may, prevent. And, since the quarrel
    Will bear no color for the thing he is,
    Fashion it thus, that what he is, augmented,
    Would run to these and these extremities;
    And therefore think him as a serpent's egg
    Which hatch'd would as his kind grow mischievous,
    And kill him in the shell.

Re-enter Lucius.

  LUCIUS. The taper burneth in your closet, sir.
    Searching the window for a flint I found
    This paper thus seal'd up, and I am sure
    It did not lie there when I went to bed.
                                           Gives him the letter.
  BRUTUS. Get you to bed again, it is not day.
    Is not tomorrow, boy, the ides of March?
  LUCIUS. I know not, sir.
  BRUTUS. Look in the calendar and bring me word.
  LUCIUS. I will, sir. Exit.
  BRUTUS. The exhalations whizzing in the air
    Give so much light that I may read by them.
                                     Opens the letter and reads.
    "Brutus, thou sleep'st: awake and see thyself!
    Shall Rome, etc. Speak, strike, redress!"

    "Brutus, thou sleep'st: awake!"
    Such instigations have been often dropp'd
    Where I have took them up.
    "Shall Rome, etc." Thus must I piece it out.
    Shall Rome stand under one man's awe? What, Rome?
    My ancestors did from the streets of Rome
    The Tarquin drive, when he was call'd a king.
    "Speak, strike, redress!" Am I entreated
    To speak and strike? O Rome, I make thee promise,
    If the redress will follow, thou receivest
    Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus!

Re-enter Lucius.

  LUCIUS. Sir, March is wasted fifteen days.
                                                Knocking within.
  BRUTUS. 'Tis good. Go to the gate, somebody knocks.
                                                    Exit Lucius.
    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.

Re-enter Lucius.

  LUCIUS. Sir, 'tis your brother Cassius at the door,
    Who doth desire to see you.
  BRUTUS. Is he alone?
  LUCIUS. No, sir, there are more with him.
  BRUTUS. Do you know them?
  LUCIUS. No, sir, their hats are pluck'd about their ears,
    And half their faces buried in their cloaks,
    That by no means I may discover them
    By any mark of favor.
  BRUTUS. Let 'em enter. Exit Lucius.
    They are the faction. O Conspiracy,
    Shamest thou to show thy dangerous 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? Seek none, Conspiracy;
    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.

    Enter the conspirators, Cassius, Casca, Decius, Cinna,
                Metellus Cimber, and Trebonius.

  CASSIUS. I think we are too bold upon your rest.
    Good morrow, Brutus, do we trouble you?
  BRUTUS. I have been up this hour, awake all night.
    Know I these men that come along with you?
  CASSIUS. Yes, every man of them, and no man here
    But honors you, and every one doth wish
    You had but that opinion of yourself
    Which every noble Roman bears of you.
    This is Trebonius.
  BRUTUS. He is welcome hither.
  CASSIUS. This, Decius Brutus.
  BRUTUS. He is welcome too.
CASSIUS. This, Casca; this, Cinna; and this, Metellus Cimber.
  BRUTUS. They are all welcome.
    What watchful cares do interpose themselves
    Betwixt your eyes and night?
  CASSIUS. Shall I entreat a word? They whisper.
  DECIUS. Here lies the east. Doth not the day break here?
  CASCA. No.
  CINNA. O, pardon, sir, it doth, and yongrey lines
    That fret the clouds are messengers of day.
  CASCA. You shall confess that you are both deceived.
    Here, as I point my sword, the sun arises,
    Which is a great way growing on the south,
    Weighing the youthful season of the year.
    Some two months hence up higher toward the north
    He first presents his fire, and the high east
    Stands as the Capitol, directly here.
  BRUTUS. Give me your hands all over, one by one.
  CASSIUS. And let us swear our resolution.
  BRUTUS. No, not an oath. If not the face of men,
    The sufferance of our souls, the time's abuse-
    If these be motives weak, break off betimes,
    And every man hence to his idle bed;
    So let high-sighted tyranny range on
    Till each man drop by lottery. 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? And what other oath
    Than honesty to honesty engaged
    That this shall be or we will fall for it?
    Swear priests and cowards and men cautelous,
    Old feeble carrions and such suffering souls
    That welcome wrongs; unto bad causes swear
    Such creatures as men doubt; but do not stain
    The even virtue of our enterprise,
    Nor the insuppressive mettle of our spirits,
    To think that or our cause or our performance
    Did need an oath; when every drop of blood
    That every Roman bears, and nobly bears,
    Is guilty of a several bastardy
    If he do break the smallest particle
    Of any promise that hath pass'd from him.
  CASSIUS. But what of Cicero? Shall we sound him?
    I think he will stand very strong with us.
  CASCA. Let us not leave him out.
  CINNA. No, by no means.
  METELLUS. O, let us have him, for his silver hairs
    Will purchase us a good opinion,
    And buy men's voices to commend our deeds.
    It shall be said his judgement ruled our hands;
    Our youths and wildness shall no whit appear,
    But all be buried in his gravity.
  BRUTUS. O, name him not; let us not break with him,
    For he will never follow anything
    That other men begin.
  CASSIUS. Then leave him out.
  CASCA. Indeed he is not fit.
  DECIUS. Shall no man else be touch'd but only Caesar?
  CASSIUS. Decius, well urged. I think it is not meet