Table of Contents
ACT IV SCENE III Setting: Brutus's tent.
Enter BRUTUS and CASSIUS.
| CASSIUS | That you have wrong'd me doth appear in this: | |
| You have condemn'd and noted Lucius Pella | ||
| For taking bribes here of the Sardians; | ||
| Wherein my letters, praying on his side, | ||
| Because I knew the man, were slighted off. | 5 | |
| BRUTUS | You wronged yourself to write in such a case. | |
| CASSIUS | In such a time as this it is not meet | |
| That every nice offence should bear his comment. | ||
| BRUTUS | Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself | |
| Are much condemn'd to have an itching palm; | 10 | |
| To sell and mart your offices for gold | ||
| To undeservers. | ||
| CASSIUS | I an itching palm! | |
| You know that you are Brutus that speak this, | ||
| Or, by the gods, this speech were else your last. | ||
| BRUTUS | The name of Cassius honours this corruption, | |
| And chastisement doth therefore hide his head. | 16 | |
| CASSIUS | Chastisement! | |
| BRUTUS | Remember March, the ides of March remember: | |
| Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake? | ||
| What villain touch'd his body, that did stab, | 20 | |
| And not for justice? What, shall one of us | ||
| That struck the foremost man of all this world | ||
| But for supporting robbers, shall we now | ||
| Contaminate our fingers with base bribes, | ||
| And sell the mighty space of our large honours | 25 | |
| For so much trash as may be grasped thus? | ||
| I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon, | ||
| Than such a Roman. | ||
| CASSIUS | Brutus, bay not me; | |
| I'll not endure it: you forget yourself, | ||
| To hedge me in; I am a soldier, I, | 30 | |
| Older in practise, abler than yourself | ||
| To make conditions. | ||
| BRUTUS | Go to; you are not, Cassius. | |
| CASSIUS | I am. | |
| BRUTUS | I say you are not. | |
| CASSIUS | Urge me no more, I shall forget myself; | 35 |
| Have mind upon your health, tempt me no further. | ||
| BRUTUS | Away, slight man! | |
| CASSIUS | Is't possible? | |
| BRUTUS | Hear me, for I will speak. | |
| Must I give way and room to your rash choler? | ||
| Shall I be frighted when a madman stares? | 40 | |
| CASSIUS | O ye gods, ye gods! must I endure all this? | |
| BRUTUS | All this! ay, more: fret till your proud heart break; | |
| Go show your slaves how choleric you are, | ||
| And make your bondmen tremble. Must I budge? | ||
| Must I observe you? must I stand and crouch | 45 | |
| Under your testy humour? By the gods | ||
| You shall digest the venom of your spleen, | ||
| Though it do split you; for, from this day forth, | ||
| I'll use you for my mirth, yea, for my laughter, | ||
| When you are waspish. | ||
| CASSIUS | Is it come to this? | 50 |
| BRUTUS | You say you are a better soldier: | |
| Let it appear so; make your vaunting true, | ||
| And it shall please me well: for mine own part, | ||
| I shall be glad to learn of noble men. | ||
| CASSIUS | You wrong me every way; you wrong me, Brutus; | 55 |
| I said, an elder soldier, not a better: | ||
| Did I say 'better'? | ||
| BRUTUS | If you did, I care not. | |
| CASSIUS | When Caesar lived, he durst not thus have moved me. | |
| BRUTUS | Peace, peace! you durst not so have tempted him. | |
| CASSIUS | I durst not! | 60 |
| BRUTUS | No. | |
| CASSIUS | What, durst not tempt him! | |
| BRUTUS | For your life you durst not! | |
| CASSIUS | Do not presume too much upon my love; | |
| I may do that I shall be sorry for. | 65 | |
| BRUTUS | You have done that you should be sorry for. | |
| There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats, | ||
| For I am arm'd so strong in honesty | ||
| That they pass by me as the idle wind, | ||
| Which I respect not. I did send to you | ||
| For certain sums of gold, which you denied me: | 70 | |
| For I can raise no money by vile means: | ||
| By heaven, I had rather coin my heart, | ||
| And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring | ||
| From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash | ||
| By any indirection: I did send | 75 | |
| To you for gold to pay my legions, | ||
| Which you denied me: was that done like Cassius? | ||
| Should I have answer'd Caius Cassius so? | ||
| When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous, | ||
