ACT III, SCENE I. Rome. Before the Capitol
[The Senate sitting above a crowd of people; among them ARTEMIDORUS and the Soothsayer.]
[Flourish.]
[Enter CAESAR, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, CASCA, DECIUS BRUTUS, METELLUS CIMBER,
TREBONIUS, CINNA, ANTONY, LEPIDUS, POPILIUS, PUBLIUS, and others]
CAESAR:
-
[To the Soothsayer]
- The ides of March are come.
Soothsayer:
- Ay, Caesar; but not gone.
ARTEMIDORUS:
- Hail, Caesar! read this schedule.
DECIUS BRUTUS:
- Trebonius doth desire you to o'erread,
- At your best leisure, this his humble suit.
ARTEMIDORUS:
- O Caesar, read mine first; for mine's a suit
- That touches Caesar nearer: read it, great Caesar.
CAESAR:
- What touches us ourself shall be last served.
ARTEMIDORUS:
- Delay not, Caesar; read it instantly.
CAESAR:
- What, is the fellow mad?
PUBLIUS:
- Sirrah, give place.
POPILIUS:
- I wish your enterprise to-day may thrive.
CASSIUS:
- What enterprise, Popilius?
POPILIUS:
- Fare you well.
-
[Advances to CAESAR]
BRUTUS:
- What said Popilius Lena?
CASSIUS:
- He wish'd to-day our enterprise might thrive.
- I fear our purpose is discovered.
BRUTUS:
- Look, how he makes to Caesar; mark him.
CASSIUS:
- Casca, be sudden, for we fear prevention.
- Brutus, what shall be done? If this be known,
- Cassius or Caesar never shall turn back,
- For I will slay myself.
BRUTUS:
- Cassius, be constant:
- Popilius Lena speaks not of our purposes;
- For, look, he smiles, and Caesar doth not change.
DECIUS BRUTUS:
- Where is Metellus Cimber? Let him go,
- And presently prefer his suit to Caesar.
BRUTUS:
- He is address'd: press near and second him.
CINNA:
- Casca, you are the first that rears your hand.
CAESAR:
- Are we all ready? What is now amiss
- That Caesar and his senate must redress?
METELLUS CIMBER:
- Most high, most mighty, and most puissant Caesar,
- Metellus Cimber throws before thy seat
- An humble heart,--
-
[Kneeling]
CAESAR:
- I must prevent thee, Cimber.
- These couchings and these lowly courtesies
- Might fire the blood of ordinary men,
- And turn pre-ordinance and first decree
- Into the law of children. Be not fond,
- To think that Caesar bears such rebel blood
- That will be thaw'd from the true quality
- With that which melteth fools; I mean, sweet words,
- Low-crooked court'sies and base spaniel-fawning.
- Thy brother by decree is banished:
- If thou dost bend and pray and fawn for him,
- I spurn thee like a cur out of my way.
- Know, Caesar doth not wrong, nor without cause
- Will he be satisfied.
METELLUS CIMBER:
- Is there no voice more worthy than my own
- To sound more sweetly in great Caesar's ear
- For the repealing of my banish'd brother?
BRUTUS:
- I kiss thy hand, but not in flattery, Caesar;
- Desiring thee that Publius Cimber may
- Have an immediate freedom of repeal.
CASSIUS:
- Pardon, Caesar; Caesar, pardon:
- As low as to thy foot doth Cassius fall,
- To beg enfranchisement for Publius Cimber.
CASSIUS:
- I could be well moved, if I were as you:
- If I could pray to move, prayers would move me:
- But I am constant as the northern star,
- Of whose true-fix'd and resting quality
- There is no fellow in the firmament.
- The skies are painted with unnumber'd sparks,
- They are all fire and every one doth shine,
- But there's but one in all doth hold his place:
- So in the world; 'tis furnish'd well with men,
- And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive;
- Yet in the number I do know but one
- That unassailable holds on his rank,
- Unshaked of motion: and that I am he,
- Let me a little show it, even in this;
- That I was constant Cimber should be banish'd,
- And constant do remain to keep him so.
CAESAR:
- Hence! wilt thou lift up Olympus?
DECIUS BRUTUS:
- Great Caesar,--
CAESAR:
- Doth not Brutus bootless kneel?
CAESAR:
- Et tu, Brute! Then fall, Caesar.
-
[Dies]
CINNA:
- Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!
- Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets.
CASSIUS:
- Some to the common pulpits, and cry out
- 'Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement!'
BRUTUS:
- People and senators, be not affrighted;
- Fly not; stand stiff: ambition's debt is paid.
CASCA:
- Go to the pulpit, Brutus.
DECIUS BRUTUS:
- And Cassius too.
