Julius Caesar, Act I Scene I

CASCA:
Are not you moved, when all the sway of earth
Shakes like a thing unfirm?

Upon the word,(110)
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in
And bade him follow.

For my part, I have walk'd about the streets,
Submitting me unto the perilous night,
And thus unbraced, Casca, as you see,(55)
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.

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,(70)
Why old men fool, 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(75)
To make them instruments of fear and warning
Scene III 22
Unto some monstrous state.

Enter Caesar; Antony for the course, Calpurnia, Portia, Decius, Cicero, Brutus, Cassius, Casca; a
Soothsayer; after them Marullus and Flavius.

SOOTHSAYER:
Beware the ides of March.

For my part, I have walk'd about the streets,
Submitting me unto the perilous night,
And thus unbraced, Casca, as you see,(55)
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.

CASSIUS:
'Tis just,
And it is very much lamented, Brutus,(60)
Scene II 12
That you have no such mirrors as will turn
Your hidden worthiness into your eye
That you might see your shadow.

These growing feathers pluck'd from Caesar's wing
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch,(75)
Who else would soar above the view of men
And keep us all in servile fearfulness.

CASCA:
You speak to Casca, and to such a man
That is no fleering tell-tale.

And when you saw his chariot but appear,(45)
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?

COBBLER:
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.

Go you down that way towards the Capitol;(65)
This way will I. Disrobe the images,
If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies.

See, whether their basest metal be not moved;
They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.

It was(240)
mere foolery; I did not mark it.

Vexed I am
Of late with passions of some difference,(45)
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(50)
Than that poor Brutus with himself at war
Forgets the shows of love to other men.

Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,(100)
Can be retentive to the strength of spirit;
But life, being weary of these worldly bars,
Never lacks power to dismiss itself.

COBBLER:
A trade, sir, that, I hope, I may use with a safe conscience,
which is indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles.

Scene I 9
Exeunt all the Commoners.

Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,(55)
Pray to the gods to intermit the plague
That needs must light on this ingratitude.

When these prodigies
Do so conjointly meet, let not men say(30)
“These are their reasons; they are natural,”
For, I believe, they are portentous things
Unto the climate that they point upon.

Upon the word,(110)
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in
And bade him follow.

See, whether their basest metal be not moved;
They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.

Our fathers' minds are dead,
And we are govern'd with our mothers' spirits;
Our yoke and sufferance show us womanish.(90)

Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,(100)
Can be retentive to the strength of spirit;
But life, being weary of these worldly bars,
Never lacks power to dismiss itself.

What trash is Rome,(115)
What rubbish and what offal, when it serves
For the base matter to illuminate
So vile a thing as Caesar?

CASSIUS:
Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your passion,
By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried
Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations.(55)

SOOTHSAYER:
Beware the ides of March.

Our fathers' minds are dead,
And we are govern'd with our mothers' spirits;
Our yoke and sufferance show us womanish.(90)

CASSIUS:
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Scene II 14
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.

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?”

CASCA:
Why, there was a crown offered him, and being offered
him: he put it by with the back of his hand, thus, and then
the people fell a-shouting.

I will this night,
In several hands, in at his windows throw,
As if they came from several citizens,(320)
Writings, all tending to the great opinion
That Rome holds of his name, wherein obscurely
Caesar's ambition shall be glanced at.

Men at some time are masters of their fates:(145)
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

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.

Be factious for redress of all these griefs,(125)
And I will set this foot of mine as far
As who goes farthest.

I have heard
Where many of the best respect in Rome,
Except immortal Caesar, speaking of Brutus,(65)
And groaning underneath this age's yoke,
Have wish'd that noble Brutus had his eyes.

O Cicero,
Scene III 20
I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds(5)
Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen
The 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.(10)

'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.

And when you saw his chariot but appear,(45)
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?

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,(70)
Why old men fool, 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(75)
To make them instruments of fear and warning
Scene III 22
Unto some monstrous state.

CASSIUS:
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Scene II 14
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.

MARULLUS:
What trade, thou knave?

I will this night,
In several hands, in at his windows throw,
As if they came from several citizens,(320)
Writings, all tending to the great opinion
That Rome holds of his name, wherein obscurely
Caesar's ambition shall be glanced at.