| To lock such rascal counters from his friends, | 80 | |
| Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts; | ||
| Dash him to pieces! | ||
| CASSIUS | I denied you not. | |
| BRUTUS | You did. | |
| CASSIUS | I did not: he was but a fool that brought | |
| My answer back. Brutus hath rived my heart: | 85 | |
| A friend should bear his friend's infirmities, | ||
| But Brutus makes mine greater than they are. | ||
| BRUTUS | I do not, till you practise them on me. | |
| CASSIUS | You love me not. | |
| BRUTUS | I do not like your faults. | |
| CASSIUS | A friendly eye could never see such faults. | 90 |
| BRUTUS | A flatterer's would not, though they do appear | |
| As huge as high Olympus. | ||
| CASSIUS | Come, Antony, and young Octavius, come, | |
| Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius, | ||
| For Cassius is aweary of the world; | 95 | |
| Hated by one he loves; braved by his brother; | ||
| Cheque'd like a bondman; all his faults observed, | ||
| Set in a note–book, learn'd, and conn'd by rote, | ||
| To cast into my teeth. O, I could weep | ||
| My spirit from mine eyes! There is my dagger, | 100 | |
| And here my naked breast; within, a heart | ||
| Dearer than Plutus' mine, richer than gold: | ||
| If that thou be'st a Roman, take it forth; | ||
| I, that denied thee gold, will give my heart: | ||
| Strike, as thou didst at Caesar; for, I know, | 105 | |
| When thou didst hate him worst, thou lovedst him better | ||
| Than ever thou lovedst Cassius. | ||
| BRUTUS | Sheathe your dagger: | |
| Be angry when you will, it shall have scope; | ||
| Do what you will, dishonour shall be humour. | ||
| O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb | 110 | |
| That carries anger as the flint bears fire; | ||
| Who, much enforced, shows a hasty spark, | ||
| And straight is cold again. | ||
| CASSIUS | Hath Cassius lived | |
| To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus, | ||
| When grief, and blood ill–temper'd, vexeth him? | ||
| BRUTUS | When I spoke that, I was ill–temper'd too. | 115 |
| CASSIUS | Do you confess so much? Give me your hand. | |
| BRUTUS | And my heart too. | |
| CASSIUS | O Brutus! | |
| BRUTUS | What's the matter? | |
| CASSIUS | Have not you love enough to bear with me, | |
| When that rash humour which my mother gave me | ||
| Makes me forgetful? | ||
| BRUTUS | Yes, Cassius; and, from henceforth, | 120 |
| When you are over–earnest with your Brutus, | ||
| He'll think your mother chides, and leave you so. | ||
| Poet | WithinLet me go in to see the generals; | |
| There is some grudge between 'em: 'tis not meet | ||
| They be alone. | ||
| LUCILIUS | WithinYou shall not come to them. | 125 |
| Poet | WithinNothing but death shall stay me. | |
| Enter Poet, followed by LUCILIUS, TITINIUS, and LUCIUS. | ||
| CASSIUS | How now! what's the matter? | |
| Poet | For shame, you generals! what do you mean? | |
| Love, and be friends, as two such men should be; | ||
| For I have seen more years, I'm sure, than ye. | 130 | |
| CASSIUS | Ha, ha! how vilely doth this cynic rhyme! | |
| BRUTUS | Get you hence, sirrah; saucy fellow, hence! | |
| CASSIUS | Bear with him, Brutus; 'tis his fashion. | |
| BRUTUS | I'll know his humour, when he knows his time: | |
| What should the wars do with these jigging fools? | 135 | |
| Companion, hence! | ||
| CASSIUS | Away, away, be gone. | |
| Exit Poet | ||
| BRUTUS | Lucilius and Titinius, bid the commanders | |
| Prepare to lodge their companies to–night. | ||
| CASSIUS | And come yourselves, and bring Messala with you | |
| Immediately to us. | ||
| Exeunt LUCILIUS and TITINIUS. | ||
| BRUTUS | Lucius, a bowl of wine! | |
| Exit LUCIUS. | ||
| CASSIUS | I did not think you could have been so angry. | 141 |
| BRUTUS | O Cassius, I am sick of many griefs. | |
| CASSIUS | Of your philosophy you make no use, | |
| If you give place to accidental evils. | ||
| BRUTUS | No man bears sorrow better. Portia is dead. | |
| CASSIUS | Ha! Portia! | |
| BRUTUS | She is dead. | |
| CASSIUS | How 'scaped I killing when I cross'd you so? | |
| O insupportable and touching loss! | ||
| Upon what sickness? | ||
| BRUTUS | Impatient of my absence, | 150 |
| And grief that young Octavius with Mark Antony | ||
| Have made themselves so strong: for with her death | ||
