Bru. 'Tis good. Go to the gate; somebody

knocks.

[Exit Lucius.

Since Cassius first did whet me against Cæsar,

I have not slept.

Between the acting of a dreadful thing
And the first motion, all the interim is
Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream:
The Genius and the mortal instruments
Are then in council; and the state of man,
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then
The nature of an insurrection.

Re-enter LUCIUS.

61

Luc. Sir, 't is your brother Cassius at the door, 70 Who doth desire to see you.

Bru.

Is he alone?

Do you know them?

Luc. No, sir, there are moe with him.

Bru.

Luc. No, sir; their hats are pluck'd about their

ears,

And half their faces buried in their cloaks,

That by no means I may discover them
By any mark of favour.

Bru.

Let 'em enter.

[Exit Lucius.

They are the faction. O conspiracy,

80

Sham'st thou to show thy dang'rous brow by night,
When evils are most free? O, then by day
Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough
To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, con.
spiracy;

66. The Genius, etc. the controlling part of man, the rational soul and the bodily powers which are its instruments. 70. [Cassius had married Iunia, the sister of Brutus.]

72. moe more.

73. their hats are pluck'd, etc. Shakespeare here gives to Romans of the time of Julius Cæsar the costume of Englishmen in the reign of Elizabeth.

Hide it in smiles and affability:

For if thou path, thy native semblance on,

Not Erebus itself were dim enough

To hide thee from prevention.

Enter the conspirators, CASSIUS, CASCA, DECIUS, CINNA, METELLUS CIMBER, and TREBONIUS.

Cas. I think we are too bold upon your rest: Good morrow, Brutus ; do we trouble you?

Bru. I have been up this hour, awake all night. Know I these men that come along with you?

Cas. Yes, every man of them, and no man here 90
But honours you; and every one doth wish
You had but that opinion of yourself

Which every noble Roman bears of you.
This is Trebonius.

Bru.

He is welcome hither.

He is welcome too.

Cas. This, Decius Brutus.

Bru.

Cas. This, Casca; this, Cinna; and this, Metellus

Cimber.

Bru. They are all welcome.

What watchful cares do interpose themselves
Betwixt your eyes and night?

99

Cas. Shall I entreat a word? [Brutus and Cassius whisper. Dec. Here lies the east: doth not the day break here?

Casca. No.

Cin. O, pardon, sir, it doth; and yon gray lines That fret the clouds are messengers of day.

Casca. You shall confess that you are both deceiv'd. Here, as I point my sword, the sun arises, Which is a great way growing on the south,

83. [path: here used as a verb.]

89. [It will be remembered that they are all disguised.]

Weighing the youthful season of the year.

Some two months hence up higher toward the north
He first presents his fire; and the high east
Stands, as the Capitol, directly here.

Bru. Give me your hands all over, one by one.
Cas. And let us swear our resolution.

Bru. No, not an oath: if not the face of men,
The sufferance of our souls, the time's abuse,-
If these be motives weak, break off betimes,
And every man hence to his idle bed;
So let high-sighted tyranny range on,
Till each man drop by lottery. But if these,
As I am sure they do, bear fire enough
To kindle cowards and to steel with valour
The melting spirits of women, then, countrymen,
What need we any spur but our own cause,
To prick us to redress? what other bond
Than secret Romans, that have spoke the word,
And will not palter? and what other oath
Than honesty to honesty engag'd,

That this shall be, or we will fall for it?
Swear priests and cowards and men cautelous,
Old feeble carrions and such suffering souls
That welcome wrongs; unto bad causes swear
Such creatures as men doubt; but do not stain
The even virtue of our enterprise,
Nor th' insuppressive mettle of our spirits,
To think that or our cause or our performance
Did need an oath; when every drop of blood

119. [lottery, i. e. drop as in some game of chance.] 129. cautelous wily, crafty, exceedingly cautious.

110

120

130

131. That welcome wrongs as welcome wrongs: the converse of the use of " as as "that."

That every Roman bears, and nobly bears,
Is guilty of a several bastardy,

If he do break the smallest particle

Of any promise that hath pass'd from him.

Cas. But what of Cicero? shall we sound him?

I think he will stand very strong with us.
Casca. Let us not leave him out.

Cin.

148

No, by no means.

Met. O, let us have him, for his silver hairs
Will purchase us a good opinion

And buy men's voices to commend our deeds:
It shall be said, his judgement rul'd our hands;
Our youths and wildness shall no whit appear,
But all be buried in his gravity.

149

Bru. O, name him not: let us not break with him ; For he will never follow any thing

That other men begin.

Cas.

Then leave him out.

Casca. Indeed he is not fit.

Dec. Shall no man else be touch'd but only Cæsar? Cas. Decius, well urg'd: I think it is not meet, Mark Antony, so well belov'd of Cæsar, Should outlive Cæsar: we shall find of him A shrewd contriver; and, you know, his means, If he improve them, may well stretch so far As to annoy us all: which to prevent,

Let Antony and Cæsar fall together.

160

Bru. Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius, To cut the head off and then hack the limbs,

Like wrath in death and envy afterwards;

For Antony is but a limb of Cæsar :

Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius.
We all stand up against the spirit of Cæsar;
And in the spirit of men there is no blood:
O, that we then could come by Cæsar's spirit,
And not dismember Cæsar! But, alas,

Cæsar must bleed for it! And, gentle friends,
Let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully;
Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods,
Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds:
And let our hearts, as subtle masters do,
Stir up their servants to an act of rage,
And after seem to chide 'em. This shall make
Our purpose necessary and not envious:
Which so appearing to the common eyes,
We shall be call'd purgers, not murderers.
And for Mark Antony, think not of him;
For he can do no more than Cæsar's arm
When Cæsar's head is off.

Cas.
Yet I fear him;
For in the ingrafted love he bears to Cæsar—
Bru. Alas, good Cassius, do not think of him:
If he love Cæsar, all that he can do

Is to himself, take thought and die for Cæsar :
And that were much he should; for he is given
To sports, to wildness and much company.

170

180

Treb. There is no fear in him; let him not die; 190 For he will live, and laugh at this hereafter.

Bru. Peace! count the clock.
Cas.

[Clock strikes.

The clock hath stricken three.

183. [Here, as often in Shakespeare, the full measure of the line is made up by a pause which precedes Cassius's speech.] 192. The clock bath stricken. A great but unimportant anachronism.