Julius Caesar | Page 8

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.]
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.
Th' 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