Cas. I'st possible ?

Bru. Hear me, for I will speak.-
Must I give way and room to your rash choler ?
Shall I be frighted, when a madman stares ?

Cas. Ye gods! ye gods! Must I endure all this?

Bru. [Nearer.] 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.

Cas. Is it come to this?

Bru. 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.

Cas. You wrong me, every way you wrong me Brutus;

I said, an elder soldier, not a better?

Did I say better?

Bru. If you did, I care not.

Cas. When Cæsar lived, he durst not thus have moved

me.

Bru. Peace, peace: you durst not so have tempted him. Cas. I durst not?

Bru. No.

Cas. What? durst not tempt him?

Bru. For your life, you durst not.

Cas. Do not presume too much upon my love ;

I may do that I shall be sorry for.

Bru. 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 ?

E

1

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;

Cas. I denied you not.

Bru. You did.

Cas. 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.

Bru. I do not, till you practice them on me.
Cas. You love me not.

Bru. I do not like your faults.

Cas. A friendly eye could never see such faults.

Bru. (R. C.) A flatterer's would not, though they do ap

pear

As huge as high Olympus.

Cus. (L. c.) 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; heck'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 the gold, will give my heart: Strike, as thou didst at Cæsar: for, I know, When thou didst hate him worst, thou lov'dst him better Than ever thou lov'dst Cassius.

Bru. Sheath 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.

Cas. Hath Cassius lived

To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus,
When grief, and blood ill-temper'd, vexeth him?
Biu. When I spoke that, I was ill-temper'd too.
Cas. Do you confess so much? Give me your hand.

Bru. Both Embrace c.] And my heart too.
Cas. O, Brutus!-

Bru, What's the matter?

Cas. Have not you love enough to bear with me,
When that rash humour which my mother gave me,
Makes me forgetful?

Bru. Yes, Cassius; and henceforth,
When you are over-earnest with your Brutus,
He'll think your mother chides, and leave you so.-
Metellus and Titinius!

Enter TITINIUS and METELLUS.

Bid the commanders

Prepare to lodge their companies to-night.

Cas. And come yourselves, and bring Trebonius with you

Immediately to us.

[Exeunt Titinius and Metellus.

Bru. Lucius!

Enter LuciuS, R. U. E.

A bowl of wine.

[Exit Lucius, R. U. E

Cas. I did not think you could have been so an ry.

Bru. O, Cassius, I am sick of many griefs.

Cas. Of your philosophy you make no use,

If you give place to accidental evils.

Bru. (c.) No man bears sorrow better :-Portia is dead. Cas. Ha! Portia?

Bru. She is dead.

Cas. How 'scaped I killing, when I cross'd you so ?

O, insupportable and touching loss !

Upon what sickness?

Bru. 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.

Cas. And died so ?

Bru. Even so.

Cas. O, ye immortal gods!

Enter Lucius, with a Taper-and VARRO, with

a Jar

of Wine, and a Goblet. Lucius places the Taper on

Bru. Speak no more of her-Give me a howl of wine :

the Table, and takes the Jar from VARRO.

[Takes the Goblet.

In this I bury all unkindness, Cassius.

[Drinks. Cas. My heart is thirsty for that noble pledge:

Fill, Lucius, till the wine o'erswell the cup;

I cannot drink too much of Brutus's love.

[Drinks.

[Exeunt Varro and Lucius.

:

Enter TITINIUS, TREBONIUS, and METELLUS, R.

Bru. Come in, Titinius;-Welcome, good Trebonius.

Now sit we close about this taper here,

And call in question our necessities.

[Trebonius, Titinius, and Metellus sit.

Cas. [R. C. Aside.] Portia, art thou gone?

Bru. No more, I pray you.

[Brutus and Cassius retire to the Table and sit.

Trebonius, I have here received letters,
That young Octavius and Mark Antony
Come down upon us with mighty power,
Bending their expedition towards Philippi.

Tre. Myself have letters of the self-same tenour.
Bru. With what addition?

Tre. That by proscription, and bills of outlawry,

Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus,
Have put to death a hundred senators.

Bru. Therein our letters do not well agree;
Mine speak of seventy senators that died
By their proscriptions-Cicero being one.
Cas. Cicero one?

Tre. Ay, Cicero is dead,

And by that order of proscription.-
Brutus, had you your letters from your wife?

Bru. No, Trebonius.

Tre. Nor nothing in your letters writ of her?

Bru. Nothing, Trebonius.

Tre. That, methinks, is strange.

Bru. Why ask you? Hear you aught of her in yours?
Tre. No, Brutus.

Bru. [Rises.] Now, as you are a Roman, tell me true.
Tre. [Rises.] Then, like a Roman, bear the truth I tell

For certain, she is dead, and by strange manner.

Bru. Why, farewell, Portia!

We must die, Trebonius :

[They all rise, and advance.

With meditating that she must die once,

I have the patience to endure it now.

Cas. (R. C.) Even so great men great losses should en.

dure.

I have as much of this in art as you ;

But yet nature could not bear it so.

Bru. (c.) Well, to our work alive. - What do you think

Of marching to Philippi presently?

Cas. I do not think it good.

Bru. Your reason?

Cas. 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, defence, and nimbleness.

Bru. Good reasons must, of force, give place to better.

The people, 'twixt Philippi and this ground,

Do stand but in a forced affection;

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.

Cas. Here me, good brother

Bru. 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.

Cas. Then, with your will, go on;
We'll along ourselves, and meet them at Philippi.
Bru. The deep night is crept upon our talk,

And nature must obey necessity.

There is no more to say?

Cas. [R. going L.] No more. Good nigh:

Early to-morrow will we rise, and hence.

Bru. [L. going R.] Lucius, my gown.-Farewell good

Trebonius:

Good night, Titinius :-Noble, noble Cassius,

Good night, and good repose.

Cas. [Meet at c.] O, my dear brother;

This was an ill beginning of the night: