They take the following form: the reading of our text is given in bold and its source given after an equals sign, with “F2” indicating a correction that derives from the Second Folio of 1632, “F3” a correction introduced in the Third Folio of 1664, and “Ed” one that derives from the subsequent editorial tradition. The rejected Folio (“F”) reading is then given. Thus for Act 5 Scene 4 line 18: “tell the = Ed. F = tell thee” means that the Folio text’s “tell thee” has been rejected in favor of the editorial correction “tell the,” which makes better sense of the rest of the First Soldier’s speech.
KEY FACTS
MAJOR PARTS: (with percentage of lines/number of speeches/scenes on stage) Marcus Brutus (28%/194/12), Caius Cassius (20%/140/8), Mark Antony (13%/51/8), Julius Caesar (5%/42/4), Casca (5%/39/4), Portia (4%/16/2), Octavius Caesar (2%/19/3), Decius Brutus (2%/12/3).
LINGUISTIC MEDIUM: 95% verse, 5% prose.
DATE: 1599. Not mentioned by Meres in 1598, seen at the Globe by Swiss visitor Thomas Platter in September 1599. Alluded to in several plays and poems by other writers in the period 1599–1601.
SOURCES: Based on the biographies of Julius Caesar and Marcus Brutus, with brief reference to the life of Cicero, in Sir Thomas North’s English translation of Plutarch’s Lives of the Most Noble Grecians and Romanes (1579).
TEXT: 1623 Folio is the only early printed text. Exceptionally good quality of printing, perhaps set from the theater promptbook or a transcription of it. Some editors have detected signs of revision in the fact that Brutus is told twice of Portia’s suicide, and proposed that one or other account should be deleted, but in the theater this double testing of his Stoic response is highly effective.
LIST OF PARTS
Julius CAESAR
CALPURNIA, his Wife
Marcus BRUTUS, sometime friend of Caesar, then conspirator against him
PORTIA, his wife
other conspirators against Caesar
Caius CASSIUS
CASCA
DECIUS Brutus
CINNA
METELLUS Cimber
TREBONIUS
Caius LIGARIUS
triumvirs of Rome after Caesar’s death
Mark ANTONY
OCTAVIUS Caesar
LEPIDUS
A SOOTHSAYER
ARTEMIDORUS, a teacher of rhetoric
CINNA, a poet
Another POET
senators
CICERO
PUBLIUS
POPILIUS
tribunes of the people
MURELLUS
FLAVIUS
A CARPENTER
A COBBLER
FIRST, SECOND, THIRD, FOURTH and FIFTH PLEBEIANS
LUCIUS, Brutus’ young servant
PINDARUS, Cassius’ bondman
supporters of Brutus and Cassius
LUCILIUS
TITINIUS
MESSALA
CATO
STRATO
CLAUDIO
VARRUS
CLITUS
DARDANIUS
VOLUMNIUS
SERVANT, to Caesar
SERVANT, to Antony
SERVANT, to Octavius
A MESSENGER
FIRST, SECOND and THIRD SOLDIERS, members of Brutus and Cassius’ army
FIRST and SECOND SOLDIERS, members of Antony’s army
GHOST, Caesar’s ghost
Other Commoners, Senators and Soldiers
running scene 1
Enter Flavius, Murellus and certain Commoners over the stage
FLAVIUS Hence!1 Home, you idle creatures, get you home:
Is this a holiday? What, know you not,
Being mechanical, you ought not walk3
Upon a labouring day, without the sign4
Of your profession?— Speak, what trade art thou?
CARPENTER Why, sir, a carpenter.
MURELLUS Where is thy leather apron, and thy rule7?
What dost thou with thy best apparel on?—
You, sir, what trade are you?
COBBLER Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but10 as
you would say, a cobbler11.
MURELLUS But what trade art thou? Answer me directly12.
COBBLER A trade, sir, that I hope, I may use with a safe
conscience, which is indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles14.
FLAVIUS What trade, thou knave? Thou naughty15 knave, what trade?
COBBLER Nay I beseech you, sir, be not out16 with me: yet if you
be out, sir, I can mend you17.
MURELLUS What mean’st thou by that? Mend me, thou saucy fellow?
COBBLER Why sir, cobble20 you.
FLAVIUS Thou art a cobbler, art thou?
COBBLER Truly sir, all that I live by is with the awl. I meddle21
with no tradesman’s matters, nor women’s matters22; but
withal I am indeed, sir, a surgeon to old shoes23: when they are
in great danger, I recover them. As proper men as ever trod24
upon neat’s leather have gone upon my handiwork25.
