Met. Is there no voice more worthy than my own, To sound more sweetly in great Cæsar's ear,

For the repealing of my banish'd brother?

Bru. I kiss thy hand, but not in flattery, Cæsar; Desiring thee, that Publius Cimber may

Have an immediate freedom of repeal.

Cæs. What, Brutus!
Cas.

Pardon, Cæsar; Cæsar, pardon:

As low as to thy foot doth Cassius fall,

To beg enfranchisement for Publius Cimber.

Cæs. I could be well mov'd, if I were as you;
If I could pray to move, prayers would move me;
But I am constant as the northern star,
Of whose true-fix'd and resting quality,
There is no fellow in the firmament.

The skies are painted with unnumber'd sparks;
They are all fire, and every one doth shine;
But there's but one in all doth hold his place:
So, in the world; 't is furnish'd well with men,
And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive;
Yet in the number I do know but one
That unassailable holds on his rank,
Unshak'd of motion: and that I am he,
Let me a little shew it, even in this,

999

"as when he said, in the person of Cæsar, one speaking to him, 'Cæsar, thou dost me wrong,' he replied, 'Cæsar did never wrong but with just cause." But, as Collier has remarked, "It is very evident that Ben Jonson was only speaking from memory, 'shaken (as he confesses in the same work) with age now, and sloth."" [Some editors think the passage stood originally: "Cæsar did never wrong but with just cause, nor

50

60

70

That I was constant Cimber should be banish'd,
And constant do remain to keep him so.

hold of his arm. He is then stabbed by several other conspirators, and last by MARCUS BRUTUS. Cæs. Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Cæsar.

[Dies. The Senators and People retire in confusion.

Cin. Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead! — Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets.

Cas. Some to the common pulpits, and cry out, "Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement!"

Bru. People, and Senators! be not affrighted.
Fly not; stand still: - ambition's debt is paid.
Casca. Go to the pulpit, Brutus.
Dec.

Bru. Where 's Publius?

And Cassius too.

Cin. Here, quite confounded with this mutiny.
Met. Stand fast together, lest some friend of

Cæsar's

Should chance

72 constant, fixed. Cf. 1. 60. (R) 78 The stage direction was made up in the last century from the accounts of the assassination given by Plutarch and Suetonius. The folio has only, They stab Cæsar. (w). Et tu, Brute? These words, though without classical authority, were traditionally attributed to Cæsar, being found in the True

80

Tragedy of Richard, Duke of York, and in Nicholson's Acolastus After Wit (1600).

83 ambition's debt is paid, i. e. Cæsar has paid the penalty for his ambition. (R)

84 pulpit, elevated platform. Latin, pulpitum. (R)

86 mutiny, tumult. (R)

THE DEATH OF CAESAR

From the painting by Gerôme

JULIUS CAESAR, Act III, Sc. i