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.

[Exit.

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

[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.

'Shall Rome, etc.' Thus must I piece it out:
Shall Rome stand under one man's awe?

Rome?

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 !

40. ides. Theobald's correction of Ff'first.' It is possible that Shakespeare may casually have written first,' the first of March having been originally fixed for the Senate meeting. He read in Plutarch that 'Cassius asked (Brutus) if he were determined to be in the Senatehouse the 1st day of the month

40

50

of March, because he heard say that Cæsar's friends should move the council that day that Cæsar should be called king.' But it is clear from i. 2. 19, that Brutus is meant here to be struck with the fulfilment of the soothsayer's prophecy.

44. exhalations, meteors.

Re-enter LUCIUS.

Luc. Sir, March is wasted fifteen days.

[Knocking within.

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

knocks. [Exit Lucius. 60 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.

Do you know them?

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

ears,

And half their faces buried in their cloaks,

59. fifteen; so Ff. Warburton (followed by many modern edd.) wrongly altered to 'fourteen.' It is, in fact, the dawn of the fifteenth, which Lucius may be supposed to include.

64. motion, prompting. 65. a phantasma, an illusory vision.

66. The Genius and the mortal instruments, the rational spirit possessing a man, and his passions and desires. The

' mortal instruments
are the
bodily organs through or in
league with which the soul acts:
the brain, with which it generates
thoughts (cf. Richard II.v.5.6f.);
the heart, which was the source
of feeling perhaps; the liver, the
seat of fear, gloom, wrath, and
love. The genius' is never in
Shakespeare expressly identified
with the man, but its meaning
here comes near to that of soul.

70. brother Cassius. Cassius had married Brutus' sister.

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,

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

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.

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

tellus Cimber.

Bru. They are all welcome.

76. favour, countenance.

77. the faction, the body of conspirators.

83. path, take thy way.

80

90

84. Erebus, a region of thick darkness between Earth and Hades.

What watchful cares do interpose themselves

Betwixt your eyes and night?

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 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,

104. fret, fleck, as with ripples of light.

107. growing on, advancing towards.

112. all over, one after the other.

114. the face of men, the sense of peril legible in every

countenance.

100

110

120

115. the time's abuse, the grievous plight of the age.

117. idle bed, bed of idle

ness.

118. high-sighted, haughtily supercilious.

118. range, roam.

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

130

140

Bru. O, name him not : let us not break with him; 150 For he will never follow any thing