The Illustrated Works of Shakespeare/Illustrated Works of Shakespeare, The (1990)(Animated Pixels)[!][CDTV-PC].iso/shakes/text/33/03_02

Text File | 1991-04-10 | 13KB | 379 lines

Rome. The Forum.
 Enter BRUTUS and CASSIUS, with the PLEBIANS.

Plebians    We will be satisfied! Let us be satisfied!

Brutus    Then follow me, and give me audience, friends.
    Cassius, go you into the other street,
    And part the numbers.
    Those that will hear me speak, let 'em stay here;
    Those that will follow Cassius, go with him;
    And public reasons shall be renderd
    Of Caesar's death.

1st Plebian                                I will hear Brutus speak.

2nd Plebian    I will hear Cassius; and compare their reasons,
    When severally we hear them renderd.
                             [Exit CASSIUS, with some of the PLEBIANS.
                                                    [BRUTUS goes into the pulpit.

3rd Plebian    The noble Brutus is ascended. Silence!

Brutus    Be patient till the last.
    Romans, countrymen, and lovers, hear me for my cause, and
    be silent that you may hear. Believe me for mine honour,
    and have respect to mine honour, that you may believe.
    Censure me in your wisdom, and awake your senses, 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 that would not be
    a Roman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is
    here so vile that will not love his country? If any, speak;
    for him have I offended. I pause for a reply.

Plebians    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 his death is
    enrolled in the Capitol; his glory not extenuated, wherein
    he was worthy; nor his offences enforced, for which he
    suffered death.

               Enter ANTONY and OTHERS, with Caesar's body.

    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, 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.

Plebians    Live, Brutus! Live, live!

1st Plebian    Bring him with triumph home unto his house.

2nd Plebian    Give him a statue with his ancestors.

3rd Plebian    Let him be Caesar.

4th Plebian                            Caesar's better parts
    Shall be crowned in Brutus.

1st Plebian    We'll bring him to his house with shouts and clamours.

Brutus    My countrymen-

2nd Plebian                                Peace, silence! Brutus speaks.

1st Plebian    Peace, ho!

Brutus    Good countrymen, let me depart alone,
    And for my sake stay here with Antony.
    Do grace to Caesar's corpse, and grace his speech
    Tending 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.
                                                    [Exit.
1st Plebian    Stay, ho! - and let us hear Mark Antony.

3rd Plebian    Let him go up into the public chair.
    We'll hear him. Noble Antony, go up.

Antony    For Brutus' sake I am beholding to you.
                                                    [Goes up into the pulpit.
4th Plebian    What does he say of Brutus?

3rd Plebian                                        He says, for Brutus' sake
    He finds himself beholding to us all.

4th Plebian    'Twere best he speak no harm of Brutus here.

1st Plebian    This Caesar was a tyrant.

3rd Plebian                                    Nay, that's certain.
    We are blest that Rome is rid of him.

2nd Plebian    Peace! Let us hear what Antony can say.

Antony    You gentle Romans-

Plebians                            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 interrd 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 it.
    Here, under leave 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 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.

1st Plebian    Methinks there is much reason in his sayings.

2nd Plebian    If thou consider rightly of the matter,
    Caesar has had great wrong.

3rd Plebian                                    Has he, masters?
    I fear there will a worse come in this place.

4th Plebian    Marked ye his words? He would not take the crown;
    Therefore 'tis certain he was not ambitious.

1st Plebian    If it be found so, some will dear abide it.

2nd Plebian    Poor soul! His eyes are red as fire with weeping.

3rd Plebian    There's not a nobler man in Rome than Antony.

4th Plebian    Now mark him, he begins again to speak.

Antony    But yesterday the word of Caesar might
    Have stood against the world; now lies he there,
    And none so poor 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;
    I found it in his closet - 'tis his will.
    Let but the commons hear this testament,
    Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read, And they would go
    and kiss dead Caesar's wounds,
    And dip their napkins in his sacred blood,
    Yea, beg a hair of him for memory,
    And, dying, mention it within their wills,
    Bequeathing it as a rich legacy
    Unto their issue.

4th Plebian    We'll hear the will. Read it, Mark Antony.

Plebians    The will, the will! We will hear Caesar's will!

Antony    Have patience, gentle friends; I must not read it.
    It is not meet you know how Caesar loved you.
    You are not wood, you are not stones, but men;
    And, being men, hearing the will of Caesar,
    It will inflame you, it will make you mad.
    'Tis good you know not that you are his heirs;
    For if you should, O, what would come of it?

4th Plebian    Read the will! We'll hear it, Antony.
    You shall read us the will. Caesar's will!

Antony    Will you be patient? Will you stay awhile?
    I have o'ershot myself to tell you of it.
    I fear I wrong the honourable men
    Whose daggers have stabbed Caesar; I do fear it.

4th Plebian    They were traitors. Honourable men!

Plebians    The will! The testament!

