Julius Caesar (5 page)
Authors: William Shakespeare
Exit
running scene 1 continues
Thunder and lightning. Enter Casca and Cicero
CICERO
Good
even
, Casca.
Brought
1
you Caesar home?
Why are you breathless, and why stare you so?
CASCA
Are not you
moved
, when all the
sway
3
of earth
Shakes like a thing unfirm? O Cicero,
I have seen tempests, when the
scolding
5
winds
Have
rived
6
the knotty oaks, and I have seen
Th’ambitious ocean swell, and rage, and foam,
To be
exalted with
8
the threatening clouds:
But never till tonight, 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
12
with the gods,
Incenses them to send destruction.
CICERO
Why, saw you anything more
wonderful
14
?
CASCA
A common slave — you know him well by sight —
Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn
Like twenty torches joined; and yet his hand,
Not
sensible of
18
fire, remained unscorched.
Besides — I ha’ not since
put up
19
my sword —
Against
20
the Capitol I met a lion,
Who
glazed
21
upon me and went surly by
Without
annoying
22
me. And there were drawn
Upon
a
heap
a hundred
ghastly
23
women,
Transformèd with their fear, who swore they saw
Men, all in fire, walk up and down the streets.
And yesterday the
bird of night
26
did sit
Even at noonday upon the market-place
Hooting and shrieking. When these
prodigies
28
Do so
conjointly meet
29
, 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
32
.
CICERO
Indeed, it is a strange-disposèd time:
But men may construe things
after their fashion
34
Clean
35
from the purpose of the things themselves.
Comes Caesar to the Capitol tomorrow?
CASCA
He doth, for he did bid Antonio
Send word to you he would be there tomorrow.
CICERO
Goodnight then, Casca: this disturbèd sky
Is not to walk in.
CASCA
Farewell, Cicero.
Exit Cicero
Enter Cassius
CASSIUS
Who’s there?
CASCA
A Roman.
CASSIUS
Casca, by your voice.
CASCA
Your ear is good. Cassius,
what
45
night is this?
CASSIUS
A very pleasing night to honest men.
CASCA
Whoever 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
51
, Casca, as you see,
Have bared my bosom to the
thunder-stone
52
:
And when the
cross
53
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
58
send
Such
dreadful
heralds
59
to astonish us.
CASSIUS
You are dull, Casca, and those sparks of life
That should be in a Roman you do
want
61
,
Or else you
use not
62
. You look pale, and gaze,
And put on fear, and cast yourself in wonder
To see the strange
impatience
64
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
67
,
Why old men, fools, and children
calculate
68
,
Why all these things change from their
ordinance
69
Their natures and
preformèd
70
faculties
To
monstrous
71
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
74
.
Now could I, Casca, name to thee a man
Most like this dreadful night
That thunders,
lightens
77
, opens graves and roars
As doth the lion in the Capitol:
A man no mightier than thyself, or me,
In personal action, yet
prodigious
80
grown
And
fearful
, as these strange
eruptions
81
are.
CASCA
’Tis Caesar that you mean, is it not, Cassius?
CASSIUS
Let it be who it is, for Romans now
Have
thews
84
and limbs like to their ancestors;
But woe the while, our
fathers
85
’ minds are dead,
And we are governed with our mothers’ spirits:
Our
yoke and sufferance
87
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
90
,
In every place, save here in Italy.
CASSIUS
I know where I will wear this dagger then:
Cassius
from bondage will deliver Cassius
93
.—
Therein
94
, 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
98
the strength of spirit:
But life being weary of these worldly
bars
99
Never lacks power to dismiss itself.
If I
know this, know all the world besides
101
,
That part of tyranny that I do
bear
102
I can shake off at
pleasure
103
.
Thunder still
CASCA
So can I:
So every
bondman
105
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
110
.
Those that with haste will
make a mighty fire
111
Begin it with
weak straws
. What
trash
112
is Rome?
What
rubbish
, and what
offal
113
, when it serves
For the base matter to illuminate
So
vile
115
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
118
. 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
121
hand:
Be
factious
122
for redress of all these griefs
And I will
set this foot of mine
123
as far
As
who
124
goes farthest.
They shake 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
130
for me
In
Pompey’s porch
131
, for now this fearful night
There is no stir or walking in the streets;
And the
complexion
of the
element
133
In
favour
134
’s like the work we have in hand
Most bloody, fiery and most terrible.
Enter Cinna
CASCA
Stand
close
136
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
140
To our attempts. Am I not
stayed
141
for, Cinna?
CINNA
I am glad
on’t
142
. 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
Gives paper
And look you lay it in the
praetor
149
’s chair
Where Brutus
may but find it
150
. And throw this
In at his window;
set this up
151
with wax
Upon old Brutus’ statue. All this done,
Repair
153
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
156
,
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
165
,
Will change to virtue and to worthiness.
CASSIUS
Him, and his worth, and our great need of him
You have right well
conceited
168
. Let us go,
For it is after midnight, and ere day
We will awake him and be sure of him.
Exeunt
running scene 2
Enter Brutus in his
orchard
BRUTUS
What, Lucius, ho?—
Calls
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
5
, Lucius, when? Awake, I say: what, Lucius!
Enter Lucius
LUCIUS
Called you, my lord?
BRUTUS
Get me a
taper
7
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
10
death: and for my part,
I know no personal cause to
spurn
11
at him
But for the
general
12
. 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
15
,
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
19
from power: and to speak truth of Caesar,
20 I have not known when his
affections
swayed
20
More than his reason. But ’tis a common
proof
21
That
lowliness
is young ambition’s
ladder
22
Whereto the climber upward turns his face.
But when he once attains the
upmost round
24
,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the
base degrees
26
By which he did ascend: so Caesar may;
Then, lest he may, prevent. And since
the quarrel
28
Will bear no
colour
29
for the thing he is,
Fashion
it thus: that what he is,
augmented
30
,
Would run to these and these extremities:
And therefore think him as a serpent’s egg
Which hatched, would
as his kind
grow
mischievous
33
,
And kill him in the shell.