Page 2220 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

FIRST PLEBEIAN

If it be found so, some will dear abide it.

FOURTH PLEBEIAN
Poor soul, his eyes are red as fire with weeping. [115]

THIRD PLEBEIAN
There’s not a nobler man in Rome than Antony.

FIFTH PLEBEIAN
Now mark him, he begins again to speak.

ANTONY
But yesterday the word of Caesar might

Have stood against the world. Now lies he there,
And none so poor to do him reverence. [120]
O masters, if I were disposed to stir
Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage,
I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong,

Who − you all know − are honourable men.
I will not do them wrong. I rather choose [125]
To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you,

Than I will wrong such honourable men.
But here’s a parchment, with the seal of Caesar;
I found it in his closet − ’tis his will.
Let but the commons hear this testament − [130]
Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read −

And they would go and kiss dead Caesar’s wounds,
And dip their napkins in his sacred blood,
Yea, beg a hair of him for memory,

And dying, mention it within their wills, [135]
Bequeathing it as a rich legacy
Unto their issue.

FIFTH PLEBEIAN
We’ll hear the will! Read it, Mark Antony.

ALL