|
1599 `
`
`
`
`
`
THE TRAGEDY OF JULIUS CAESAR `
`
`
`
by William Shakespeare `
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
Dramatis Personae `
`
`
`
JULIUS CAESAR, Roman statesman and general `
`
OCTAVIUS, Triumvir after Caesar's death, later Augustus Caesar, `
`
first emperor of Rome `
`
MARK ANTONY, general and friend of Caesar, a Triumvir after his `
`
death `
`
LEPIDUS, third member of the Triumvirate `
`
MARCUS BRUTUS, leader of the conspiracy against Caesar `
`
CASSIUS, instigator of the conspiracy `
`
CASCA, conspirator against Caesar `
`
TREBONIUS, `
`
CAIUS LIGARIUS, `
`
DECIUS BRUTUS, `
`
METELLUS CIMBER, `
`
CINNA, `
`
CALPURNIA, wife of Caesar `
`
PORTIA, wife of Brutus `
`
CICERO, senator `
`
POPILIUS, `
`
POPILIUS LENA, `
`
FLAVIUS, tribune `
`
MARULLUS, tribune `
`
CATO, supportor of Brutus `
`
LUCILIUS, `
`
TITINIUS, `
`
MESSALA, `
`
VOLUMNIUS, `
`
ARTEMIDORUS, a teacher of rhetoric `
`
CINNA, a poet `
`
VARRO, servant to Brutus `
`
CLITUS, `
`
CLAUDIO, `
`
STRATO, `
`
LUCIUS, `
`
DARDANIUS, `
`
PINDARUS, servant to Cassius `
`
The Ghost of Caesar `
`
A Soothsayer `
`
A Poet `
`
Senators, Citizens, Soldiers, Commoners, Messengers, and `
`
Servants `
`
`
`
`
`
SCENE: Rome, the conspirators' camp near Sardis, and the plains `
`
of Philippi. `
`
`
`
`
`
ACT I. SCENE I. `
`
Rome. A street. `
`
`
`
Enter Flavius, Marullus, and certain Commoners. `
`
`
`
FLAVIUS. Hence, home, you idle creatures, get you home. `
`
Is this a holiday? What, know you not, `
`
Being mechanical, you ought not walk `
`
Upon a laboring day without the sign `
`
Of your profession? Speak, what trade art thou? `
`
FIRST COMMONER. Why, sir, a carpenter. `
`
MARULLUS. Where is thy leather apron and thy rule? `
`
What dost thou with thy best apparel on? `
`
You, sir, what trade are you? `
`
SECOND COMMONER. Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am `
`
but, as you would say, a cobbler. `
`
MARULLUS. But what trade art thou? Answer me directly. `
`
SECOND COMMONER. A trade, sir, that, I hope, I may use with a `
`
safe `
`
conscience, which is indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles. `
`
MARULLUS. What trade, thou knave? Thou naughty knave, what `
`
trade? `
`
SECOND COMMONER. Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me; `
`
yet, `
`
if you be out, sir, I can mend you. `
`
MARULLUS. What mean'st thou by that? Mend me, thou saucy `
`
fellow! `
`
SECOND COMMONER. Why, sir, cobble you. `
`
FLAVIUS. Thou art a cobbler, art thou? `
`
SECOND COMMONER. Truly, Sir, all that I live by is with the `
`
awl; I `
`
meddle with no tradesman's matters, nor women's matters, but `
`
with `
`
awl. I am indeed, sir, a surgeon to old shoes; when they are `
`
in `
`
great danger, I recover them. As proper men as ever trod upon `
`
neat's leather have gone upon my handiwork. `
`
FLAVIUS. But wherefore art not in thy shop today? `
`
Why dost thou lead these men about the streets? `
`
SECOND COMMONER. Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes to get `
`
myself `
`
into more work. But indeed, sir, we make holiday to see `
`
Caesar `
`
and to rejoice in his triumph. `
`
MARULLUS. Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home? `
`
What tributaries follow him to Rome `
`
To grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels? `
`
You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things! `
`
O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome, `
`
Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft `
`
Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements, `
`
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney tops, `
`
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat `
`
