The Tragedy of Julius Caesar/Act I

SCENE I. Rome. A street.
[Enter Flavius, Marullus, and a Throng of Citizens.]

FLAVIUS.
 * Hence! home, you idle creatures, get you home!
 * Is this a holiday? What! know you not,
 * Being mechanical, you ought not walk
 * Upon a laboring day without the sign
 * Of your profession?—Speak, what trade art thou?

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * Why, sir, a carpenter.

MARULLUS.
 * Where is thy leather apron and thy rule?
 * What dost thou with thy best apparel on?—
 * You, sir; what trade are you?

SECOND CITIZEN.
 * Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but, as you
 * would say, a cobbler.

MARULLUS.
 * But what trade art thou? Answer me directly.

SECOND CITIZEN.
 * A trade, sir, that, I hope, I may use with a safe
 * conscience, which is indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles.

MARULLUS.
 * What trade, thou knave? Thou naughty knave, what trade?

SECOND CITIZEN.
 * Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me; yet,
 * if you be out, sir, I can mend you.

MARULLUS.
 * What mean'st thou by that? Mend me, thou saucy fellow!

SECOND CITIZEN.
 * Why, sir, cobble you.

FLAVIUS.
 * Thou art a cobbler, art thou?

SECOND CITIZEN.
 * Truly, Sir, all that I live by is with the awl; I meddle with
 * no tradesman's matters, nor women's matters, but with awl.
 * I am indeed, sir, a surgeon to old shoes; when they are in
 * great danger, I re-cover them. As proper men as ever trod upon
 * neat's-leather have gone upon my handiwork.

FLAVIUS.
 * But wherefore art not in thy shop today?
 * Why dost thou lead these men about the streets?

SECOND CITIZEN.
 * Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes to get myself into more
 * work. But indeed, sir, we make holiday to see Caesar and to
 * rejoice in his triumph.

MARULLUS.
 * Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home?
 * What tributaries follow him to Rome,
 * To grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels?
 * You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!
 * O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,
 * Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft
 * Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements,
 * To towers and windows, yea, to chimney tops,
 * Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
 * The livelong day with patient expectation
 * To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome.
 * And when you saw his chariot but appear,
 * Have you not made an universal shout
 * That Tiber trembled underneath her banks
 * To hear the replication of your sounds
 * Made in her concave shores?
 * And do you now put on your best attire?
 * And do you now cull out a holiday?
 * And do you now strew flowers in his way
 * That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood?
 * Be gone!
 * Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,
 * Pray to the gods to intermit the plague
 * That needs must light on this ingratitude.

FLAVIUS.
 * Go, go, good countrymen, and, for this fault,
 * Assemble all the poor men of your sort,
 * Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears
 * Into the channel, till the lowest stream
 * Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.

[Exeunt CITIZENS.]

See whether their basest metal be not moved;
 * They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.
 * Go you down that way towards the Capitol;
 * This way will I. Disrobe the images,
 * If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies.

MARULLUS.
 * May we do so?
 * You know it is the feast of Lupercal.

FLAVIUS.
 * It is no matter; let no images
 * Be hung with Caesar's trophies. I'll about
 * And drive away the vulgar from the streets;
 * So do you too, where you perceive them thick.
 * These growing feathers pluck'd from Caesar's wing
 * Will make him fly an ordinary pitch,
 * Who else would soar above the view of men,
 * And keep us all in servile fearfulness.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE II. The same. A public place.
[Enter, in procession, with music, Caesar; Antony, for the course; Calpurnia, Portia, Decius, Cicero, Brutus, Cassius, and Casca; a great crowd following, among them a Soothsayer.]

CAESAR.
 * Calpurnia,—

CASCA.
 * Peace, ho! Caesar speaks.

[Music ceases.]

CAESAR.
 * Calpurnia,—

CALPURNIA.
 * Here, my lord.

CAESAR.
 * Stand you directly in Antonius' way,
 * When he doth run his course.—Antonius,—

ANTONY.
 * Caesar, my lord?

