Cassius	That you have wronged me doth appear in this:
	You have condemned and noted Lucius Pella
	For taking bribes here of the Sardians;
	Wherein my letters praying on his side,
	Because I knew the man, were slighted off.

Brutus	You wronged yourself to write in such a case.

Cassius	In such a time as this it is not meet
	That every nice offence should bear his comment.

Brutus	Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself
	Are much condemned to have an itching palm,
	To sell and mart your offices for gold
	To undeservers.

Cassius							I an itching palm!
	You know that you are Brutus that speaks this,
	Or, by the gods, this speech were else your last.

Brutus	The name of Cassius honours this corruption,
	And chastisement doth therefore hide his head.

Cassius	Chastisement!

Brutus	Remember March, the ides of March remember.
	Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake?
	What villain touched his body, that did stab,
	And not for justice? What, shall one of us,
	That struck the foremost man of all this world
	But for supporting robbers, shall we now
	Contaminate our fingers with base bribes,
	And sell the mighty space of our large honours
	For so much trash as may be graspd thus?
	I had rather be a dog and bay the moon,
	Than such a Roman.

Cassius							Brutus, bait not me;
	I'll not endure it. You forget yourself
	To hedge me in. I am a soldier, I,
	Older in practice, abler than yourself
	To make conditions.

Brutus								Go to; you are not, Cassius.

Cassius	I am.

Brutus	I say you are not.

Cassius	Urge me no more, I shall forget myself.
	Have mind upon your health, tempt me no further.

Brutus	Away, slight man!

Cassius	Is't possible?

Brutus						Hear me, for I will speak.
	Must I give way and room to your rash choler?
	Shall I be frighted when a madman stares?

Cassius	O ye gods, ye gods! Must I endure all this?

Brutus	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?
	Must I observe you? Must I stand and crouch
	Under your testy humour? By the gods,
	You shall digest the venom of your spleen
	Though it do split you; for from this day forth
	I'll use you for my mirth, yea, for my laughter,
	When you are waspish.

Cassius									Is it come to this?

Brutus	You say you are a better soldier;
	Let it appear so. Make your vaunting true,
	And it shall please me well. For mine own part,
	I shall be glad to learn of noble men.

Cassius	You wrong me every way; you wrong me, Brutus.
	I said an elder soldier, not a better.
	Did I say "better"?

Brutus									If you did, I care not.

Cassius	When Caesar lived he durst not thus have moved me.

Brutus	Peace, peace! You durst not so have tempted him.

Cassius	I durst not?

Brutus	No.

Cassius	What, durst not tempt him?

Brutus								For your life you durst not.

Cassius	Do not presume too much upon my love;
	I may do that I shall be sorry for.

Brutus	You have done that you should be sorry for.
	There is no terror, Cassius, in you 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-
	For I can raise no money by vile means.
	By heaven, I had rather coin my heart
	And drop my blood for drachmas than to wring
	From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash
	By any indirection. I did send
	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
	To lock some rascal counters from his friends,
	Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts,
	Dash him to pieces!

Cassius								I denied you not.

Brutus	You did.

Cassius					I did not. He was but a fool
	That brought my answer back. Brutus hath rived my heart.
	A friend should bear his friend's infirmities,
	But Brutus makes mine greater than they are.

Brutus	I do not, till you practise them on me.

Cassius	You love me not.

Brutus							I do not like your faults.

Cassius	A friendly eye could never see such faults.

Brutus	A flatterer's would not, though they do appear
	As huge as high Olympus.

Cassius	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;
	Checked like a bondman; all his faults observed,
	Set in a notebook, learned and conned by rote,
	To cast into my teeth. O, I could weep
	My spirit from mine eyes! There is my dagger,
	And here my naked breast; within, a heart
	Dearer that Pluto's mine, richer than gold;
	If that thou be'st a Roman, take it forth.
	I that denied thee gold will give my heart.
	Strike as thou didst at Caesar; for I know
	When thou didst hate him worst, thou loved'st him better
	Than ever thou loved'st Cassius.

Brutus										Sheathe your dagger.
	Be angry when you will, it shall have scope.
	Do what you will, dishonour shall be humour.
	O Cassius, you are yokd with a lamb
	That carries anger as the flint bears fire,
	Who, much enforcd, shows a hasty spark
	And straight is cold again.

Cassius									Hath Cassius lived
	To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus,
	When grief and blood ill-tempered vexeth him?

Brutus	When I spoke that, I was ill-tempered too.

Cassius	Do you confess so much? Give me your hand.

Brutus	And my heart too.

Cassius							O Brutus-

Brutus									What's the matter?

Cassius	Have you not love enough to bear with me
	When that rash humour which my mother gave me
	Makes me forgetful?

