SCENE III. Brutus's tent. The Life and Death of Julius Caesar  Shakespeare homepage  |  Julius Caesar  | Act 4, Scene 3 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE III. Brutus'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. 

 BRUTUS  Lucius! 



 Enter LUCIUS  My gown. 



 Exit LUCIUS  Farewell, good Messala: 

 Good night, Titinius. Noble, noble Cassius, 

 Good night, and good repose. 

 CASSIUS  O my dear brother! 

 This was an ill beginning of the night: 

 Never come such division 'tween our souls! 

 Let it not, Brutus. 

 BRUTUS  Every thing is well. 

 CASSIUS  Good night, my lord. 

 BRUTUS  Good night, good brother. 

 TITINIUS  MESSALA  Good night, Lord Brutus. 

 BRUTUS  Farewell, every one. 



 Exeunt all but BRUTUS 

 Re-enter LUCIUS, with the gown  Give me the gown. Where is thy instrument? 

 LUCIUS  Here in the tent. 

 BRUTUS  What, thou speak'st drowsily? 

 Poor knave, I blame thee not; thou art o'er-watch'd. 

 Call Claudius and some other of my men: 

 I'll have them sleep on cushions in my tent. 

 LUCIUS  Varro and Claudius! 



 Enter VARRO and CLAUDIUS  VARRO  Calls my lord? 

 BRUTUS  I pray you, sirs, lie in my tent and sleep; 

 It may be I shall raise you by and by 

 On business to my brother Cassius. 

 VARRO  So please you, we will stand and watch your pleasure. 

 BRUTUS  I will not have it so: lie down, good sirs; 

 It may be I shall otherwise bethink me. 

 Look, Lucius, here's the book I sought for so; 

 I put it in the pocket of my gown. 



 VARRO and CLAUDIUS lie down  LUCIUS  I was sure your lordship did not give it me. 

 BRUTUS  Bear with me, good boy, I am much forgetful. 

 Canst thou hold up thy heavy eyes awhile, 

 And touch thy instrument a strain or two? 

 LUCIUS  Ay, my lord, an't please you. 

 BRUTUS  It does, my boy: 

 I trouble thee too much, but thou art willing. 

 LUCIUS  It is my duty, sir. 

 BRUTUS  I should not urge thy duty past thy might; 

 I know young bloods look for a time of rest. 

 LUCIUS  I have slept, my lord, already. 

 BRUTUS  It was well done; and thou shalt sleep again; 

 I will not hold thee long: if I do live, 

 I will be good to thee. 



 Music, and a song  This is a sleepy tune. O murderous slumber, 

 Lay'st thou thy leaden mace upon my boy, 

 That plays thee music? Gentle knave, good night; 

 I will not do thee so much wrong to wake thee: 

 If thou dost nod, thou break'st thy instrument; 

 I'll take it from thee; and, good boy, good night. 

 Let me see, let me see; is not the leaf turn'd down 

 Where I left reading? Here it is, I think. 



 Enter the Ghost of CAESAR  How ill this taper burns! Ha! who comes here? 

 I think it is the weakness of mine eyes 

 That shapes this monstrous apparition. 

 It comes upon me. Art thou any thing? 

 Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil, 

 That makest my blood cold and my hair to stare? 

 Speak to me what thou art. 

 GHOST  Thy evil spirit, Brutus. 

 BRUTUS  Why comest thou? 

 GHOST  To tell thee thou shalt see me at Philippi. 

 BRUTUS  Well; then I shall see thee again? 

 GHOST  Ay, at Philippi. 

 BRUTUS  Why, I will see thee at Philippi, then. 



 Exit Ghost  Now I have taken heart thou vanishest: 

 Ill spirit, I would hold more talk with thee. 

 Boy, Lucius! Varro! Claudius! Sirs, awake! Claudius! 

 LUCIUS  The strings, my lord, are false. 

 BRUTUS  He thinks he still is at his instrument. 

 Lucius, awake! 

 LUCIUS  My lord? 

 BRUTUS  Didst thou dream, Lucius, that thou so criedst out? 

 LUCIUS  My lord, I do not know that I did cry. 

 BRUTUS  Yes, that thou didst: didst thou see any thing? 

 LUCIUS  Nothing, my lord. 

 BRUTUS  Sleep again, Lucius. Sirrah Claudius! 



 To VARRO  Fellow thou, awake! 

 VARRO  My lord? 

 CLAUDIUS  My lord? 

 BRUTUS  Why did you so cry out, sirs, in your sleep? 

 VARRO  CLAUDIUS  Did we, my lord? 

 BRUTUS  Ay: saw you any thing? 

 VARRO  No, my lord, I saw nothing. 

 CLAUDIUS  Nor I, my lord. 

 BRUTUS  Go and commend me to my brother Cassius; 

 Bid him set on his powers betimes before, 

 And we will follow. 

 VARRO  CLAUDIUS  It shall be done, my lord. 



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