Original Text
*The Capitol. A flourish of trumpets. Enter Caesar, Brutus, Cassius, Casca, Decius, Metellus, Trebonius, Cinna, Antony, Lepidus, Artemidorus, Publius, and the Soothsayer.* CAESAR. The Ides of March are come. SOOTHSAYER. Ay, Caesar, but not gone. ARTEMIDORUS. Hail, Caesar! Read this schedule. DECIUS. Trebonius doth desire you to o'er-read, At your best leisure, this his humble suit. ARTEMIDORUS. O Caesar, read mine first, for mine's a suit That touches Caesar nearer. Read it, great Caesar! CAESAR. What touches us ourself shall be last served. ARTEMIDORUS. Delay not, Caesar; read it instantly! CAESAR. What, is the fellow mad? PUBLIUS. Sirrah, give place. CASSIUS. What, urge you your petitions in the street? Come to the Capitol.
Original Text
POPILIUS. I wish your enterprise today may thrive. CASSIUS. What enterprise, Popilius? POPILIUS. Fare you well. BRUTUS. What said Popilius Lena? CASSIUS. He wished today our enterprise might thrive. I fear our purpose is discovered. BRUTUS. Look how he makes to Caesar. Mark him. CASSIUS. Casca, be sudden, for we fear prevention. Brutus, what shall be done? If this be known, Cassius or Caesar never shall turn back, For I will slay myself. BRUTUS. Cassius, be constant. Popilius Lena speaks not of our purposes, For look, he smiles, and Caesar doth not change. CASSIUS. Trebonius knows his time, for look you, Brutus, He draws Mark Antony out of the way.
Original Text
DECIUS. Where is Metellus Cimber? Let him go And presently prefer his suit to Caesar. BRUTUS. He is addressed. Press near and second him. CINNA. Casca, you are the first that rears your hand. CAESAR. Are we all ready? What is now amiss That Caesar and his Senate must redress? METELLUS. Most high, most mighty, and most puissant Caesar, Metellus Cimber throws before thy seat An humble heart. CAESAR. I must prevent thee, Cimber. These couchings and these lowly courtesies Might fire the blood of ordinary men And turn pre-ordinance and first decree Into the law of children. Be not fond To think that Caesar bears such rebel blood That will be thawed from the true quality With that which melteth fools — I mean sweet words, Low-crooked curtsies, and base spaniel fawning. Thy brother by decree is banished. If thou dost bend and pray and fawn for him, I spurn thee like a cur out of my way. Know: Caesar doth not wrong, nor without cause Will he be satisfied.
Original Text
METELLUS. Is there no voice more worthy than my own, To sound more sweetly in great Caesar's ear For the repealing of my banished brother? BRUTUS. I kiss thy hand, but not in flattery, Caesar, Desiring thee that Publius Cimber may Have an immediate freedom of repeal. CAESAR. What, Brutus? CASSIUS. Pardon, Caesar! Caesar, pardon! As low as to thy foot doth Cassius fall, To beg enfranchisement for Publius Cimber. CAESAR. I could be well moved, if I were as you; If I could pray to move, prayers would move me. But I am constant as the Northern Star, Of whose true-fixed and resting quality There is no fellow in the firmament. The skies are painted with unnumbered sparks; They are all fire, and every one doth shine; But there's but one in all doth hold his place. So in the world: 'tis furnished well with men, And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive; Yet in the number I do know but one That unassailable holds on his rank, Unshaked of motion; and that I am he, Let me a little show it, even in this: That I was constant Cimber should be banished, And constant do remain to keep him so.
Original Text
CINNA. O Caesar! CAESAR. Hence! Wilt thou lift up Olympus? DECIUS. Great Caesar! CAESAR. Doth not Brutus bootless kneel? CASCA. Speak, hands, for me! *They stab Caesar. Casca first, then the others, and last Brutus.* CAESAR. Et tu, Brute? — Then fall, Caesar! *He dies.* CINNA. Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead! Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets! CASSIUS. Some to the common pulpits, and cry out, "Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement!" BRUTUS. People and senators, be not affrighted. Fly not; stand still. Ambition's debt is paid.
Original Text
CASCA. Go to the pulpit, Brutus. DECIUS. And Cassius too. BRUTUS. Where's Publius? CINNA. Here, quite confounded with this mutiny. METELLUS. Stand fast together, lest some friend of Caesar's Should chance — BRUTUS. Talk not of standing. Publius, good cheer. There is no harm intended to your person, Nor to no Roman else. So tell them, Publius. CASSIUS. And leave us, Publius, lest that the people, Rushing on us, should do your age some mischief. BRUTUS. Do so, and let no man abide this deed But we the doers. *Enter Trebonius.* CASSIUS. Where is Antony? TREBONIUS. Fled to his house, amazed. Men, wives, and children stare, cry out, and run, As it were doomsday.
