Re-enter Lucius.

Luc. Sir, March is wasted fifteen days.

[Knocking within.

Bru. 'Tis good. Go to the gate; somebody

knocks. [Exit Lucius. 60 Since Cassius first did whet me against Cæsar,

I have not slept.

Between the acting of a dreadful thing
And the first motion, all the interim is
Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream :
The Genius and the mortal instruments
Are then in council; and the state of man,
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then
The nature of an insurrection.

Re-enter LUCIUS.

Luc. Sir, 'tis your brother Cassius at the door, Who doth desire to see you.

Bru.

Is he alone?

Luc. No, sir, there are moe with him.

Bru.

Do you know them?

Luc. No, sir; their hats are pluck'd about their

ears,

And half their faces buried in their cloaks,

59. fifteen; so Ff. Warburton (followed by many modern edd.) wrongly altered to 'fourteen.' It is, in fact, the dawn of the fifteenth, which Lucius may be supposed to include.

64. motion, prompting. 65. a phantasma, an illusory vision.

66. The Genius and the mortal instruments, the rational spirit possessing a man, and his passions and desires. The

mortal instruments' are the bodily organs through or in league with which the soul acts: the brain, with which it generates thoughts (cf. Richard II.v.5.6f.); the heart, which was the source of feeling perhaps; the liver, the seat of fear, gloom, wrath, and love. The 'genius' is never in Shakespeare expressly identified with the man, but its meaning here comes near to that of soul.

70. brother Cassius. Cassius had married Brutus' sister.

That by no means I may discover them
By any mark of favour.

Bru.

Let 'em enter. [Exit Lucius.
They are the faction. O conspiracy,

Shamest thou to show thy dangerous brow by night,
When evils are most free? O, then by day
Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough

To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, conspiracy;

Hide it in smiles and affability:

For if thou path, thy native semblance on,
Not Erebus itself were dim enough

To hide thee from prevention.

Enter the conspirators, CASSIUS, CASCA, DECIUS, Cinna, Metellus Cimber, and TREBONIUS. Cas. I think we are too bold upon your rest: Good morrow, Brutus; do we trouble you?

Bru. I have been up this hour, awake all night. Know I these men that come along with you?

Cas. Yes, every man of them, and no man here

But honours you; and every one doth wish
You had but that opinion of yourself

Which every noble Roman bears of you.
This is Trebonius.

Bru.

He is welcome hither.

He is welcome too.

Cas. This, Decius Brutus.

Bru.

Cas. This, Casca; this, Cinna; and this, Me

tellus Cimber.

Bru. They are all welcome.

76. favour, countenance.

77. the faction, the body of conspirators.

80

90

83. path, take thy way. 84. Erebus, a region of thick darkness between Earth and Hades.

What watchful cares do interpose themselves
Betwixt your eyes and night?

Cas. Shall I entreat a word?

[Brutus and Cassius whisper. Dec. Here lies the east: doth not the day break here?

Casca. No.

Cin. O, pardon, sir, it doth; and yon gray lines That fret the clouds are messengers of day.

Casca. You shall confess that you are both deceived.

Here, as I point my sword, the sun arises,
Which is a great way growing on the south,
Weighing the youthful season of the year.
Some two months hence up higher toward the north
He first presents his fire; and the high east
Stands, as the Capitol, directly here.

Bru. Give me your hands all over, one by one.
Cas. And let us swear our resolution.

:

Bru. No, not an oath if not the face of men,
The sufferance of our souls, the time's abuse,-
If these be motives weak, break off betimes,
And every man hence to his idle bed;
So let high-sighted tyranny range on,
Till each man drop by lottery. But if these,
As I am sure they do, bear fire enough
To kindle cowards and to steel with valour
The melting spirits of women, then, countrymen,
What need we any spur but our own cause,

104. fret, fleck, as with

ripples of light.

countenance.

115. the time's abuse, the

107. growing on, advancing grievous plight of the age. towards.

112. all over, one after the other.

114. the face of men, the sense of peril legible in every

117. idle bed, bed of idle

ness.

118. high-sighted, haughtily supercilious.

118. range, roam.

To prick us to redress? what other bond

Than secret Romans, that have spoke the word,
And will not palter? and what other oath
Than honesty to honesty engaged,

That this shall be, or we will fall for it?
Swear priests and cowards and men cautelous,
Old feeble carrions and such suffering souls
That welcome wrongs; unto bad causes swear
Such creatures as men doubt; but do not stain
The even virtue of our enterprise,

Nor the insuppressive mettle of our spirits,
To think that or our cause or our performance
Did need an oath; when every drop of blood
That every Roman bears, and nobly bears,
Is guilty of a several bastardy,

If he do break the smallest particle

Of any promise that hath pass'd from him.

Cas. But what of Cicero ? shall we sound him?

I think he will stand very strong with us.

Casca. Let us not leave him out.

No, by no means.

Cin.
Met. O, let us have him, for his silver hairs
Will purchase us a good opinion

And buy men's voices to commend our deeds:
It shall be said, his judgement ruled our hands
Our youths and wildness shall no whit appear,
But all be buried in his gravity.

130

140

Bru. O, name him not : let us not break with him ; 150 For he will never follow any thing

Dec. Shall no man else be touch'd but only Cæsar? Cas. Decius, well urged: I think it is not meet, Mark Antony, so well beloved of Cæsar,

Should outlive Cæsar: we shall find of him
A shrewd contriver; and, you know, his means,
If he improve them, may well stretch so far

:

As to annoy us all which to prevent,

Let Antony and Cæsar fall together.

Bru. Our course will seem too bloody, Caius
Cassius,

To cut the head off and then hack the limbs,
Like wrath in death and envy afterwards;
For Antony is but a limb of Cæsar :

Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius.
We all stand up against the spirit of Cæsar;
And in the spirit of men there is no blood:
O, that we then could come by Cæsar's spirit,
And not dismember Cæsar! But, alas,
Cæsar must bleed for it! And, gentle friends,
Let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully;
Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods,
Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds:
And let our hearts, as subtle masters do,
Stir up their servants to an act of rage,
And after seem to chide 'em. This shall make
Our purpose necessary and not envious:
Which so appearing to the common eyes,
We shall be call'd purgers, not murderers.
And for Mark Antony, think not of him;
For he can do no more than Cæsar's arm
When Cæsar's head is off.

Cas.

Yet I fear him;

For in the ingrafted love he bears to Cæsar—
Bru. Alas, good Cassius, do not think of him:

158. shrewd, dangerous.

160. annoy, harm. 178. envious, malicious.

160

170

180