Caesar

[To the Soothsayer] The 15th of March has come.

Soothsayer

Yes, Caesar, but it is not over.

Artemidorus

Greetings, Caesar! Read this schedule.

Decius Brutus

Trebonius would like you to read over his humble request, at your leisure.

Artemidorus

Oh, Caesar, read mine first, for mine is a request that's more relevant to you. Read it, great Caesar!

Caesar

What's most relevant to us will be dealt with last.

Artemidorus

Don't delay, Caesar, read it instantly!

Caesar

What, is this fellow mad?

Publius

You there, move over.

Cassius

What, are we presenting petitions in the street now? Just come to the Capitol.

Popilius

[To Cassius] I hope your business today goes well.

Cassius

What business, Popilius?

Popilius

[To Cassius] Farewell.

Brutus

What did Popilius Lena say?

Cassius

He said he hoped our business today would go well. I'm afraid our plan has been discovered.

Brutus

Look how he's approaching Caesar. Watch him carefully.

Cassius

Casca, do something quick, for we're afraid of being stopped. Brutus, what should we do? If our plot becomes known, then either Caesar or I can leave this place alive, for I'll kill myself if we fail.

Brutus

Cassius, hold steady. Popilius Lena is not talking about out plans. Look, he's smiling, and Caesar's expression hasn't changed.

Cassius

Trebonius knows what he has to do, for look, Brutus, he's drawing Mark Antony out of the way.

Decius Brutus

Where is Metellus Cimber? He should go and present his request to Caesar now.

Brutus

He's ready; get closer so you can second his petition.

Cinna

Casca, you will be the first to strike a blow.

Caesar

Is everyone ready? What problems should Caesar and his senate address?

Metellus Cimber

Most high, most mighty, and most powerful Caesar, I, Metellus Cimber, kneel before you with a humble heart.

Caesar

I'll have to stop you, Cimber. This bowing and deferential courtesies might influence ordinary men to overturn prior decrees as if they were mere laws passed by children. But don't be so foolish to think that Caesar's blood is so unstable as to be thawed by that which melts fools—by which I mean flattering words, bowing low, and fawning like lapdogs. Your brother has been banished by law. If you're going to bend at the knee and pray and fawn, I will kick you out of the way like a stray dog. Know that Caesar does not make unjust decrees, and that your brother will not be pardoned without good reason.

Metellus Cimber

Is there any voice worthier than mine to appeal to Caesar to grant my banished brother a pardon?

Brutus

I kiss your hand as greeting, not flattery, Caesar; and I ask you to immediately repeal Publius Cimber's banishment.

Caesar

What, you’re pleading too, Brutus?

Cassius

Pardon, Caesar! Caesar, pardon! I bow as low as your feet to beg for Publius Caesar's restoration to citizenship.

Caesar

If I were like you, if I were capable of begging for favors, then your prayers might influence me. But I am as steady as the northern star, whose fixed and unmoving nature has no equal in the night sky. The skies are filled with countless sparks of light, made of fire and shining bright, but only one among them holds its place. The world is just like that. It is filled with men of flesh and blood, with physical and mental senses. But among them I only know one man that is invincible and holds fast to his position, unmoved by others, and I am that man. Let me prove this, even in this—I was unwavering in that Cimber should be banished, and I remain firm that he will kept so.

Cinna

Oh Caesar—

Caesar

Go away! Are you trying to lift up Mount Olympus?

Decius Brutus

Great Caesar—

Caesar

Aren't you kneeling for nothing, Brutus?

Casca

My hand, speak for me!

Caesar

And you too, Brutus?—Then die, Caesar!

Cinna

Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead! Run from here and announce it, yell it in the streets!

Cassius

Some of you go to the public platforms, and cry out "Liberty, freedom, and citizenship!"

Brutus

People and senators, don't be afraid. Don't run away. Stand still. Caesar's ambition has been answered.

Casca

Go to the platform Brutus.

Decius Brutus

And Cassius too.

Brutus

Where's Publius?

Cinna

He's here, quite astonished by this violence.

Metellus Cimber

Let's stand together in case some friend of Caesar's tries to—

Brutus

Don't talk about standing together. Publius, it's alright. We don't mean you any harm, nor do we mean harm to any other Roman. Tell them this, Publius.

