribes, | |||
And sell the mighty space of our large honours | 25 | ||
For so much trash as may be grasped thus? | |||
I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon, | |||
Than such a Roman. |
CASSIUS | Brutus, bay not me; | ||
I'll not endure it: you forget yourself, | |||
To hedge me in; I am a soldier, I, | 30 | ||
Older in practise, abler than yourself | |||
To make conditions. |
BRUTUS | Go to; you are not, Cassius. |
CASSIUS | I am. |
BRUTUS | I say you are not. | 35 |
CASSIUS | Urge me no more, I shall forget myself; | ||
Have mind upon your health, tempt me no further. |
BRUTUS | Away, slight man! |
CASSIUS | Is't possible? |
BRUTUS | Hear me, for I will speak. | ||
Must I give way and room to your rash choler? | 40 | ||
Shall I be frighted when a madman stares? |
CASSIUS | O ye gods, ye gods! must I endure all this? |
BRUTUS | All this! ay, more: fret till your proud heart break; | ||
Go show your slaves how choleric you are, | |||
And make your bondmen tremble. Must I budge? | 45 | ||
Must I observe you? must I stand and crouch | |||
Under your testy humour? By the gods | |||
You shall digest the venom of your spleen, | |||
Though it do split you; for, from this day forth, | |||
I'll use you for my mirth, yea, for my laughter, | 50 | ||
When you are waspish. |
CASSIUS | Is it come to this? |
BRUTUS | You say you are a better soldier: | ||
Let it appear so; make your vaunting true, | |||
And it shall please me well: for mine own part, | 55 | ||
I shall be glad to learn of noble men. |
CASSIUS | You wrong me every way; you wrong me, Brutus; | ||
I said, an elder soldier, not a better: | |||
Did I say 'better'? |
BRUTUS | If you did, I care not. | 60 |
CASSIUS | When Caesar lived, he durst not thus have moved me. |
BRUTUS | Peace, peace! you durst not so have tempted him. |
CASSIUS | I durst not! |
BRUTUS | No. |
CASSIUS | What, durst not tempt him! | 65 |
BRUTUS | For your life you durst not! |
CASSIUS | Do not presume too much upon my love; | ||
I may do that I shall be sorry for. |
BRUTUS | You have done that you should be sorry for. | ||
There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats, | 70 | ||
For I am arm'd so strong in honesty | |||
That they pass by me as the idle wind, | |||
Which I respect not. I did send to you | |||
For certain sums of gold, which you denied me: | |||
For I can raise no money by vile means: | 75 | ||
By heaven, I had rather coin my heart, | |||
And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring | |||
From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash | |||
By any indirection: I did send | |||
To you for gold to pay my legions, | 80 | ||
Which you denied me: was that done like Cassius? | |||
Should I have answer'd Caius Cassius so? | |||
When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous, | |||
To lock such rascal counters from his friends, | |||
Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts; | 85 | ||
Dash him to pieces! |
CASSIUS | I denied you not. |
BRUTUS | You did. |
CASSIUS | I did not: he was but a fool that brought | ||
My answer back. Brutus hath rived my heart: | 90 | ||
A friend should bear his friend's infirmities, | |||
But Brutus makes mine greater than they are. |
BRUTUS | I do not, till you practise them on me. |
CASSIUS | You love me not. |
BRUTUS | I do not like your faults. |
CASSIUS | A friendly eye could never see such faults. | 95 |
BRUTUS | A flatterer's would not, though they do appear | ||
As huge as high Olympus. |
CASSIUS | Come, Antony, and young Octavius, come, | ||
Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius, | |||
For Cassius is aweary of the world; | 100 | ||
Hated by one he loves; braved by his brother; | |||
Cheque'd like a bondman; all his faults observed, | |||
Set in a note-book, learn'd, and conn'd by rote, | |||
