PORTIA Is Caesar yet gone to the Capitol?
Soothsayer Madam, not yet: I go to take my stand,
To see him pass on to the Capitol.
PORTIA Thou hast some suit to Caesar, hast thou not?
Soothsayer That I have, lady: if it will please Caesar
To be so good to Caesar as to hear me,
I shall beseech him to befriend himself.
PORTIA Why, know’st thou any harm’s intended towards him?
Soothsayer None that I know will be, much that I fear may chance.
Good morrow to you. Here the street is narrow:
The throng that follows Caesar at the heels,
Of senators, of praetors, common suitors,
Will crowd a feeble man almost to death:
I’ll get me to a place more void, and there
Speak to great Caesar as he comes along.
Exit
PORTIA I must go in. Ay me, how weak a thing
The heart of woman is! O Brutus,
The heavens speed thee in thine enterprise!
Sure, the boy heard me: Brutus hath a suit
That Caesar will not grant. O, I grow faint.
Run, Lucius, and commend me to my lord;
Say I am merry: come to me again,
And bring me word what he doth say to thee.
Exeunt severally
Act 3
Scene 1
Rome. Before the Capitol; the Senate sitting above.
A crowd of people; among them ARTEMIDORUS and the Soothsayer. Flourish. Enter CAESAR, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, CASCA, DECIUS BRUTUS, METELLUS CIMBER, TREBONIUS, CINNA, ANTONY, LEPIDUS, POPILIUS, PUBLIUS, and others
CAESAR [To the Soothsayer]
The ides of March are come.
Soothsayer Ay, Caesar; but not gone.
ARTEMIDORUS Hail, Caesar! read this schedule.
DECIUS BRUTUS Trebonius doth desire you to o’erread,
At your best leisure, this his humble suit.
ARTEMIDORUS O Caesar, read mine first; for mine’s a suit
That touches Caesar nearer: read it, great Caesar.
CAESAR What touches us ourself shall be last served.
ARTEMIDORUS Delay not, Caesar; read it instantly.
CAESAR What, is the fellow mad?
PUBLIUS Sirrah, give place.
CASSIUS What, urge you your petitions in the street?
Come to the Capitol.
CAESAR goes up to the Senate-House, the rest following
POPILIUS I wish your enterprise to-day may thrive.
CASSIUS What enterprise, Popilius?
POPILIUS Fare you well.
Advances to CAESAR
BRUTUS What said Popilius Lena?
CASSIUS He wish’d to-day our enterprise might thrive.
I fear our purpose is discovered.
BRUTUS Look, how he makes to Caesar; mark him.
CASSIUS Casca, be sudden, for we fear prevention.
Brutus, what shall be done? If this be known,
Cassius or Caesar never shall turn back,
For I will slay myself.
BRUTUS Cassius, be constant:
Popilius Lena speaks not of our purposes;
For, look, he smiles, and Caesar doth not change.
CASSIUS Trebonius knows his time; for, look you, Brutus.
He draws Mark Antony out of the way.
Exeunt ANTONY and TREBONIUS
DECIUS BRUTUS Where is Metellus Cimber? Let him go,
And presently prefer his suit to Caesar.
BRUTUS He is address’d: press near and second him.
CINNA Casca, you are the first that rears your hand.
CAESAR Are we all ready? What is now amiss
That Caesar and his senate must redress?
METELLUS CIMBER Most high, most mighty, and most puissant Caesar,
Metellus Cimber throws before thy seat
An humble heart,–
Kneeling
CAESAR I must prevent thee, Cimber.
These couchings and these lowly courtesies
Might fire the blood of ordinary men,
And turn pre-ordinance and first decree
Into the law of children. Be not fond,
To think that Caesar bears such rebel blood
That will be thaw’d from the true quality
With that which melteth fools; I mean, sweet words,
Low-crooked court’sies and base spaniel-fawning.
Thy brother by decree is banished:
If thou dost bend and pray and fawn for him,
I spurn thee like a cur out of my way.
Know, Caesar doth not wrong, nor without cause
Will he be satisfied.
METELLUS CIMBER Is there no voice more worthy than my own
To sound more sweetly in great Caesar’s ear
For the repealing of my banish’d brother?
BRUTUS I kiss thy hand, but not in flattery, Caesar;
Desiring thee that Publius Cimber may
Have an immediate freedom of repeal.
CAESAR What, Brutus!
CASSIUS Pardon, Caesar; Caesar, pardon:
As low as to thy foot doth Cassius fall,
To beg enfranchisement for Publius Cimber.
