Julius Caesar (6 page)

LUCIUS
    The taper burneth in your
closet
³⁵
, sir.

Searching the window for a flint, I found

This paper, thus sealed up, and I am sure

It did not lie there when I went to bed.

BRUTUS
    Get you to bed again, it is not day.

Is not tomorrow, boy, the first of March?

LUCIUS
    I know not, sir.

BRUTUS
    Look in the calendar, and bring me word.

LUCIUS
    I will, sir.

BRUTUS
    The
exhalations
⁴⁴
whizzing in the air

Give so much light that I may read by them.

‘Brutus thou sleep’st. Awake, and see thyself.

Shall Rome, etc. Speak, strike, redress.’ —

‘Brutus, thou sleep’st. Awake!’

Such instigations have been often dropped

Where I have took them up.

‘Shall Rome, etc.’ Thus must I
piece it out
⁵¹
:

Shall Rome stand under one man’s awe? What Rome?

My ancestors did from the streets of Rome

The
Tarquin
⁵⁴
drive when he was called 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
⁵⁸
at the hand of Brutus.

LUCIUS
    Sir, March is wasted fifteen days.

BRUTUS
    ’Tis good. Go to the gate: somebody knocks.—

Since Cassius first did
whet
⁶¹
me against Caesar,

I have not slept.

Between the acting of a dreadful thing

And the first
motion
⁶⁴
, all the interim is

Like a
phantasma
⁶⁵
, or a hideous dream:

The
genius
and the
mortal instruments
⁶⁶

Are then in
council
, and the
state
⁶⁷
of man,

Like to a little kingdom, suffers then

The nature of an
insurrection
⁶⁹
.

LUCIUS
    Sir, ’tis your
brother
⁷⁰
Cassius at the door,

Who doth desire to see you.

BRUTUS
    Is he alone?

LUCIUS
    No, sir, there are more with him.

BRUTUS
    Do you know them?

LUCIUS
    No, sir, their hats are
plucked about
⁷⁵
their ears

And half their faces buried in their cloaks,

That by no means I may
discover
⁷⁷
them

By any
mark of favour
⁷⁸
.

BRUTUS
    Let ’em enter:—

They are the faction. O conspiracy,

Sham’st thou to show thy dang’rous brow by night,

When evils are most
free
⁸²
? O, then, by day

Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough

To mask thy monstrous
visage
⁸⁴
? Seek none, conspiracy,

Hide it in smiles and affability

For if
thou path thy native semblance on
⁸⁶
,

Not
Erebus
⁸⁷
itself were dim enough

To hide thee from
prevention
⁸⁸
.

CASSIUS
    I think we
are too bold
⁸⁹
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 every one 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
¹⁰³
do interpose themselves

Betwixt your eyes and
night
¹⁰⁴
?

CASSIUS
    Shall I entreat a word?

DECIUS
    Here lies the east: doth not the day break here?

CASCA
    No.

CINNA
    O, pardon, sir, it doth; and
yon
¹⁰⁸
grey lines

That
fret
¹⁰⁹
the clouds are messengers of day.

CASCA
    You shall confess that you are both
deceived
¹¹⁰
:

Here,
as
¹¹¹
I point my sword, the sun arises,

Which is a great way
growing on
¹¹²
the south,

Weighing
¹¹³
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
¹¹⁷
, one by one.

CASSIUS
    And let us swear our resolution.

BRUTUS
    No, not an oath: if not the
face of men
¹¹⁹
,

The
sufferance
¹²⁰
of our souls, the time’s abuse;

If these be motives weak, break off
betimes
¹²¹
,

And every man hence to his
idle
¹²²
bed.

So let
high-sighted
tyranny
range
¹²³
on

Till each man drop by
lottery
¹²⁴
. But if these —

As I am sure they do — bear fire enough

To kindle cowards, and to
steel
¹²⁶
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
¹³⁰
Romans that have spoke the word

And will not
palter
¹³¹
? And what other oath

Than honesty to honesty
engaged
¹³²
,

That this shall be, or we will
fall
¹³³
for it?

Swear
priests and cowards, and men
cautelous
¹³⁴
,

Old feeble
carrions
¹³⁵
, and such suffering souls

That welcome wrongs: unto bad causes swear

Such creatures as men doubt
¹³⁷
. But do not stain

The
even
¹³⁸
virtue of our enterprise,

Nor
th’insuppressive
¹³⁹
mettle of our spirits,

To think that
or
¹⁴⁰
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
¹⁴³

If he do break the smallest particle

Of any promise that hath passed from him.