CASSIUS:
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Scene II 14
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.

As proper men as ever
trod upon neats-leather have gone upon my handiwork.

I do fear the people
Choose Caesar for their king.(85)

CASSIUS:
No, it is Casca, one incorporate
To our attempts.

Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see
Thy honorable metal may be wrought
From that it is disposed; therefore it is meet
That noble minds keep ever with their likes;
For who so firm that cannot be seduced?(315)

He was quick mettle when he went to school.

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.(265)

It doth amaze me
A man of such a feeble temper should(135)
So get the start of the majestic world
And bear the palm alone.

CASCA:
Bid every noise be still.

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?”

What trash is Rome,(115)
What rubbish and what offal, when it serves
For the base matter to illuminate
So vile a thing as Caesar?

Age, thou art shamed!

And do you now cull out a holiday?

O Cicero,
Scene III 20
I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds(5)
Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen
The 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.(10)

Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see
Thy honorable metal may be wrought
From that it is disposed; therefore it is meet
That noble minds keep ever with their likes;
For who so firm that cannot be seduced?(315)

Thunder and lightning.

When these prodigies
Do so conjointly meet, let not men say(30)
“These are their reasons; they are natural,”
For, I believe, they are portentous things
Unto the climate that they point upon.

Scene II 19
CASSIUS:
So is he now in execution(300)
Of any bold or noble enterprise,
However he puts on this tardy form.

But, look you, Cassius,
The angry spot doth glow on Caesar's brow,
And all the rest look like a chidden train:(190)
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.

For my part, I have walk'd about the streets,
Submitting me unto the perilous night,
And thus unbraced, Casca, as you see,(55)
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.

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(80)
And after scandal them, or if you know
That I profess myself in banqueting
To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.

And when you saw his chariot but appear,(45)
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?

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.

I have heard
Where many of the best respect in Rome,
Except immortal Caesar, speaking of Brutus,(65)
And groaning underneath this age's yoke,
Have wish'd that noble Brutus had his eyes.

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(80)
And after scandal them, or if you know
That I profess myself in banqueting
To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.

Either there is a civil strife in heaven,
Or else the world too saucy with the gods
Incenses them to send destruction.

Now could I, Casca, name to thee a man
Most like this dreadful night,
That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars(80)
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.

Besides—I ha' not since put up my sword—
Against the Capitol I met a lion,(20)
Who glazed 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.(25)

Scene I 9
Exeunt all the Commoners.

But, to my(245)
thinking, he was very loath to lay his fingers off it.

The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it
With lusty sinews, throwing it aside
And stemming it with hearts of controversy.(115)

CASCA:
Who ever knew the heavens menace so?

Write them together, yours is as fair a name;(150)
Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well;
Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with 'em,
Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Caesar.

Many a time and oft
Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements,(40)
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The live-long day with patient expectation
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome.

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,(70)
Why old men fool, 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(75)
To make them instruments of fear and warning
Scene III 22
Unto some monstrous state.

CASSIUS:
Him and his worth and our great need of him(170)
You have right well conceited.

Scene III 23
Those that with haste will make a mighty fire
Begin it with weak straws.

This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit,
Which gives men stomach to digest his words
With better appetite.(305)

Either there is a civil strife in heaven,
Or else the world too saucy with the gods
Incenses them to send destruction.

COBBLER:
Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me; yet, if you
be out, sir, I can mend you.

And when you saw his chariot but appear,(45)
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?

But indeed, sir, we make holiday, to see Caesar
and to rejoice in his triumph.

O Cicero,
Scene III 20
I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds(5)
Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen
The 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.(10)

Scene II 10
CAESAR:
Forget not, in your speed, Antonio,
To touch Calpurnia, for our elders say,
The barren, touched in this holy chase,(10)
Shake off their sterile curse.

O Cicero,
Scene III 20
I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds(5)
Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen
The 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.(10)

Besides—I ha' not since put up my sword—
Against the Capitol I met a lion,(20)
Who glazed 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.(25)

COBBLER:
Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but, as(10)
you would say, a cobbler.

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(60)
Into the channel, till the lowest stream
Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.

