Module 2: "Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare, Act 2

Get me a taper in my study, Lucius.

But when he once attains the upmost round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend.

And since the quarrel
Will bear no colour for the thing he is,
Fashion it thus: that what he is, augmented,
Would run to these and these extremities.

Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar,
I have not slept.

Between the acting of a dreadful thing
And the first motion, all the interim is
Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream.

The genius and the mortal instruments
Are then in council, and the state of man,
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then
The nature of an insurrection.

They are the faction. O conspiracy,
Sham’st thou to show thy dang'rous brow by night,
When evils are most free?

O, then, by day
Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough
To mask thy monstrous visage?

Hide it in smiles and affability;
For if thou path, thy native semblance on,
Not Erebus itself were dim enough
To hide thee from prevention.

Hide it in smiles and affability;
For if thou path, thy native semblance on,
Not Erebus itself were dim enough
To hide thee from prevention.

He is welcome hither.

What watchful cares do interpose themselves
Betwixt your eyes and night?

O, pardon, sir, it doth; and yon grey lines
That fret the clouds are messengers of day.

But if these—
As I am sure they do—bear fire enough
To kindle cowards and to steel with valor
The melting spirits of women, then, countrymen,
What need we any spur but our own cause
To prick us to redress?

What other bond
Than secret Romans that have spoke the word
And will not palter?

Swear priests and cowards and men cautelous,
Old feeble carrions, and such suffering souls
That welcome wrongs

O, let us have him, for his silver hairs
Will purchase us a good opinion
And buy men’s voices to commend our deeds.

Our youths and wildness shall no whit appear,
But all be buried in his gravity.

Our youths and wildness shall no whit appear,
But all be buried in his gravity.

We shall find of him
A shrewd contriver; and, you know, his means,
If he improve them, may well stretch so far
As to annoy us all; which to prevent,
Let Antony and Caesar fall together.

We shall find of him
A shrewd contriver; and, you know, his means,
If he improve them, may well stretch so far
As to annoy us all; which to prevent,
Let Antony and Caesar fall together.

Let’s carve him as a dish fit for the gods,
Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds.
And let our hearts, as subtle masters do,
Stir up their servants to an act of rage
And after seem to chide ’em.

It may be these apparent prodigies,
The unaccustomed terror of this night,
And the persuasion of his augurers
May hold him from the Capitol today.

It may be these apparent prodigies,
The unaccustomed terror of this night,
And the persuasion of his augurers
May hold him from the Capitol today.

Let me work,
For I can give his humor the true bent,
And I will bring him to the Capitol.

And is it physical
To walk unbraced and suck up the humors
Of the dank morning?

What, is Brutus sick,
And will he steal out of his wholesome bed
To dare the vile contagion of the night
And tempt the rheumy and unpurged air
To add unto his sickness?

Why you are heavy, and what men tonight
Have had resort to you; for here have been
Some six or seven who did hide their faces
Even from darkness.

Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus,
Is it excepted I should know no secrets
That appertain to you?

You are my true and honorable wife,
As dear to me as are the ruddy drops
That visit my sad heart.

O you gods,
Render me worthy of this noble wife! Knock.
Hark, hark, one knocks.

Vouchsafe good morrow from a feeble tongue.

I am not sick, if Brutus have in hand
Any exploit worthy the name of honor.

A lioness hath whelped in the streets,
And graves have yawned and yielded up their dead.

Plucking the entrails of an offering forth,
They could not find a heart within the beast.

And these does she apply for warnings and portents
And evils imminent, and on her knee
Hath begged that I will stay at home today.

And this way have you well expounded it.

See, Antony that revels long a-nights
Is notwithstanding up.

My heart laments that virtue cannot live
Out of the teeth of emulation.

I heard a bustling rumor like a fray,
And the wind brings it from the Capitol.