[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'er-read,
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
Publius
Cassius
What, urge you your petitions in the street?
[Caesar goes up to the Senate-House, the rest following behind.]
Popilius
[To Cassius] I wish your enterprise today may thrive.
Cassius
What enterprise, Popilius?
Popilius
[To Cassius] Fare you well.
[Popilius advances toward Caesar.]
Brutus
Cassius
He wished today our enterprise might thrive.
I fear our purpose is discoverèd.
Brutus
Look how he makes to Caesar. Mark him.
Cassius
Be sudden, for we fear prevention.
Brutus, what shall be done? If this be known,
Cassius or Caesar never shall turn back,
Brutus
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.
[Exit Antony and Trebonius.]
Decius Brutus
Where is Metellus Cimber? Let him go
And presently prefer his suit to Caesar.
Brutus
He is addressed. 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
[Addressing Caesar, seated to hear petitioners]
Most high, most mighty, and most puissant Caesar,
Metellus Cimber throws before thy seat
[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 thawed from the true quality
With that which melteth fools — I mean sweet words,
Low-crookèd curtsies, and base spaniel-fawning.
Thy brother by decree is banishèd.
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
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 banished brother?
Brutus
[Coming forward and kneeling]
I kiss thy hand — but not in flattery, Caesar —
Desiring thee that Publius Cimber may
Have an immediate freedom of repeal.
Caesar
Cassius
[Coming forward and kneeling]
Pardon, Caesar! Caesar, pardon!
As low as to thy foot doth Cassius fall,
To beg enfranchisement for Publius Cimber.
Caesar
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-fixed and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.
The skies are painted with unnumbered 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 furnished 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 banished,
And constant do remain to keep him so.
Cinna
[Coming forward]
Caesar
Hence! Wilt thou lift up Olympus?
Decius Brutus
[Coming forward]
Caesar
Doth not Brutus bootless kneel?
Casca
[Coming forward]
[Casca first, then the other Conspirators, and finally Brutus stab Caesar.]
Caesar
Et tu, Brute? — Then fall, Caesar!
[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
Brutus
Cinna
Here, quite confounded with this mutiny.
Metellus Cimber
Stand fast together, lest some friend of Caesar's
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
[Re-enter Trebonius.]
Cassius
Trebonius
Fled to his house amazed.
Men, wives, and children stare, cry out, and run,
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 often shall the knot of us be called
The men that gave their country liberty.
Decius Brutus
Cassius
Brutus shall lead, and we will grace his heels
With the most boldest and best hearts of Rome.
[Enter Antony’s Servant.]
Brutus
Soft! Who comes here? A friend of Antony's.
Servant
[Kneeling] 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 honor him;
Say I feared Caesar, honored 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 honor,
Servant
I'll fetch him presently.
[Exit Servant.]
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. Welcome, Mark Antony!
[Re-enter Antony.]
Antony
[To Caesar's body] O mighty Caesar! Dost thou lie so low?
Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils,
Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well.
[To Cassius and Brutus] I know not, gentlemen, what you intend,
Who else must be let blood, who else is rank.
If I myself, there is no hour so fit
As Caesar's death’s hour, nor no instrument
Of half that worth as those your swords, made rich
With the most noble blood of all this world.
I do beseech ye, if you bear me hard,
Now, whilst your purpled hands do reek and smoke,
Fulfil your pleasure. Live a thousand years,
I shall not find myself so apt to die.
No place will please me so, no mean of death,
As here by Caesar, and by you cut off,
The choice and master spirits of this age.
Brutus
O Antony, beg not your death of us!
Though now we must appear bloody and cruel,
As by our hands and this our present act
You see we do, yet see you but our hands
And this the bleeding business they have done.
Our hearts you see not; they are pitiful;
And pity to the general wrong of Rome —
As fire drives out fire, so pity pity —
Hath done this deed on Caesar. For your part,
To you our swords have leaden points, Mark Antony.
Our arms no strength of malice, and our hearts
Of brothers' temper, do receive you in
With all kind love, good thoughts, and reverence.
Cassius
Your voice shall be as strong as any man's
In the disposing of new dignities.
Brutus
Only be patient till we have appeased
The multitude, beside themselves with fear,
And then we will deliver you the cause
Why I, that did love Caesar when I struck him,
Antony
I doubt not of your wisdom.