I cannot tell what you and other men
Think of this life, but, for my single self,(100)
I had as lief not be as live to be
In awe of such a thing as I myself.

Speak, what trade art thou?(5)

O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,
Knew you not Pompey?

The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it
With lusty sinews, throwing it aside
And stemming it with hearts of controversy.(115)

CASCA:
He fell down in the market-place and foamed at mouth
and was speechless.

These growing feathers pluck'd from Caesar's wing
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch,(75)
Who else would soar above the view of men
And keep us all in servile fearfulness.

And yesterday the bird of night did sit
Even at noon-day upon the market-place,
Howling and shrieking.

Scene II 15
CASSIUS:
As they pass by, pluck Casca by the sleeve,(185)
And he will, after his sour fashion, tell you
What hath proceeded worthy note today.

COBBLER:
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.

But, look you, Cassius,
The angry spot doth glow on Caesar's brow,
And all the rest look like a chidden train:(190)
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.

Three or four wenches, where I stood cried, “Alas, good(275)
soul!” and forgave him with all their hearts.

When these prodigies
Do so conjointly meet, let not men say(30)
“These are their reasons; they are natural,”
For, I believe, they are portentous things
Unto the climate that they point upon.

Therein, ye gods, you make the weak most strong;
Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat.

Now know you, Casca, I have moved already
Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans(130)
To undergo with me an enterprise
Of honorable-dangerous consequence;
And I do know, by this they stay for me
In Pompey's Porch.

But, look you, Cassius,
The angry spot doth glow on Caesar's brow,
And all the rest look like a chidden train:(190)
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.

CAESAR:
He is a dreamer; let us leave him.

The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it
With lusty sinews, throwing it aside
And stemming it with hearts of controversy.(115)

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(180)
Is like to lay upon us.

Now could I, Casca, name to thee a man
Most like this dreadful night,
That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars(80)
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.

Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see
Thy honorable metal may be wrought
From that it is disposed; therefore it is meet
That noble minds keep ever with their likes;
For who so firm that cannot be seduced?(315)

What, know you not,
Being mechanical, you ought not walk
Upon a laboring day without the sign
Of your profession?

Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,(55)
Pray to the gods to intermit the plague
That needs must light on this ingratitude.

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.

Besides—I ha' not since put up my sword—
Against the Capitol I met a lion,(20)
Who glazed 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.(25)

Besides—I ha' not since put up my sword—
Against the Capitol I met a lion,(20)
Who glazed 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.(25)

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(60)
Into the channel, till the lowest stream
Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.

And then
he offered it the third time; he put it the third time by; and
still as he refused it, the rabblement hooted and clapped
their chopped hands and threw up their sweaty nightcaps
and uttered such a deal of stinking breath because Caesar(250)
refused the crown, that it had almost choked Caesar, for he
swounded and fell down at it.

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.

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,(70)
Why old men fool, 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(75)
To make them instruments of fear and warning
Scene III 22
Unto some monstrous state.

CASCA:
He fell down in the market-place and foamed at mouth
and was speechless.

What tributaries follow him to Rome,(35)
To grace in captive bonds his chariot-wheels?

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;(200)
He thinks too much; such men are dangerous.

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(80)
And after scandal them, or if you know
That I profess myself in banqueting
To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.

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?”

Be factious for redress of all these griefs,(125)
And I will set this foot of mine as far
As who goes farthest.

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,(70)
Why old men fool, 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(75)
To make them instruments of fear and warning
Scene III 22
Unto some monstrous state.

Speak, what trade art thou?(5)

Either there is a civil strife in heaven,
Or else the world too saucy with the gods
Incenses them to send destruction.

Thou naughty knave, what(15)
trade?

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.

Be factious for redress of all these griefs,(125)
And I will set this foot of mine as far
As who goes farthest.

CASSIUS:
'Tis just,
And it is very much lamented, Brutus,(60)
Scene II 12
That you have no such mirrors as will turn
Your hidden worthiness into your eye
That you might see your shadow.

Flourish, and shout.

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(120)
Did I the tired Caesar.

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.(40)

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.

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(80)
And after scandal them, or if you know
That I profess myself in banqueting
To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.

