THE TRAGEDY OF

JULIUS CÆSAR

VIII : A

PERSONS REPRESENTED

JULIUS CÆSAR.
OCTAVIUS CÆSAR:

TRIUMVIRS AFTER THE DEATH MARCUS ANTONIUS:

OF JULIUS CÆSAR.
M. ÆMILIUS LEPIDUS:)
CICERO:
PUBLIUS:

SENATORS.
POPILIUS LENA:
MARCUS BRUTUS :
CASSIUS:
CASCA:
TREBONIUS:

CONSPIRATORS AGAINST JULIUS LIGARIUS:

CÆSAR,
DECIUS BRUTUS :
METELLUS CIMBER:
CINNA:
FLAVIUS AND MARULLUS: TRIBUNES.
ARTEMIDORUS OF CNIDOS : A TEACHER OF RHETORIC.
A SOOTHSAYER,
CINNA: A POET,
ANOTHER POET,
LUCILIUS :
TITINIUS:
MESSALA: FRIENDS TO BRUTUS AND CASSIUS.
YOUNG CATO:
VOLUMNIUS:
VARRO:
CLITUS:
CLAUDIUS:

SERVANTS TO BRUTUS.
STRATO:
LUCIUS:
DARDANIUS:
PINDARUS: SERVANT TO CASSIUS.

CALPURNIA: WIFE TO CÆSAR.
PORTIA: WIFE TO BRUTUS.

SENATORS, CITIZENS, GUARDS, ATTENDANTS, etc.

SCENE-Rome; the Neighbourhood of Sardis ; the

Neighbourhood of Philippi.

THE TRAGEDY OF
JULIUS CÆSAR

ACT I

SCENE I.

Rome. A Street,

II

Enter FLAVIUS, MARULLUS, and certain Commoners

over the Stage. Flav. Hence! home, you idle Creatures, get you home:

Is this a holiday? what I know you not,
Being mechanical, you ought not walk
Upon a labouring day without the sign

Of your profession? Speak, what trade art thou?
First Com. Why, Sir, a carpenter.
Mar. Where is thy leather apron and thy rule?

What dost thou with thy best apparel on?

You, Sir, what trade are you? Sec. Com. Truly, Sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am

but, as who would say, a cobbler. Mar. But what trade art thou ? answer me directly. Sec. Com. A trade, Sir, that I hope I may use with a safe

conscience; which is, indeed, Sir, a mender of bad soles. Mar. What trade, thou Knave? thou naughty Knave,

what trade? SEC. Com. Nay; I beseech you, Sir, be not out with me:

yet, if you be out, Sir, I can mend you. Mar. What mean’st thou by that? mend me, thou saucy

Fellow! Sec. Com. Why, Sir, cobble you. Flav. Thou art a cobbler, art thou? Sec. Com. Truly, Sir, all that I live by is with the awl :

I meddle with no tradesman's matters, nor women's matters, but with awl. I am, indeed, Sir, a surgeon to old shoes; when they are in great danger, I re-cover

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ACT I
Sc. I

29

40

them. As proper men as ever trod upon neat's-leather

have gone upon my handiwork.
Flav. But wherefore art not in thy shop to-day?

Why dost thou lead these men about the streets ?
Sec. Com. Truly, Sir, to wear out their shoes, to get

myself into more work. But, indeed, Sir, we make

holiday, to see Cæsar, and to rejoice in his triumph. Mar. Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home?

What tributaries follow him to Rome,
To grace in captive bonds his chariot-wheels ?
You Blocks, you Stones, you Worse than senseless

Things!
O you hard Hearts, you cruel Men of Rome,
Knew you not Pompey ? Many a time and oft
Have

you
climb'd

up

to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The live-long day, with patient expectation,
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome:
And when you saw his chariot but appear,
Have you not made an universal shout,
That Tiber trembled underneath her banks,
To hear the replication of your sounds
Made in her concave shores?
And do you now put on your best attire ?
And do you now cull out a holiday?
And do you now strew flowers in his way
That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood ?'
Be gone!
Run to your houses, fall upon your knees, ,
Pray to the Gods to intermit the plague

That needs must light on this ingratitude.
Flav. Go, go, good Countrymen, and, for this fault,

Assemble all the poor men of your sort;'
Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears
Into the channel, till the lowest stream
Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.

[Exeunt all the Commoners.
See, whether their basest metal be not mov'd !
They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.
1 i.e. Cneius Pompeius, who died at Munda, the occasion of Cæsar's triumph.

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2

60

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