Bru. What, Lucius, ho!
I cannot, by the progress of the stars,
Give guess how near to day. Lucius, I say!
I would it were my fault to sleep so soundly.
When, Lucius, when? awake, I say! what, Lucius![3006] 5
Enter Lucius.
Luc. Call'd you, my lord?
Bru. Get me a taper in my study, Lucius:
When it is lighted, come and call me here.
Luc. I will, my lord. [Exit.
Bru. It must be by his death: and, for my part, 10
I know no personal cause to spurn at him,
But for the general. He would be crown'd:
How that might change his nature, there's the question:
It is the bright day that brings forth the adder;
And that craves wary walking. Crown him?—that;—[3007] 15
And then, I grant, we put a sting in him,
That at his will he may do danger with.
The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins
Remorse from power: and, to speak truth of Cæsar,
I have not known when his affections sway'd 20
More than his reason. But 'tis a common proof,
That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,
Whereto the climber-upward turns his face;[3008]
But when he once attains the upmost round,[3009]
He then unto the ladder turns his back, 25
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend: so Cæsar may;
Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since the quarrel[3010]
Will bear no colour for the thing he is,
Fashion it thus; that what he is, augmented, 30
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.[3011]
Luc. The taper burneth in your closet, sir. 35
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.[3012]
Bru. Get you to bed again; it is not day.
Is not to-morrow, boy, the ides of March?[3013] 40
Luc. I know not, sir.