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.(105)

You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!

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.(265)

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.(40)

Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,(55)
Pray to the gods to intermit the plague
That needs must light on this ingratitude.

What trash is Rome,(115)
What rubbish and what offal, when it serves
For the base matter to illuminate
So vile a thing as Caesar?

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(60)
Into the channel, till the lowest stream
Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.

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.(40)

I have heard
Where many of the best respect in Rome,
Except immortal Caesar, speaking of Brutus,(65)
And groaning underneath this age's yoke,
Have wish'd that noble Brutus had his eyes.

I'll about,
And drive away the vulgar from the streets;
So do you too, where you perceive them thick.

CASSIUS:
I know where I will wear this dagger then:(95)
Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius.

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.(265)

CASCA:
Ay, marry, wast, and he put it by thrice, every time gentler
than other, and at every putting by mine honest neighbors(235)
shouted.

And do you now put on your best attire?(50)

Now could I, Casca, name to thee a man
Most like this dreadful night,
That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars(80)
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.

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(60)
Into the channel, till the lowest stream
Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.

What dost thou with thy best apparel on?

Now, in the names of all the gods at once,
Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed(155)
That he is grown so great?

CASCA:
So can I.
So every bondman in his own hand bears
The power to cancel his captivity.

Vexed I am
Of late with passions of some difference,(45)
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(50)
Than that poor Brutus with himself at war
Forgets the shows of love to other men.

This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit,
Which gives men stomach to digest his words
With better appetite.(305)

How I have thought of this and of these times,(170)
I shall recount hereafter; for this present,
I would not, so with love I might entreat you,
Be any further moved.

Scene II 10
CAESAR:
Forget not, in your speed, Antonio,
To touch Calpurnia, for our elders say,
The barren, touched in this holy chase,(10)
Shake off their sterile curse.

Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see
Thy honorable metal may be wrought
From that it is disposed; therefore it is meet
That noble minds keep ever with their likes;
For who so firm that cannot be seduced?(315)

Now could I, Casca, name to thee a man
Most like this dreadful night,
That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars(80)
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.

It is the part of men to fear and tremble
When the most mighty gods by tokens send
Such dreadful heralds to astonish us.

It doth amaze me
A man of such a feeble temper should(135)
So get the start of the majestic world
And bear the palm alone.

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.(40)

All this done,(155)
Repair to Pompey's porch, where you shall find us.

Besides—I ha' not since put up my sword—
Against the Capitol I met a lion,(20)
Who glazed 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.(25)

An had been a man of any occupation, if I would not(270)
have taken him at a word, I would I might go to hell
among the rogues.

BRUTUS:
No, Cassius, for the eye sees not itself
But by reflection, by some other things.

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,(70)
Why old men fool, 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(75)
To make them instruments of fear and warning
Scene III 22
Unto some monstrous state.

Scene II 19
CASSIUS:
So is he now in execution(300)
Of any bold or noble enterprise,
However he puts on this tardy form.

For my part, I have walk'd about the streets,
Submitting me unto the perilous night,
And thus unbraced, Casca, as you see,(55)
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.

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(80)
And after scandal them, or if you know
That I profess myself in banqueting
To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.

Why are you breathless, and why stare you so?

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.

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.

Vexed I am
Of late with passions of some difference,(45)
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(50)
Than that poor Brutus with himself at war
Forgets the shows of love to other men.

CASCA:
Who ever knew the heavens menace so?

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?”

And do you now strew flowers in his way
That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood?

Go you down that way towards the Capitol;(65)
This way will I. Disrobe the images,
If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies.

BRUTUS:
Cassius,
Be not deceived; if I have veil'd my look,
I turn the trouble of my countenance
Merely upon myself.

But, O grief,
Where hast thou led me?

But for
all that, to my thinking, he would fain have had it.

Besides—I ha' not since put up my sword—
Against the Capitol I met a lion,(20)
Who glazed 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.(25)

BRUTUS:
Cassius,
Be not deceived; if I have veil'd my look,
I turn the trouble of my countenance
Merely upon myself.

See, whether their basest metal be not moved;
They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.

Upon the word,(110)
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in
And bade him follow.

