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do you cross me in this exigent?

      OCTAVIUS

      I do not cross you; but I will do so.

      March

      Drum. Enter BRUTUS, CASSIUS, and their Army; LUCILIUS, TITINIUS, MESSALA, and others

      BRUTUS

      They stand, and would have parley.

      CASSIUS

      Stand fast, Titinius: we must out and talk.

      OCTAVIUS

      Mark Antony, shall we give sign of battle?

      ANTONY

      No, Caesar, we will answer on their charge.

      Make forth; the generals would have some words.

      OCTAVIUS

      Stir not until the signal.

      BRUTUS

      Words before blows: is it so, countrymen?

      OCTAVIUS

      Not that we love words better, as you do.

      BRUTUS

      Good words are better than bad strokes, Octavius.

      ANTONY

      In your bad strokes, Brutus, you give good words:

      Witness the hole you made in Caesar’s heart,

      Crying ’Long live! hail, Caesar!’

      CASSIUS

      Antony,

      The posture of your blows are yet unknown;

      But for your words, they rob the Hybla bees,

      And leave them honeyless.

      ANTONY

      Not stingless too.

      BRUTUS

      O, yes, and soundless too;

      For you have stol’n their buzzing, Antony,

      And very wisely threat before you sting.

      ANTONY

      Villains, you did not so, when your vile daggers

      Hack’d one another in the sides of Caesar:

      You show’d your teeth like apes, and fawn’d like hounds,

      And bow’d like bondmen, kissing Caesar’s feet;

      Whilst damned Casca, like a cur, behind

      Struck Caesar on the neck. O you flatterers!

      CASSIUS

      Flatterers! Now, Brutus, thank yourself:

      This tongue had not offended so to-day,

      If Cassius might have ruled.

      OCTAVIUS

      Come, come, the cause: if arguing make us sweat,

      The proof of it will turn to redder drops. Look;

      I draw a sword against conspirators;

      When think you that the sword goes up again?

      Never, till Caesar’s three and thirty wounds

      Be well avenged; or till another Caesar

      Have added slaughter to the sword of traitors.

      BRUTUS

      Caesar, thou canst not die by traitors’ hands,

      Unless thou bring’st them with thee.

      OCTAVIUS

      So I hope;

      I was not born to die on Brutus’ sword.

      BRUTUS

      O, if thou wert the noblest of thy strain,

      Young man, thou couldst not die more honourable.

      CASSIUS

      A peevish schoolboy, worthless of such honour,

      Join’d with a masker and a reveller!

      ANTONY

      Old Cassius still!

      OCTAVIUS

      Come, Antony, away!

      Defiance, traitors, hurl we in your teeth:

      If you dare fight to-day, come to the field;

      If not, when you have stomachs.

      Exeunt OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, and their army

      CASSIUS

      Why, now, blow wind, swell billow and swim bark!

      The storm is up, and all is on the hazard.

      BRUTUS

      Ho, Lucilius! hark, a word with you.

      LUCILIUS

      [Standing forth] My lord?

      BRUTUS and LUCILIUS converse apart

      CASSIUS

      Messala!

      MESSALA

      [Standing forth] What says my general?

      CASSIUS

      Messala,

      This is my birth-day; as this very day

      Was Cassius born. Give me thy hand, Messala:

      Be thou my witness that against my will,

      As Pompey was, am I compell’d to set

      Upon one battle all our liberties.

      You know that I held Epicurus strong

      And his opinion: now I change my mind,

      And partly credit things that do presage.

      Coming from Sardis, on our former ensign

      Two mighty eagles fell, and there they perch’d,

      Gorging and feeding from our soldiers’ hands;

      Who to Philippi here consorted us:

      This morning are they fled away and gone;

      And in their steads do ravens, crows and kites,

      Fly o’er our heads and downward look on us,

      As we were sickly prey: their shadows seem

      A canopy most fatal, under which

      Our army lies, ready to give up the ghost.

      MESSALA

      Believe not so.

      CASSIUS

      I but believe it partly;

      For I am fresh of spirit and resolved

      To meet all perils very constantly.

      BRUTUS

      Even so, Lucilius.

      CASSIUS

      Now, most noble Brutus,

      The gods to-day stand friendly, that we may,

      Lovers in peace, lead on our days to age!

      But since the affairs of men rest still incertain,

      Let’s reason with the worst that may befall.

      If we do lose this battle, then is this

      The very last time we shall speak together:

      What are you then determined to do?

      BRUTUS

      Even

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