Let each man render me his bloody hand.
First, Marcus Brutus, will I shake with you;
Next, Caius Cassius, do I take your hand;
Now, Decius Brutus, yours; now yours, Metellus;
Yours, Cinna; and, my valiant Casca, yours;
Though last, not least in love, yours, good Trebonius —
Gentlemen all. Alas, what shall I say?
My credit now stands on such slippery ground
That one of two bad ways you must conceit me —
Either a coward or a flatterer.
[To Caesar's body] That I did love thee, Caesar, O, 'tis true!
If then thy spirit look upon us now,
Shall it not grieve thee dearer than thy death
To see thy Anthony making his peace,
Shaking the bloody fingers of thy foes —
Most noble! — in the presence of thy corse?
Had I as many eyes as thou hast wounds,
Weeping as fast as they stream forth thy blood,
It would become me better than to close
In terms of friendship with thine enemies.
Pardon me, Julius! Here wast thou bayed, brave hart;
Here didst thou fall; and here thy hunters stand,
Signed in thy spoil, and crimsoned in thy Lethe.
O world, thou wast the forest to this hart,
And this indeed, O world, the heart of thee!
How like a deer, strucken by many princes,
Cassius
Antony
Pardon me, Caius Cassius.
The enemies of Caesar shall say this;
Then in a friend, it is cold modesty.
Cassius
I blame you not for praising Caesar so,
But what compact mean you to have with us?
Will you be pricked in number of our friends,
Or shall we on, and not depend on you?
Antony
Therefore I took your hands, but was indeed
Sway'd from the point by looking down on Caesar.
Friends am I with you all, and love you all,
Upon this hope: that you shall give me reasons
Why and wherein Caesar was dangerous.
Brutus
Or else were this a savage spectacle.
Our reasons are so full of good regard
That were you, Antony, the son of Caesar,
Antony
And am moreover suitor that I may
Produce his body to the market-place,
And in the pulpit, as becomes a friend,
Speak in the order of his funeral.
Brutus
Cassius
[Aside to Brutus] You know not what you do. Do not consent
That Antony speak in his funeral.
Know you how much the people may be moved
By that which he will utter?
Brutus
[Aside to Cassius] By your pardon,
I will myself into the pulpit first,
And show the reason of our Caesar's death.
What Antony shall speak, I will protest
He speaks by leave and by permission,
And that we are contented Caesar shall
Have all true rites, and lawful ceremonies.
It shall advantage more than do us wrong.
Cassius
[Aside to Brutus] I know not what may fall; I like it not.
Brutus
Mark Antony, here, take you Caesar's body.
You shall not in your funeral speech blame us,
But speak all good you can devise of Caesar,
And say you do't by our permission;
Else shall you not have any hand at all
About his funeral. And you shall speak
In the same pulpit whereto I am going,
After my speech is ended.
Antony
Brutus
Prepare the body then, and follow us.
[Exit all but Antony.]
Antony
O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,
That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!
Thou art the ruins of the noblest man
That ever livèd in the tide of times.
Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood!
Over thy wounds now do I prophesy —
Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips
To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue —
A curse shall light upon the limbs of men.
Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy.
Blood and destruction shall be so in use,
And dreadful objects so familiar,
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quartered with the hands of war,
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds.
And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side, come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines, with a monarch's voice
Cry 'Havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.
[Enter Octavius' Servant.]
You serve Octavius Caesar, do you not?
Octavius' Servant
Antony
Caesar did write for him to come to Rome.
Octavius' Servant
He did receive his letters and is coming,
And bid me say to you by word of mouth —
[Seeing the body]
Antony
Thy heart is big; get thee apart and weep.
Passion, I see, is catching, for mine eyes,
Seeing those beads of sorrow stand in thine,
Began to water. Is thy master coming?
Octavius' Servant
He lies tonight within seven leagues of Rome.
Antony
Post back with speed and tell him what hath chanced.
Here is a mourning Rome, a dangerous Rome,
No Rome of safety for Octavius yet.
Hie hence and tell him so. — Yet stay awhile;
Thou shalt not back till I have borne this corpse
Into the market-place. There shall I try,
In my oration, how the people take
The cruel issue of these bloody men;
According to the which thou shalt discourse
To young Octavius of the state of things.
[Exit with Caesar's body.]
