Cas. Is't possible? Bru. Hear me, for I will speak. Must I give way and room to your rash choler? Shall I be frighted when a madman stares? Cas. Must I endure all this? Bru. All this? ay, more. Fret till your proud heart break; Go, show your slaves how choleric you are, And make your bondmen tremble. Must I budge? You shall digest the venom of your spleen, Though it do split you; for, from this day forth, Cas. Is it come to this? Bru. You say you are a better soldier: Let it appear so; make your vaunting true, For mine own part, I shall be glad to learn of noble men. Cas. You wrong me every way, you wrong me, Brutus ; I said, an elder soldier, not a better. Did I say better? Bru. If you did, I care not. Cas. When Cæsar lived, he durst not thus have moved me. Bru. Peace, peace: you durst not so have tempted him. Cas. I durst not! Bru. No. Cas. What? durst not tempt him? Bru. For your life you durst not. Cas. Do not presume too much upon my love; I may do that I shall be sorry for. Bru. You have done that you should be sorry for. There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats; For I am armed so strong in honesty, That they pass by me as the idle wind, Which I respect not. I did send to you For certain sums of gold, which you denied me;· By Heaven, I had rather coin my heart, And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring To you for gold to pay my legions, Which you denied me. Was that done like Cassius? Should I have answered Caius Cassius so? When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous, That brought my answer back. Brutus hath rived my heart. But Brutus makes mine greater than they are. Bru. I do not like your faults. Cas. A friendly eye could never see such faults. Bru. A flatterer's would not, though they do appear As huge as high Olympus. Cas. Come, Antony, and young Octavius, come, Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius, For Cassius is aweary of the world: Hated by one he loves; braved by his brother; My spirit from mine eyes! -There is my dagger, And here my naked breast; within, a heart I, that denied thee gold, will give my heart: When thou didst hate him worst, thou lovedst him better Than ever thou lovedst Cassius. Bru. Sheathe your dagger: Be angry when you will, it shall have scope; Cas. Hath Cassius lived To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus, Cas. Have you not love enough to bear with me, When that rash humor, which my mother gave me, Makes me forgetful? Bru. Yes, Cassius; and from henceforth, When you are over-earnest with your Brutus, LESSON CXIV. Antony's Address to the Roman Populace. SHAKSPEARE. FRIENDS, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears I come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones: So let it be with Cæsar! The noble Brutus So are they all, all honorable men ;) He was my friend, faithful and just to me: And Brutus is an honorable man. He hath brought many captives home to Rome, Did this in Cæsar seem ambitious? When that the poor have cried, Cæsar hath wept. And Brutus is an honorable man. You all did see, that, on the Lupercal, Was this ambition? Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, You all did love him once, not without cause: And men have lost their reason. Bear with me: My heart is in the coffin there with Cæsar; And I must pause till it come back to me. But yesterday, the word of Cæsar might Have stood against the world: now lies he there, I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong, I will not do them wrong; I rather choose But here's a parchment, with the seal of Cæsar; Let but the commons hear this testament, Unto their issue. If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. You all do know this mantle: I remember The first time ever Cæsar put it on; 'Twas on a summer's evening in his tent; That day he overcame the Nervii : Look! In this place ran Cassius' dagger through:- Even at the base of Pompey's statua, Which all the while ran blood, great Cæsar fell. O what a fall was there, my countrymen ! |