Julius Caesar
Act II.
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
Scene ii. Caesar's house.
- Thunder and lightning. Enter Caesar, in his night-gown
- Caesar: Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace to-night:
- Thrice hath Calpurnia in her sleep cried out,
- 'Help, ho! they murder Caesar!' Who's within?
- Enter a Servant
- Servant: My lord?
- Caesar: Go bid the priests do present sacrifice
- And bring me their opinions of success.
- Servant: I will, my lord.
- Exit
- Enter Calpurnia
- Calpurnia: What mean you, Caesar? think you to walk forth?
- You shall not stir out of your house to-day.
- Caesar: Caesar shall forth: the things that threaten'd me
- Ne'er look'd but on my back; when they shall see
- The face of Caesar, they are vanished.
- Calpurnia: Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies,
- Yet now they fright me. There is one within,
- Besides the things that we have heard and seen,
- Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch.
- A lioness hath whelped in the streets;
- And graves have yawn'd, and yielded up their dead;
- Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds,
- In ranks and squadrons and right form of war,
- Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol;
- The noise of battle hurtled in the air,
- Horses did neigh, and dying men did groan,
- And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets.
- O Caesar! these things are beyond all use,
- And I do fear them.
- Caesar: What can be avoided
- Whose end is purposed by the mighty gods?
- Yet Caesar shall go forth; for these predictions
- Are to the world in general as to Caesar.
- Calpurnia: When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
- The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.
- Caesar: Cowards die many times before their deaths;
- The valiant never taste of death but once.
- Of all the wonders that I yet have heard.
- It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
- Seeing that death, a necessary end,
- Will come when it will come.
- Re-enter Servant
- What say the augurers?
- Servant: They would not have you to stir forth to-day.
- Plucking the entrails of an offering forth,
- They could not find a heart within the beast.
- Caesar: The gods do this in shame of cowardice:
- Caesar should be a beast without a heart,
- If he should stay at home to-day for fear.
- No, Caesar shall not: danger knows full well
- That Caesar is more dangerous than he:
- We are two lions litter'd in one day,
- And I the elder and more terrible:
- And Caesar shall go forth.
- Calpurnia: Alas, my lord,
- Your wisdom is consumed in confidence.
- Do not go forth to-day: call it my fear
- That keeps you in the house, and not your own.
- We'll send Mark Antony to the senate-house:
- And he shall say you are not well to-day:
- Let me, upon my knee, prevail in this.
- Caesar: Mark Antony shall say I am not well,
- And, for thy humour, I will stay at home.
- Enter Decius Brutus
- Here's Decius Brutus, he shall tell them so.
- Decius Brutus: Caesar, all hail! good morrow, worthy Caesar:
- I come to fetch you to the senate-house.
- Caesar: And you are come in very happy time,
- To bear my greeting to the senators
- And tell them that I will not come to-day:
- Cannot, is false, and that I dare not, falser:
- I will not come to-day: tell them so, Decius.
- Calpurnia: Say he is sick.
- Caesar: Shall Caesar send a lie?
- Have I in conquest stretch'd mine arm so far,
- To be afraid to tell graybeards the truth?
- Decius, go tell them Caesar will not come.
- Decius Brutus: Most mighty Caesar, let me know some cause,
- Lest I be laugh'd at when I tell them so.
- Caesar: The cause is in my will: I will not come;
- That is enough to satisfy the senate.
- But for your private satisfaction,
- Because I love you, I will let you know:
- Calpurnia here, my wife, stays me at home:
- She dreamt to-night she saw my statua,
- Which, like a fountain with an hundred spouts,
- Did run pure blood: and many lusty Romans
- Came smiling, and did bathe their hands in it:
- And these does she apply for warnings, and portents,
- And evils imminent; and on her knee
- Hath begg'd that I will stay at home to-day.
- Decius Brutus: This dream is all amiss interpreted;
- It was a vision fair and fortunate:
- Your statue spouting blood in many pipes,
- In which so many smiling Romans bathed,
- Signifies that from you great Rome shall suck
- Reviving blood, and that great men shall press
- For tinctures, stains, relics and cognizance.
- This by Calpurnia's dream is signified.
- Caesar: And this way have you well expounded it.
- Decius Brutus: I have, when you have heard what I can say:
- And know it now: the senate have concluded
- To give this day a crown to mighty Caesar.
- If you shall send them word you will not come,
- Their minds may change. Besides, it were a mock
- Apt to be render'd, for some one to say
- 'Break up the senate till another time,
- When Caesar's wife shall meet with better dreams.'
- If Caesar hide himself, shall they not whisper
- 'Lo, Caesar is afraid'?
- Pardon me, Caesar; for my dear dear love
- To our proceeding bids me tell you this;
- And reason to my love is liable.