CAESAR.
 * Forget not in your speed, Antonius,
 * To touch Calpurnia; for our elders say,
 * The barren, touched in this holy chase,
 * Shake off their sterile curse.

ANTONY.
 * I shall remember.
 * When Caesar says "Do this," it is perform'd.

CAESAR.
 * Set on; and leave no ceremony out.

[Music.]

SOOTHSAYER.
 * Caesar!

CAESAR.
 * Ha! Who calls?

CASCA.
 * Bid every noise be still.—Peace yet again!

[Music ceases.]

CAESAR.
 * Who is it in the press that calls on me?
 * I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music,
 * Cry "Caesar"! Speak, Caesar is turn'd to hear.

SOOTHSAYER.
 * Beware the Ides of March.

CAESAR.
 * What man is that?

BRUTUS.
 * A soothsayer bids you beware the Ides of March.

CAESAR.
 * Set him before me; let me see his face.

CASSIUS.
 * Fellow, come from the throng; look upon Caesar.

CAESAR.
 * What say'st thou to me now? Speak once again.

SOOTHSAYER.
 * Beware the Ides of March.

CAESAR.
 * He is a dreamer; let us leave him. Pass.

[Sennet. Exeunt all but BRUTUS and CASSIUS.]

CASSIUS.
 * Will you go see the order of the course?

BRUTUS.
 * Not I.

CASSIUS.
 * I pray you, do.

BRUTUS.
 * I am not gamesome; I do lack some part
 * Of that quick spirit that is in Antony.
 * Let me not hinder, Cassius, your desires;
 * I'll leave you.

CASSIUS.
 * Brutus, I do observe you now of late:
 * I have not from your eyes that gentleness
 * And show of love as I was wont to have:
 * You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand
 * Over your friend that loves you.

BRUTUS.
 * Cassius,
 * Be not deceived: if I have veil'd my look,
 * I turn the trouble of my countenance
 * Merely upon myself. Vexed I am
 * Of late with passions of some difference,
 * Conceptions only proper to myself,
 * Which give some soil perhaps to my behaviors;
 * But let not therefore my good friends be grieved—
 * Among which number, Cassius, be you one—
 * Nor construe any further my neglect,
 * Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war,
 * Forgets the shows of love to other men.

CASSIUS.
 * Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your passion;
 * By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried
 * Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations.
 * Tell me, good Brutus, can you see your face?

BRUTUS.
 * No, Cassius, for the eye sees not itself
 * But by reflection, by some other thing.

CASSIUS.
 * 'Tis just:
 * And it is very much lamented, Brutus,
 * That you have no such mirrors as will turn
 * Your hidden worthiness into your eye,
 * That you might see your shadow. I have heard
 * Where many of the best respect in Rome,—
 * Except immortal Caesar!— speaking of Brutus,
 * And groaning underneath this age's yoke,
 * Have wish'd that noble Brutus had his eyes.

BRUTUS.
 * Into what dangers would you lead me, Cassius,
 * That you would have me seek into myself
 * For that which is not in me?

CASSIUS.
 * Therefore, good Brutus, be prepared to hear;
 * And since you know you cannot see yourself
 * So well as by reflection, I, your glass,
 * Will modestly discover to yourself
 * That of yourself which you yet know not of.
 * And be not jealous on me, gentle Brutus;
 * Were I a common laugher, or did use
 * To stale with ordinary oaths my love
 * To every new protester; if you know
 * That I do fawn on men, and hug them hard
 * And after scandal them; or if you know
 * That I profess myself, in banqueting,
 * To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.

[Flourish and shout.]

BRUTUS.
 * What means this shouting? I do fear the people
 * Choose Caesar for their king.

CASSIUS.
 * Ay, do you fear it?
 * Then must I think you would not have it so.

BRUTUS.
 * I would not, Cassius; yet I love him well,
 * But wherefore do you hold me here so long?
 * What is it that you would impart to me?
 * If it be aught toward the general good,
 * Set honor in one eye and death i' the other
 * And I will look on both indifferently;
 * For let the gods so speed me as I love
 * The name of honor more than I fear death.

