Caesar!
CASSIUS
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Brutus—
CHORUS (shouting)
Brutus!
CASSIUS
—and Caesar.
CHORUS (shouting)
Caesar!
CASSIUS
What should be in that ‘Caesar’?
Why should that name be sounded more than yours?
BRUTUS
My noble friend, chew upon this:
Brutus had rather be a villager
Than to repute himself a son of Rome
Under these hard conditions as this time
Is like to lay upon us.
CHORUS hum flourish.
Re-enter CAESAR, ANTONY, CALPURNIA, PORTIA, DECIUS BRUTUS, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, CASCA, TREBONIUS, and METELLUS CIMBER from stage left.
CAESAR
Antonius!
ANTONY
Caesar?
CAESAR
Let me have men about me that are fat;
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
He hears no music.
CHORUS (echoing)
No music!
CAESAR
Seldom he smiles.
Such men as he be never at heart’s ease
Whiles they behold a greater than themselves,
And therefore are they very dangerous.
CHORUS (echoing)
Dangerous!
CHORUS hum flourish.
Exit CAESAR, ANTONY, CALPURNIA, PORTIA, DECIUS BRUTUS, TREBONIUS, and METELLUS CIMBER stage right.
CASCA (to BRUTUS)
I saw Mark Antony offer Caesar a crown; he put it by, but, to my thinking, he was very loath to lay his fingers off it. And still as he refused it, the rabblement hooted and clapped their chapped hands.
STAGE LEFT CHORUS hoot; STAGE RIGHT CHORUS clap hands.
Then Caesar fell down in the marketplace, and foamed at mouth, and was speechless.
BRUTUS
‘Tis very like: he hath the falling sickness.
CASSIUS
No, Caesar hath it not; but you and I,
And honest Casca, we have the falling sickness.
CASCA
Farewell, both.
Exit CASCA stage right.
BRUTUS
For this time I will leave you too:
Tomorrow, I will wait for you.
CASSIUS
I will do so: till then, think of the world.
Exit BRUTUS stage right.
Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see,
Thy honorable metal may be wrought
From that it is disposed:
(taking a step toward audience)
For who so firm that cannot be seduced?
Caesar doth bear me hard; but he loves Brutus:
Caesar’s ambition shall be glanced at:
And after this let Caesar seat him sure;
For we will shake him, or worse days endure.
Exit CASSIUS stage left. CHORUS remain onstage.
SCENE 2. (ACT II, SCENE I)
Rome. BRUTUS’S orchard.
Enter NARRATOR from stage rear, coming downstage center.
NARRATOR
Brutus and the other conspirators decide to kill Caesar but spare Antony. Portia begs Brutus, her husband, to explain his change in mood. Storm clouds gather.
Exit NARRATOR stage left.
STAGE LEFT CHORUS make sounds of thunder; STAGE RIGHT CHORUS make sounds of rain.
Enter BRUTUS from stage right.
BRUTUS
It must be by his death: and for my part,
I know no personal cause to spurn at him,
But for the general. He would be crown’d:
It is the bright day that brings forth the adder;
STAGE RIGHT CHORUS