FLAVIUS But wherefore26 art not in thy shop today?
Why dost thou lead these men about the streets?
COBBLER Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes, to get myself into
more work. But indeed, sir, we make holiday to see Caesar
and to rejoice in his triumph30.
MURELLUS Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home?
What tributaries32 follow him to Rome
To grace33 in captive bonds his chariot wheels?
You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things:
O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,
Knew you not Pompey36? Many a time and oft
Have you climbed up to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows? Yea, to chimney-tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The livelong40 day, with patient expectation,
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome:
And when you saw his chariot but appear,
Have you not made an universal shout,
That Tiber44 trembled underneath her banks
To hear the replication45 of your sounds
Made in her concave46 shores?
And do you now put on your best attire?
And do you now cull out48 a holiday?
And do you now strew flowers in his way
That comes in triumph over Pompey’s blood50?
Be gone!
Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,
Pray to the gods to intermit53 the plague
That needs must light on this ingratitude.
FLAVIUS Go, go, good countrymen, and for this fault
Assemble all the poor men of your sort;
Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears
Into the channel till the lowest stream58
Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.—
Exeunt all the Commoners
See where their basest mettle be not moved60:
They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.
Go you down that way towards the Capitol62,
This way will I: disrobe the images63
If you do find them decked with ceremonies64.
MURELLUS May we do so?
You know it is the feast of Lupercal66.
FLAVIUS It is no matter. Let no images
Be hung with Caesar’s trophies. I’ll about68
And drive away the vulgar69 from the streets;
So do you too, where you perceive them thick70.
These growing feathers plucked from Caesar’s wing
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch72,
Who else73 would soar above the view of men,
And keep us all in servile fearfulness.
Exeunt
[Act 1 Scene 2]
running scene 1 continues
Enter Caesar, Antony for the course, Calpurnia, Portia, Decius, Cicero, Brutus, Cassius, Casca, a Soothsayer, after them Murellus and Flavius
CAESAR Calpurnia.
CASCA Peace, ho2! Caesar speaks.
CAESAR Calpurnia.
CALPURNIA Here, my lord.
CAESAR Stand you directly in Antonio’s way5
When he doth run his course. Antonio!
ANTONY Caesar, my lord.
CAESAR Forget not in your speed, Antonio,
To touch Calpurnia, for our elders say,
The barren touchèd in this holy chase
Shake off their sterile curse.
ANTONY I shall remember.
When Caesar says ‘Do this’ it is performed.
CAESAR Set on, and leave no ceremony out.
Music
SOOTHSAYER Caesar!
CAESAR Ha? Who calls?
CASCA Bid every noise be still: peace yet again!
Music stops
CAESAR Who is it in the press18 that calls on me?
I hear a tongue shriller than all the music,
Cry ‘Caesar!’ Speak, Caesar is turned to hear.
SOOTHSAYER Beware the Ides of March21.
CAESAR What man is that?
BRUTUS A soothsayer bids you beware the Ides of March.
CAESAR Set him before me: let me see his face.
CASSIUS Fellow, come from the throng: look upon Caesar.
Soothsayer comes forward
CAESAR What say’st thou to me now? Speak once again.
SOOTHSAYER Beware the Ides of March.
CAESAR He is a dreamer. Let us leave him: pass.
Sennet. Exeunt. Brutus and Cassius remain
CASSIUS Will you go see the order29 of the course?
BRUTUS Not I.
CASSIUS I pray you do.
BRUTUS I am not gamesome32: I do lack some part
Of that quick33 spirit that is in Antony.
Let me not hinder, Cassius, your desires;
I’ll leave you.
CASSIUS Brutus, I do observe you now of late36:
I have not from your eyes that gentleness
And show of love as I was wont38 to have:
You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand39
Over your friend, that loves you.
BRUTUS Cassius,
Be not deceived: if I have veiled my look,42
I turn the trouble of my countenance
Merely44 upon myself. Vexed I am
Of late with passions of some difference45,
Conceptions only proper46 to myself
Which give some soil47, perhaps, to my behaviours.
But let not therefore my good friends be grieved—
Among which number, Cassius, be you one—
Nor construe50 any further my neglect
Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war,
Forgets the shows52 of love to other men.
CASSIUS Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your passion,
By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried54
Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations55.
Tell me, good Brutus, can you see your face?
BRUTUS No, Cassius, for the eye sees not itself
But58 by reflection, by some other things.