CINNA:
- Here, quite confounded with this mutiny.
METELLUS CIMBER:
- Stand fast together, lest some friend of Caesar's
- Should chance--
BRUTUS:
- Talk not of standing. Publius, good cheer;
- There is no harm intended to your person,
- Nor to no Roman else: so tell them, Publius.
CASSIUS:
- And leave us, Publius; lest that the people,
- Rushing on us, should do your age some mischief.
BRUTUS:
- Do so: and let no man abide this deed,
- But we the doers.
-
[Re-enter TREBONIUS]
CASSIUS:
- Where is Antony?
TREBONIUS:
- Fled to his house amazed:
- Men, wives and children stare, cry out and run
- As it were doomsday.
BRUTUS:
- Fates, we will know your pleasures:
- That we shall die, we know; 'tis but the time
- And drawing days out, that men stand upon.
CASSIUS:
- Why, he that cuts off twenty years of life
- Cuts off so many years of fearing death.
BRUTUS:
- Grant that, and then is death a benefit:
- So are we Caesar's friends, that have abridged
- His time of fearing death. Stoop, Romans, stoop,
- And let us bathe our hands in Caesar's blood
- Up to the elbows, and besmear our swords:
- Then walk we forth, even to the market-place,
- And, waving our red weapons o'er our heads,
- Let's all cry 'Peace, freedom and liberty!'
CASSIUS:
- Stoop, then, and wash. How many ages hence
- Shall this our lofty scene be acted over
- In states unborn and accents yet unknown!
BRUTUS:
- How many times shall Caesar bleed in sport,
- That now on Pompey's basis lies along
- No worthier than the dust!
CASSIUS:
- So oft as that shall be,
- So often shall the knot of us be call'd
- The men that gave their country liberty.
DECIUS BRUTUS:
- What, shall we forth?
CASSIUS:
- Ay, every man away:
- Brutus shall lead; and we will grace his heels
- With the most boldest and best hearts of Rome.
-
[Enter a Servant]
BRUTUS:
- Soft! who comes here? A friend of Antony's.
Servant:
- Thus, Brutus, did my master bid me kneel:
- Thus did Mark Antony bid me fall down;
- And, being prostrate, thus he bade me say:
- Brutus is noble, wise, valiant, and honest;
- Caesar was mighty, bold, royal, and loving:
- Say I love Brutus, and I honour him;
- Say I fear'd Caesar, honour'd him and loved him.
- If Brutus will vouchsafe that Antony
- May safely come to him, and be resolved
- How Caesar hath deserved to lie in death,
- Mark Antony shall not love Caesar dead
- So well as Brutus living; but will follow
- The fortunes and affairs of noble Brutus
- Thorough the hazards of this untrod state
- With all true faith. So says my master Antony.
BRUTUS:
- Thy master is a wise and valiant Roman;
- I never thought him worse.
- Tell him, so please him come unto this place,
- He shall be satisfied; and, by my honour,
- Depart untouch'd.
Servant:
- I'll fetch him presently.
-
[Exit]
BRUTUS:
- I know that we shall have him well to friend.
CASSIUS:
- I wish we may: but yet have I a mind
- That fears him much; and my misgiving still
- Falls shrewdly to the purpose.
BRUTUS:
- But here comes Antony.
-
[Re-enter ANTONY]
- Welcome, Mark Antony.
ANTONY:
- O mighty Caesar! dost thou lie so low?
- Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils,
- Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well.
- I know not, gentlemen, what you intend,
- Who else must be let blood, who else is rank:
- If I myself, there is no hour so fit
- As Caesar's death hour, nor no instrument
- Of half that worth as those your swords, made rich
- With the most noble blood of all this world.
- I do beseech ye, if you bear me hard,
- Now, whilst your purpled hands do reek and smoke,
- Fulfil your pleasure. Live a thousand years,
- I shall not find myself so apt to die:
- No place will please me so, no mean of death,
- As here by Caesar, and by you cut off,
- The choice and master spirits of this age.
BRUTUS:
- O Antony, beg not your death of us.
- Though now we must appear bloody and cruel,
- As, by our hands and this our present act,
- You see we do, yet see you but our hands
- And this the bleeding business they have done:
- Our hearts you see not; they are pitiful;
- And pity to the general wrong of Rome--
- As fire drives out fire, so pity pity--
- Hath done this deed on Caesar. For your part,
- To you our swords have leaden points, Mark Antony:
- Our arms, in strength of malice, and our hearts
- Of brothers' temper, do receive you in
- With all kind love, good thoughts, and reverence.
CASSIUS:
- Your voice shall be as strong as any man's
- In the disposing of new dignities.
