Enter the Ghost of CESAR. How ill this taper burns! Ha! who comes here? It comes upon me: Art thou any thing? Ghost. Thy evil spirit, Brutus. Bru. Why com'st thou ? Ghost. To tell thee, thou shalt see me at Philippi. Bru. Well; Then I shall see thee again? Ghost. Ay, at Philippi. [Ghost vanishes. Bru. Why, I will see thee at Philippi then. Now I have taken heart, thou vanishest: Ill spirit, I would hold more talk with thee.Boy! Lucius!-Varro! Claudius! Sirs, awake!Claudius! Luc. The strings, my lord, are false. Bru. He thinks, he still is at his instrument. Lucius, awake. Luc. My lord! Bru. Didst thou dream, Lucius, that thou so 'dst out? cry' Luc. My lord, I do not know that I did cry. Bru. Yes, that thou didst: Didst thou see any thing? Luc. Nothing, my lord. Bru. Sleep again, Lucius. Sirrah, Claudius! Fellow thou! awake. Var. My lord! Clau. My lord! Bru. Why did you so cry out, sirs, in your sleep? Var. Clau. Did we, my Bru. lord? Ay; Saw you any thing? Var. No, my lord, I saw nothing. Clau. Nor I, my lord. Bru. Go, and commend me to my brother Cas Enter OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, and their Army. Oct. Now, Antony, our hopes are answered: Ant. Tut, I am in their bosoms, and I know Mess. Enter a Messenger. Prepare you, generals: The enemy comes on in gallant show; 7 Summon. Their bloody sign of battle is hung out, Oct. Upon the right hand I, keep thou the left. Drum. Enter BRUTUS, CASSIUS, and their Army; Bru. Words before blows: Is it so, countrymen ? Oct. Not that we love words better, as you do. Bru. Good words are better than bad strokes, Octavius. Ant. In your bad strokes, Brutus, you give good words: Witness the hole you made in Cæsar's heart, Cas. Antony, The posture of your blows are yet unknown; Ant. Not stingless too. Bru. O, yes, and soundless too; For you have stol'n their buzzing, Antony, And, very wisely, threat before you sting. Ant. Villains, you did not so, when your vile daggers Hack'd one another in the sides of Cæsar: You show'd your teeth like apes, and fawn'd like hounds, And bow'd like bondmen, kissing Cæsar's feet; Cas. Flatterers! Now, Brutus, thank yourself: This tongue had not offended so to-day, If Cassius might have rul'd. Oct. Come, come, the cause: If arguing make us The proof of it will turn to redder drops. I draw a sword against conspirators; When think you that the sword goes up again? Never till Cæsar's three and twenty wounds Be well aveng'd; or till another Cæsar Have added slaughter to the sword of traitors. i Bru. Cæsar, thou can'st not die by traitors' hands, Unless thou bring'st them with thee. Oct. So I hope; I was not born to die on Brutus' sword. Bru. O, if thou wert the noblest of thy strain, Young man, thou could'st not die more honourable. Cas. A peevish schoolboy, worthless of such honour, Join'd with a masker and a reveller. Ant. Old Cassius still! Oct. Come, Antony; away. Defiance, traitors, hurl we in your teeth: [Exeunt OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, and their Army. Cas. Why now, blow, wind; swell, billow; and swim, bark! The storm is up, and all is on the hazard. Bru. Ho! Lucilius; hark, a word with you. Luc. My lord. [BRUTUS and LUCILIUS converse apart. Cas. Messala, Mes. Cas. What says my general? This is my birth-day; as this very day Messala, Was Cassius born. Give me thy hand, Messala: As Pompey was, am I compell'd to set You know, that I held Epicurus strong, This morning are they fled away, and gone; Our army lies, ready to give up the ghost. I but believe it partly; Cas. Cas. Bru. Even by the rule of that philosophy, By which I did blame Cato for the death Which he did give himself: I know not how, 8 Foremost. 9 Accompanied. |