Page 2221 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

The will! The will! We will hear Caesar’s will!

ANTONY
Have patience, gentle friends; I must not read it. [140]
It is not meet you know how Caesar loved you.
You are not wood, you are not stones, but men;
And being men, hearing the will of Caesar,

It will inflame you, it will make you mad.
’Tis good you know not that you are his heirs, [145]
For if you should, O, what would come of it?

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

You shall read us the will, Caesar’s will!

ANTONY
Will you be patient? Will you stay awhile?
I have o’ershot myself to tell you of it. [150]
I fear I wrong the honourable men
Whose daggers have stabbed Caesar; I do fear it.

FIFTH PLEBEIAN
They were traitors. ‘Honourable men’!

ALL
The will! The testament!

FOURTH PLEBEIAN
They were villains, murderers! The will! Read the will! [155]

ANTONY
You will compel me, then, to read the will?
Then make a ring about the corpse of Caesar,

And let me show you him that made the will.
Shall I descend? And will you give me leave?

ALL