- Caesar: How foolish do your fears seem now, Calpurnia!
- I am ashamed I did yield to them.
- Give me my robe, for I will go.
- Enter Publius, Brutus, Ligarius, Metellus, Casca, Trebonius, and Cinna
- And look where Publius is come to fetch me.
- Publius: Good morrow, Caesar.
- Caesar: Welcome, Publius.
- What, Brutus, are you stirr'd so early too?
- Good morrow, Casca. Caius Ligarius,
- Caesar was ne'er so much your enemy
- As that same ague which hath made you lean.
- What is 't o'clock?
- Brutus: Caesar, 'tis strucken eight.
- Caesar: I thank you for your pains and courtesy.
- Enter Antony
- See! Antony, that revels long o' nights,
- Is notwithstanding up. Good morrow, Antony.
- Antony: So to most noble Caesar.
- Caesar: Bid them prepare within:
- I am to blame to be thus waited for.
- Now, Cinna: now, Metellus: what, Trebonius!
- I have an hour's talk in store for you;
- Remember that you call on me to-day:
- Be near me, that I may remember you.
- Trebonius: Caesar, I will:
- Aside
- and so near will I be,
- That your best friends shall wish I had been further.
- Caesar: Good friends, go in, and taste some wine with me;
- And we, like friends, will straightway go together.
- Brutus: [Aside] That every like is not the same, O Caesar,
- The heart of Brutus yearns to think upon!
- Exeunt
Scene iii. A street near the Capitol.
- Enter Artemidorus, reading a paper
- Artemidorus: 'Caesar, beware of Brutus; take heed of Cassius;
- come not near Casca; have an eye to Cinna, trust not
- Trebonius: mark well Metellus Cimber: Decius Brutus
- loves thee not: thou hast wronged Caius Ligarius.
- There is but one mind in all these men, and it is
- bent against Caesar. If thou beest not immortal,
- look about you: security gives way to conspiracy.
- The mighty gods defend thee! Thy lover,
- 'Artemidorus.'
- Here will I stand till Caesar pass along,
- And as a suitor will I give him this.
- My heart laments that virtue cannot live
- Out of the teeth of emulation.
- If thou read this, O Caesar, thou mayst live;
- If not, the Fates with traitors do contrive.
- Exit
Scene iv. Another part of the same street, before the house of Brutus.
- Enter Portia and Lucius
- Portia: I prithee, boy, run to the senate-house;
- Stay not to answer me, but get thee gone:
- Why dost thou stay?
- Lucius: To know my errand, madam.
- Portia: I would have had thee there, and here again,
- Ere I can tell thee what thou shouldst do there.
- O constancy, be strong upon my side,
- Set a huge mountain 'tween my heart and tongue!
- I have a man's mind, but a woman's might.
- How hard it is for women to keep counsel!
- Art thou here yet?
- Lucius: Madam, what should I do?
- Run to the Capitol, and nothing else?
- And so return to you, and nothing else?
- Portia: Yes, bring me word, boy, if thy lord look well,
- For he went sickly forth: and take good note
- What Caesar doth, what suitors press to him.
- Hark, boy! what noise is that?
- Lucius: I hear none, madam.
- Portia: Prithee, listen well;
- I heard a bustling rumour, like a fray,
- And the wind brings it from the Capitol.
- Lucius: Sooth, madam, I hear nothing.
- Enter the Soothsayer
- Portia: Come hither, fellow: which way hast thou been?
- Soothsayer: At mine own house, good lady.
- Portia: What is't o'clock?
- Soothsayer: About the ninth hour, lady.
- Portia: Is Caesar yet gone to the Capitol?
- Soothsayer: Madam, not yet: I go to take my stand,
- To see him pass on to the Capitol.
- Portia: Thou hast some suit to Caesar, hast thou not?
- Soothsayer: That I have, lady: if it will please Caesar
- To be so good to Caesar as to hear me,
- I shall beseech him to befriend himself.
- Portia: Why, know'st thou any harm's intended towards him?
- Soothsayer: None that I know will be, much that I fear may chance.
- Good morrow to you. Here the street is narrow:
- The throng that follows Caesar at the heels,
- Of senators, of praetors, common suitors,
- Will crowd a feeble man almost to death:
- I'll get me to a place more void, and there
- Speak to great Caesar as he comes along.
- Exit
- Portia: I must go in. Ay me, how weak a thing
- The heart of woman is! O Brutus,
- The heavens speed thee in thine enterprise!
- Sure, the boy heard me: Brutus hath a suit
- That Caesar will not grant. O, I grow faint.
- Run, Lucius, and commend me to my lord;
- Say I am merry: come to me again,
- And bring me word what he doth say to thee.
- Exeunt
- --oOo-- -