Original Text
BRUTUS. Fates, we will know your pleasures. That we shall die, we know; 'tis but the time, And drawing days out, that men stand upon. CASCA. Why, he that cuts off twenty years of life Cuts off so many years of fearing death. BRUTUS. Grant that, and then is death a benefit. So are we Caesar's friends, that have abridged His time of fearing death. Stoop, Romans, stoop, And let us bathe our hands in Caesar's blood Up to the elbows, and besmear our swords. Then walk we forth, even to the marketplace, And, waving our red weapons o'er our heads, Let's all cry, "Peace, freedom, and liberty!" CASSIUS. Stoop then, and wash. How many ages hence Shall this our lofty scene be acted over, In states unborn and accents yet unknown! BRUTUS. How many times shall Caesar bleed in sport, That now on Pompey's basis lies along, No worthier than the dust? CASSIUS. So oft as that shall be, So often shall the knot of us be called The men that gave their country liberty.
Original Text
*Enter a Servant.* BRUTUS. Soft, who comes here? A friend of Antony's. SERVANT. Thus, Brutus, did my master bid me kneel; Thus did Mark Antony bid me fall down; And being prostrate, thus he bade me say: Brutus is noble, wise, valiant, and honest; Caesar was mighty, bold, royal, and loving. Say I love Brutus and I honour him; Say I feared Caesar, honoured him, and loved him. If Brutus will vouchsafe that Antony May safely come to him and be resolved How Caesar hath deserved to lie in death, Mark Antony shall not love Caesar dead So well as Brutus living, but will follow The fortunes and affairs of noble Brutus Through the hazards of this untrod state With all true faith. So says my master Antony. BRUTUS. Thy master is a wise and valiant Roman. I never thought him worse. Tell him, so please him come unto this place, He shall be satisfied and, by my honour, Depart untouched. SERVANT. I'll fetch him presently. *Exit.*
Original Text
BRUTUS. I know that we shall have him well to friend. CASSIUS. I wish we may. But yet have I a mind That fears him much, and my misgiving still Falls shrewdly to the purpose. *Enter Antony.* BRUTUS. But here comes Antony. Welcome, Mark Antony. ANTONY. O mighty Caesar! Dost thou lie so low? Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well. I know not, gentlemen, what you intend, Who else must be let blood, who else is rank. If I myself, there is no hour so fit As Caesar's death's hour, nor no instrument Of half that worth as those your swords, made rich With the most noble blood of all this world. I do beseech ye, if you bear me hard, Now, whilst your purpled hands do reek and smoke, Fulfill your pleasure. Live a thousand years, I shall not find myself so apt to die. No place will please me so, no mean of death, As here by Caesar, and by you cut off, The choice and master spirits of this age.
Original Text
BRUTUS. O Antony, beg not your death of us! Though now we must appear bloody and cruel, As by our hands and this our present act You see we do, yet see you but our hands And this the bleeding business they have done. Our hearts you see not; they are pitiful; And pity to the general wrong of Rome — As fire drives out fire, so pity pity — Hath done this deed on Caesar. ANTONY. I doubt not of your wisdom. Let each man render me his bloody hand. *He shakes hands with each conspirator.* Gentlemen all — alas, what shall I say? My credit now stands on such slippery ground That one of two bad ways you must conceit me, Either a coward or a flatterer. That I did love thee, Caesar, O, 'tis true! If then thy spirit look upon us now, Shall it not grieve thee dearer than thy death To see thy Antony making his peace, Shaking the bloody fingers of thy foes, Most noble, in the presence of thy corse?
Original Text
O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, That I am meek and gentle with these butchers! Thou art the ruins of the noblest man That ever lived in the tide of times. Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood! Over thy wounds now do I prophesy — Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue — A curse shall light upon the limbs of men; Domestic fury and fierce civil strife Shall cumber all the parts of Italy; Blood and destruction shall be so in use And dreadful objects so familiar That mothers shall but smile when they behold Their infants quartered with the hands of war, All pity choked with custom of fell deeds; And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge, With Ate by his side come hot from hell, Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war, That this foul deed shall smell above the earth With carrion men, groaning for burial.
Original Text
BRUTUS. Mark Antony, here, take you Caesar's body. You shall not in your funeral speech blame us, But speak all good you can devise of Caesar, And say you do't by our permission. Else shall you not have any hand at all About his funeral. And you shall speak In the same pulpit whereto I am going, After my speech is ended. ANTONY. Be it so. I do desire no more. BRUTUS. Prepare the body then, and follow us. *Exeunt all but Antony.*