CASSIUS
    But what of Cicero? Shall we
sound
¹⁴⁶
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
¹⁵⁰

Will purchase us a good opinion,

And buy men’s voices to commend our deeds:

It shall be said his judgement ruled our hands.

Our youths and wildness shall no whit appear,

But all be buried in his
gravity
¹⁵⁵
.

BRUTUS
    O, name him not: let us not
break
¹⁵⁶
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
touched
¹⁶¹
, but only Caesar?

CASSIUS
    Decius, well urged.— I think it is not
meet
¹⁶²

Mark Antony, so well beloved of Caesar,

Should outlive Caesar. We shall find of him

A
shrewd contriver
. And you know his
means
¹⁶⁵

If he
improve
¹⁶⁶
them may well stretch so far

As to
annoy
¹⁶⁷
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
¹⁷¹
afterwards —

For Antony is but a limb of Caesar.

Let’s be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius.

We all stand up against the
spirit
¹⁷⁴
of Caesar,

And in the
spirit
¹⁷⁵
of men there is no blood.

O, that we then could come by Caesar’s spirit

And not dismember Caesar! But, alas,

Caesar must bleed for it. And, gentle friends,

Let’s kill him boldly, but not wrathfully:

Let’s carve him as a dish fit for the gods,

Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds.

And let our hearts, as
subtle
¹⁸²
masters do,

Stir up
their servants
¹⁸³
to an act of rage

And after seem to
chide
¹⁸⁴
’em. This shall make

Our
purpose
¹⁸⁵
necessary, and not envious,

Which so appearing to the common eyes,

We shall be called
purgers
¹⁸⁷
, not murderers.

And for Mark Antony, think not of him,

For he can do no more than Caesar’s arm

When Caesar’s head is off.

CASSIUS
    Yet I fear him,

For in the
ingrafted
¹⁹²
love he bears to Caesar —

BRUTUS
    Alas, good Cassius, do not think of him:

If he love Caesar, all that he can do

Is to himself;
take thought
¹⁹⁵
and die for Caesar.

And
that were much he should
¹⁹⁶
, for he is given

To sports, to wildness and much company.

TREBONIUS
    There is
no fear
¹⁹⁸
in him; let him not die,

For he will live and laugh at this hereafter.

BRUTUS
    Peace! Count the clock.

CASSIUS
    The clock hath stricken three.

TREBONIUS
    ’Tis time to part.

CASSIUS
    But it is doubtful yet

Whether Caesar will come forth today or no,

For he is superstitious grown of late,

Quite
from the main
²⁰⁶
opinion he held once

Of fantasy, of dreams and
ceremonies
²⁰⁷
.

It may be these
apparent
²⁰⁸
prodigies,

The unaccustomed terror of this night

And the persuasion of his
augurers
²¹⁰
,

May hold him from the Capitol today.

DECIUS
    Never fear that. If he be so resolved,

I can
o’ersway him
²¹³
, for he loves to hear

That
unicorns may be betrayed with trees
²¹⁴
,

And bears with
glasses
, elephants with
holes
²¹⁵
,

Lions with
toils
²¹⁶
and men with flatterers.

But when I tell him he hates flatterers,

He says he does, being then most flattered.

Let me work,

For I can give his
humour
the
true bent
²²⁰
,

And I will bring him to the Capitol.

CASSIUS
    Nay, we will all of us be there to fetch him.

BRUTUS
    By the eighth hour. Is that the
uttermost
²²³
?

CINNA
    Be that the uttermost, and fail not then.

METELLUS
    Caius Ligarius doth
bear Caesar hard
²²⁵
,

Who
rated
²²⁶
him for speaking well of Pompey.

I wonder none of you have thought of him.

BRUTUS
    Now, good Metellus, go along
by
²²⁸
him:

He loves me well, and I have given him
reasons
²²⁹
.

Send him but hither and I’ll
fashion him
²³⁰
.

CASSIUS
    The morning comes
upon’s
²³¹
: we’ll leave you, Brutus.—

And, friends, disperse yourselves; but all remember

What you have said, and show yourselves true Romans.

BRUTUS
    Good gentlemen, look fresh and merrily.

Let not our looks
put on
²³⁵
our purposes,

But bear it as our Roman actors do,

With
untired
spirits and
formal constancy
²³⁷
.

And so good morrow to you every one.—