Julius Caesar | Page 8

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 'tis a common proof,?That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,?Whereto the climber-upward turns his face;?But, when he once attains the upmost round,?He then unto the ladder turns his back,?Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees?By which he did ascend: so Caesar may;?Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since the quarrel?Will bear no color for the thing he is,?Fashion it thus,--that what he is, augmented,?Would run to these and these extremities:?And therefore think him as a serpent's egg?Which hatch'd, would, as his kind grow mischievous;?And kill him in the shell.
[Re-enter Lucius.]
LUCIUS.?The taper burneth in your closet, sir.?Searching the window for a flint I found?This paper thus seal'd up, and I am sure?It did not lie there when I went to bed.
BRUTUS.?Get you to bed again; it is not day.?Is not tomorrow, boy, the Ides of March?
LUCIUS.?I know not, sir.
BRUTUS.?Look in the calendar, and bring me word.
LUCIUS.?I will, sir.
[Exit.]
BRUTUS.?The exhalations, whizzing in the air?Give so much light that I may read by them.--
[Opens the letter and reads.]?"Brutus, thou sleep'st: awake and see thyself.?Shall Rome, &c. Speak, strike, redress--!?Brutus, thou sleep'st: awake!--"
Such instigations have been often dropp'd?Where I have took them up.?"Shall Rome, & c." Thus must I piece it out:?Shall Rome stand under one man's awe? What, Rome??My ancestors did from the streets of Rome?The Tarquin drive, when he was call'd a king.--?"Speak, strike, redress!"--Am I entreated, then,?To speak and strike? O Rome, I make