CASSIUS.
 * I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,
 * As well as I do know your outward favor.
 * Well, honor is the subject of my story.
 * I cannot tell what you and other men
 * Think of this life; but, for my single self,
 * I had as lief not be as live to be
 * In awe of such a thing as I myself.
 * I was born free as Caesar; so were you:
 * We both have fed as well; and we can both
 * Endure the winter's cold as well as he:
 * For once, upon a raw and gusty day,
 * The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores,
 * Caesar said to me, "Darest thou, Cassius, now
 * Leap in with me into this angry flood
 * And swim to yonder point?" Upon the word,
 * Accoutred as I was, I plunged in,
 * And bade him follow: so indeed he did.
 * The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it
 * With lusty sinews, throwing it aside
 * And stemming it with hearts of controversy;
 * But ere we could arrive the point proposed,
 * Caesar cried, "Help me, Cassius, or I sink!
 * I, as Aeneas, our great ancestor,
 * Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder
 * The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber
 * Did I the tired Caesar: and this man
 * Is now become a god; and Cassius is
 * A wretched creature, and must bend his body,
 * If Caesar carelessly but nod on him.
 * He had a fever when he was in Spain;
 * And when the fit was on him I did mark
 * How he did shake: 'tis true, this god did shake:
 * His coward lips did from their color fly;
 * And that same eye whose bend doth awe the world
 * Did lose his luster. I did hear him groan:
 * Ay, and that tongue of his that bade the Romans
 * Mark him, and write his speeches in their books,
 * Alas, it cried, "Give me some drink, Titinius,"
 * As a sick girl.—Ye gods, it doth amaze me,
 * A man of such a feeble temper should
 * So get the start of the majestic world,
 * And bear the palm alone.

[Shout. Flourish.]

BRUTUS.
 * Another general shout!
 * I do believe that these applauses are
 * For some new honors that are heap'd on Caesar.

CASSIUS.
 * Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
 * Like a Colossus; and we petty men
 * Walk under his huge legs and peep about
 * To find ourselves dishonorable graves.
 * Men at some time are masters of their fates:
 * The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
 * But in ourselves,that we are underlings.
 * "Brutus" and "Caesar": what should be in that "Caesar"?
 * Why should that name be sounded more than yours?
 * Write them together, yours is as fair a name;
 * Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well;
 * Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with them,
 * "Brutus" will start a spirit as soon as "Caesar."
 * Now, in the names of all the gods at once,
 * Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed
 * That he is grown so great? Age, thou art shamed!
 * Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!
 * When went there by an age since the great flood,
 * But it was famed with more than with one man?
 * When could they say, till now, that talk'd of Rome,
 * That her wide walls encompass'd but one man?
 * Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough,
 * When there is in it but one only man.
 * O, you and I have heard our fathers say
 * There was a Brutus once that would have brook'd
 * Th' eternal devil to keep his state in Rome,
 * As easily as a king!

BRUTUS.
 * That you do love me, I am nothing jealous;
 * What you would work me to, I have some aim:
 * How I have thought of this, and of these times,
 * I shall recount hereafter; for this present,
 * I would not, so with love I might entreat you,
 * Be any further moved. What you have said,
 * I will consider; what you have to say,
 * I will with patience hear; and find a time
 * Both meet to hear and answer such high things.
 * Till then, my noble friend, chew upon this:
 * Brutus had rather be a villager
 * Than to repute himself a son of Rome
 * Under these hard conditions as this time
 * Is like to lay upon us.

CASSIUS.
 * I am glad that my weak words
 * Have struck but thus much show of fire from Brutus.

BRUTUS.
 * The games are done, and Caesar is returning.

CASSIUS.
 * As they pass by, pluck Casca by the sleeve;
 * And he will, after his sour fashion, tell you
 * What hath proceeded worthy note today.

[Re-enter Caesar and his Train.]

