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Dramatis Personae
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Julius Caesar: Act 2 Scene 1
Scene I Rome. BRUTUS's orchard.
- [Enter BRUTUS]
- BRUTUS
- What, Lucius, ho!
- 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, Lucius, when? awake, I say! what, Lucius!
- [Enter LUCIUS]
- LUCIUS
- Call'd you, my lord?
- BRUTUS
- Get me a taper 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 death: and for my part,
- I know no personal cause to spurn at him,
- But for the general. He would be crown'd:
- 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;--
- And then, I grant, we put a sting in him,
- That at his will he may do danger with.
- The abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins
- Remorse from power: and, to speak truth of Caesar,
- I have not known when his affections sway'd
- More than his reason. But 'tis a common proof,
- That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,
- Whereto the climber-upward turns his face;
- But when he once attains the upmost round.
- He then unto the ladder turns his back,
- Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
- By which he did ascend. So Caesar may.
- Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since the quarrel
- Will bear no colour for the thing he is,
- Fashion it thus; that what he is, augmented,
- Would run to these and these extremities:
- And therefore think him as a serpent's egg
- Which, hatch'd, would, as his kind, grow mischievous,
- And kill him in the shell.
- [Re-enter LUCIUS]
- LUCIUS
- The taper burneth in your closet, sir.
- Searching the window for a flint, I found
- This paper, thus seal'd up; and, I am sure,
- It did not lie there when I went to bed.
- [Gives him the letter]
- BRUTUS
- Get you to bed again; it is not day.
- Is not to-morrow, boy, the ides of March?
- LUCIUS
- I know not, sir.
- BRUTUS
- Look in the calendar, and bring me word.
- LUCIUS
- I will, sir.
- [Exit]
- BRUTUS
- The exhalations whizzing in the air
- Give so much light that I may read by them.
- [Opens the letter and reads]
- 'Brutus, thou sleep'st: awake, and see thyself.
- Shall Rome, &c. Speak, strike, redress!
- Brutus, thou sleep'st: awake!'
- Such instigations have been often dropp'd
- Where I have took them up.
- 'Shall Rome, &c.' Thus must I piece it out:
- Shall Rome stand under one man's awe? What, Rome?
- My ancestors did from the streets of Rome
- The Tarquin drive, when he was call'd 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 at the hand of Brutus!
- [Re-enter LUCIUS]
- LUCIUS
- Sir, March is wasted fourteen days.
- [Knocking within]
- BRUTUS
- 'Tis good. Go to the gate; somebody knocks.
- [Exit LUCIUS]
- Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar,
- I have not slept.
- Between the acting of a dreadful thing
- And the first motion, all the interim is
- Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream:
- The Genius and the mortal instruments
- Are then in council; and the state of man,
- Like to a little kingdom, suffers then
- The nature of an insurrection.
- [Re-enter LUCIUS]
- LUCIUS
- Sir, 'tis your brother Cassius at the door,
- Who doth desire to see you.
- BRUTUS
- Is he alone?
- LUCIUS
- No, sir, there are moe with him.
- BRUTUS
- Do you know them?
- LUCIUS
- No, sir; their hats are pluck'd about their ears,
- And half their faces buried in their cloaks,
- That by no means I may discover them
- By any mark of favour.
- BRUTUS
- Let 'em enter.
- [Exit LUCIUS]
- They are the faction. O conspiracy,
- Shamest thou to show thy dangerous brow by night,
- When evils are most free? O, then by day
- Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough
- To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, conspiracy;
- Hide it in smiles and affability:
- For if thou path, thy native semblance on,
- Not Erebus itself were dim enough
- To hide thee from prevention.
- [Enter the conspirators, CASSIUS, CASCA, DECIUS
- BRUTUS, CINNA, METELLUS CIMBER, and TREBONIUS]
- CASSIUS
- I think we are too bold 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 do interpose themselves
- Betwixt your eyes and night?
- CASSIUS
- Shall I entreat a word?
- [BRUTUS and CASSIUS whisper]
- DECIUS BRUTUS
- Here lies the east: doth not the day break here?
- CASCA
- No.
- CINNA
- O, pardon, sir, it doth; and yon gray lines
- That fret the clouds are messengers of day.
- CASCA
- You shall confess that you are both deceived.
- Here, as I point my sword, the sun arises,
- Which is a great way growing on the south,
- Weighing 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, one by one.
