Julius Caesar (10 page)

BRUTUS
    Mark Antony, here take you Caesar’s body.

You shall not in your funeral speech blame us,

But speak all good you can devise of Caesar,

And say you do’t by our permission:

Else shall you not have any hand at all

About
²⁶⁷
his funeral. And you shall speak

In the same pulpit whereto I am going,

After my speech is ended.

ANTONY
    Be it so:

I do desire no more.

BRUTUS
    Prepare the body then, and follow us.

ANTONY
    O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of

earth,

That I am meek and gentle with these butchers.

Thou art the ruins of the noblest man

That ever livèd in the
tide of times
²⁷⁶
.

Woe to the hand that shed this
costly
²⁷⁷
blood.

Over thy wounds now do I prophesy —

Which like dumb mouths do ope their ruby lips

To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue —

A curse shall light upon the limbs of men:

Domestic fury and fierce civil strife

Shall
cumber
²⁸³
all the parts of Italy:

Blood and destruction shall be so
in use
²⁸⁴
,

And dreadful
objects
²⁸⁵
so familiar,

That mothers shall but smile when they behold

Their infants
quartered with
²⁸⁷
the hands of war:

All pity choked with
custom of
fell
²⁸⁸
deeds,

And Caesar’s spirit
ranging
²⁸⁹
for revenge,

With
Ate
²⁹⁰
by his side, come hot from hell,

Shall in these
confines
²⁹¹
, with a monarch’s voice

Cry
havoc
and
let slip
²⁹²
the dogs of war,

That
this
foul
²⁹³
deed shall smell above the earth

With
carrion men
,
groaning
²⁹⁴
for burial.—

You serve Octavius Caesar, do you not?

SERVANT
    I do, Mark Antony.

ANTONY
    Caesar did write for him to come to Rome.

SERVANT
    He did receive his letters and is coming,

And bid me say to you by word of mouth—

O Caesar!

ANTONY
    Thy heart is
big
³⁰¹
: get thee apart and weep.

Passion
³⁰²
, I see, is catching, for mine eyes,

Seeing those beads of sorrow stand in thine,

Began to water. Is thy master coming?

SERVANT
    He lies tonight within
seven leagues
³⁰⁵
of Rome.

ANTONY
    
Post
³⁰⁶
back with speed and tell him what hath chanced:

Here is a mourning Rome, a dangerous Rome,

No Rome of safety for Octavius yet.

Hie hence
³⁰⁹
, and tell him so. Yet stay awhile.

Thou shalt not back till I have borne this corpse

Into the market-place: there shall I
try
³¹¹

In my oration how the people take

The cruel
issue
³¹³
of these bloody men,

According to the
which
thou shalt
discourse
³¹⁴

To young Octavius of the state of things.

Lend me your hand.

PLEBEIANS
    We will be satisfied: let us be satisfied.

BRUTUS
    Then follow me, and
give me audience
²
, friends.

Cassius, go you into the other street

And
part the numbers
⁴
:

Those that will hear me speak, let ’em stay here;

Those that will follow Cassius, go with him

And
public
reasons shall be
renderèd
⁷

Of Caesar’s death.

FIRST PLEBEIAN
    I will hear Brutus speak.

SECOND PLEBEIAN
    I will hear Cassius, and compare their reasons

When
severally
¹¹
we hear them renderèd.

THIRD PLEBEIAN
    The noble Brutus is ascended: silence!

BRUTUS
    Be patient till the
last
¹³
.

Romans, countrymen, and
lovers
, hear me for my
cause
¹⁴
and

be silent, that you may hear. Believe me
for
¹⁵
mine honour and

have respect to mine honour, that you may believe.
Censure
¹⁶

me in your wisdom and awake your
senses
¹⁷
, that you may the

better judge. If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend

of Caesar’s, to him I say that Brutus’ love to Caesar was no

less than his. If then that friend demand why Brutus rose

against Caesar, this is my answer: not that I loved Caesar less,

but that I loved Rome more. Had you rather Caesar were

living, and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live

all free men? As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was

fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honour him: but

as he was ambitious, I slew him. There is tears, for his love:

joy, for his fortune: honour, for his valour: and death, for his

ambition. Who is here so base, that would be a bondman? If

any, speak, for him have I offended. Who is here so
rude
²⁹
, that

would not be a Roman? If any, speak, for him have I offended.

Who is here so
vile
³¹
, that will not love his country? If any,

speak, for him have I offended. I pause for a reply.

ALL
    None, Brutus, none.

BRUTUS
    Then none have I offended. I have done no more to

Caesar, than you shall do to Brutus. The
question of
³⁵
his

death is
enrolled
in the Capitol: his glory not
extenuated
³⁶
, wherein

he was worthy, nor his offences
enforced
³⁷
, for which

he suffered death.

