The First Web Folio Edition of Shakespeare's Works
The plains of Philippi. |
[Enter OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, and their army] |
OCTAVIUS | Now, Antony, our hopes are answered: | ||
You said the enemy would not come down, | |||
But keep the hills and upper regions; | |||
It proves not so: their battles are at hand; | |||
They mean to warn us at Philippi here, | 5 | ||
Answering before we do demand of them. |
ANTONY | Tut, I am in their bosoms, and I know | ||
Wherefore they do it: they could be content | |||
To visit other places; and come down | |||
With fearful bravery, thinking by this face | 10 | ||
To fasten in our thoughts that they have courage; | |||
But 'tis not so. | |||
[Enter a Messenger] |
Messenger | Prepare you, generals: | ||
The enemy comes on in gallant show; | |||
Their bloody sign of battle is hung out, | |||
And something to be done immediately. | 15 |
ANTONY | Octavius, lead your battle softly on, | ||
Upon the left hand of the even field. |
OCTAVIUS | Upon the right hand I; keep thou the left. |
ANTONY | Why do you cross me in this exigent? |
OCTAVIUS | I do not cross you; but I will do so. | 20 | |
[March] | |||
[Drum. Enter BRUTUS, CASSIUS, and their Army; | |||
LUCILIUS, TITINIUS, MESSALA, and others] |
BRUTUS | They stand, and would have parley. |
CASSIUS | Stand fast, Titinius: we must out and talk. |
OCTAVIUS | Mark Antony, shall we give sign of battle? |
ANTONY | No, Caesar, we will answer on their charge. | ||
Make forth; the generals would have some words. | 25 |
OCTAVIUS | Stir not until the signal. |
BRUTUS | Words before blows: is it so, countrymen? |
OCTAVIUS | Not that we love words better, as you do. |
BRUTUS | Good words are better than bad strokes, Octavius. |
ANTONY | In your bad strokes, Brutus, you give good words: | 30 | |
Witness the hole you made in Caesar's heart, | |||
Crying 'Long live! hail, Caesar!' |
CASSIUS | Antony, | ||
The posture of your blows are yet unknown; | |||
But for your words, they rob the Hybla bees, | 35 | ||
And leave them honeyless. |
ANTONY | Not stingless too. |
BRUTUS | O, yes, and soundless too; | ||
For you have stol'n their buzzing, Antony, | |||
And very wisely threat before you sting. | 40 |
ANTONY | Villains, you did not so, when your vile daggers | ||
Hack'd one another in the sides of Caesar: | |||
You show'd your teeth like apes, and fawn'd like hounds, | |||
And bow'd like bondmen, kissing Caesar's feet; | |||
Whilst damned Casca, like a cur, behind | 45 | ||
Struck Caesar on the neck. O you flatterers! |
CASSIUS | Flatterers! Now, Brutus, thank yourself: | ||
This tongue had not offended so to-day, | |||
If Cassius might have ruled. |
OCTAVIUS | Come, come, the cause: if arguing make us sweat, | 50 | |
The proof of it will turn to redder drops. Look; | |||
I draw a sword against conspirators; | |||
When think you that the sword goes up again? | |||
Never, till Caesar's three and thirty wounds | |||
Be well avenged; or till another Caesar | 55 | ||
Have added slaughter to the sword of traitors. |
BRUTUS | Caesar, thou canst not die by traitors' hands, | ||
Unless thou bring'st them with thee. |
OCTAVIUS | So I hope; | ||
I was not born to die on Brutus' sword. | 60 |
BRUTUS | O, if thou wert the noblest of thy strain, | ||
Young man, thou couldst not die more honourable. |
CASSIUS | A peevish schoolboy, worthless of such honour, | ||
Join'd with a masker and a reveller! |
ANTONY | Old Cassius still! | 65 |
OCTAVIUS | Come, Antony, away! | ||
Defiance, traitors, hurl we in your teeth: | |||
If you dare fight to-day, come to the field; | |||
If not, when you have stomachs. | |||
[Exeunt OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, and their army] |
CASSIUS | Why, now, blow wind, swell billow and swim bark! | ||
The storm is up, and all is on the hazard. | 70 |
BRUTUS | Ho, Lucilius! hark, a word with you. |
LUCILIUS | [Standing forth]My lord? | ||
[BRUTUS and LUCILIUS converse apart] |
CASSIUS | Messala! |
MESSALA | [Standing forth] What says my general? |
CASSIUS | Messala, | 75 | |
This is my birth-day; as this very day | |||
Was Cassius born. Give me thy hand, Messala: | |||
Be thou my witness that against my will, | |||
As Pompey was, am I compell'd to set | |||
Upon one battle all our liberties. | 80 | ||
You know that I held Epicurus strong | |||
And his opinion: now I change my mind, | |||
And partly credit things that do presage. | |||
Coming from Sardis, on our former ensign | |||
Two mighty eagles fell, and there they perch'd, | 85 | ||
Gorging and feeding from our soldiers' hands; | |||
Who to Philippi here consorted us: | |||
This morning are they fled away and gone; | |||
And in their steads do ravens, crows and kites, | |||
Fly o'er our heads and downward look on us, | 90 | ||
As we were sickly prey: their shadows seem | |||
A canopy most fatal, under which | |||
Our army lies, ready to give up the ghost. |
MESSALA | Believe not so. |
CASSIUS | I but believe it partly; | ||
For I am fresh of spirit and resolved | 95 | ||
To meet all perils very constantly. |
BRUTUS | Even so, Lucilius. |
CASSIUS | Now, most noble Brutus, | ||
The gods to-day stand friendly, that we may, | |||
Lovers in peace, lead on our days to age! | |||
But since the affairs of men rest still incertain, | 100 | ||
Let's reason with the worst that may befall. | |||
If we do lose this battle, then is this | |||
The very last time we shall speak together: | |||
What are you then determined to do? |
BRUTUS | Even by the rule of that philosophy | 105 | |
By which I did blame Cato for the death | |||
Which he did give himself, I know not how, | |||
But I do find it cowardly and vile, | |||
For fear of what might fall, so to prevent | |||
The time of life: arming myself with patience | 110 | ||
To stay the providence of some high powers | |||
That govern us below. |
CASSIUS | Then, if we lose this battle, | ||
You are contented to be led in triumph | |||
Thorough the streets of Rome? | 115 |
BRUTUS | No, Cassius, no: think not, thou noble Roman, | ||
That ever Brutus will go bound to Rome; | |||
He bears too great a mind. But this same day | |||
Must end that work the ides of March begun; | |||
And whether we shall meet again I know not. | 120 | ||
Therefore our everlasting farewell take: | |||
For ever, and for ever, farewell, Cassius! | |||
If we do meet again, why, we shall smile; | |||
If not, why then, this parting was well made. |
CASSIUS | For ever, and for ever, farewell, Brutus! | 125 | |
If we do meet again, we'll smile indeed; | |||
If not, 'tis true this parting was well made. |
BRUTUS | Why, then, lead on. O, that a man might know | ||
The end of this day's business ere it come! | |||
But it sufficeth that the day will end, | 130 | ||
And then the end is known. Come, ho! away! | |||
[Exeunt] |
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