Page 2209 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

I’ll fetch him presently.
Exit.

BRUTUS
I know that we shall have him well to friend.

CASSIUS
I wish we may; but yet have I a mind
That fears him much, and my misgiving still [145]

Falls shrewdly to the purpose.

Enter Antony.

BRUTUS
But here comes Antony. Welcome, Mark Antony!

ANTONY
O mighty Caesar! Dost thou lie so low?
Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils,
Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well. [150]

I know not, gentlemen, what you intend,
Who else must be let blood, who else is rank.
If I myself, there is no hour so fit

As Caesar’s death’s hour, nor no instrument
Of half that worth as those your swords, made rich [155]
With the most noble blood of all this world.
I do beseech ye, if you bear me hard,
Now, whilst your purpled hands do reek and smoke,

Fulfil your pleasure. Live a thousand years,
I shall not find myself so apt to die. [160]
No place will please me so, no mean of death,

As here by Caesar, and by you cut off,
The choice and master spirits of this age.

BRUTUS
O Antony, beg not your death of us!
Though now we must appear bloody and cruel, [165]
As by our hands and this our present act