Julius Caesar: The 30-Minute Shakespeare. William Shakespeare

Cassius has a lean and hungry look;

      He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.

      He hears no music.

      CHORUS (echoing)

      No music!

       CAESAR

      Seldom he smiles.

      Such men as he be never at heart’s ease

      Whiles they behold a greater than themselves,

      And therefore are they very dangerous.

      CHORUS (echoing)

      Dangerous!

      CHORUS hum flourish.

      Exit CAESAR, ANTONY, CALPURNIA, PORTIA, DECIUS BRUTUS, TREBONIUS, and METELLUS CIMBER stage right.

      CASCA (to BRUTUS)

      I saw Mark Antony offer Caesar a crown; he put it by, but, to my thinking, he was very loath to lay his fingers off it. And still as he refused it, the rabblement hooted and clapped their chapped hands.

      STAGE LEFT CHORUS hoot; STAGE RIGHT CHORUS clap hands.

      Then Caesar fell down in the marketplace, and foamed at mouth, and was speechless.

       BRUTUS

      ‘Tis very like: he hath the falling sickness.

       CASSIUS

      No, Caesar hath it not; but you and I,

      And honest Casca, we have the falling sickness.

       CASCA

      Farewell, both.

      Exit CASCA stage right.

       BRUTUS

      For this time I will leave you too:

      Tomorrow, I will wait for you.

       CASSIUS

      I will do so: till then, think of the world.

      Exit BRUTUS stage right.

      Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see,

      Thy honorable metal may be wrought

      From that it is disposed:

       (taking a step toward audience)

      For who so firm that cannot be seduced?

      Caesar doth bear me hard; but he loves Brutus:

      Caesar’s ambition shall be glanced at:

      And after this let Caesar seat him sure;

      For we will shake him, or worse days endure.

      Exit CASSIUS stage left. CHORUS remain onstage.

       SCENE 2. (ACT II, SCENE I)

      Rome. BRUTUS’S orchard.

      Enter NARRATOR from stage rear, coming downstage center.

       NARRATOR

      Brutus and the other conspirators decide to kill Caesar but spare Antony. Portia begs Brutus, her husband, to explain his change in mood. Storm clouds gather.

      Exit NARRATOR stage left.

      STAGE LEFT CHORUS make sounds of thunder; STAGE RIGHT CHORUS make sounds of rain.

      Enter BRUTUS from stage right.

       BRUTUS

      It must be by his death: and for my part,

      I know no personal cause to spurn at him,

      But for the general. He would be crown’d:

      It is the bright day that brings forth the adder;

      STAGE RIGHT CHORUS gesture upward; STAGE LEFT CHORUS gesture downward.

      Therefore think him as a serpent’s egg

      Which, hatch’d, would, as his kind, grow mischievous,

      And kill him in the shell.

      CHORUS gesture in unison.

      SOUND OPERATOR plays Sound Cue #1 (“Knocking”).

      They are the faction. O conspiracy,

      Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough

      To mask thy monstrous visage?

      Enter from stage right the CONSPIRATORS: CASSIUS, CASCA, DECIUS BRUTUS, CINNA, METELLUS CIMBER, and TREBONIUS.

       BRUTUS

      Give me your hands all over, one by one.

      CONSPIRATORS bring hands in, forming a circle.

       CASSIUS

      And let us swear our resolution.

      CONSPIRATORS remove hands from circle.

       DECIUS BRUTUS

      Shall no man else be touch’d but only Caesar?

       CASSIUS

      Let Antony and Caesar fall together.

       BRUTUS

      Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius,

      To cut the head off and then hack the limbs,

      For Antony is but a limb of Caesar:

      Let’s kill him boldly, but not wrathfully;

      Which so appearing to the common eyes,

      We shall be call’d purgers, not murderers.

       CASSIUS

      Yet I fear him;

      For in the ingrafted love he bears to Caesar—

      SOUND OPERATOR plays Sound Cue #2 (“Clock striking three”).

       CASSIUS

      The clock hath stricken three.

       TREBONIUS

      ’Tis time to part.

      Exit ALL but BRUTUS stage right.

      Exit CHORUS, splitting down the middle to exit stage right and stage left.

      Enter PORTIA from stage left.

       PORTIA

      Brutus, my lord!

       BRUTUS

      Portia, what mean you? Wherefore rise you now?

      PORTIA (moving close to BRUTUS)

      You’ve ungently, Brutus, stole from my bed:

      And when I ask’d you what the matter was,

      You stared upon me and stamp’d with your foot;

      Dear my lord,

      Make me acquainted with your cause of grief.

      BRUTUS (moving away from PORTIA toward stage right)

      I am not well in health, and that is all.

       PORTIA

      What, is Brutus sick,

      And will he steal out of his wholesome bed,

      To