CASSIUS ’Tis just59,
And it is very much lamented, Brutus,
That you have no such mirrors as will turn61
Your hidden worthiness into your eye,
That you might see your shadow63: I have heard,
Where many of the best respect64 in Rome—
Except immortal Caesar — speaking of Brutus,
And groaning underneath this age’s yoke66,
Have wished that noble Brutus had his eyes67.
BRUTUS Into what dangers would you lead me, Cassius,
That you would have me seek into myself
For that which is not in me?
CASSIUS Therefore71, good Brutus, be prepared to hear:
And since you know you cannot see yourself
So well as by reflection, I your glass73
Will modestly discover74 to yourself
That of yourself which you yet know not of75.
And be not jealous on me, gentle76 Brutus:
Were I a common laughter, or did use77
To stale with ordinary78 oaths my love
To every new protester79, if you know
That I do fawn on men, and hug them hard,
And after scandal81 them, or if you know
That I profess myself82 in banqueting
To all the rout83, then hold me dangerous.
Flourish, and shout
BRUTUS What means this shouting? I do fear the people
Choose Caesar for their king.
CASSIUS Ay, do you fear it?
Then must I think you would not have it so.
BRUTUS I would not, Cassius, yet I love him well.
But wherefore do you hold me here so long?
What is it that you would impart to me?
If it be aught91 toward the general good,
Set honour in one eye, and death i’th’other92,
And I will look on both indifferently93.
For let the gods so speed94 me, as I love
The name of honour more than I fear death.
CASSIUS I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,
As well as I do know your outward favour97.
Well, honour is the subject of my story:
I cannot tell what you and other men
Think of this life, but for my single self,
I had as lief not be101 as live to be
In awe of such a thing as I myself102.
I was born free as Caesar, so were you:
We both have fed as well, and we can both
Endure the winter’s cold as well as he,
For once, upon a raw and gusty day,
The troubled Tiber chafing with107 her shores,
Caesar said to me, ‘Dar’st thou, Cassius, now
Leap in with me into this angry flood109
And swim to yonder point?’ Upon the word,
Accoutrèd111 as I was, I plungèd in
And bade112 him follow: so indeed he did.
The torrent roared, and we did buffet it113
With lusty sinews114, throwing it aside,
And stemming it with hearts of controversy115.
But ere116 we could arrive the point proposed,
Caesar cried, ‘Help me, Cassius, or I sink!’
I — as Aeneas118, our great ancestor,
Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder
The old Anchises bear — so from the waves of Tiber
Did I the tired Caesar: and this man
Is now become a god, and Cassius is
A wretched creature, and must bend his body123
If Caesar carelessly but nod on him.
He had a fever when he was in Spain,
And when the fit was on him I did mark126
How he did shake: ’tis true, this god did shake,
His coward lips did from their colour fly128,
And that same eye, whose bend129 doth awe the world,
Did lose his lustre: I did hear him groan:
Ay, and that tongue of his that bade131 the Romans
Mark him, and write his speeches in their books,
‘Alas’, it cried, ‘Give me some drink, Titinius’,
As a sick girl. Ye gods, it doth amaze me
A man of such a feeble temper should
So get the start of136 the majestic world
And bear the palm137 alone.
Shout. Flourish
BRUTUS Another general shout?
I do believe that these applauses are
For some new honours that are heaped on Caesar.
CASSIUS Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus142, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves.
Men at some time145 are masters of their fates.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars146
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Brutus and Caesar: what should be in that ‘Caesar’?
Why should that name be sounded149 more than yours?
Write them together, yours is as fair a name:
Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well:
Weigh them, it is as heavy: conjure152 with ’em,
Brutus will start153 a spirit as soon as Caesar.
Now in the names of all the gods at once,
Upon what meat155 doth this our Caesar feed
That he is grown so great? — Age156, thou art shamed! —
Rome, thou hast lost the breed of157 noble bloods! —
When went there by an age, since the great flood158,
But it was famed with more than with one man?
When could they say, till now, that talked of Rome,
That her wide walks encompassed but one man?
Now is it Rome indeed, and room162 enough
When there is in it but one only man.
O, you and I have heard our fathers say
There was a Brutus once that would have brooked165
Th’eternal devil to keep his state166 in Rome
As easily as a king.
BRUTUS That you do love me, I am nothing jealous168:
What you would work me to, I have some aim169:
How I have thought of this and of these times
I shall recount hereafter. For this present,
I would not — so with love I might entreat you172 —
Be any further moved173. What you have said
I will consider, what you have to say
I will with patience hear, and find a time
Both meet to hear and answer such high176 things.
