The Tragedy of Julius Caesar/Act I

== 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.]
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