Page 2213 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

But speak all good you can devise of Caesar,
And say you do’t by our permission;
Else shall you not have any hand at all
About his funeral. And you shall speak

In the same pulpit whereto I am going, [250]
After my speech is ended.

ANTONY
Be it so.
I do desire no more.

BRUTUS
Prepare the body, then, and follow us.

Exeunt all but Antony.

ANTONY
O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,
That I am meek and gentle with these butchers! [255]
Thou art the ruins of the noblest man
That ever livèd in the tide of times.

Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood!
Over thy wounds now do I prophesy −
Which like dumb mouths do ope their ruby lips [260]

To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue −
A curse shall light upon the limbs of men.
Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy.
Blood and destruction shall be so in use, [265]

And dreadful objects so familiar,
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quartered with the hands of war,

All pity choked with custom of fell deeds;
And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge, [270]
With Ate by his side, come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines, with a monarch’s voice,
Cry ‘Havoc!’ and let slip the dogs of war,

That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial. [275]