BRUTUS:
- Only be patient till we have appeased
- The multitude, beside themselves with fear,
- And then we will deliver you the cause,
- Why I, that did love Caesar when I struck him,
- Have thus proceeded.
ANTONY:
- I doubt not of your wisdom.
- Let each man render me his bloody hand:
- First, Marcus Brutus, will I shake with you;
- Next, Caius Cassius, do I take your hand;
- Now, Decius Brutus, yours: now yours, Metellus;
- Yours, Cinna; and, my valiant Casca, yours;
- Though last, not last in love, yours, good Trebonius.
- Gentlemen all,--alas, what shall I say?
- My credit now stands on such slippery ground,
- That one of two bad ways you must conceit me,
- Either a coward or a flatterer.
- That I did love thee, Caesar, O, 'tis true:
- If then thy spirit look upon us now,
- Shall it not grieve thee dearer than thy death,
- To see thy thy Anthony making his peace,
- Shaking the bloody fingers of thy foes,
- Most noble! in the presence of thy corse?
- Had I as many eyes as thou hast wounds,
- Weeping as fast as they stream forth thy blood,
- It would become me better than to close
- In terms of friendship with thine enemies.
- Pardon me, Julius! Here wast thou bay'd, brave hart;
- Here didst thou fall; and here thy hunters stand,
- Sign'd in thy spoil, and crimson'd in thy lethe.
- O world, thou wast the forest to this hart;
- And this, indeed, O world, the heart of thee.
- How like a deer, strucken by many princes,
- Dost thou here lie!
ANTONY:
- Pardon me, Caius Cassius:
- The enemies of Caesar shall say this;
- Then, in a friend, it is cold modesty.
CASSIUS:
- I blame you not for praising Caesar so;
- But what compact mean you to have with us?
- Will you be prick'd in number of our friends;
- Or shall we on, and not depend on you?
ANTONY:
- Therefore I took your hands, but was, indeed,
- Sway'd from the point, by looking down on Caesar.
- Friends am I with you all and love you all,
- Upon this hope, that you shall give me reasons
- Why and wherein Caesar was dangerous.
BRUTUS:
- Or else were this a savage spectacle:
- Our reasons are so full of good regard
- That were you, Antony, the son of Caesar,
- You should be satisfied.
ANTONY:
- That's all I seek:
- And am moreover suitor that I may
- Produce his body to the market-place;
- And in the pulpit, as becomes a friend,
- Speak in the order of his funeral.
BRUTUS:
- You shall, Mark Antony.
CASSIUS:
- Brutus, a word with you.
-
[Aside to BRUTUS]
- You know not what you do: do not consent
- That Antony speak in his funeral:
- Know you how much the people may be moved
- By that which he will utter?
BRUTUS:
- By your pardon;
- I will myself into the pulpit first,
- And show the reason of our Caesar's death:
- What Antony shall speak, I will protest
- He speaks by leave and by permission,
- And that we are contented Caesar shall
- Have all true rites and lawful ceremonies.
- It shall advantage more than do us wrong.
CASSIUS:
- I know not what may fall; I like it not.
BRUTUS:
- Mark Antony, here, take you Caesar's body.
- You shall not in your funeral speech blame us,
- But speak all good you can devise of Caesar,
- And say you do't by our permission;
- Else shall you not have any hand at all
- About his funeral: and you shall speak
- In the same pulpit whereto I am going,
- After my speech is ended.
ANTONY:
- Be it so.
- I do desire no more.
BRUTUS:
- Prepare the body then, and follow us.
-
[Exeunt all but ANTONY]
ANTONY:
- O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,
- That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!
- Thou art the ruins of the noblest man
- That ever lived in the tide of times.
- Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood!
- Over thy wounds now do I prophesy,--
- Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips,
- To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue--
- A curse shall light upon the limbs of men;
- Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
- Shall cumber all the parts of Italy;
- Blood and destruction shall be so in use
- And dreadful objects so familiar
- That mothers shall but smile when they behold
- Their infants quarter'd with the hands of war;
- All pity choked with custom of fell deeds:
- And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
- With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
- Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
- Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war;
- That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
- With carrion men, groaning for burial.
-
[Enter a Servant]
- You serve Octavius Caesar, do you not?
Servant:
- I do, Mark Antony.
ANTONY:
- Caesar did write for him to come to Rome.
Servant:
- He did receive his letters, and is coming;
- And bid me say to you by word of mouth--
- O Caesar!--
-
[Seeing the body]
ANTONY:
- Thy heart is big, get thee apart and weep.
- Passion, I see, is catching; for mine eyes,
- Seeing those beads of sorrow stand in thine,
- Began to water. Is thy master coming?
Servant:
- He lies to-night within seven leagues of Rome.