Here comes his body, mourned by Mark Antony, who,

though he had no hand in his death, shall receive the benefit

of his dying, a
place in the commonwealth
⁴¹
, as which of you

shall not? With this I depart, that as I slew my best lover for

the good of Rome, I have the same dagger for myself, when it

shall please my country to need my death.

ALL
    Live Brutus, live, live!

FIRST PLEBEIAN
    Bring him with
triumph
⁴⁶
home unto his house.

SECOND PLEBEIAN
⁴⁷
    Give him a statue with his ancestors.

THIRD PLEBEIAN
    Let him be Caesar.

FOURTH PLEBEIAN
    Caesar’s better
parts
⁴⁹

Shall be
crowned
⁵⁰
in Brutus.

FIRST PLEBEIAN
    We’ll bring him to his house with shouts and

clamours.

BRUTUS
    My countrymen—

SECOND PLEBEIAN
    Peace, silence, Brutus speaks.

FIRST PLEBEIAN
    Peace, ho.

BRUTUS
    Good countrymen, let me depart alone,

And, for my sake, stay here with Antony:

Do
grace
⁵⁸
to Caesar’s corpse and grace his speech

Tending
⁵⁹
to Caesar’s glories, which Mark Antony —

By our permission — is allowed to make.

I do entreat you, not a man depart

Save I alone, till Antony have spoke.

FIRST PLEBEIAN
    Stay, ho, and let us hear Mark Antony

THIRD PLEBEIAN
    Let him go up into the
public chair
⁶⁴
.

We’ll hear him.— Noble Antony, go up.

ANTONY
    For Brutus’ sake I am
beholding
⁶⁶
to you.

FOURTH PLEBEIAN
    What does he say of Brutus?

THIRD PLEBEIAN
    He says, for Brutus’ sake

He finds himself beholding to us all.

FOURTH PLEBEIAN
    ’Twere best he speak no harm of Brutus here.

FIRST PLEBEIAN
    This Caesar was a tyrant.

THIRD PLEBEIAN
    Nay, that’s certain:

We are blest that Rome is rid of him.

SECOND PLEBEIAN
    Peace, let us hear what Antony can say.

ANTONY
    You gentle Romans.

ALL
    Peace, ho, let us hear him.

ANTONY
    Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears:

I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

The evil that men do lives after them:

The good is oft
interrèd
⁸⁰
with their bones.

So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus

Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:

If it were so, it was a grievous fault,

And grievously hath Caesar
answered
⁸⁴
it.

Here, under
leave
⁸⁵
of Brutus and the rest —

For Brutus is an honourable man:

So are they all, all honourable men —

Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral.

He was my friend, faithful and just to me;

But Brutus says, he was ambitious,

And Brutus is an honourable man.

He hath brought many captives home to Rome,

Whose ransoms did the
general coffers
⁹³
fill:

Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?

When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.

Yet Brutus says, he was ambitious,

And Brutus is an honourable man.

You all did see, that on the Lupercal,

I thrice presented him a kingly crown,

Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?

Yet Brutus says, he was ambitious,

And sure he is an honourable man.

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,

But here I am, to speak what I do know.

You all did love him once, not without cause:

What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?—

O judgement! Thou art fled to brutish beasts

And men have lost their reason.— Bear with me:

My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,

And I must pause till it come back to me.

FIRST PLEBEIAN
    Methinks there is much reason in his sayings.

SECOND PLEBEIAN
    If thou consider rightly of the matter,

Caesar has had great wrong.

THIRD PLEBEIAN
    Has he,
masters
¹¹⁵
?

I fear there will a
worse
¹¹⁶
come in his place.

FOURTH PLEBEIAN
    Marked ye his words? He would not take the crown:

Therefore ’tis certain he was not ambitious

FIRST PLEBEIAN
    If it be found so, some will
dear abide it
¹¹⁹
.

SECOND PLEBEIAN
    Poor soul, his eyes are red as fire with weeping.

THIRD PLEBEIAN
    There’s not a nobler man in Rome than Antony.

FOURTH PLEBEIAN
    Now mark him, he begins again to speak.

ANTONY
    
But
¹²³
yesterday the word of Caesar might

Have
stood against
¹²⁴
the world: now lies he there,

And none so
poor
¹²⁵
to do him reverence.

O masters! If I were disposed to stir

Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage,

I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong,

Who — you all know — are honourable men.

I will not do them wrong: I rather choose

To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you,

Than I will wrong such honourable men.

But here’s a parchment, with the seal of Caesar.