Complete Plays, The (33 page)

Cassius

Pindarus,
Bid our commanders lead their charges off
A little from this ground.

Brutus

Lucilius, do you the like; and let no man
Come to our tent till we have done our conference.
Let Lucius and Titinius guard our door.

Exeunt

S
CENE
III. B
RUTUS
’
S
TENT
.

Enter Brutus and Cassius

Cassius

That you have wrong’d me doth appear in this:
You have condemn’d 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 condemn’d 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 speak 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 touch’d 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 grasped thus?
I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon,
Than such a Roman.

Cassius

 
Brutus, bay not me;
I’ll not endure it: you forget yourself,
To hedge me in; I am a soldier, I,
Older in practise, 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 your threats,
For I am arm’d 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 answer’d Caius Cassius so?
When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous,
To lock such 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;
Cheque’d like a bondman; all his faults observed,
Set in a note-book, learn’d, and conn’d 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 than Plutus’ 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 lovedst him better
Than ever thou lovedst 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 yoked with a lamb
That carries anger as the flint bears fire;
Who, much enforced, 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-temper’d, vexeth him?

Brutus

When I spoke that, I was ill-temper’d 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 not you 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 over-earnest with your Brutus,
He’ll think your mother chides, and leave you so.

Poet

[Within]
 
Let me go in to see the generals;
There is some grudge between ’em, ’tis not meet
They be alone.

Lucilius

[Within]
 
You shall not come to them.

Poet

[Within]
 
Nothing but death shall stay me.

Enter Poet, followed by Lucilius, Titinius, and Lucius

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 to-night.

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 cross’d 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, swallow’d fire.

Cassius

And died so?

Brutus

 
Even so.

Cassius

O ye immortal gods!

Re-enter Lucius, with wine and taper

Brutus

Speak no more of her. Give me a bowl of wine.
In this I bury all unkindness, Cassius.

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.

Brutus

Come in, Titinius!

Exit Lucius

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 received 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 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!

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, 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;
For they have grudged us contribution:
The enemy, marching along by them,
By them shall make a fuller number up,
Come on refresh’d, new-added, and encouraged;
From which advantage shall we cut him off,
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 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

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.
There is no more to say?

Cassius

No more. Good night:
Early to-morrow will we rise, and hence.