What trash is Rome,(115)
What rubbish and what offal, when it serves
For the base matter to illuminate
So vile a thing as Caesar?

COBBLER:
Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me; yet, if you
be out, sir, I can mend you.

BRUTUS:
'Tis very like: he hath the falling sickness.

But indeed, sir, we make holiday, to see Caesar
and to rejoice in his triumph.

Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,(100)
Can be retentive to the strength of spirit;
But life, being weary of these worldly bars,
Never lacks power to dismiss itself.

The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it
With lusty sinews, throwing it aside
And stemming it with hearts of controversy.(115)

Scene II 10
CAESAR:
Forget not, in your speed, Antonio,
To touch Calpurnia, for our elders say,
The barren, touched in this holy chase,(10)
Shake off their sterile curse.

What is it that you would impart to me?(90)

How I have thought of this and of these times,(170)
I shall recount hereafter; for this present,
I would not, so with love I might entreat you,
Be any further moved.

I am indeed, sir, a surgeon to old shoes; when they are(25)
in great danger, I recover them.

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(80)
And after scandal them, or if you know
That I profess myself in banqueting
To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.

You look pale and gaze(65)
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,(70)
Why old men fool, 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(75)
To make them instruments of fear and warning
Scene III 22
Unto some monstrous state.

If I know this, know all the world besides,
That part of tyranny that I do bear(105)
I can shake off at pleasure.

Either there is a civil strife in heaven,
Or else the world too saucy with the gods
Incenses them to send destruction.

But I fear him not,
Yet if my name were liable to fear,(205)
I do not know the man I should avoid
So soon as that spare Cassius.

These growing feathers pluck'd from Caesar's wing
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch,(75)
Who else would soar above the view of men
And keep us all in servile fearfulness.

CASCA:
A common slave—you know him well by sight—(15)
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.

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?”

It is the part of men to fear and tremble
When the most mighty gods by tokens send
Such dreadful heralds to astonish us.

Vexed I am
Of late with passions of some difference,(45)
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(50)
Than that poor Brutus with himself at war
Forgets the shows of love to other men.

Let me not hinder, Cassius, your desires;
I'll leave you.(35)

Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!

COBBLER:
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.

Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,(55)
Pray to the gods to intermit the plague
That needs must light on this ingratitude.

BRUTUS:
Ay, Casca, tell us what hath chanced today,
That Caesar looks so sad.

CASSIUS:
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Scene II 14
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.

What, know you not,
Being mechanical, you ought not walk
Upon a laboring day without the sign
Of your profession?

Vexed I am
Of late with passions of some difference,(45)
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(50)
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.(55)

I do believe that these applauses are
For some new honors that are heap'd on Caesar.(140)

CASSIUS:
'Tis just,
And it is very much lamented, Brutus,(60)
Scene II 12
That you have no such mirrors as will turn
Your hidden worthiness into your eye
That you might see your shadow.

It is the part of men to fear and tremble
When the most mighty gods by tokens send
Such dreadful heralds to astonish us.

I'll about,
And drive away the vulgar from the streets;
So do you too, where you perceive them thick.

I have heard
Where many of the best respect in Rome,
Except immortal Caesar, speaking of Brutus,(65)
And groaning underneath this age's yoke,
Have wish'd that noble Brutus had his eyes.

It is the part of men to fear and tremble
When the most mighty gods by tokens send
Such dreadful heralds to astonish us.

Many a time and oft
Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements,(40)
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The live-long day with patient expectation
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome.

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,(70)
Why old men fool, 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(75)
To make them instruments of fear and warning
Scene III 22
Unto some monstrous state.

CASSIUS:
Fellow, come from the throng; look upon Caesar.(25)

CASSIUS:
A very pleasing night to honest men.(50)

The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it
With lusty sinews, throwing it aside
And stemming it with hearts of controversy.(115)

These growing feathers pluck'd from Caesar's wing
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch,(75)
Who else would soar above the view of men
And keep us all in servile fearfulness.

O Cicero,
Scene III 20
I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds(5)
Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen
The 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.(10)

Besides—I ha' not since put up my sword—
Against the Capitol I met a lion,(20)
Who glazed 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.(25)

O Cicero,
Scene III 20
I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds(5)
Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen
The 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.(10)

CASSIUS:
I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,
As well as I do know your outward favor.

