William Shakespeare - Sämtliche Werke von Shakespeare in einem Band - Zweisprachige Ausgabe (Deutsch-Englisch)

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.

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, &c. Speak, strike, redress—!

Brutus, thou sleep’st: awake!—”

Such instigations have been often dropp’d

Where I have took them up.

“Shall Rome, & c.” 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, then,

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 pass, thy native semblance on,

Not Erebus itself were dim enough

To hide thee from prevention.

[Enter 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?

[BRUTUS and CASSIUS whisper apart.]

DECIUS.

Here lies the east: doth not the day break here?

CASCA.

No.

CINNA.

O, pardon, sir, it doth, and yon grey 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 valour

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 th’ 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 judgment 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 any thing

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,

Mark Antony, so well beloved of Caesar,

Should outlive Caesar: we shall find of him

A shrewd contriver; and you know his means,

If he improve them, may well stretch so far

As to annoy us all: which to prevent,

Let Antony and Caesar fall together.

BRUTUS.

Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius,

To cut the head off, and then hack the limbs,

Like wrath in death, and envy afterwards;

For Antony is but a limb of Caesar.

Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius.

We all stand up against the spirit of Caesar;

And in the spirit of men there is no blood:

O, that we then could come by Caesar’s spirit,

And not dismember Caesar! But, alas,

Caesar must bleed for it! And, gentle friends,

Let’s kill him boldly, but not wrathfully;

Let’s carve him as a dish fit for the gods,

Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds;

And let our hearts, as subtle masters do,

Stir up their servants to an act of rage,

And after seem to chide ‘em. This shall mark

Our purpose necessary, and not envious;

Which so appearing to the common eyes,

We shall be call’d purgers, not murderers.

And for Mark Antony, think not of him;