Reading Help THE TRAGEDY OF JULIUS CAESAR
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 `
` 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. `
` 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, `
` 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; `
` 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, `
` 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. `
` 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. `
` 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 `
` 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. 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. 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 honorable-dangerous consequence; `
` 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 favor's like the work we have in hand, `
` Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible. `
` `
` Enter Cinna. `
` `
` CASCA. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste. `
` CASSIUS. 'Tis Cinna, I do know him by his gait; `
` He is a friend. Cinna, where haste you so? `
` CINNA. 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. 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, `
` 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. `
` 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. `
` 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, `
` And that which would appear offense 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, `
` For it is after midnight, and ere day `
` We will awake him and be sure of him. Exeunt. `
` `
` `
` `
` `
` <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM `
` SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS `
` PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY `
` WITH PERMISSION. ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE `
` DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS `
` PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED `
` COMMERCIALLY. PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY `
` SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>> `
` `
` `
` `
` ACT II. SCENE I. `
` `
` Enter Brutus in his orchard. `
` `
` BRUTUS. What, Lucius, ho! `
` I cannot, by the progress of the stars, `
` Give guess how near to day. Lucius, I say! `
` I would it were my fault to sleep so soundly. `
` When, Lucius, when? Awake, I say! What, Lucius! `
` `
` Enter Lucius. `
` `
` LUCIUS. Call'd you, my lord? `
` BRUTUS. Get me a taper in my study, Lucius. `
` `
` When it is lighted, come and call me here. `
` LUCIUS. I will, my lord. Exit. `
` BRUTUS. It must be by his death, and, for my part, `
` I know no personal cause to spurn at him, `
` But for the general. He would be crown'd: `
` How that might change his nature, there's the question. `
` It is the bright day that brings forth the adder `
` And that craves wary walking. Crown him that, `
` And then, I grant, we put a sting in him `
` That at his will he may do danger with. `
` The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins `
` Remorse from power, and, to speak truth of Caesar, `
` I have not known when his affections sway'd `
` More than his reason. But 'tis a common proof `
` That lowliness is young ambition's ladder, `
` Whereto the climber-upward turns his face; `
` But when he once attains the upmost round, `
` He then unto the ladder turns his back, `
` Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees `
` By which he did ascend. So Caesar may; `
` Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since the quarrel `
` Will bear no color for the thing he is, `
` Fashion it thus, that what he is, augmented, `
` Would run to these and these extremities; `
` And therefore think him as a serpent's egg `
` Which hatch'd would as his kind grow mischievous, `
` And kill him in the shell. `
` `
` Re-enter Lucius. `
` `
` LUCIUS. The taper burneth in your closet, sir. `
` Searching the window for a flint I found `
` This paper thus seal'd up, and I am sure `
` It did not lie there when I went to bed. `
` Gives him the letter. `
` BRUTUS. Get you to bed again, it is not day. `
` Is not tomorrow, boy, the ides of March? `
` LUCIUS. I know not, sir. `
` BRUTUS. Look in the calendar and bring me word. `
` LUCIUS. I will, sir. Exit. `
` 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, etc. Speak, strike, redress!" `
` `
` "Brutus, thou sleep'st: awake!" `
` Such instigations have been often dropp'd `
` Where I have took them up. `
` "Shall Rome, etc." 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! `
` `
` Re-enter Lucius. `
` `
` LUCIUS. Sir, March is wasted fifteen days. `
` Knocking within. `
` BRUTUS. 'Tis good. Go to the gate, somebody knocks. `
` Exit Lucius. `
` Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar `
` I have not slept. `
` Between the acting of a dreadful thing `
` And the first motion, all the interim is `
` Like a phantasma or a hideous dream; `
` The genius and the mortal instruments `
` Are then in council, and the state of 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 `
` 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. `
` 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, `
` 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; `
` 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, `
` 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. `
` 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. `
` 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 `
` 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. 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. 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 honorable-dangerous consequence; `
` 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 favor's like the work we have in hand, `
` Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible. `
` `
` Enter Cinna. `
` `
` CASCA. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste. `
` CASSIUS. 'Tis Cinna, I do know him by his gait; `
` He is a friend. Cinna, where haste you so? `
` CINNA. 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. 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, `
` 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. `
` 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. `
` 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, `
` And that which would appear offense 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, `
` For it is after midnight, and ere day `
` We will awake him and be sure of him. Exeunt. `
` `
` `
` `
` `
` <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM `
` SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS `
` PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY `
` WITH PERMISSION. ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE `
` DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS `
` PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED `
` COMMERCIALLY. PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY `
` SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>> `
` `
` `
` `
` ACT II. SCENE I. `
` `
` Enter Brutus in his orchard. `
` `
` BRUTUS. What, Lucius, ho! `
` I cannot, by the progress of the stars, `
` Give guess how near to day. Lucius, I say! `
` I would it were my fault to sleep so soundly. `
` When, Lucius, when? Awake, I say! What, Lucius! `
` `
` Enter Lucius. `
` `
` LUCIUS. Call'd you, my lord? `
` BRUTUS. Get me a taper in my study, Lucius. `
` `
` When it is lighted, come and call me here. `
` LUCIUS. I will, my lord. Exit. `
` BRUTUS. It must be by his death, and, for my part, `
` I know no personal cause to spurn at him, `
` But for the general. He would be crown'd: `
` How that might change his nature, there's the question. `
` It is the bright day that brings forth the adder `
` And that craves wary walking. Crown him that, `
` And then, I grant, we put a sting in him `
` That at his will he may do danger with. `
` The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins `
` Remorse from power, and, to speak truth of Caesar, `
` I have not known when his affections sway'd `
` More than his reason. But 'tis a common proof `
` That lowliness is young ambition's ladder, `
` Whereto the climber-upward turns his face; `
` But when he once attains the upmost round, `
` He then unto the ladder turns his back, `
` Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees `
` By which he did ascend. So Caesar may; `
` Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since the quarrel `
` Will bear no color for the thing he is, `
` Fashion it thus, that what he is, augmented, `
` Would run to these and these extremities; `
` And therefore think him as a serpent's egg `
` Which hatch'd would as his kind grow mischievous, `
` And kill him in the shell. `
` `
` Re-enter Lucius. `
` `
` LUCIUS. The taper burneth in your closet, sir. `
` Searching the window for a flint I found `
` This paper thus seal'd up, and I am sure `
` It did not lie there when I went to bed. `
` Gives him the letter. `
` BRUTUS. Get you to bed again, it is not day. `
` Is not tomorrow, boy, the ides of March? `
` LUCIUS. I know not, sir. `
` BRUTUS. Look in the calendar and bring me word. `
` LUCIUS. I will, sir. Exit. `
` 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, etc. Speak, strike, redress!" `
` `
` "Brutus, thou sleep'st: awake!" `
` Such instigations have been often dropp'd `
` Where I have took them up. `
` "Shall Rome, etc." 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! `
` `
` Re-enter Lucius. `
` `
` LUCIUS. Sir, March is wasted fifteen days. `
` Knocking within. `
` BRUTUS. 'Tis good. Go to the gate, somebody knocks. `
` Exit Lucius. `
` Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar `
` I have not slept. `
` Between the acting of a dreadful thing `
` And the first motion, all the interim is `
` Like a phantasma or a hideous dream; `
` The genius and the mortal instruments `
` Are then in council, and the state of man, `
`