Now know you, Casca, I have moved already
Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans(130)
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 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?”

You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!

And yesterday the bird of night did sit
Even at noon-day upon the market-place,
Howling and shrieking.

BRUTUS:
I am not gamesome; I do lack some part
Of that quick spirit that is in Antony.

What tributaries follow him to Rome,(35)
To grace in captive bonds his chariot-wheels?

I am indeed, sir, a surgeon to old shoes; when they are(25)
in great danger, I recover them.

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?”

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(80)
And after scandal them, or if you know
That I profess myself in banqueting
To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.

But I am arm'd,
And dangers are to me indifferent.

CASSIUS:
I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,
As well as I do know your outward favor.

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(80)
And after scandal them, or if you know
That I profess myself in banqueting
To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.

This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit,
Which gives men stomach to digest his words
With better appetite.(305)

But, woe the while!

Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see
Thy honorable metal may be wrought
From that it is disposed; therefore it is meet
That noble minds keep ever with their likes;
For who so firm that cannot be seduced?(315)

What you have said
I will consider; what you have to say
I will with patience hear, and find a time(175)
Both meet to hear and answer such high things.

CASSIUS:
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Scene II 14
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.

Vexed I am
Of late with passions of some difference,(45)
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(50)
Than that poor Brutus with himself at war
Forgets the shows of love to other men.

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,(70)
Why old men fool, 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(75)
To make them instruments of fear and warning
Scene III 22
Unto some monstrous state.

Three parts of him
Is ours already, and the man entire
Upon the next encounter yields him ours.(165)

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(80)
And after scandal them, or if you know
That I profess myself in banqueting
To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.

He reads much,
He is a great observer, and he looks
Quite through the deeds of men.

FLAVIUS:
Hence! home, you idle creatures, get you home.

When went there by an age since the great flood
But it was famed with more than with one man?

Scene II 15
CASSIUS:
As they pass by, pluck Casca by the sleeve,(185)
And he will, after his sour fashion, tell you
What hath proceeded worthy note today.

This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit,
Which gives men stomach to digest his words
With better appetite.(305)

As proper men as ever
trod upon neats-leather have gone upon my handiwork.

Fare you well.

But ere we could arrive the point proposed,
Caesar cried, “Help me, Cassius, or I sink!”

CASCA:
A common slave—you know him well by sight—(15)
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.

This disturbed sky(40)
Is not to walk in.

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.

Many a time and oft
Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements,(40)
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The live-long day with patient expectation
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome.

CASCA:
Ay, if I be alive, and your mind hold, and your dinner
worth the eating.(295)

Now know you, Casca, I have moved already
Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans(130)
To undergo with me an enterprise
Of honorable-dangerous consequence;
And I do know, by this they stay for me
In Pompey's Porch.

What conquest brings he home?

Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,(100)
Can be retentive to the strength of spirit;
But life, being weary of these worldly bars,
Never lacks power to dismiss itself.

Vexed I am
Of late with passions of some difference,(45)
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(50)
Than that poor Brutus with himself at war
Forgets the shows of love to other men.

Scene II 19
CASSIUS:
So is he now in execution(300)
Of any bold or noble enterprise,
However he puts on this tardy form.

CAESAR:
Set on, and leave no ceremony out.

What you have said
I will consider; what you have to say
I will with patience hear, and find a time(175)
Both meet to hear and answer such high things.

CASCA:
Marry, before he fell down, when he perceived the
common herd was glad he refused the crown, he plucked
me ope his doublet and offered them his throat to cut.

O, you and I have heard our fathers say
There was a Brutus once that would have brook'd(165)
The eternal devil to keep his state in Rome
As easily as a king.

COBBLER:
Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but, as(10)
you would say, a cobbler.

I will this night,
In several hands, in at his windows throw,
As if they came from several citizens,(320)
Writings, all tending to the great opinion
That Rome holds of his name, wherein obscurely
Caesar's ambition shall be glanced at.

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,(70)
Why old men fool, 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(75)
To make them instruments of fear and warning
Scene III 22
Unto some monstrous state.