I do not like your faults. Cas. A friendly eye could never see such faults. Bru. A flatterer's would not, though they did 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; brav'd by his brother And grief, that young Octavius with Mark Antony Cas. And died so ? Bru. Even so. Cas. O, ye immortal gods ! Enter Lucius, with Wine and Tapers. Bru. Speak no more of her.-Give me a bowl of wine: When thou didst hate him worst, thou lov'dst him In this I bury all unkindness, Cassius. better Than ever thou lov'dst Cassius. Bru. Sheath your dagger. Be angry when you will, it shall have scope; Do what you will, dishonour shall be humour. O Cassius! you are yoked with a lamb, That carries anger as the flint bears fire, Who, much enforced, shows a hasty spark, And straight is cold again. Cas. Hath Cassius liv'd To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus, When grief, and blood ill-temper'd, vexeth him? Bru. When I spoke that, I was ill-temper'd too. Cas. Do you confess so much? Give me your hand. Bru. And my heart, too. Cas. Bru. O Brutus !What's the matter? Cas. Have you not love enough to bear with me, When that rash humour, which my mother gave me, Makes me forgetful? Bru. Luc. [Within.] You shall not come to them. Cas. How now! What's the matter? Cas. Ha, ha! how vilely doth this cynic rhyme. Bru. Get you hence, sirrah: saucy fellow, hence. Cas. Bear with him, Brutus; 't is his fashion. Bru. I'll know his humour, when he knows his time. What should the wars do with these jigging fools? Companion, hence. Cas. 1 Fellow. 1 Away, away! be gone. [Exit Poet. [Drinks. [Drinks. Cas. My heart is thirsty for that noble pledge.- Re-enter TITINIUS, with MESSALA. Bru. Come in, Titinius.-Welcome, good Messala.Now sit we close about this taper here, And call in question our necessities. Mes. Myself have letters of the self-same tenour. Mes. That by proscription, and bills of outlawry, Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus, Have put to death an hundred senators. Bru. Therein our letters do not well agree: Mes. Cicero is dead, And by that order of proscription.— Had you your letters from your wife, my lord? Mes. Nor nothing in your letters writ of her? Mes. Bru. Now, as you are a Roman, tell me true. I have the patience to endure it now. Bru. Well, to our work alive.-What do you think 'Tis better, that the enemy seek us: So shall he waste his means, weary his soldiers, Bru. Good reasons must, of force, give place to better. The people, 'twixt Philippi and this ground, For they have grudg'd us contribution: The enemy, marching along by them, By them shall make a fuller number up, Come on refresh'd, new-hearted', and encourag'd; Hear me, good brother. Cas. We, at the height, are ready to decline. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Is bound in shallows, and in miseries. And we must take the current when it serves, It may be, I shall otherwise bethink me. Look, Lucius, here's the book I sought for so; I put it in the pocket of my gown. [Servants lie down. And touch thy instrument a strain or two? It does, my boy. I trouble thee too much, but thou art willing. Bru. I should not urge thy duty past thy might: I know, young bloods look for a time of rest. Bru. It was well done, and thou shalt sleep again; I will not hold thee long; if I do live, [Music, and a Song. This is a sleepy tune.-O murderous slumber! Enter the Ghost of CÆSAR. How ill this taper burns.-Ha! who comes here? It comes upon me.-Art thou any thing? Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil, That mak'st my blood cold, and my hair to stare? Ghost. Thy evil spirit, Brutus. Why com'st thou? Ay, at Philippi. [Ghost vanishes. Bru. Why, I will see thee at Philippi then.Now I have taken heart, thou vanishest : Ill spirit, I would hold more talk with thee.Boy! Lucius !-Varro! Claudius! Sirs, awake !— Claudius! Luc. The strings, my lord, are false. Bru. He thinks, he still is at his instrument.Lucius, awake! SCENE I.-The Plains of Philippi. It proves not so: their battles are at hand; Ant. Tut! I am in their bosoms, and I know ACT V. To fasten in our thoughts that they have courage ; Mess. Enter a Messenger. Prepare you, generals; The enemy comes on in gallant show: Their bloody sign of battle is hung out, And something to be done immediately. Ant. Octavius, lead your battle softly on, Oct. Upon the right hand I; keep thou the left. Bru. Words before blows; is it so, countrymen ? 3 Be well aveng'd; or till another Cæsar I was not born to die on Brutus' sword. Ant. Old Cassius still. [Exeunt OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, and their Army. Cas. Why now, blow wind, swell billow, and swim bark! The storm is up, and all is on the hazard. Bru. Ho, Lucilius! hark, a word with you. Luc. My lord. [BRUTUS and LUCILIUS talk apart. Mes. Cas. What says the general? Messala, This is my birth-day; as this very day Ant. In your bad strokes, Brutus, you give good And in their steads do ravens, crows, and kites, words: The posture of your blows is yet unknown; Ant. Not stingless, too. Ant. Villains! you did not so when your vile daggers You show'd your teeth like apes, and fawn'd like hounds, Cas. Flatterers !-Now, Brutus, thank yourself: This tongue had not offended so to-day, If Cassius might have rul'd. Fly o'er our heads, and downward look on us, Our army lies ready to give up the ghost. Cas. I but believe it partly, For I am fresh of spirit, and resolv'd Bru. Even by the rule of that philosophy, Oct. Come, come, the cause: if arguing make us But I do find it cowardly and vile, f. e. For fear of what might fall, so to prevent Cas. Then, if we lose this battle, 1 Summon. 2 So old copies. Theobald changed, to three and twenty, to correspond with the classic historians. 3 sword of traitors: in 4 former: in f. e. 5 Not in f. e. 6 time in f. e. some in f. e. |