Bru. Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself Are much condemned to have an itching palm; To sell and mart your offices for gold, To rndeservers. Cas. I an itching palm ? You know that you are Brutus that speak this, Cas. Chastisement! Bru. Remember March, the Ides of March remember Cas. Brutus, bay not me! I'll not endure it. You forget yourself, To make conditions. Bru. Go to! you are not, Cassius, Bru. I say you are not! Cas. Urge me no more: I shall forget myself. Have mind upon your health; tempt me no further! Bru. Away, slight man! Cas. Is 't 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. Must I endure all this? Bru. 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 humor? You shall digest the venom of your spleen, Though it do split you; for, from this day forth, Cas. Is it come to this? bu. 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. sorry Bru. You have done that you should be To you for gold to pay my legions, Which you denied me. for. Was that done like Cassius? Should I have answered Caius Cassius so? 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 A friend should bear his friend's infirmities, But Brutus makes mine greater than they are. Bru. I do not like your faults. Cas. A friendly eye could never see such faults. As huge as high Olympus. Cas. 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; My spirit from mine eyes! There is my dagger, I, that denied thee gold, will give my heart : When thou didst hate him worst, thou lovedst him better Bru. Sheathe your dagger: Be angry when you will, it shall have scope; Cas. Hath Cassius lived To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus, When grief and blood ill-tempered vexeth him? Cas. Do you confess so much? Give me your hand. Cas. O Brutus! Bru. What's the matter? Cas. Have you not love enough to bear with me, Bru. Yes, Cassius; and from henceforth, 24. REGRETS OF DRUNKENNESS. - Shakspeare. Iago. What! be you hurt, Lieutenant? Cassio. Past all surgery! Iago. Marry, Heaven forbid! Cassio. Reputation! reputation! reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself; and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation! Iago. As I am an honest man, I thought you had received some bodily wound there is more offence in that than in reputation. Repu tation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving. What, man! There are ways to recover the General again. Sue to him, and he is yours. Cussio. I will rather sue to be despised than to deceive so good a commander with so light, so drunken, and so indiscreet an officer. Drunk? and speak parrot? and squabble? swagger? swear? and discourse fustian with one's own shadow?-O, thou invisible spirit of wine! if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee Devil. Iago. What was he that you followed with your sword? what had he done to you? Cassio. I know not. Iago. Is it possible? Cassio. I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly; a quarrel, but nothing wherefore. O, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! that we should with joy, pleasure, revel, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts! Iago. Why, but you are now well enough: how came you thus recovered? Cassio. It has pleased the devil Drunkenness to give place to the devil Wrath one imperfection shows me another, to make me frankly despise myself. Iago. Come: you are too severe a moraler. As the time, the place, and the condition of this country stands, I could heartily wish this had not befallen; but since it is as it is, mend it, for your own good. Cassio. I will ask him for my place again; he shall tell me I am a drunkard! Had I as many mouths as Hydra, such an answer would stop them all. To be now a sensible man, by and by a fool, and presently a beast! O, strange! Every inordinate cup is unblessed, and the ingredient is a devil. Iago. Come, come! good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used; exclaim no more against it; think you think I love you? and, good Lieutenant, I Cassio. I have well approved it, Sir: · I drunk! : Iago. You, or any man living, may be drunk some time, man! I'll tell you what you shall do. Our General's wife is now the General ; confess yourself freely to her importune her; she 'll help to put you in your place again. She is of so free, so kind, so apt, so blessed a disposition, she holds it a vice in her goodness not to do more than she is requested. This broken joint between you and her husband entreat her to splinter; and, my fortunes against any lay worth naming, this crack of your love shall grow stronger than it was before. Cassio. You advise me well. Iago. I protest, in the sincerity of love and honest kindness. Cassio. I think it freely; and, betimes in the morning, I will beseech the virtuous Desdemona to undertake for me. Iago. You are in the right. Good-night, Lieutenant. I must to watch. Cassio. Good-night, honest Iago. 25. SPEECH OF CASSIUS, INSTIGATING BRUTUS TO JOIN THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST CÆSAR.- Shakspeare. WELL, honor is the subject of my story. I cannot tell what you, and other men, In awe of such a thing as I myself. I was born free as Cæsar; so were you; The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores, And swim to yonder point?" Upon the word, And bade him follow; so, indeed, he did. Did, from the flames of Troy, upon his shoulder, Did I the tired Cæsar: and this man Is now become a god; and Cassius is A wretched creature, and must bend his body, He had a fever when he was in Spain, And, when the fit was on him, I did mark How he did shake: 't is true, this god did shake: And that same eye, whose bend doth awe the world, The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings. Brutus and Cæsar; what should be in that Cæsar? Why should that name be sounded more than yours? |