JULIUS CAESAR (Original)

1599

THE TRAGEDY OF JULIUS CAESAR

by William Shakespeare

Dramatis Personae

JULIUS CAESAR, Roman statesman and general 

OCTAVIUS, Triumvir after Caesar's death, later Augustus Caesar, 

first emperor of Rome 

MARK ANTONY, general and friend of Caesar, a Triumvir after his death 

LEPIDUS, third member of the Triumvirate 

MARCUS BRUTUS, leader of the conspiracy against Caesar 

CASSIUS, instigator of the conspiracy 

CASCA, conspirator against Caesar 

TREBONIUS, " " " 

CAIUS LIGARIUS, " " " 

DECIUS BRUTUS, " " " 

METELLUS CIMBER, " " " 

CINNA, " " " 

CALPURNIA, wife of Caesar 

PORTIA, wife of Brutus 

CICERO, senator 

POPILIUS, " 

POPILIUS LENA, " 

FLAVIUS, tribune  

MARULLUS, tribune 

CATO, supportor of Brutus 

LUCILIUS, " " " 

TITINIUS, " " " 

MESSALA, " " " 

VOLUMNIUS, " " " 

ARTEMIDORUS, a teacher of rhetoric 

CINNA, a poet 

VARRO, servant to Brutus 

CLITUS, " " " 

CLAUDIO, " " " 

STRATO, " " " 

LUCIUS, " " " 

DARDANIUS, " " " 

PINDARUS, servant to Cassius 

The Ghost of Caesar 

A Soothsayer 

A Poet 

Senators, Citizens, Soldiers, Commoners, Messengers, and Servants

SCENE: Rome, the conspirators' camp near Sardis, and the plains of Philippi.

ACT I. SCENE I. 

Rome. A street.

Enter Flavius, Marullus, and certain Commoners.

FLAVIUS. Hence, home, you idle creatures, get you home. 

Is this a holiday? What, know you not, 

Being mechanical, you ought not walk 

Upon a laboring day without the sign 

Of your profession? Speak, what trade art thou? 

FIRST COMMONER. Why, sir, a carpenter. 

MARULLUS. Where is thy leather apron and thy rule? 

What dost thou with thy best apparel on? 

You, sir, what trade are you? 

SECOND COMMONER. Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am 

but, as you would say, a cobbler. 

MARULLUS. But what trade art thou? Answer me directly. 

SECOND COMMONER. A trade, sir, that, I hope, I may use with a safe 

conscience, which is indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles. 

MARULLUS. What trade, thou knave? Thou naughty knave, what trade? 

SECOND COMMONER. Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me; yet, 

if you be out, sir, I can mend you.  

MARULLUS. What mean'st thou by that? Mend me, thou saucy fellow! 

SECOND COMMONER. Why, sir, cobble you. 

FLAVIUS. Thou art a cobbler, art thou? 

SECOND COMMONER. Truly, Sir, all that I live by is with the awl; I 

meddle with no tradesman's matters, nor women's matters, but with 

awl. I am indeed, sir, a surgeon to old shoes; when they are in 

great danger, I recover them. As proper men as ever trod upon 

neat's leather have gone upon my handiwork. 

FLAVIUS. But wherefore art not in thy shop today? 

Why dost thou lead these men about the streets? 

SECOND COMMONER. Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes to get myself 

into more work. But indeed, sir, we make holiday to see Caesar 

and to rejoice in his triumph. 

MARULLUS. Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home? 

What tributaries follow him to Rome 

To grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels? 

You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things! 

O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome, 

Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft 

Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements,  

To towers and windows, yea, to chimney tops, 

Your infants in your arms, and there have sat 

The livelong day with patient expectation 

To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome. 

And when you saw his chariot but appear, 

Have you not made an universal shout 

That Tiber trembled underneath her banks 

To hear the replication of your sounds 

Made in her concave shores? 

And do you now put on your best attire? 

And do you now cull out a holiday? 

And do you now strew flowers in his way 

That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood? 

Be gone! 

Run to your houses, fall upon your knees, 

Pray to the gods to intermit the plague 

That needs must light on this ingratitude. 

FLAVIUS. Go, go, good countrymen, and, for this fault, 

Assemble all the poor men of your sort, 

Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears