Sec. Com. Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes, to get myself
into more work. But indeed, sir, we make holiday, to 30
see Cæsar and to rejoice in his triumph.
Mar. Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home?[2821]
What tributaries follow him to Rome,
To grace in captive bonds his chariot-wheels?
You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things! 35
O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,
Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft[2822]
Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements,[2822]
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops,[2823]
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat 40
The live-long day with patient expectation
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome:[2824]
And when you saw his chariot but appear,
Have you not made an universal shout,
That Tiber trembled underneath her banks[2825] 45
To hear the replication of your sounds
Made in her concave shores?[2825][2826][2827]
And do you now put on your best attire?[2826]
And do you now cull out a holiday?[2826][2828]
And do you now strew flowers in his way[2826] 50
That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood?[2826][2829]
Be gone![2826]
Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,
Pray to the gods to intermit the plague
That needs must light on this ingratitude. 55
Flav. Go, go, good countrymen, and, for this fault,[2830]
Assemble all the poor men of your sort;
Draw them to Tiber banks and weep your tears[2831]
Into the channel, till the lowest stream
Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.[2832] 60
[Exeunt all the Commoners.
See, whether their basest metal be not moved;[2833]
They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.[2834]
Go you down that way towards the Capitol;[2835]
This way will I: disrobe the images,
If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies. 65
Mar. May we do so?[2836]
You know it is the feast of Lupercal.[2836]
Flav. It is no matter; let no images[2837]
Be hung with Cæsar's trophies. I'll about,[2838]
And drive away the vulgar from the streets: 70
So do you too, where you perceive them thick.
These growing feathers pluck'd from Cæsar's wing
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch,
Who else would soar above the view of men
And keep us all in servile fearfulness. [Exeunt. [2839]75
Scene II. A public place.[2840]
Flourish. Enter Cæsar; Antony, for the course; Calpurnia, Portia, Decius, Cicero, Brutus, Cassius, and Casca; a great crowd following, among them a Soothsayer.
Cæs. Calpurnia![2841]