Cassius

And leave us, Publius, in case mob rushing to see what has happened injures your old fragile body.

Brutus

Do so, Publius. Don't let any man suffer repercussions from this deed except we who did it.

Cassius

Where is Antony?

Trebonius

He fled to his house, astonished. Men, women, and children stare wildly, yell, and run around as though this was the end of the world.

Brutus

Fates, you gods controlling the future, we'll know what you have in store for us. We know we'll all die one day. It's when we die, and drawing out our days as long as possible which matter.

Cassius

Why, a man who dies twenty years early removes that many years of fearing death.

Brutus

Given that, death is a benefit. We're Caesar's friends that have reduced his years of fearing death. Bend down, Romans, let us dip our hands in Caesar's blood all the way up to the elbows, and smear our swords with his blood. Then let's go forth to the marketplace, and let's wave our bloody weapons over our heads and cry "Peace, freedom, and liberty!"

Cassius

Bend down and wash your hands in his blood. Just think how future ages will re-enact this important scene over and over in nations not yet formed and in languages not yet known!

Brutus

Think how many times Caesar will bleed again for entertainment, he who lies now along the base of Pompey's statue, no more worthy than dust!

Cassius

As often as this scene may be performed, so often our group will be called the men who gave their country liberty!

Decius Brutus

Well, should we go forth?

Cassius

Yes, let's all of us go. Brutus will lead, and we'll follow at his heels, the boldest and best hearts of Rome.

Brutus

Wait! Who's coming? It's a friend of Antony's.

Servant

Brutus, my master instructed me to kneel like this, and to fall at your feet. And lying before you, he told me to say, "Brutus is noble, wise, valiant, and honest. Caesar was mighty, bold, royal, and loving. I loved Brutus, and I honor him. I feared Caesar, and honored him, and loved him. If Brutus will guarantee that Antony can safely come to him and hear why Caesar deserved to die, then Mark Antony will love the living Brutus more than the dead Caesar, and will faithfully follow noble Brutus through the dangers of this unprecedented state of affairs." That's what my master Antony wanted me to say.

Brutus

Your master is a wise and valiant Roman, and I have never thought him to be less than that. Tell him that if he will come to this place, we will answer his questions, and, on my honor, he will be able to leave unharmed.

Servant

I'll go get him right away.

Brutus

I know that he'll be a good ally.

Cassius

I hope so, but I still fear him, and I think my suspicions are accurate for this situation.

Brutus

Here comes Antony. Welcome, Mark Antony!

Antony

Oh mighty Caesar! Have you been brought this low? Have all of your conquests, glories, triumphs, and spoils of war shrunk to just this? Farewell Caesar. [To Cassius and Brutus] Gentlemen, I don't know your intentions, I don't know who else you intend to kill, or who else you think has overgrown their boundaries. If I am one of them, there's no better time to kill me than the hour of Caesar's death, nor is there any murder weapon as worthy as your swords which have enriched themselves with Caesar's blood, the noblest in the world. I beg you, if you bear a grudge against me, kill me now while your bloodied hands still reek of hot blood. If I live a thousand years, I will never find a more fitting time to die. No place and means of death would please more than being killed here next to Caesar by you, the masters of this new age.

Brutus

Oh Antony, don't beg us to kill you! Though we must appear bloody and cruel, judging from our bloody hands and the act they've just committed, for you only see our hands and the bleeding they have caused. But our hearts, which you do not see, are full of pity—pity for Caesar, but also for the wrongs which he has inflicted on all of Rome. Just as a large fire drives out a smaller one, so a larger pity prevails over a smaller. Thus it was our greater pity for Rome which drove us to kill Caesar. As for you, our swords are harmless against you, Mark Antony. Though our weapons are capable of inflicting much injury, our hearts, full of brotherly love, receive you with nothing but kindness, good thoughts, and respect.

Antony

I don't doubt your wisdom. Let each man give me his bloody hand. I'll shake yours first, Marcus Brutus. I'll take your hand next, Caius Cassius. Now yours, Decius Brutus, now yours, Metellus, yours, Cinna, and yours, my valiant Casca, and last but not least in love, yours, good Trebonius. Gentlemen, what should I say? My integrity is on shaky ground, for you must think me either a coward or a flatterer.