CASSIUS I could be well moved, if I were as you:
If I could pray to move, prayers would move me:
But I am constant as the northern star,
Of whose true-fix’d and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.
The skies are painted with unnumber’d sparks,
They are all fire and every one doth shine,
But there’s but one in all doth hold his place:
So in the world; ’tis furnish’d well with men,
And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive;
Yet in the number I do know but one
That unassailable holds on his rank,
Unshaked of motion: and that I am he,
Let me a little show it, even in this;
That I was constant Cimber should be banish’d,
And constant do remain to keep him so.
CINNA O Caesar,–
CAESAR Hence! wilt thou lift up Olympus?
DECIUS BRUTUS Great Caesar,–
CAESAR Doth not Brutus bootless kneel?
CASCA Speak, hands for me!
CASCA first, then the other Conspirators and BRUTUS stab CAESAR
CAESAR Et tu, Brute! Then fall, Caesar.
Dies
CINNA Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!
Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets.
CASSIUS Some to the common pulpits, and cry out
‘Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement!’
BRUTUS People and senators, be not affrighted;
Fly not; stand stiff: ambition’s debt is paid.
CASCA Go to the pulpit, Brutus.
DECIUS BRUTUS And Cassius too.
BRUTUS Where’s Publius?
CINNA Here, quite confounded with this mutiny.
METELLUS CIMBER Stand fast together, lest some friend of Caesar’s
Should chance–
BRUTUS Talk not of standing. Publius, good cheer;
There is no harm intended to your person,
Nor to no Roman else: so tell them, Publius.
CASSIUS And leave us, Publius; lest that the people,
Rushing on us, should do your age some mischief.
BRUTUS Do so: and let no man abide this deed,
But we the doers.
Re-enter TREBONIUS
CASSIUS Where is Antony?
TREBONIUS Fled to his house amazed:
Men, wives and children stare, cry out and run
As it were doomsday.
BRUTUS Fates, we will know your pleasures:
That we shall die, we know; ’tis but the time
And drawing days out, that men stand upon.
CASSIUS Why, he that cuts off twenty years of life
Cuts off so many years of fearing death.
BRUTUS Grant that, and then is death a benefit:
So are we Caesar’s friends, that have abridged
His time of fearing death. Stoop, Romans, stoop,
And let us bathe our hands in Caesar’s blood
Up to the elbows, and besmear our swords:
Then walk we forth, even to the market-place,
And, waving our red weapons o’er our heads,
Let’s all cry ‘Peace, freedom and liberty!’
CASSIUS Stoop, then, and wash. How many ages hence
Shall this our lofty scene be acted over
In states unborn and accents yet unknown!
BRUTUS How many times shall Caesar bleed in sport,
That now on Pompey’s basis lies along
No worthier than the dust!
CASSIUS So oft as that shall be,
So often shall the knot of us be call’d
The men that gave their country liberty.
DECIUS BRUTUS What, shall we forth?
CASSIUS Ay, every man away:
Brutus shall lead; and we will grace his heels
With the most boldest and best hearts of Rome.
Enter a Servant
BRUTUS Soft! who comes here? A friend of Antony’s.
Servant Thus, Brutus, did my master bid me kneel:
Thus did Mark Antony bid me fall down;
And, being prostrate, thus he bade me say:
Brutus is noble, wise, valiant, and honest;
Caesar was mighty, bold, royal, and loving:
Say I love Brutus, and I honour him;
Say I fear’d Caesar, honour’d him and loved him.
If Brutus will vouchsafe that Antony
May safely come to him, and be resolved
How Caesar hath deserved to lie in death,
Mark Antony shall not love Caesar dead
So well as Brutus living; but will follow
The fortunes and affairs of noble Brutus
Thorough the hazards of this untrod state
With all true faith. So says my master Antony.
BRUTUS Thy master is a wise and valiant Roman;
I never thought him worse.
Tell him, so please him come unto this place,
He shall be satisfied; and, by my honour,
Depart untouch’d.
Servant I’ll fetch him presently.
Exit
BRUTUS I know that we shall have him well to friend.
CASSIUS I wish we may: but yet have I a mind
That fears him much; and my misgiving still
Falls shrewdly to the purpose.
BRUTUS But here comes Antony.
Re-enter ANTONY
Welcome, Mark Antony.
ANTONY O mighty Caesar! dost thou lie so low?
Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils,
Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well.
I know not, gentlemen, what you intend,
Who else must be let blood, who else is rank: