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Brutus, Lines 44-58
Performance Videos
Act 2,
Scene 1
Lines 44-58

Brutus performs a speech from Act 2, Scene 1 of myShakespeare's Julius Caesar. 

Brutus

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, et cetera. Speak, strike, redress!
Brutus, thou sleep'st.  Awake!"
Such instigations have been often dropped
Where I have took them up.
"Shall Rome, et cetera." Thus must I piece it out:
Shall Rome stand under one man's awe? What, Rome?
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!