To cast into my teeth. O, I could weep | |||
My spirit from mine eyes! There is my dagger, | 105 | ||
And here my naked breast; within, a heart | |||
Dearer than Plutus' mine, richer than gold: | |||
If that thou be'st a Roman, take it forth; | |||
I, that denied thee gold, will give my heart: | |||
Strike, as thou didst at Caesar; for, I know, | 110 | ||
When thou didst hate him worst, thou lovedst him better | |||
Than ever thou lovedst Cassius. |
BRUTUS | Sheathe your dagger: | ||
Be angry when you will, it shall have scope; | |||
Do what you will, dishonour shall be humour. | 115 | ||
O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb | |||
That carries anger as the flint bears fire; | |||
Who, much enforced, shows a hasty spark, | |||
And straight is cold again. |
CASSIUS | Hath Cassius lived | 120 | |
To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus, | |||
When grief, and blood ill-temper'd, vexeth him? |
BRUTUS | When I spoke that, I was ill-temper'd too. |
CASSIUS | Do you confess so much? Give me your hand. |
BRUTUS | And my heart too. | 125 |
CASSIUS | O Brutus! |
BRUTUS | What's the matter? |
CASSIUS | Have not you love enough to bear with me, | ||
When that rash humour which my mother gave me | |||
Makes me forgetful? |
BRUTUS | Yes, Cassius; and, from henceforth, | 130 | |
When you are over-earnest with your Brutus, | |||
He'll think your mother chides, and leave you so. |
Poet | [Within] Let me go in to see the generals; | ||
There is some grudge between 'em, 'tis not meet | |||
They be alone. | 135 |
LUCILIUS | [Within] You shall not come to them. |
Poet | [Within] Nothing but death shall stay me. | ||
[Enter Poet, followed by LUCILIUS, TITINIUS, and LUCIUS] |
CASSIUS | How now! what's the matter? |
Poet | For shame, you generals! what do you mean? | ||
Love, and be friends, as two such men should be; | 140 | ||
For I have seen more years, I'm sure, than ye. |
CASSIUS | Ha, ha! how vilely doth this cynic rhyme! |
BRUTUS | Get you hence, sirrah; saucy fellow, hence! |
CASSIUS | Bear with him, Brutus; 'tis his fashion. |
BRUTUS | I'll know his humour, when he knows his time: | 145 | |
What should the wars do with these jigging fools? | |||
Companion, hence! |
CASSIUS | Away, away, be gone. | |
[Exit Poet] |
BRUTUS | Lucilius and Titinius, bid the commanders | ||
Prepare to lodge their companies to-night. |
CASSIUS | And come yourselves, and bring Messala with you | 150 | |
Immediately to us. | |||
[Exeunt LUCILIUS and TITINIUS] |
BRUTUS | Lucius, a bowl of wine! | ||
[Exit LUCIUS] |
CASSIUS | I did not think you could have been so angry. |
BRUTUS | O Cassius, I am sick of many griefs. |
CASSIUS | Of your philosophy you make no use, | 155 | |
If you give place to accidental evils. |
BRUTUS | No man bears sorrow better. Portia is dead. |
CASSIUS | Ha! Portia! |
BRUTUS | She is dead. |
CASSIUS | How 'scaped I killing when I cross'd you so? | 160 | |
O insupportable and touching loss! | |||
Upon what sickness? |
BRUTUS | Impatient of my absence, | ||
And grief that young Octavius with Mark Antony | |||
Have made themselves so strong:--for with her death | 165 | ||
That tidings came;--with this she fell distract, | |||
And, her attendants absent, swallow'd fire. |
CASSIUS | And died so? |
BRUTUS | Even so. |
CASSIUS | O ye immortal gods! | ||
[Re-enter LUCIUS, with wine and taper] |
BRUTUS | Speak no more of her. Give me a bowl of wine. | 170 | |
In this I bury all unkindness, Cassius. |
CASSIUS | My heart is thirsty for that noble pledge. | ||
Fill, Lucius, till the wine o'erswell the cup; | |||
I cannot drink too much of Brutus' love. |
BRUTUS | Come in, Titinius! | 175 | |
[Exit LUCIUS] | |||
[Re-enter TITINIUS, with MESSALA] | |||
Welcome, good Messala. | |||
Now sit we close about this taper here, | |||
