Give guess how near to day. -Lucius, I say !

Enter LUCIUS.

Luc. Call'd you, my lord? BRU. Get me a taper in my study, Lucius: When it is lighted, come and call me here. Luc. I will, my lord. [Exit. BRU. 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

Cæsar,

Luc. Sir, March is wasted fourteen days.

[Knocking without. BRU. 'Tis good. Go to the gate; somebody knocks.[Exit LUCIUS. Since Cassius first did whet me against Cæsar 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,"
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then

The nature of an insurrection.

Enter CASSIUS, CASCA, DECIUS, CINNA, METELLUS CIMBER, and TREBONIUS.

CAS. I think we are too bold upon your rest: Good-morrow, Brutus; do we trouble you? BRU. I have been up this hour; awake all night.

Know I these men that come along with you? CAS. Yes, every man of them; and no man here

But honours you; and every one doth wish
You had but that opinion of yourself
Which every noble Roman bears of you.
This is Trebonius.

BRU.

He is welcome hither.

He is welcome too.

CAS. This, Decius Brutus.
BRU.

CAS. This, Casca; this, Cinna; and this,
Metellus Cimber.

CAS. [Advancing.] And let us swear our resolution.

BRU. No, not an oath: if not the face of men,
The sufferance of our souls, the time's abuse, -
If these be motives weak, break off betimes,
And every man hence to his idle bed; b
So let high-sighted tyranny range on,
Till each man drop by lottery. But if these,
As I am sure they do, bear fire enough

To kindle cowards, and to steel with valour
The melting spirits of women; then, countrymen,
What need we any spur, but our own cause,
To prick us to redress? what other bond
Than secret Romans, that have spoke the word,
And will not palter? and what other oath,
Than honesty to honesty engag'd,
That this shall be, or we will fall for it?
Swear priests, and cowards, and men cautelous,
Old feeble carrions, and such suffering souls
That welcome wrongs; unto bad causes swear
Such creatures as men doubt: but do not stain
The even virtue of our enterprise,

Nor the insuppressive mettle of our spirits,
To think that or our cause or our performance
Did need an oath; when every drop of blood
That every Roman bears, and nobly bears,
Is guilty of a several bastardy,
If he do break the smallest particle

Of any promise that hath pass'd from him.

CASCA. Indeed he is not fit.

DEC. Shall no man else be touch'd but only Cæsar?

CAS. Decius, well urg'd :-I think it is not meet, Mark Antony, so well belov'd of Cæsar, Should outlive Cæsar: we shall find of him A shrewd contriver; and, you know, his means, If he improve them, may well stretch so far As to annoy us all: which to prevent, Let Antony and Cæsar fall together.

BRU. Our course will seem too bloody, Caius
Cassius,

To cut the head off, and then hack the limbs,-
Like wrath in death, and envyf afterwards;
For Antony is but a limb of Cæsar.

Let's be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius.
We all stand up against the spirit of Cæsar;
And in the spirit of men there is no blood:
O, that we, then, could come by Cæsar's spirit,
And not dismember Cæsar! But, alas,
Cæsar must bleed for it! And, gentle friends,
Let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully;
Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods,
Not hew him as a carcase fit for hounds:
And let our hearts, as subtle masters do,
Stir up their servants to an act of rage,
And after seem to chide 'em. This shall make
Our purpose necessary, and not envious:
Which so appearing to the common eyes,
We shall be call'd purgers, not murderers.
And for Mark Antony, think not of him;
For he can do no more than Cæsar's arm,
When Cæsar's head is off.

"On the secret top

Of Oreb or of Sinai."

d The even virtue-] The just, or equitable, quality.

e

let us not break with him;) Let us not open the matter to