BRUTUS.
 * I will do so.—But, look you, Cassius,
 * The angry spot doth glow on Caesar's brow,
 * And all the rest look like a chidden train:
 * Calpurnia's cheek is pale; and Cicero
 * Looks with such ferret and such fiery eyes
 * As we have seen him in the Capitol,
 * Being cross'd in conference by some senators.

CASSIUS.
 * Casca will tell us what the matter is.

CAESAR.
 * Antonius,—

ANTONY.
 * Caesar?

CAESAR.
 * Let me have men about me that are fat;
 * Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights:
 * Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
 * He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.

ANTONY.
 * Fear him not, Caesar; he's not dangerous;
 * He is a noble Roman and well given.

CAESAR.
 * Would he were fatter! But I fear him not:
 * Yet, if my name were liable to fear,
 * I do not know the man I should avoid
 * So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much;
 * He is a great observer, and he looks
 * Quite through the deeds of men: he loves no plays,
 * As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music:
 * Seldom he smiles; and smiles in such a sort
 * As if he mock'd himself and scorn'd his spirit
 * That could be moved to smile at any thing.
 * Such men as he be never at heart's ease
 * Whiles they behold a greater than themselves;
 * And therefore are they very dangerous.
 * I rather tell thee what is to be fear'd
 * Than what I fear, for always I am Caesar.
 * Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf,
 * And tell me truly what thou think'st of him.

[Exeunt Caesar and his Train. Casca stays.]

CASCA.
 * You pull'd me by the cloak; would you speak with me?

BRUTUS.
 * Ay, Casca, tell us what hath chanced today,
 * That Caesar looks so sad.

CASCA.
 * Why, you were with him, were you not?

BRUTUS.
 * I should not then ask Casca what had chanced.

CASCA.
 * Why, there was a crown offer'd him; and being offer'd him,
 * he put it by with the back of his hand, thus; and then the
 * people fell a-shouting.

BRUTUS.
 * What was the second noise for?

CASCA.
 * Why, for that too.

CASSIUS.
 * They shouted thrice: what was the last cry for?

CASCA.
 * Why, for that too.

BRUTUS.
 * Was the crown offer'd him thrice?

CASCA.
 * Ay, marry, was't, and he put it by thrice, every time gentler
 * than other; and at every putting-by mine honest neighbors
 * shouted.

CASSIUS.
 * Who offer'd him the crown?

CASCA.
 * Why, Antony.

BRUTUS.
 * Tell us the manner of it, gentle Casca.

CASCA.
 * I can as well be hang'd, as tell the manner of it: it was
 * mere foolery; I did not mark it. I saw Mark Antony offer him a
 * crown;—yet 'twas not a crown neither, 'twas one of these
 * coronets;—and, as I told you, he put it by once: but, for all
 * that, to my thinking, he would fain have had it. Then he
 * offered it to him again: then he put it by again: but, to my
 * thinking, he was very loath to lay his fingers off it. And then
 * he offered it the third time; he put it the third time by; and
 * still, as he refused it, the rabblement shouted, and clapp'd
 * their chopt hands, and threw up their sweaty night-caps, and
 * uttered such a deal of stinking breath because Caesar refused
 * the crown, that it had almost choked Caesar, for he swooned and
 * fell down at it: and for mine own part, I durst not laugh for
 * fear of opening my lips and receiving the bad air.

CASSIUS.
 * But, soft! I pray you. What, did Caesar swoon?

CASCA.
 * He fell down in the market-place, and foam'd at mouth, and was
 * speechless.

BRUTUS.
 * 'Tis very like: he hath the falling-sickness.

CASSIUS.
 * No, Caesar hath it not; but you, and I,
 * And honest Casca, we have the falling-sickness.

CASCA.
 * I know not what you mean by that; but I am sure Caesar fell
 * down. If the tag-rag people did not clap him and hiss him,
 * according as he pleased and displeased them, as they use to do
 * the players in the theatre, I am no true man.

BRUTUS.
 * What said he when he came unto himself?