Till then, my noble friend, chew upon this:
Brutus had rather be a villager
Than to repute179 himself a son of Rome
Under these hard conditions as this time
Is like181 to lay upon us.
CASSIUS I am glad that my weak words
Have struck but thus much show of fire from Brutus.
Enter Caesar and his train
BRUTUS The games are done, and Caesar is returning.
CASSIUS As they pass by, pluck Casca by the sleeve,
And he will, after186 his sour fashion, tell you
What hath proceeded worthy187 note today.
BRUTUS I will do so: but look you, Cassius,
The angry spot doth glow on Caesar’s brow,
And all the rest look like a chidden190 train:
Calpurnia’s cheek is pale, and Cicero
Looks with such ferret192 and such fiery eyes
As we have seen him in the Capitol
Being crossed in conference194 by some senators.
CASSIUS Casca will tell us what the matter is.
CAESAR Antonio.
ANTONY Caesar?
CAESAR Let me have men about me that are fat,
Sleek-headed199 men, and such as sleep a-nights.
Yond200 Cassius has a lean and hungry look:
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
ANTONY Fear him not, Caesar, he’s not dangerous.
He is a noble Roman, and well given203.
CAESAR Would204 he were fatter! But I fear him not:
Yet if my name205 were liable to fear,
I do not know the man I should avoid
So soon as that spare207 Cassius. He reads much,
He is a great observer, and he looks208
Quite through the deeds of men. He loves no plays,
As thou dost, Antony: he hears no music:
Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort211
As if he mocked himself, and scorned his spirit
That could be moved to smile at anything.
Such men as he be never at heart’s ease
Whiles they behold a greater215 than themselves,
And therefore are they very dangerous.
I rather tell thee what is to be feared
Than what I fear, for always I am Caesar218.
Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf,
And tell me truly what thou think’st of him.
Sennet. Exeunt Caesar and his train
CASCA You pulled me by the cloak: would you speak
with me?
BRUTUS Ay, Casca, tell us what hath chanced223 today
that Caesar looks so sad224.
CASCA Why, you were with him, were you not?
BRUTUS I should not then ask Casca what had chanced.
CASCA Why, there was a crown227 offered him; and being
offered him, he put it by228 with the back of his hand, thus, and
then the people fell a-shouting.
BRUTUS What was the second noise for?
CASCA Why, for that too.
CASSIUS They shouted thrice: what was the last cry for?
CASCA Why, for that too.
BRUTUS Was the crown offered him thrice?
CASCA Ay, marry235, was’t, and he put it by thrice, every time
gentler236 than other; and at every putting-by, mine honest
neighbours shouted.
CASSIUS Who offered him the crown?
CASCA Why, Antony.
BRUTUS Tell us the manner of it, gentle Casca.
CASCA I can as well be hanged as tell the manner of it: it
was mere242 foolery, I did not mark it. I saw Mark Antony offer
him a crown — yet ’twas not a crown neither, ’twas one of
these coronets244 — and as I told you, he put it by once: but for
all that, to my thinking, he would fain245 have had it. Then he
offered it to him again, then he put it by again: but to my
thinking, he was very loath to lay his fingers off it. And then
he offered it the third time; he put it the third time by, and still248
as he refused it, the rabblement249 hooted, and clapped their
chopped hands, and threw up their sweaty nightcaps250, and
uttered such a deal of stinking breath because Caesar
refused the crown that it had almost choked Caesar, for he
swooned and fell down at it. And for mine own part, I durst253
not laugh, for fear of opening my lips and receiving the bad
air.
CASSIUS But soft256, I pray you: what, did Caesar swoon?
CASCA He fell down in the market-place, and foamed at
mouth, and was speechless.
BRUTUS ’Tis very like — he hath the falling sickness259.
CASSIUS No, Caesar hath it not: but you, and I,
And honest Casca, we have the falling sickness261.
CASCA I know not what you mean by that, but I am sure
Caesar fell down. If the tag-rag263 people did not clap him and
hiss him according as he pleased and displeased them, as
they use to do the players in the theatre, I am no true265 man.
BRUTUS What said he when he came unto himself?
CASCA Marry, before he fell down, when he perceived the
common herd was glad he refused the crown, he plucked me268
ope his doublet and offered them his throat to cut: an269 I had
been a man of any occupation, if I would not have taken him270
at a word, I would271 I might go to hell among the rogues.
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