Julius Caesar: Act 4, Scene 3

Brutus and Cassius have a heart-to-heart, Portia dies a painful death, and the Ghost of Caesar pays a visit. (Also, a random poet shows up?)

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ACT 4

Scene 3

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, was slighted off. 5

BRUTUS
You wronged yourself to write in such a case.

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

BRUTUS
Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself
Are much condemned to have an itching palm, 10
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. 15

BRUTUS
The name of Cassius honors 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? 20
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 25
And sell the mighty space of our large honors
For so much trash as may be graspèd thus?
I had rather be a dog and bay the moon
Than such a Roman.

CASSIUS Brutus, bait not me. 30
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. 35

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 farther.

BRUTUS Away, slight man! 40

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 you gods, you gods, must I endure all this? 45

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 humor? By the gods, 50
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? 55

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. 60
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. 65

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 70
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 your threats, 75
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. 80
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, 85
Which you denied me. Was that done like Cassius?
Should I have answered Caius Cassius so?
When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous
To lock such rascal counters from his friends,
Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts; 90
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. 95
A friend should bear his friend’s infirmities,
But Brutus makes mine greater than they are.

BRUTUS
I do not, till you practice them on me.

CASSIUS
You love me not.

BRUTUS I do not like your faults. 100

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, 105
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 110
My spirit from mine eyes! There is my dagger,

Offering his dagger to Brutus.

And here my naked breast; within, a heart
Dearer than 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. 115
Strike as thou didst at Caesar, for I know
When thou didst hate him worst, thou lovedst him
better
Than ever thou lovedst Cassius.

BRUTUS Sheathe your 120
dagger.
Be angry when you will, it shall have scope.
Do what you will, dishonor shall be humor.
O Cassius, you are yokèd with a lamb
That carries anger as the flint bears fire, 125
Who, much enforcèd, 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? 130

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. They clasp hands.

CASSIUS O Brutus!

BRUTUS What’s the matter? 135

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

BRUTUS Yes, Cassius, and from
henceforth 140
When you are over-earnest 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. 145

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, 150
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 humor when he knows his time. 155
What should the wars do with these jigging fools?—
Companion, hence!

CASSIUS Away, away, be gone! Poet exits.

BRUTUS
Lucilius and Titinius, bid the commanders
Prepare to lodge their companies tonight. 160

CASSIUS
And come yourselves, and bring Messala with you
Immediately to us. Lucilius and Titinius exit.

BRUTUS Lucius, a bowl of wine. Lucius exits.

CASSIUS
I did not think you could have been so angry.

BRUTUS
O Cassius, I am sick of many griefs. 165

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. 170

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 175
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? 180

BRUTUS Even so.

CASSIUS O you immortal gods!

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.— 185
Fill, Lucius, till the wine o’erswell the cup;
I cannot drink too much of Brutus’ love. He drinks.

Lucius exits.

Enter Titinius and Messala.

BRUTUS
Come in, Titinius. Welcome, good Messala.
Now sit we close about this taper here,
And call in question our necessities. They sit. 190

CASSIUS
Portia, art thou gone?

BRUTUS No more, I pray you.—
Messala, I have here receivèd letters
That young Octavius and Mark Antony
Come down upon us with a mighty power, 195
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 200
Have put to death an 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? 205

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? 210

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. 215

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. 220

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? 225

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, 230
Doing himself offense, whilst we, lying still,
Are full of rest, defense, and nimbleness.

BRUTUS
Good reasons must of force give place to better.
The people ’twixt Philippi and this ground
Do stand but in a forced affection, 235
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 240
If at Philippi we do face him there,
These people at our back.

CASSIUS Hear me, good brother—

BRUTUS
Under your pardon. You must note besides
That we have tried the utmost of our friends, 245
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; 250
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. 255

CASSIUS Then, with your will, go on;
We’ll along ourselves and meet them at Philippi.

BRUTUS
The deep of night is crept upon our talk,
And nature must obey necessity,
Which we will niggard with a little rest. 260
There is no more to say.

CASSIUS No more. Good night.

They stand.

Early tomorrow will we rise and hence.

BRUTUS
Lucius.

Enter Lucius.

My gown. Lucius exits. 265
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. 270
Never come such division ’tween our souls!
Let it not, Brutus.

Enter Lucius with the gown.

BRUTUS Everything is well.

CASSIUS Good night, my lord.

BRUTUS Good night, good brother. 275

TITINIUS/MESSALA
Good night, Lord Brutus.

BRUTUS Farewell, everyone.

All but Brutus and Lucius exit.

Give me the gown. Where is thy instrument?

LUCIUS
Here in the tent.

BRUTUS What, thou speak’st drowsily? 280
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? 285

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. 290

BRUTUS
I will not have it so. Lie down, good sirs.
It may be I shall otherwise bethink me.

They 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. 295

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

LUCIUS
Ay, my lord, an ’t please you.

BRUTUS It does, my boy. 300
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. 305

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.

Music and a song. Lucius then falls asleep.

This is a sleepy tune. O murd’rous slumber,
Layest thou thy leaden mace upon my boy, 310
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.

He moves the instrument.

Let me see, let me see; is not the leaf turned down 315
Where I left reading? Here it is, I think.
How ill this taper burns.

Enter the Ghost of Caesar.

Ha, who comes here?—
I think it is the weakness of mine eyes
That shapes this monstrous apparition. 320
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. 325

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. Ghost exits. 330
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. 335

BRUTUS
He thinks he still is 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. 340

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

LUCIUS Nothing, my lord.

BRUTUS
Sleep again, Lucius.—Sirrah Claudius!
To Varro. Fellow thou, awake! They rise up.

VARRO My lord? 345

CLAUDIUS My lord?

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

BOTH
Did we, my lord?

BRUTUS Ay. Saw you anything?

VARRO No, my lord, I saw nothing. 350

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.

BOTH It shall be done, my lord. 355

They exit.