CASCA.
 * Marry, before he fell down, when he perceived the common
 * herd was glad he refused the crown, he pluck'd me ope his
 * doublet, and offered them his throat to cut: an I had been a
 * man of any occupation, if I would not have taken him at a word,
 * I would I might go to hell among the rogues:—and so he fell.
 * When he came to himself again, he said, if he had done or said
 * any thing amiss, he desired their worships to think it was his
 * infirmity. Three or four wenches where I stood cried, "Alas,
 * good soul!" and forgave him with all their hearts. But there's
 * no heed to be taken of them: if Caesar had stabb'd their
 * mothers, they would have done no less.

BRUTUS.
 * And, after that he came, thus sad away?

CASCA.
 * Ay.

CASSIUS.
 * Did Cicero say any thing?

CASCA.
 * Ay, he spoke Greek.

CASSIUS.
 * To what effect?

CASCA.
 * Nay, an I tell you that, I'll ne'er look you i' the face
 * again: but those that understood him smiled at one another and
 * shook their heads; but for mine own part, it was Greek to me. I
 * could tell you more news too: Marullus and Flavius, for pulling
 * scarfs off Caesar's images, are put to silence. Fare you well.
 * There was more foolery yet, if could remember it.

CASSIUS.
 * Will you sup with me tonight, Casca?

CASCA.
 * No, I am promised forth.

CASSIUS.
 * Will you dine with me tomorrow?

CASCA.
 * Ay, if I be alive, and your mind hold, and your dinner worth
 * the eating.

CASSIUS.
 * Good; I will expect you.

CASCA.
 * Do so; farewell both.

[Exit CASCA.]

BRUTUS.
 * What a blunt fellow is this grown to be!
 * He was quick mettle when he went to school.

CASSIUS.
 * So is he now in execution
 * Of any bold or noble enterprise,
 * However he puts on this tardy form.
 * This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit,
 * Which gives men stomach to digest his words
 * With better appetite.

BRUTUS.
 * And so it is. For this time I will leave you:
 * Tomorrow, if you please to speak with me,
 * I will come home to you; or, if you will,
 * Come home to me, and I will wait for you.

CASSIUS.
 * I will do so: till then, think of the world.—

[Exit Brutus.]


 * Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see,
 * Thy honorable metal may be wrought,
 * From that it is disposed: therefore 'tis meet
 * That noble minds keep ever with their likes;
 * For who so firm that cannot be seduced?
 * Caesar doth bear me hard, but he loves Brutus;
 * If I were Brutus now and he were Cassius,
 * He should not humor me. I will this night,
 * In several hands, in at his windows throw,
 * As if they came from several citizens,
 * Writings all tending to the great opinion
 * That Rome holds of his name; wherein obscurely
 * Caesar's ambition shall be glanced at:
 * And after this let Caesar seat him sure;
 * For we will shake him, or worse days endure.

[Exit.]

SCENE III. The same. A street.
[Thunder and lightning. Enter, from opposite sides, CASCA, with his sword drawn, and CICERO.]

CICERO.
 * Good even, Casca: brought you Caesar home?
 * Why are you breathless, and why stare you so?

CASCA.
 * Are not you moved, when all the sway of earth
 * Shakes like a thing unfirm? O Cicero,
 * I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds
 * Have rived the knotty oaks; and I have seen
 * Th' ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam,
 * To be exalted with 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 with the gods,
 * Incenses them to send destruction.

CICERO.
 * Why, saw you anything more wonderful?

CASCA.
 * A common slave—you'd know him well by sight—
 * Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn
 * Like twenty torches join'd, and yet his hand
 * Not sensible of fire remain'd unscorch'd.
 * Besides,—I ha' not since put up my sword,—
 * Against the Capitol I met a lion,
 * Who glared upon me, and went surly by,
 * Without annoying me: and there were drawn
 * Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women,
 * Transformed with their fear; who swore they saw
 * Men, all in fire, walk up and down the streets.
 * And yesterday the bird of night did sit
 * Even at noonday upon the marketplace,
 * Howling and shrieking. When these prodigies
 * Do so conjointly meet, 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.

CICERO.
 * Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time.
 * But men may construe things after their fashion,
 * Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.
 * Comes Caesar to the Capitol tomorrow?