2nd Plebian    They were villains, murderers! The will! Read the will.

Antony    You will compel me, then, to read the will?
    Then make a ring about the corpse of Caesar,
    And let me show you him that made the will.
    Shall I descend? And will you give me leave?

Plebians    Come down.

2nd Plebian    Descend.

3rd Plebian    You shall have leave.
                                                    [ANTONY comes down.
4th Plebian    A ring. Stand round.

1st Plebian    Stand from the hearse! Stand from the body!

2nd Plebian    Room for Antony, most noble Antony!

Antony    Nay, press not so upon me; stand far off.

Plebians    Stand back! Room! Bear back!

Antony    If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.
    You all do know this mantle. I remember
    The first time ever Caesar put it on;
    'Twas on a summer's evening, in his tent,
    That day he overcame the Nervii. Look, in this place ran
    Cassius' dagger through;
    See what a rent the envious Casca made;
    Through this the well-belovd Brutus stabbed,
    And as he plucked his cursd steel away,
    Mark how the blood of Caesar followed it,
    As rushing out of doors to be resolved
    If Brutus so unkindly knocked or no;
    For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel.
    Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him!
    This was the most unkindest cut of all;
    For when the noble Caesar saw him stab,
    Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms,
    Quite vanquished him. Then burst his mighty heart;
    And in his mantle muffling up his face,
    Even at the base of Pompey's statu,
    Which all the while ran blood, great Caesar fell.
    O what a fall was there, my countrymen!
    Then I, and you, and all of us fell down,
    Whilst bloody treason flourished over us.
    O, now you weep; and I perceive you feel
    The dint of pity. These are gracious drops.
    Kind souls, what, weep you when you but behold
    Our Caesar's vesture wounded? Look you here,
    Here is himself, marred, as you see, with traitors.

1st Plebian    O piteous spectacle!

2nd Plebian    O noble Caesar!

3rd Plebian    O woeful day!

4th Plebian    O traitors, villains!

1st Plebian    O most bloody sight!

2nd Plebian    We will be revenged.

Plebians    Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire! Kill! Slay! Let not a
    traitor live!

Antony    Stay, countrymen.

1st Plebian    Peace there! Hear the noble Antony.

2nd Plebian    We'll hear him, we'll follow him, we'll die with him.

Antony    Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up
    To such a sudden flood of mutiny.
    They that have done this deed are honourable.
    What private griefs they have, alas, I know not,
    That made them do it; they are wise and honourable,
    And will, no doubt, with reasons answer you.
    I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts.
    I am no orator, as Brutus is,
    But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man
    That love my friend; and that they know full well
    That gave me public leave to speak of him;
    For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
    Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech,
    To stir men's blood. I only speak right on.
    I tell you that which you yourselves do know;
    Show you sweet Caesar's wounds, poor poor dumb mouths,
    And bid them speak for me. But were I Brutus,
    And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony
    Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue
    In every wound of Caesar, that should move
    The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.

Plebians    We'll mutiny.

1st Plebian                        We'll burn the house of Brutus.

3rd Plebian    Away, then! Come, seek the conspirators.

Antony    Yet hear me countrymen; yet hear me speak.

Plebians    Peace, ho! Hear Antony, most noble Antony.

Antony    Why, friends, you go to do you know not what.
    Wherein hath Caesar thus deserved your loves?
    Alas, you know not! I must tell you then:
    You have forgot the will I told you of.

Plebians    Most true. The will! Let's stay and hear the will.

Antony    Here is the will, and under Caesar's seal:
    To every Roman citizen he gives,
    To every several man, seventy-five drachmas.

2nd Plebian    Most noble Caesar! We'll revenge his death.

3rd Plebian    O royal Caesar!

Antony    Hear me with patience.

Plebians    Peace, ho!

Antony    Moreover, he hath left you all his walks,
    His private arbours and new-planted orchards,
    On this side Tiber; he hath left them you,
    And to your heirs for ever - common pleasures
    To walk abroad, and recreate yourselves.
    Here was a Caesar! When comes such another?

1st Plebian    Never, never! Come, away, away!
    We'll burn his body in the holy place,
    And with the brands fire the traitors' houses.
    Take up the body.

2nd Plebian    Go fetch fire.

3rd Plebian    Pluck down benches.

4th Plebian    Pluck down forms, windows, anything.
                                            [Exeunt PLEBIANS with the body.

Antony    Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot;
    Take thou what course thou wilt!

                        Enter Octavius's SERVANT.

Servant    Sir, Octavius is already come to Rome.

Antony    Where is he?

Servant    He and Lepidus are at Caesar's house.

Antony    And thither will I straight to visit him.
    He comes upon a wish. Fortune is merry,
    And in this mood will give us anything.

Servant    I heard him say Brutus and Cassius
    Are rid like madmen through the gates of Rome.

Antony    Belike they had some notice of the people,
    How I had moved them. Bring me to Octavius.
                                                    [Exeunt.