| That tidings came;––with this she fell distract, | ||
| And, her attendants absent, swallow'd fire. | ||
| CASSIUS | And died so? | |
| BRUTUS | Even so. | |
| CASSIUS | O ye immortal gods! | 155 |
| Re–enter LUCIUS, with wine and taper. | ||
| BRUTUS | Speak no more of her. Give me a bowl of wine. | |
| In this I bury all unkindness, Cassius. [Drinks.] | ||
| CASSIUS | My heart is thirsty for that noble pledge. | |
| Fill, Lucius, till the wine o'erswell the cup; | ||
| I cannot drink too much of Brutus' love. [Drinks.] | 160 | |
| BRUTUS | Come in, Titinius! | |
| Exit LUCIUS. | ||
| Re–enter TITINIUS, with MESSALA | ||
| Welcome, good Messala. | ||
| Now sit we close about this taper here, | ||
| And call in question our necessities. | ||
| CASSIUS | Portia, art thou gone? | |
| BRUTUS | No more, I pray you. | |
| Messala, I have here received letters, | 165 | |
| That young Octavius and Mark Antony | ||
| Come down upon us with a mighty power, | ||
| Bending their expedition toward Philippi. | ||
| MESSALA | Myself have letters of the selfsame tenor. | |
| BRUTUS | With what addition? | 170 |
| MESSALA | That by proscription and bills of outlawry, | |
| Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus, | ||
| Have put to death an hundred senators. | ||
| BRUTUS | Therein our letters do not well agree; | |
| Mine speak of seventy senators that died | 175 | |
| By their proscriptions, Cicero being one. | ||
| CASSIUS | Cicero one! | |
| MESSALA | Cicero is dead, | |
| And by that order of proscription. | ||
| Had you your letters from your wife, my lord? | ||
| BRUTUS | No, Messala. | 180 |
| MESSALA | Nor nothing in your letters writ of her? | |
| BRUTUS | Nothing, Messala. | |
| MESSALA | That, methinks, is strange. | |
| BRUTUS | Why ask you? hear you aught of her in yours? | |
| MESSALA | No, my lord. | 184 |
| BRUTUS | Now, as you are a Roman, tell me true. | |
| MESSALA | Then like a Roman bear the truth I tell: | |
| For certain she is dead, and by strange manner. | ||
| BRUTUS | Why, farewell, Portia. We must die, Messala: | |
| With meditating that she must die once, | ||
| I have the patience to endure it now. | 190 | |
| MESSALA | Even so great men great losses should endure. | |
| CASSIUS | I have as much of this in art as you, | |
| But yet my nature could not bear it so. | ||
| BRUTUS | Well, to our work alive. What do you think | |
| Of marching to Philippi presently? | ||
| CASSIUS | I do not think it good. | |
| BRUTUS | Your reason? | |
| CASSIUS | This it is: | |
| Tis better that the enemy seek us: | ||
| So shall he waste his means, weary his soldiers, | ||
| Doing himself offence; whilst we, lying still, | ||
| Are full of rest, defense, and nimbleness. | 200 | |
| BRUTUS | Good reasons must, of force, give place to better. | |
| The people 'twixt Philippi and this ground | ||
| Do stand but in a forced affection; | ||
| For they have grudged us contribution: | ||
| The enemy, marching along by them, | 205 | |
| By them shall make a fuller number up, | ||
| Come on refresh'd, new–added, and encouraged; | ||
| From which advantage shall we cut him off, | ||
| If at Philippi we do face him there, | ||
| These people at our back. | ||
| CASSIUS | Hear me, good brother. | 210 |
| BRUTUS | Under your pardon. You must note beside, | |
| That we have tried the utmost of our friends, | ||
| Our legions are brim–full, our cause is ripe: | ||
| The enemy increaseth every day; | ||
| We, at the height, are ready to decline. | 215 | |
| There is a tide in the affairs of men, | ||
| Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; | ||
| Omitted, all the voyage of their life | ||
| Is bound in shallows and in miseries. | ||
| On such a full sea are we now afloat; | 220 | |
| And we must take the current when it serves, | ||
| Or lose our ventures. | ||
| CASSIUS | Then, with your will, go on; | |
| We'll along ourselves, and meet them at Philippi. | ||
| BRUTUS | The deep of night is crept upon our talk, | |
| And nature must obey necessity; | 225 | |
| Which we will niggard with a little rest. | ||
| There is no more to say? | ||
| CASSIUS | No more. Good night: | |
| Early to–morrow will we rise, and hence. | ||
| BRUTUS | Lucius! | |
| Enter LUCIUS. | ||
| My gown. | ||
| Exit LUCIUS | ||
