dagger for myself, when it shall please my country to need my death.

Citizens. Live, Brutus, live! live!

I Cit. Bring him with triumph home unto his house.

2 Cit. Give him a statue with his ancestors.

3 Cit. Let him be Cæsar. 4 Cit.

Shall be crown'd in Brutus.

Cæsar's better parts

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

Bru. My countrymen,

2 Cit.

Peace; silence! Brutus speaks.

I Cit. Peace, ho!

Bru. Good countrymen, let me depart alone,
And, for my sake, stay here with Antony :
Do grace to Cæsar's corpse, and grace his speech
Tending to Cæsar's glories; which Mark Antony,
By our permission, is allow'd to make.

I do entreat you, not a man depart,
Save I alone, till Antony have spoke.

[Exit.

I Cit. Stay, ho! and let us hear Mark Antony. 3 Cit. Let him go up into the public chair; We'll hear him. Noble Antony, go up.

Ant. For Brutus' sake, I am beholding to you. 4 Cit. What does he say of Brutus ?

3 Cit.

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

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

I Cit. This Cæsar was a tyrant.

3 Cit. Nay, that's certain : We are bless'd that Rome is rid of him.

2 Cit. Peace; let us hear what Antony can say. Ant. You gentle Romans

Citizens.

Peace, ho! let us hear him.

Ant. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me
your ears;

I come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Cæsar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Cæsar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault;
And grievously hath Cæsar answer'd 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 Cæsar'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 Cæsar seem ambitious?

When that the poor have cried, Cæsar 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 judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason!-Bear with me
My heart is in the coffin there with Cæsar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.

I Cit. Methinks there is much reason in his

sayings.

2 Cit. If thou consider rightly of the matter, Cæsar has had great wrong. 3 Cit. Has he, masters? I fear there will a worse come in his place. 4 Cit. Mark'd ye his words? He would not take the crown;

Therefore, 'tis certain he was not ambitious. I Cit. If it be found so, some will dear abide it.

2 Cit. Poor soul! his eyes are red as fire with weeping.

3 Cit. There's not a nobler man in Rome than

Antony.

4 Cit. Now mark him, he begins again to

speak.

Ant. But yesterday, the word of Cæsar 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 Cæsar,
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 Cæsar'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.

4 Cit. We'll hear the will: read it, Mark Antony.

Citizens. The will, the will! we will hear Cæsar's will.

Ant. Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it;

It is not meet you know how Cæsar loved you.
You are not wood, you are not stones, but men ;
And, being men, hearing the will of Cæsar,
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!
4 Cit. Read the will; we'll hear it, Antony;
You shall read us the will; Cæsar's will.

Ant. 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 stabb'd Cæsar: I do fear it. 4 Cit. They were traitors: honourable men! Citizens. The will! the testament !

2 Cit. They were villains, murderers: the will read the will!

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

2 Cit. Descend.

3 Cit. You shall have leave.

4 Cit. A ring; stand round.

[He comes down.

I Cit. Stand from the hearse, stand from the

body.

2 Cit. Room for Antony;-most noble Antony.

Ant. Nay, press not so upon me; stand far off.
Citizens. Stand back! room! bear back!

+ Ant. If you have tears, prepare to shed them

now.

You all do know this mantle : I remember
The first time ever Cæsar 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-belovèd Brutus stabb'd;
And, as he pluck'd his cursed steel away,
Mark how the blood of Cæsar follow'd it,
As rushing out of doors, to be resolved
If Brutus so unkindly knock'd, or no;

For Brutus, as you know, was Cæsar's angel :
Judge, O you gods, how dearly Cæsar loved him!
This was the most unkindest cut of all:
For when the noble Cæsar saw him stab,
Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms,
Quite vanquish'd him: then burst his mighty
heart;

And, in his mantle muffling up his face
Even at the base of Pompey's statue,

Which all the while ran blood, great Cæsar fell.
O, what a fall was there, my countrymen !
Then I, and you, and all of us fell down,
Whilst bloody treason flourish'd 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 Cæsar's vesture wounded? Look you here,
Here is himself, marr'd, as you see, with traitors.
I Cit. O piteous spectacle!

2 Cit. O noble Cæsar!
3 Cit. O woeful day!