And call in question our necessities. |
CASSIUS | Portia, art thou gone? |
BRUTUS | No more, I pray you. | 180 | |
Messala, I have here received letters, | |||
That young Octavius and Mark Antony | |||
Come down upon us with a mighty power, | |||
Bending their expedition toward Philippi. |
MESSALA | Myself have letters of the selfsame tenor. | 185 |
BRUTUS | With what addition? |
MESSALA | That by proscription and bills of outlawry, | ||
Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus, | |||
Have put to death an hundred senators. |
BRUTUS | Therein our letters do not well agree; | 190 | |
Mine speak of seventy senators that died | |||
By their proscriptions, Cicero being one. |
CASSIUS | Cicero one! |
MESSALA | Cicero is dead, | ||
And by that order of proscription. | |||
Had you your letters from your wife, my lord? | 195 |
BRUTUS | No, Messala. |
MESSALA | Nor nothing in your letters writ of her? |
BRUTUS | Nothing, Messala. |
MESSALA | That, methinks, is strange. |
BRUTUS | Why ask you? hear you aught of her in yours? |
MESSALA | No, my lord. | 200 |
BRUTUS | Now, as you are a Roman, tell me true. |
MESSALA | Then like a Roman bear the truth I tell: | ||
For certain she is dead, and by strange manner. |
BRUTUS | Why, farewell, Portia. We must die, Messala: | ||
With meditating that she must die once, | 205 | ||
I have the patience to endure it now. |
MESSALA | Even so great men great losses should endure. |
CASSIUS | I have as much of this in art as you, | ||
But yet my nature could not bear it so. |
BRUTUS | Well, to our work alive. What do you think | 210 | |
Of marching to Philippi presently? |
CASSIUS | I do not think it good. |
BRUTUS | Your reason? |
CASSIUS | This it is: | ||
'Tis better that the enemy seek us: | 215 | ||
So shall he waste his means, weary his soldiers, | |||
Doing himself offence; whilst we, lying still, | |||
Are full of rest, defense, and nimbleness. |
BRUTUS | Good reasons must, of force, give place to better. | ||
The people 'twixt Philippi and this ground | 220 | ||
Do stand but in a forced affection; | |||
For they have grudged us contribution: | |||
The enemy, marching along by them, | |||
By them shall make a fuller number up, | |||
Come on refresh'd, new-added, and encouraged; | 225 | ||
From which advantage shall we cut him off, | |||
If at Philippi we do face him there, | |||
These people at our back. |
CASSIUS | Hear me, good brother. |
BRUTUS | Under your pardon. You must note beside, | 230 | |
That we have tried the utmost of our friends, | |||
Our legions are brim-full, our cause is ripe: | |||
The enemy increaseth every day; | |||
We, at the height, are ready to decline. | |||
There is a tide in the affairs of men, | 235 | ||
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; | |||
Omitted, all the voyage of their life | |||
Is bound in shallows and in miseries. | |||
On such a full sea are we now afloat; | |||
And we must take the current when it serves, | 240 | ||
Or lose our ventures. |
CASSIUS | Then, with your will, go on; | ||
We'll along ourselves, and meet them at Philippi. |
BRUTUS | The deep of night is crept upon our talk, | ||
And nature must obey necessity; | 245 | ||
Which we will niggard with a little rest. | |||
There is no more to say? |
CASSIUS | No more. Good night: | ||
Early to-morrow will we rise, and hence. |
BRUTUS | Lucius! | 250 | |
[Enter LUCIUS] | |||
My gown. | |||
[Exit LUCIUS] | |||
Farewell, good Messala: | |||
Good night, Titinius. Noble, noble Cassius, | |||
Good night, and good repose. |
CASSIUS | O my dear brother! | ||
This was an ill beginning of the night: | 255 | ||
Never come such division 'tween our souls! | |||
Let it not, Brutus. |
BRUTUS | Every thing is well. |
CASSIUS | Good night, my lord. |
BRUTUS | Good night, good brother. | 260 |