CASCA.
 * He doth, for he did bid Antonius
 * Send word to you he would be there to-morrow.

CICERO.
 * Good then, Casca: this disturbed 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 night is this!

CASSIUS.
 * A very pleasing night to honest men.

CASCA.
 * Who ever knew the heavens menace so?

CASSIUS.
 * Those that have known the earth so full of faults.
 * For my part, I have walk'd about the streets,
 * Submitting me unto the perilous night;
 * And, thus unbraced, Casca, as you see,
 * Have bared my bosom to the thunder-stone;
 * And when the cross blue lightning seem'd 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 send
 * Such dreadful heralds to astonish us.

CASSIUS.
 * You are dull, Casca;and those sparks of life
 * That should be in a Roman you do want,
 * Or else you use not. You look pale and gaze,
 * And put on fear and cast yourself in wonder,
 * To see the strange impatience 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;
 * Why old men, fools, and children calculate;—
 * Why all these things change from their ordinance,
 * Their natures, and preformed faculties
 * To monstrous 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. Now could I, Casca,
 * Name to thee a man most like this dreadful night;
 * That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars,
 * As doth the lion in the Capitol;
 * A man no mightier than thyself or me
 * In personal action; yet prodigious grown,
 * And fearful, as these strange eruptions are.

CASCA.
 * 'Tis Caesar that you mean; is it not, Cassius?

CASSIUS.
 * Let it be who it is: for Romans now
 * Have thews and limbs like to their ancestors;
 * But, woe the while! our fathers' minds are dead,
 * And we are govern'd with our mothers' spirits;
 * Our yoke and sufferance show us womanish.

CASCA.
 * Indeed they say the senators to-morrow
 * Mean to establish Caesar as a king;
 * And he shall wear his crown by sea and land,
 * In every place save here in Italy.

CASSIUS.
 * I know where I will wear this dagger then;
 * Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius:
 * Therein, 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 the strength of spirit;
 * But life, being weary of these worldly bars,
 * Never lacks power to dismiss itself.
 * If I know this, know all the world besides,
 * That part of tyranny that I do bear
 * I can shake off at pleasure.

[Thunders still.]

CASCA.
 * So can I:
 * So every bondman 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.
 * Those that with haste will make a mighty fire
 * Begin it with weak straws: what trash is Rome,
 * What rubbish, and what offal, when it serves
 * For the base matter to illuminate
 * So vile 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; but I am arm'd,
 * And dangers are to me indifferent.

CASCA.
 * You speak to Casca; and to such a man
 * That is no fleering tell-tale. Hold, my hand:
 * Be factious for redress of all these griefs;
 * And I will set this foot of mine as far
 * As who goes farthest.

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 honorable-dangerous consequence;
 * And I do know by this, they stay for me
 * In Pompey's Porch: for now, this fearful night,
 * There is no stir or walking in the streets;
 * And the complexion of the element
 * Is favor'd like the work we have in hand,
 * Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible.

CASCA.
 * Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste.

CASSIUS.
 * 'Tis Cinna; I do know him by his gait;
 * He is a friend.—

[Enter Cinna.]

Cinna, where haste you so?

CINNA.
 * To find out you. Who's that? Metellus Cimber?

CASSIUS.
 * No, it is Casca, one incorporate
 * To our attempts. Am I not stay'd for, Cinna?

CINNA.
 * I am glad on't. What a fearful night is this!
 * There's two or three of us have seen strange sights.

CASSIUS.
 * Am I not stay'd 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,
 * And look you lay it in the praetor's chair,
 * Where Brutus may but find it; and throw this
 * In at his window; set this up with wax
 * Upon old Brutus' statue: all this done,
 * Repair 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
 * 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 offense in us,
 * His countenance, like richest alchemy,
 * Will change to virtue and to worthiness.

CASSIUS.
 * Him, and his worth, and our great need of him,
 * You have right well conceited. Let us go,
 * For it is after midnight; and, ere day,
 * We will awake him, and be sure of him.

[Exeunt.]