Taken from the Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Julius Caesar
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ
ACT IV, SCENE III. Brutus’s tent.
Brutus
Hear me, for I will speak.
Must I give way and room to your rash choler?
Shall I be frighted when a madman stares?
Cassius
O ye gods, ye gods! must I endure all this?
Brutus
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.
Cassius
Is it come to this?
Brutus
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.
Cassius
You wrong me every way; you wrong me, Brutus;
I said, an elder soldier, not a better:
Did I say ‘better’?
Brutus
If you did, I care not.
Cassius
When Caesar lived, he durst not thus have moved me.
Brutus
Peace, peace! you durst not so have tempted him.
Cassius
I durst not!
Brutus
No.
Cassius
What, durst not tempt him!
Brutus
For your life you durst not!
Cassius
Do not presume too much upon my love;
I may do that I shall be sorry for.
Brutus
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?
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!
Cassius
I denied you not.
Brutus
You did.
On 6/01/15 – Join me in the continuation of
Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar“