TITINIUS, MESSALA | |Good night, Lord Brutus. |
BRUTUS | Farewell, every one. | ||
[Exeunt all but BRUTUS] | |||
[Re-enter LUCIUS, with the gown] | |||
Give me the gown. Where is thy instrument? |
LUCIUS | Here in the tent. |
BRUTUS | What, thou speak'st drowsily? | ||
Poor knave, I blame thee not; thou art o'er-watch'd. | 265 | ||
Call Claudius and some other of my men: | |||
I'll have them sleep on cushions in my tent. |
LUCIUS | Varro and Claudius! | ||
[Enter VARRO and CLAUDIUS] |
VARRO | Calls my lord? |
BRUTUS | I pray you, sirs, lie in my tent and sleep; | 270 | |
It may be I shall raise you by and by | |||
On business to my brother Cassius. |
VARRO | So please you, we will stand and watch your pleasure. |
BRUTUS | I will not have it so: lie down, good sirs; | ||
It may be I shall otherwise bethink me. | 275 | ||
Look, Lucius, here's the book I sought for so; | |||
I put it in the pocket of my gown. | |||
[VARRO and CLAUDIUS lie down] |
LUCIUS | I was sure your lordship did not give it me. |
BRUTUS | Bear with me, good boy, I am much forgetful. | ||
Canst thou hold up thy heavy eyes awhile, | 280 | ||
And touch thy instrument a strain or two? |
LUCIUS | Ay, my lord, an't please you. |
BRUTUS | It does, my boy: | ||
I trouble thee too much, but thou art willing. |
LUCIUS | It is my duty, sir. | 285 |
BRUTUS | I should not urge thy duty past thy might; | ||
I know young bloods look for a time of rest. |
LUCIUS | I have slept, my lord, already. |
BRUTUS | It was well done; and thou shalt sleep again; | ||
I will not hold thee long: if I do live, | 290 | ||
I will be good to thee. | |||
[Music, and a song] | |||
This is a sleepy tune. O murderous slumber, | |||
Lay'st thou thy leaden mace upon my boy, | |||
That plays thee music? Gentle knave, good night; | |||
I will not do thee so much wrong to wake thee: | 295 | ||
If thou dost nod, thou break'st thy instrument; | |||
I'll take it from thee; and, good boy, good night. | |||
Let me see, let me see; is not the leaf turn'd down | |||
Where I left reading? Here it is, I think. | |||
[Enter the Ghost of CAESAR] | |||
How ill this taper burns! Ha! who comes here? | 300 | ||
I think it is the weakness of mine eyes | |||
That shapes this monstrous apparition. | |||
It comes upon me. Art thou any thing? | |||
Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil, | |||
That makest my blood cold and my hair to stare? | 305 | ||
Speak to me what thou art. |
GHOST | Thy evil spirit, Brutus. |
BRUTUS | Why comest thou? |
GHOST | To tell thee thou shalt see me at Philippi. |
BRUTUS | Well; then I shall see thee again? | 310 |
GHOST | Ay, at Philippi. |
BRUTUS | Why, I will see thee at Philippi, then. | ||
[Exit Ghost] | |||
Now I have taken heart thou vanishest: | |||
Ill spirit, I would hold more talk with thee. | |||
Boy, Lucius! Varro! Claudius! Sirs, awake! Claudius! | 315 |
LUCIUS | The strings, my lord, are false. |
BRUTUS | He thinks he still is at his instrument. | ||
Lucius, awake! |
LUCIUS | My lord? |
BRUTUS | Didst thou dream, Lucius, that thou so criedst out? | 320 |
LUCIUS | My lord, I do not know that I did cry. |
BRUTUS | Yes, that thou didst: didst thou see any thing? |
LUCIUS | Nothing, my lord. |
BRUTUS | Sleep again, Lucius. Sirrah Claudius! | ||
[To VARRO] | |||
Fellow thou, awake! | 325 |
VARRO | My lord? |
CLAUDIUS | My lord? |
BRUTUS | Why did you so cry out, sirs, in your sleep? |
VARRO, CLAUDIUS | |Did we, my lord? |
BRUTUS | Ay: saw you any thing? | 330 |
VARRO | No, my lord, I saw nothing. |
CLAUDIUS | Nor I, my lord. |
BRUTUS | Go and commend me to my brother Cassius; | ||
Bid him set on his powers betimes before, | |||
And we will follow. | 335 |
VARRO, CLAUDIUS | |It shall be done, my lord. | ||
[Exeunt] |
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