Bru. Get you to bed again; it is not day. Is not to-morrow, boy, the first of March? Luc. I know not, sir.

Bru. Look in the calendar, and bring me word.
Luc. I will, sir.

Bru. The exhalations whizzing in the air
Give so much light that I may read by them.

40

[Exit.

[Opens the letter and reads.

Brutus, thou sleep'st: awake, and see thyself.
Shall Rome, etc. Speak, strike, redress!
Brutus, thou sleep'st: awake!"

Such instigations have been often dropp'd

Where I have took them up.

50

"Shall Rome, etc." 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

To speak and strike? O Rome, I make thee promise: If the redress will follow, thou receivest

Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus!

Re-enter LUCIUS.

Luc. Sir, March is wasted fifteen days.

[Knocking within.

40. [first of March. It seems clear that the reference is to the soothsayer's warning, in Act I., Sc. 2, 1. 19: "Beware the Ides of March." Theobald therefore changed "first" to "Ides,” and has been followed by later editors generally. The first of March was the date originally fixed for the meeting of the Senate. Shakespeare may have read Plutarch's statement: "Cassius asked [Brutus] if he were determined to be in the Senate-house the first day of the month of March, because he heard say that Cæsar's friends should move the council that day that Cæsar should be called king."]

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?

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

Bru.

Do you know them?

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.

110

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
115. [sufferance suffering.]

=

118. [high-sighted = supercilious.]

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

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.

140

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;