| Farewell, good Messala: | ||
| Good night, Titinius. Noble, noble Cassius, | 230 | |
| Good night, and good repose. | ||
| CASSIUS | O my dear brother! | |
| This was an ill beginning of the night: | ||
| Never come such division 'tween our souls! | ||
| Let it not, Brutus. | ||
| BRUTUS | Every thing is well. | |
| CASSIUS | Good night, my lord. | |
| BRUTUS | Good night, good brother. | 235 |
| TITINIUSMESSALA | | Good night, Lord Brutus. | |
| BRUTUS | Farewell, every one. | |
| Exeunt all but BRUTUS. | ||
| Re–enter LUCIUS, with the gown. | ||
| Give me the gown. Where is thy instrument? | ||
| LUCIUS | Here in the tent. | |
| BRUTUS | What, thou speak'st drowsily? | |
| Poor knave, I blame thee not; thou art o'er–watch'd. | ||
| Call Claudius and some other of my men: | 240 | |
| I'll have them sleep on cushions in my tent. | ||
| LUCIUS | Varro and Claudius! | |
| Enter VARRO and CLAUDIUS. | ||
| VARRO | Calls my lord? | |
| BRUTUS | I pray you, sirs, lie in my tent and sleep; | |
| It may be I shall raise you by and by | 245 | |
| On business to my brother Cassius. | ||
| VARRO | So please you, we will stand and watch your pleasure. | |
| BRUTUS | I will not have it so: lie down, good sirs; | |
| It may be I shall otherwise bethink me. | ||
| Look, Lucius, here's the book I sought for so; | 250 | |
| I put it in the pocket of my gown. | ||
| VARRO and CLAUDIUS lie down. | ||
| LUCIUS | I was sure your lordship did not give it me. | |
| BRUTUS | Bear with me, good boy, I am much forgetful. | |
| Canst thou hold up thy heavy eyes awhile, | ||
| And touch thy instrument a strain or two? | 255 | |
| LUCIUS | Ay, my lord, an't please you. | |
| BRUTUS | It does, my boy: | |
| I trouble thee too much, but thou art willing. | ||
| LUCIUS | It is my duty, sir. | |
| BRUTUS | I should not urge thy duty past thy might; | |
| I know young bloods look for a time of rest. | 260 | |
| LUCIUS | I have slept, my lord, already. | |
| BRUTUS | It was well done; and thou shalt sleep again; | |
| I will not hold thee long: if I do live, | ||
| I will be good to thee. | ||
| Music, and a song. | ||
| This is a sleepy tune. O murderous slumber, | ||
| Lay'st thou thy leaden mace upon my boy, | ||
| That plays thee music? Gentle knave, good night; | ||
| I will not do thee so much wrong to wake thee: | ||
| If thou dost nod, thou break'st thy instrument; | ||
| I'll take it from thee; and, good boy, good night. | 270 | |
| Let me see, let me see; is not the leaf turn'd down | ||
| Where I left reading? Here it is, I think. | ||
| Enter the Ghost of CAESAR. | ||
| How ill this taper burns! Ha! who comes here? | ||
| I think it is the weakness of mine eyes | ||
| That shapes this monstrous apparition. | 275 | |
| It comes upon me. Art thou any thing? | ||
| Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil, | ||
| That makest my blood cold and my hair to stare? | ||
| Speak to me what thou art. | ||
| GHOST | Thy evil spirit, Brutus. | |
| BRUTUS | Why comest thou? | 280 |
| GHOST | To tell thee thou shalt see me at Philippi. | |
| BRUTUS | Well; then I shall see thee again? | |
| GHOST | Ay, at Philippi. | |
| BRUTUS | Why, I will see thee at Philippi, then. | |
| Exit Ghost. | ||
| Now I have taken heart thou vanishest: | 285 | |
| Ill spirit, I would hold more talk with thee. | ||
| Boy, Lucius! Varro! Claudius! Sirs, awake! Claudius! | ||
| LUCIUS | The strings, my lord, are false. | |
| BRUTUS | He thinks he still is at his instrument. | 290 |
| Lucius, awake! | ||
| LUCIUS | My lord? | |
| BRUTUS | Didst thou dream, Lucius, that thou so criedst out? | |
| LUCIUS | My lord, I do not know that I did cry. | |
| BRUTUS | Yes, that thou didst: didst thou see any thing? | |
| LUCIUS | Nothing, my lord. | |
| BRUTUS | Sleep again, Lucius. Sirrah Claudius! | |
| To VARRO. | ||
| Fellow thou, awake! | ||
| VARRO | My lord? | |
| CLAUDIUS | My lord? | 300 |
| BRUTUS | Why did you so cry out, sirs, in your sleep? | |
| VARROCLAUDIUS | Did we, my lord? | |
| BRUTUS | Ay: saw you any thing? | |
| VARRO | No, my lord, I saw nothing. | |
| CLAUDIUS | Nor I, my lord. | |
| BRUTUS | Go and commend me to my brother Cassius; | |
| Bid him set on his powers betimes before, | 305 | |
| And we will follow. | ||
| VARROCLAUDIUS | It shall be done, my lord. | |
| Exeunt |