Re-enter Lucius.

Luc. 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.

[Gives him the letter.

Bru. Get you to bed again; it is not day.

Is not to-morrow, boy, the ides 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.

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[Exit.

[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

Rome?

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under one man's awe? What,

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.

Bru. 'Tis good. Go to the gate; somebody knocks. 60

[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.

Luc. Sir, 'tis your brother Cassius at the door,
Who doth desire to see you.

Bru.

Is he alone?

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

Bru.

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Do you know them? Luc. No, sir; their hats are pluck'd about their ears,

Bru.

And half their faces buried in their cloaks,

That by no means I may discover them

By any mark of favour.

They are the faction. O conspiracy,

Shamest thou to show thy dangerous brow by

night,

When evils are most free? O, then, by day

Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough

80

To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, con

spiracy;

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
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.

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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?

Cas. Shall I entreat a word?

[They whisper. 100

Dec. Here lies the east: doth not the day break here?

Casca. No.

Cin. O, pardon, sir, it doth, and yon grey lines

That fret the clouds are messengers of day.

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

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 the insuppressive mettle of our spirits,
To think that or our cause or our performance
Did need an oath; when every drop of blood
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.

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Casca. Let us not leave him out.

No, by no means.

Cin.
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 judgment ruled our hands
Our youths and wildness shall no whit appear,
But all be buried in his gravity.

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

Cas.

That other men begin.

Casca. Indeed he is not fit.

Then leave him out.

Dec. Shall no man else be touch'd but only Cæsar ?
Cas. Decius, well urged: I think it is not meet
Mark Antony, so well beloved 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.

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;

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