- CASSIUS
- And let us swear our resolution.
- BRUTUS
- No, not an oath: if not the face of men,
- The sufferance of our souls, the time's abuse,--
- If these be motives weak, break off betimes,
- And every man hence to his idle bed;
- So let high-sighted tyranny range on,
- Till each man drop by lottery. But if these,
- As I am sure they do, bear fire enough
- To kindle cowards and to steel 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 Romans, that have spoke the word,
- And will not palter? and what other oath
- Than honesty to honesty engaged,
- That this shall be, or we will fall for it?
- Swear priests and cowards and men cautelous,
- Old feeble carrions and such suffering souls
- That welcome wrongs; unto bad causes swear
- Such creatures as men doubt; but do not stain
- The even virtue of our enterprise,
- Nor the insuppressive mettle of our spirits,
- To think that or 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,
- If he do break the smallest particle
- Of any promise that hath pass'd from him.
- CASSIUS
- But what of Cicero? shall we sound him?
- I think he will stand very strong with us.
- CASCA
- Let us not leave him out.
- CINNA
- No, by no means.
- METELLUS CIMBER
- O, let us have him, for his silver hairs
- Will purchase us a good opinion
- And buy men's voices to commend our deeds:
- It shall be said, his judgment ruled our hands;
- Our youths and wildness shall no whit appear,
- But all be buried in his gravity.
- BRUTUS
- O, name him not: let us not break with him;
- For he will never follow any thing
- That other men begin.
- CASSIUS
- Then leave him out.
- CASCA
- Indeed he is not fit.
- DECIUS BRUTUS
- Shall no man else be touch'd but only Caesar?
- CASSIUS
- Decius, well urged: I think it is not meet,
- Mark Antony, so well beloved of Caesar,
- Should outlive Caesar: we shall find of him
- A shrewd contriver; and, you know, his means,
- If he improve them, may well stretch so far
- As to annoy 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 afterwards;
- For Antony is but a limb of Caesar:
- Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius.
- We all stand up against the spirit of Caesar;
- And in the spirit 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 masters do,
- Stir up their servants to an act of rage,
- And after seem to chide 'em. This shall make
- Our purpose necessary and not envious:
- Which so appearing to the common eyes,
- We shall be call'd purgers, 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 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 and die for Caesar:
- And that were much he should; for he is given
- To sports, to wildness and much company.
- TREBONIUS
- There is no fear in him; let him not die;
- For he will live, and laugh at this hereafter.
- [Clock strikes]
- 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 to-day, or no;
- For he is superstitious grown of late,
- Quite from the main opinion he held once
- Of fantasy, of dreams and ceremonies:
- It may be, these apparent prodigies,
- The unaccustom'd terror of this night,
- And the persuasion of his augurers,
- May hold him from the Capitol to-day.
- DECIUS BRUTUS
- Never fear that: if he be so resolved,
- I can o'ersway him; for he loves to hear
- That unicorns may be betray'd with trees,
- And bears with glasses, elephants with holes,
- Lions with toils 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,
- 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?
- CINNA
- Be that the uttermost, and fail not then.
- METELLUS CIMBER
- Caius Ligarius doth bear Caesar hard,
- Who rated him for speaking well of Pompey:
- I wonder none of you have thought of him.
- BRUTUS
- Now, good Metellus, go along by him:
- He loves me well, and I have given him reasons;
- Send him but hither, and I'll fashion him.
- CASSIUS
- The morning comes upon 's: 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 our purposes,
- But bear it as our Roman actors do,
- With untired spirits and formal constancy:
- And so good morrow to you every one.
- [Exeunt all but BRUTUS]
- Boy! Lucius! Fast asleep? It is no matter;
- Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber:
- Thou hast no figures nor no fantasies,
- Which busy care draws in the brains of men;
- Therefore thou sleep'st so sound.
- [Enter PORTIA]
- PORTIA
- Brutus, my lord!
- BRUTUS
- Portia, what mean you? wherefore rise you now?
- It is not for your health thus to commit
- Your weak condition to the raw cold morning.
- PORTIA
- Nor for yours neither. You've ungently, Brutus,
- Stole from my bed: and yesternight, at supper,
- You suddenly arose, and walk'd about,
- Musing and sighing, with your arms across,
- And when I ask'd you what the matter was,
- You stared upon me with ungentle looks;
- I urged you further; then you scratch'd your head,
- And too impatiently stamp'd with your foot;
- Yet I insisted, yet you answer'd not,
- But, with an angry wafture of your hand,
- Gave sign for me to leave you: so I did;
- Fearing to strengthen that impatience
- Which seem'd too much enkindled, and withal
- Hoping it was but an effect of humour,
- Which sometime hath his hour with every man.