[To Caesar’s body] It’s true that I loved you, Caesar! If your spirit could see us now, it would be more grieved then by your death, to see your Antony making peace by shaking the bloody fingers of your foes in the presence of your body—most noble act! Caesar, rather than come together in friendship with your enemies, it would be more fitting if I had as many eyes as you have wounds, and from them streamed tears as fast the blood from your wounds. Pardon me, Julius! Here you were cornered like a deer, a brave stag, and here were you shot; and here stand the hunters, bearing the signs of their kill, their bloody hands crimson as if they had been dipped in the Lethe, the death river of Hades. The whole world was the forest for you, brave hart; and you were the heart of the whole world. Here you lie, like a magnificent stag, shot my many princes.

Cassius

Mark Antony—

Antony

Pardon me for interrupting you, Caius Cassius. Even the enemies of Caesar would say this of him, so coming from me, his friend, it's only moderate praise.

Cassius

I don't blame you for praising Caesar like this. But what kind of agreement are you looking to have with us? Do you want to be counted as one of our friends? Or should we go on and not depend on you?

Antony

I took your hands to be friends, but indeed I got distracted by looking down at Caesar. I am friends with you all, and I love you all—as long as you will give me reasons why you think Caesar was dangerous.

Brutus

If we had no reasons for thinking so, this would be a savage spectacle indeed. Our reasons were so well-intentioned, Antony, that even if you were Caesar's son you'd be satisfied by them.

Antony

That's all I'm looking for. Additionally, I'd like to take his body to the marketplace, and as a friend, speak from the public platform, as part of his funeral service.

Brutus

You can, Mark Antony.

Cassius

Brutus, a word with you. [Aside to Brutus] You don't know what you're doing. Don't give your consent for Antony to speak at his funeral. Don't you know how much the people might be stirred up against us by what Antony might say?

Brutus

[Aside to Cassius] With your permission, I'll stand on the platform first and explain why Caesar was put to death. Whatever Antony says, I'll tell them that he speaks with our permission, and that we want Caesar to have all the correct funeral rites and lawful ceremonies. It will do us more good than harm.

Cassius

[Aside to Brutus] I don't know what the fallout of his speech will be. I don't like this.

Brutus

Mark Antony, take Caesar's body. You are not to blame us in your funeral speech, but may speak however well you can of Caesar, and say that you do so by our permission. Otherwise, you will have no hand at all in his funeral. And you'll speak from the same platform to which I'm going now, after I'm done.

Antony

So be it. I want nothing more.

Brutus

Prepare the body then, and follow us.

Antony

[To Caesar’s body] Oh you bleeding piece of flesh, pardon me for being so meek and gentle with these butchers! You are the ruins of the noblest man who ever lived in the flow of time. Woe to the hand that shed this rich blood! Over your wounds—which, like silent mouths, open their ruby lips to beg my tongue to speak—I predict a curse will fall on the bodies of men. Furious and fierce civil war shall overwhelm all of Italy.

Everyone will be so used to blood and destruction, and dreadful things so common, that mothers will just smile when they see their babies cut in pieces by the hands of war, all pity blocked by the familiarity of evil deeds. And Caesar's ghost, raging for revenge, with the goddess of strife at his side having come directly from hell, shall, throughout these regions and in a monarch's voice cry "Havoc!", and unleash the hounds of war, so that Caesar's murder shall cause a stink over the earth from all the rotting bodies groaning for burial.

You serve Octavius Caesar, don't you?

Octavius’ Servant

I do, Mark Antony.

Antony

Julius Caesar wrote to him asking him to come to Rome.

Octavius’ Servant

He received his letters and is coming, and he asked me to tell you in person—

Oh Caesar!

Antony

You have a big heart; go somewhere else and weep. Emotion is contagious, I see, since now my eyes, seeing yours tearing up, are starting to water as well. Is your master coming?

Octavius’ Servant

He's camping tonight twenty-one miles from Rome.

Antony

Ride back quickly and tell him what's happened. Rome is in mourning, a dangerous Rome, not yet a Rome safe enough for Octavius. Go and tell him this.—Yet wait a minute; don't go back until I've carried his corpse to the marketplace. There, I'm going to find out by my speech how the people feel about the result of these bloody men's work. This information you will pass on to Octavius. Give me your hand.