TPTT The Tragedy of Julius Caesar: ACT I
Introduction
ACT I
SCENE I. Rome. A street.
SCENE II. A public place.
SCENE III. The same. A street.
ACT II
ACT III
ACT IV
ACT V
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SCENE III. The same. A street.
Thunder and lightning. Enter from opposite sides, CASCA, with his sword drawn, and CICERO
CICERO
      Good even, Casca: brought you Caesar home?
      Why are you breathless? and why stare you so?
CASCA
      Are not you moved, when all the sway of earth
      Shakes like a thing unfirm? O Cicero,
5     I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds
      Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen
      The ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam,
      To be exalted with the threatening clouds:
      But never till to-night, never till now,
10    Did I go through a tempest dropping fire.
      Either there is a civil strife in heaven,
      Or else the world, too saucy with the gods,
      Incenses them to send destruction.
CICERO
      Why, saw you any thing more wonderful?
CASCA
15    A common slave--you know him well by sight--
      Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn
      Like twenty torches join'd, and yet his hand,
      Not sensible of fire, remain'd unscorch'd.
      Besides--I ha' not since put up my sword--
20    Against the Capitol I met a lion,
      Who glared upon me, and went surly by,
      Without annoying me: and there were drawn
      Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women,
      Transformed with their fear; who swore they saw
25    Men all in fire walk up and down the streets.
      And yesterday the bird of night did sit
      Even at noon-day upon the market-place,
      Hooting and shrieking. When these prodigies
      Do so conjointly meet, let not men say
30    'These are their reasons; they are natural;'
      For, I believe, they are portentous things
      Unto the climate that they point upon.
CICERO
      Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time:
      But men may construe things after their fashion,
35    Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.
      Come Caesar to the Capitol to-morrow?
CASCA
      He doth; for he did bid Antonius
      Send word to you he would be there to-morrow.
CICERO
      Good night then, Casca: this disturbed sky
40    Is not to walk in.
CASCA
      Farewell, Cicero.
Exit CICERO
Enter CASSIUS
CASSIUS
      Who's there?
CASCA
      A Roman.
CASSIUS
      Casca, by your voice.
CASCA
45    Your ear is good. Cassius, what night is this!
CASSIUS
      A very pleasing night to honest men.
CASCA
      Who ever knew the heavens menace so?
CASSIUS
      Those that have known the earth so full of faults.
      For my part, I have walk'd about the streets,
50    Submitting me unto the perilous night,
      And, thus unbraced, Casca, as you see,
      Have bared my bosom to the thunder-stone;
      And when the cross blue lightning seem'd to open
      The breast of heaven, I did present myself
55    Even in the aim and very flash of it.
CASCA
      But wherefore did you so much tempt the heavens?
      It is the part of men to fear and tremble,
      When the most mighty gods by tokens send
      Such dreadful heralds to astonish us.
CASSIUS
60    You are dull, Casca, and those sparks of life
      That should be in a Roman you do want,
      Or else you use not. You look pale and gaze
      And put on fear and cast yourself in wonder,
      To see the strange impatience of the heavens:
65    But if you would consider the true cause
      Why all these fires, why all these gliding ghosts,
      Why birds and beasts from quality and kind,
      Why old men fool and children calculate,
      Why all these things change from their ordinance
70    Their natures and preformed faculties
      To monstrous quality,--why, you shall find
      That heaven hath infused them with these spirits,
      To make them instruments of fear and warning
      Unto some monstrous state.
75    Now could I, Casca, name to thee a man
      Most like this dreadful night,
      That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars
      As doth the lion in the Capitol,
      A man no mightier than thyself or me
80    In personal action, yet prodigious grown
      And fearful, as these strange eruptions are.
CASCA
      'Tis Caesar that you mean; is it not, Cassius?
CASSIUS
      Let it be who it is: for Romans now
      Have thews and limbs like to their ancestors;
85    But, woe the while! our fathers' minds are dead,
      And we are govern'd with our mothers' spirits;
      Our yoke and sufferance show us womanish.
CASCA
      Indeed, they say the senators tomorrow
      Mean to establish Caesar as a king;
90    And he shall wear his crown by sea and land,
      In every place, save here in Italy.
CASSIUS
      I know where I will wear this dagger then;
      Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius:
      Therein, ye gods, you make the weak most strong;
95    Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat:
      Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
      Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,
      Can be retentive to the strength of spirit;
      But life, being weary of these worldly bars,
100   Never lacks power to dismiss itself.
      If I know this, know all the world besides,
      That part of tyranny that I do bear
      I can shake off at pleasure.
Thunder still
CASCA
      So can I:
105   So every bondman in his own hand bears
      The power to cancel his captivity.
CASSIUS
      And why should Caesar be a tyrant then?
      Poor man! I know he would not be a wolf,
      But that he sees the Romans are but sheep:
110   He were no lion, were not Romans hinds.
      Those that with haste will make a mighty fire
      Begin it with weak straws: what trash is Rome,
      What rubbish and what offal, when it serves
      For the base matter to illuminate
115   So vile a thing as Caesar! But, O grief,
      Where hast thou led me? I perhaps speak this
      Before a willing bondman; then I know
      My answer must be made. But I am arm'd,
      And dangers are to me indifferent.
CASCA
120   You speak to Casca, and to such a man
      That is no fleering tell-tale. Hold, my hand:
      Be factious for redress of all these griefs,
      And I will set this foot of mine as far
      As who goes farthest.
CASSIUS
125   There's a bargain made.
      Now know you, Casca, I have moved already
      Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans
      To undergo with me an enterprise
      Of honourable-dangerous consequence;
130   And I do know, by this, they stay for me
      In Pompey's porch: for now, this fearful night,
      There is no stir or walking in the streets;
      And the complexion of the element
      In favour's like the work we have in hand,
135   Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible.
CASCA
      Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste.
CASSIUS
      'Tis Cinna; I do know him by his gait;
      He is a friend.

Enter CINNA

      Cinna, where haste you so?
CINNA
140   To find out you. Who's that? Metellus Cimber?
CASSIUS
      No, it is Casca; one incorporate
      To our attempts. Am I not stay'd for, Cinna?
CINNA
      I am glad on 't. What a fearful night is this!
      There's two or three of us have seen strange sights.
CASSIUS
145   Am I not stay'd for? tell me.
CINNA
      Yes, you are.
      O Cassius, if you could
      But win the noble Brutus to our party--
CASSIUS
      Be you content: good Cinna, take this paper,
150   And look you lay it in the praetor's chair,
      Where Brutus may but find it; and throw this
      In at his window; set this up with wax
      Upon old Brutus' statue: all this done,
      Repair to Pompey's porch, where you shall find us.
155   Is Decius Brutus and Trebonius there?
CINNA
      All but Metellus Cimber; and he's gone
      To seek you at your house. Well, I will hie,
      And so bestow these papers as you bade me.
CASSIUS
      That done, repair to Pompey's theatre.

Exit CINNA

160   Come, Casca, you and I will yet ere day
      See Brutus at his house: three parts of him
      Is ours already, and the man entire
      Upon the next encounter yields him ours.
CASCA
      O, he sits high in all the people's hearts:
165   And that which would appear offence in us,
      His countenance, like richest alchemy,
      Will change to virtue and to worthiness.
CASSIUS
      Him and his worth and our great need of him
      You have right well conceited. Let us go,
170   For it is after midnight; and ere day
      We will awake him and be sure of him.
Exeunt
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