CASSIUS Will you go see the order of the course?
25
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;
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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
35
Over your friend, that loves you.
BRUTUS Cassius,
Be not deceived. If I have veiled my look,
I turn the trouble of my countenance
Merely upon myself. Vexed I am
Of late with passions of some difference,
40
Conceptions only proper to myself
Which give some soil, perhaps, to my behaviours.
But let not therefore my good friends be grieved
(Among which number, Cassius, be you one)
Nor construe any further my neglect
45
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.
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Tell me, good Brutus, can you see your face?
BRUTUS No, Cassius; for the eye sees not itself
But by reflection, by some other things.
CASSIUS ’Tis just,
And it is very much lamented, Brutus,
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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,
60
And groaning underneath this age’s yoke,
Have wished 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?
65
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.
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And be not jealous on me, gentle Brutus.
Were I a common laughter, 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,
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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?
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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,
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Set honour in one eye, and death i’th’ other,
And I will look on both indifferently.
For let the gods so speed me as I love
The name of honour more than I fear death.
CASSIUS I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,
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As well as I do know your outward favour.
Well, honour 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
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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,
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The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores,
Caesar said to me, ‘Dar’st 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
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And bade him follow; so indeed he did.
The torrent roared, 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
110
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
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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
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How he did shake. ’Tis true, this god did shake:
His coward lips did from their colour fly,
And that same eye, whose bend doth awe the world,
Did lose his lustre: I did hear him groan:
Ay, and that tongue of his that bade the Romans
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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
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And bear the palm alone. [Shout. Flourish.]
BRUTUS Another general shout?
I do believe that these applauses are
For some new honours that are heaped on Caesar.
CASSIUS Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a colossus, and we petty men
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Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable 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.
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‘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 ’em,
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‘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!
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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 talked of Rome,
That her wide walks encompassed but one man?
Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough,
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When there is in it but one only man.
O, you and I have heard our fathers say
There was a Bru
tus once that would have brooked
Th’eternal devil to keep his state in Rome
As easily as a king.
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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,
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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:
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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
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Of fire from Brutus.
Enter CAESAR and his train.
BRUTUS The games are done, and Caesar is returning.
CASSIUS As they pass by, pluck Caska by the sleeve,
And he will, after his sour fashion, tell you
What hath proceeded worthy note today.
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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:
Calphurnia’s cheek is pale, and Cicero
Looks with such ferret and such fiery eyes
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As we have seen him in the Capitol
Being crossed in conference by some senators.
CASSIUS Caska will tell us what the matter is.
CAESAR Antonio.
ANTONY Caesar.
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CAESAR Let me have men about me that are fat,
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep a-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.
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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,
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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 mocked himself and scorned his spirit
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That could be moved to smile at anything.
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 feared
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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.
Sennet. Exeunt Caesar and his train.
CASKA You pulled me by the cloak. Would you speak
with me?
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BRUTUS Ay, Caska, tell us what hath chanced today
That Caesar looks so sad.
CASKA Why, you were with him, were you not?
BRUTUS I should not then ask Caska what had
chanced.
CASKA Why, there was a crown offered him; and being
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offered 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?
CASKA Why, for that too.
CASSIUS
They shouted thrice: what was the last cry for?
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CASKA Why, for that too.
BRUTUS Was the crown offered him thrice?
CASKA Ay, marry, was’t, and he put it by thrice, every
time gentler than other; and at every putting-by, mine
honest neighbours shouted.
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CASSIUS Who offered him the crown?
CASKA Why, Antony.
BRUTUS Tell us the manner of it, gentle Caska.
CASKA I can as well be hanged as tell the manner of it.
It was mere foolery: I did not mark it. I saw Mark
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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
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 141