- It will not let you eat, nor talk, nor sleep,
- And could it work so much upon your shape
- As it hath much prevail'd on your condition,
- I should not know you, Brutus. Dear my lord,
- Make me acquainted with your cause of grief.
- BRUTUS
- I am not well in health, and that is all.
- PORTIA
- Brutus is wise, and, were he not in health,
- He would embrace the means to come by it.
- BRUTUS
- Why, so I do. Good Portia, go to bed.
- PORTIA
- Is Brutus sick? and is it physical
- To walk unbraced and suck up the humours
- Of the dank morning? What, is Brutus sick,
- And will he steal out of his wholesome bed,
- To dare the vile contagion of the night
- And tempt the rheumy and unpurged air
- To add unto his sickness? No, my Brutus;
- You have some sick offence within your mind,
- Which, by the right and virtue of my place,
- I ought to know of: and, upon my knees,
- I charm you, by my once-commended beauty,
- By all your vows of love and that great vow
- Which did incorporate and make us one,
- That you unfold to me, yourself, your half,
- Why you are heavy, and what men to-night
- Have had to resort to you: for here have been
- Some six or seven, who did hide their faces
- Even from darkness.
- BRUTUS
- Kneel not, gentle Portia.
- PORTIA
- I should not need, if you were gentle Brutus.
- Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus,
- Is it excepted I should know no secrets
- That appertain to you? Am I yourself
- But, as it were, in sort or limitation,
- To keep with you at meals, comfort your bed,
- And talk to you sometimes? Dwell I but in the suburbs
- Of your good pleasure? If it be no more,
- Portia is Brutus' harlot, not his wife.
- BRUTUS
- You are my true and honourable wife,
- As dear to me as are the ruddy drops
- That visit my sad heart
- PORTIA
- If this were true, then should I know this secret.
- I grant I am a woman; but withal
- A woman that Lord Brutus took to wife:
- I grant I am a woman; but withal
- A woman well-reputed, Cato's daughter.
- Think you I am no stronger than my sex,
- Being so father'd and so husbanded?
- Tell me your counsels, I will not disclose 'em:
- I have made strong proof of my constancy,
- Giving myself a voluntary wound
- Here, in the thigh: can I bear that with patience.
- And not my husband's secrets?
- BRUTUS
- O ye gods,
- Render me worthy of this noble wife!
- [Knocking within]
- Hark, hark! one knocks: Portia, go in awhile;
- And by and by thy bosom shall partake
- The secrets of my heart.
- All my engagements I will construe to thee,
- All the charactery of my sad brows:
- Leave me with haste.
- [Exit PORTIA]
- Lucius, who's that knocks?
- [Re-enter LUCIUS with LIGARIUS]
- LUCIUS
- He is a sick man that would speak with you.
- BRUTUS
- Caius Ligarius, that Metellus spake of.
- Boy, stand aside. Caius Ligarius! how?
- LIGARIUS
- Vouchsafe good morrow from a feeble tongue.
- BRUTUS
- O, what a time have you chose out, brave Caius,
- To wear a kerchief! Would you were not sick!
- LIGARIUS
- I am not sick, if Brutus have in hand
- Any exploit worthy the name of honour.
- BRUTUS
- Such an exploit have I in hand, Ligarius,
- Had you a healthful ear to hear of it.
- LIGARIUS
- By all the gods that Romans bow before,
- I here discard my sickness! Soul of Rome!
- Brave son, derived from honourable loins!
- Thou, like an exorcist, hast conjured up
- My mortified spirit. Now bid me run,
- And I will strive with things impossible;
- Yea, get the better of them. What's to do?
- BRUTUS
- A piece of work that will make sick men whole.
- LIGARIUS
- But are not some whole that we must make sick?
- BRUTUS
- That must we also. What it is, my Caius,
- I shall unfold to thee, as we are going
- To whom it must be done.
- LIGARIUS
- Set on your foot,
- And with a heart new-fired I follow you,
- To do I know not what: but it sufficeth
- That Brutus leads me on.
- BRUTUS
- Follow me, then.
- [Exeunt]
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