Brutus	Yes, Cassius; and from henceforth,
	When you are overearnest with your Brutus,
	He'll think your mother chides, and leave you so.

        Enter a POET, followed by LUCILIUS, TITINIUS, and LUCIUS.

Poet	Let me go in to see the generals.
	There is some grudge between 'em; 'tis not meet
	They be alone.

Lucilius						You shall not come to them.

Poet	Nothing but death shall stay me.

Cassius	How now! What's the matter?

Poet	For shame, you generals! What do you mean?
	Love, and be friends as two such men should be;
	For I have seen more years, I'm sure, than ye.

Cassius	Ha, ha! How vilely doth this cynic rhyme!

Brutus	Get you hence, sirrah! Saucy fellow, hence!

Cassius	Bear with him, Brutus; 'tis his fashion.

Brutus	I'll know his humour when he knows his time.
	What should the wars do with these jigging fools?
	Companion, hence!

Cassius							Away, away, be gone!
													[Exit POET.
Brutus	Lucilius and Titinius, bid the commanders
	Prepare to lodge their companies tonight.

Cassius	And come yourselves, and bring Messala with you
	Immediately to us.
												[Exeunt LUCILIUS and TITINIUS.

Brutus									Lucius, a bowl of wine.
													[Exit LUCIUS.
Cassius	I did not think you could have been so angry.

Brutus	O Cassius, I am sick of many griefs.

Cassius	Of your philosophy you make no use,
	If you give place to accidental evils.

Brutus	No man bears sorrow better. Portia is dead.

Cassius	Ha! Portia?

Brutus	She is dead.

Cassius	How 'scaped I killing when I crossed you so?
	O insupportable and touching loss!
	Upon what sickness?

Brutus								Impatient of my absence,
	And grief that young Octavius with Mark Antony
	Have made themselves so strong; for with her death
	That tidings came. With this she fell distract,
	And, her attendants absent, swallowed fire.

Cassius	And died so?

Brutus						Even so.

Cassius									O ye immortal gods!

                  Re-enter LUCIUS, with wine and tapers.

Brutus	Speak no more of her. Give me a bowl of wine.
	In this I bury all unkindness, Cassius.
													[He drinks.
Cassius	My heart is thirsty for that noble pledge.
	Fill, Lucius, till the wine o'erswell the cup;
	I cannot drink too much of Brutus' love.
													[He drinks.
													[Exit LUCIUS.
Brutus	Come in, Titinius!

                     Re-enter TITINIUS, with MESSALA.

								Welcome, good Messala.
	Now sit we close about this taper here,
	And call in question our necessities.

Cassius	Portia, art thou gone?

Brutus								No more, I pray you.
	Messala, I have here receivd letters
	That young Octavius and Mark Antony
	Come down upon us with a mighty power,
	Bending their expedition toward Philippi.

Messala	Myself have letters of the selfsame tenor.

Brutus	With what addition?

Messala	That by proscription and bills of outlawry
	Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus
	Have put to death a hundred senators.

Brutus	Therein our letters do not well agree;
	Mine speak of seventy senators that died
	By their proscriptions, Cicero being one.

Cassius	Cicero one?

Messala						Cicero is dead,
	And by that order of proscription.
	Had you your letters from your wife, my lord?

Brutus	No, Messala.

Messala	Nor nothing in your letters writ of her?

Brutus	Nothing, Messala.

Messala								That, methinks, is strange.

Brutus	Why ask you? Hear you aught of her in yours?

Messala	No, my lord.

Brutus	Now, as you are a Roman, tell me true.

Messala	Then like a Roman bear the truth I tell.
	For certain she is dead, and by strange manner.

Brutus	Why, farewell, Portia. We must die, Messala.
	With meditating that she must die once,
	I have the patience to endure it now.

Messala	Even so great men great losses should endure.

Cassius	I have as much of this in art as you,
	But yet my nature could not bear it so.

Brutus	Well, to our work alive. What do you think
	Of marching to Philippi presently?

Cassius	I do not think it good.

Brutus								Your reason?

Cassius											This it is:
	'Tis better that the enemy seek us;
	So shall he waste his means, weary his soldiers,
	Doing himself offence, whilst we, lying still,
	Are full of rest, defence, and nimbleness.

Brutus	Good reasons must, of force, give place to better.
	The people 'twixt Philippi and this ground
	Do stand in but a forced affection;
	For they have grudged us contribution.
	The enemy, marching along by them,
	By them shall make a fuller number up,
	Come on refreshed, new-added, and encouraged;
	From which advantage shall we cut him off,
	If at Philippi we do not face him there,
	These people at our back.

Cassius								Hear me, good brother.