The livelong day with patient expectation `
`
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome. `
`
And when you saw his chariot but appear, `
`
Have you not made an universal shout `
`
That Tiber trembled underneath her banks `
`
To hear the replication of your sounds `
`
Made in her concave shores? `
`
And do you now put on your best attire? `
`
And do you now cull out a holiday? `
`
And do you now strew flowers in his way `
`
That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood? `
`
Be gone! `
`
Run to your houses, fall upon your knees, `
`
Pray to the gods to intermit the plague `
`
That needs must light on this ingratitude. `
`
FLAVIUS. Go, go, good countrymen, and, for this fault, `
`
Assemble all the poor men of your sort, `
`
Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears `
`
Into the channel, till the lowest stream `
`
Do kiss the most exalted shores of all. `
`
Exeunt all Commoners. `
`
See whether their basest metal be not moved; `
`
They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness. `
`
Go you down that way towards the Capitol; `
`
This way will I. Disrobe the images `
`
If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies. `
`
MARULLUS. May we do so? `
`
You know it is the feast of Lupercal. `
`
FLAVIUS. It is no matter; let no images `
`
Be hung with Caesar's trophies. I'll about `
`
And drive away the vulgar from the streets; `
`
So do you too, where you perceive them thick. `
`
These growing feathers pluck'd from Caesar's wing `
`
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch, `
`
Who else would soar above the view of men `
`
And keep us all in servile fearfulness. Exeunt. `
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
SCENE II. `
`
A public place. `
`
`
`
Flourish. Enter Caesar; Antony, for the course; Calpurnia, `
`
Portia, `
`
Decius, Cicero, Brutus, Cassius, and Casca; a great crowd `
`
follows, `
`
among them a Soothsayer. `
`
`
`
CAESAR. Calpurnia! `
`
CASCA. Peace, ho! Caesar speaks. `
`
Music ceases. `
`
CAESAR. Calpurnia! `
`
CALPURNIA. Here, my lord. `
`
CAESAR. Stand you directly in Antonio's way, `
`
When he doth run his course. Antonio! `
`
ANTONY. Caesar, my lord? `
`
CAESAR. Forget not in your speed, Antonio, `
`
To touch Calpurnia, for our elders say `
`
The barren, touched in this holy chase, `
`
Shake off their sterile curse. `
`
ANTONY. I shall remember. `
`
When Caesar says "Do this," it is perform'd. `
`
CAESAR. Set on, and leave no ceremony out. Flourish. `
`
SOOTHSAYER. Caesar! `
`
CAESAR. Ha! Who calls? `
`
CASCA. Bid every noise be still. Peace yet again! `
`
CAESAR. Who is it in the press that calls on me? `
`
I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music, `
`
Cry "Caesar." Speak, Caesar is turn'd to hear. `
`
SOOTHSAYER. Beware the ides of March. `
`
CAESAR. What man is that? `
`
BRUTUS. A soothsayer you beware the ides of March. `
`
CAESAR. Set him before me let me see his face. `
`
CASSIUS. Fellow, come from the throng; look upon Caesar. `
`
CAESAR. What say'st thou to me now? Speak once again. `
`
SOOTHSAYER. Beware the ides of March. `
`
CAESAR. He is a dreamer; let us leave him. Pass. `
`
Sennet. Exeunt all but Brutus and Cassius. `
`
CASSIUS. Will you go see the order of the course? `
`
BRUTUS. Not I. `
`
CASSIUS. I pray you, do. `
`
BRUTUS. I am not gamesome; I do lack some part `
`
Of that quick spirit that is in Antony. `
`
Let me not hinder, Cassius, your desires; `
`
I'll leave you. `
`
CASSIUS. Brutus, I do observe you now of late; `
`
I have not from your eyes that gentleness `
`
And show of love as I was wont to have; `
`
You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand `
`
Over your friend that loves you. `
`
|