Brutus	Under your pardon. You must note beside
	That we have tried the utmost of our friends,
	Our legions are brim-full, our cause is ripe.
	The enemy increaseth every day;
	We, at the height, are ready to decline.
	There is a tide in the affairs of men
	Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune;
	Omitted, all the voyage of their life
	Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
	On such a full sea are we now afloat,
	And we must take the current when it serves,
	Or lose our ventures.

Cassius								No more. Good night.
	Early tomorrow will we rise and hence.

Brutus	Lucius!

                             Re-enter LUCIUS.

					My gown.
													[Exit LUCIUS.
									Farewell, good Messala.
	Good night, Titinius. Noble, noble Cassius,
	Good night, and good repose.

Cassius									O my dear brother,
	This was an ill beginning of the night;
	Never come such division 'tween our souls.
	Let it not, Brutus.

Brutus							Everything is well.

Cassius	Good night, my lord.

Brutus								Good night, good brother.

Titinius &
Messala	Good night, Lord Brutus.

Brutus							Farewell, every one.
								[Exeunt CASSIUS, TITINIUS, and MESSALA.

                     Re-enter LUCIUS, with the gown.

	Give me the gown. Where is thy instrument?

Lucius	Here in the tent.

Brutus							What, thou speak'st drowsily?
	Poor knave, I blame thee not; thou art o'erwatched.
	Call Claudius and some other of my men;
	I'll have them sleep on cushions in my tent.

Lucius	Varro and Claudius!

                        Enter VARRO and CLAUDIUS.

Varro	Calls my lord?

Brutus	I pray you, sirs, lie in my tent and sleep.
	It may be I shall raise you by and by
	On business to my brother Cassius.

Varro	So please you, we will stand and watch your pleasure.

Brutus	I will not have it so. Lie down, good sirs;
	It may be I shall otherwise bethink me.
													[VARRO and CLAUDIUS lie down.

	Look, Lucius, here's the book I sought for so;
	I put it in the pocket of my gown.

Lucius	I was sure your lordship did not give it me.

Brutus	Bear with me, good boy, I am much forgetful.
	Canst thou hold up thy heavy eyes awhile
	And touch the instrument a strain or two?

Lucius	Ay, my lord, an't please you.

Brutus											It does, my boy.
	I trouble thee too much, but thou art willing.

Lucius	It is my duty, sir.

Brutus	I should not urge thy duty past thy might;
	I know young bloods look for a time of rest.

Lucius	I have slept, my lord, already.

Brutus	It was well done; and thou shalt sleep again;
	I will not hold thee long. If I do live,
	I will be good to thee.
													[LUCIUS plays and sings,
													falling asleep as he does so.

	This is a sleepy tune. O murd'rous slumber,
	Layest thou thy leaden mace upon my boy
	That plays thee music? Gentle knave, good night;
	I will not do thee so much wrong to wake thee.
	If thou dost nod, thou break'st thy instrument;
	I'll take it from thee; and, good boy, good night.
	Let me see, let me see; is not the leaf turned down
	Where I left reading? Here it is, I think.

                        Enter the GHOST OF CAESAR.

	How ill this taper burns! Ha! Who comes here?
	I think it is the weakness of mine eyes
	That shapes this monstrous apparition.
	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?
	Speak to me what thou art.

Ghost	Thy evil spirit, Brutus.

Brutus									Why com'st thou?

Ghost	To tell thee thou shalt see me at Philippi.

Brutus	Well, then I shall see thee again?

Ghost	Ay, at Philippi.

Brutus	Why, I will see thee at Philippi then.
													[Exit GHOST.
	Now I have taken heart thou vanishest:
	Ill spirit, I would hold more talk with thee.
	Boy, Lucius! Varro! Claudius! Sirs, awake!
	Claudius!

Lucius	The strings, my lord, are false.

Brutus	He thinks he is still at his instrument.
	Lucius, awake!

Lucius	My lord?

Brutus	Didst thou dream, Lucius, that thou so criedst out?

Lucius	My lord, I do not know that I did cry.

Brutus	Yes, that thou didst. Didst thou see anything?

Lucius	Nothing, my lord.

Brutus	Sleep again, Lucius. Sirrah Claudius!
	[To VARRO ] Fellow thou, awake!

Varro	My lord?

Claudius	My lord?

Brutus	Why did you so cry out, sirs, in your sleep?

Varro &
Claudius	Did we, my lord?

Brutus							Ay; saw you anything?

Varro	No, my lord, I saw nothing.

Claudius										Nor I, my lord.

Brutus	Go and commend me to my brother Cassius.
	Bid him set on his powers betimes before,
	And we will follow.

Varro &
Claudius							It shall be done, my lord.
													[Exeunt.
