Go, show your slaves how choleric you are,
And make your bondmen tremble. Must I budge?
Must I observe you? must I stand and crouch
Under your testy humour? By the gods,
You shall digest the venom of your spleen,
Though it do split you: for, from this day forth,
I'll use you for my mirth, yea, for
When you are waspish.
Cas. Is it come to this?
Bru.-You say, you are a better soldier; Let it appear so; make your vaunting true,
And it shall please me well. For mine own part,
I shall be glad to learn of noble men.
Cas. You wrong me every way-you wrong me, Brutus; I said an elder soldier, not a better.
Bru. If you did, I care not.
Cas. When Cæsar liv'd, he durst not thus have moved me,
Bru.-Peace, peace, you durst not so have tempted him. Cas. I durst not!
Cas. What! durst not tempt him?
Bru.-For your life you durst not.
Cas. Do not presume too much upon my love,
may do that I shall be sorry for.
Bru. You have done that you should be sorry for.
There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats;
For I am arm'd so strong in honesty,
That they pass by me as the idle wind
Which I respect not. I did send to you
For certain sums of gold, which you denied me;
For I can raise no money by vile means:
I had rather coin my
And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring
From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash,
By any indirection! I did send
То you for gold to pay my legions;
Which you denied me. Was that done like Cassius ?
Should I have answered Caius Cassius so?
When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous,
To lock such rascal counters from his friend
Be ready, gods! with all your
Dash him in pieces.
Cas. I denied you not.
Cas. I did not: he was but a fool
That brought my answer back-Brutus hath riv'd my
A friend should bear a friend's infirmities;
But Brutus makes mine greater than they are.
Bru. I do not. Still you practise them on me.
Cas. You love me not.
Bru.-I do not like your faults.
Cas. A friendly eye could never see such faults.
Bru.—A flatterer's would not, though they did appear
Cas.-Come, Antony! and young Octavius, come! Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius:
For Cassius is a weary of the world
Hated by one he loves; brav'd by his brother
Check'd like a bondman; all his faults observ'd,
Set in a note-book, learn'd and conn'd by rote,
To cast into my teeth. Oh, I could weep
My spirit from mine eyes!—There is my dagger,
And here my naked breast- -within, a heart
Dearer than Plutus's mine, richer than gold:
If that thou need'st a Roman's take it forth:
I that denied thee gold, will give my heart.
Strike as thou didst at Cæsar; for I know,
When thou didst hate him worst, thou lov'dst him better
Than ever thou lov'dst Cassius.
when will it shall have scope;
you
Do what you will, dishonour shall be humour.
O Cassius! you are yoked with a lamb
That carries anger as the flint bears fire;
Which, much enforced, shows a hasty spark,
And straight is cold again.
Cas.-Hath Cassius liv'd
To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus,
When grief and blood ill-temper'd vexeth him?
Bru.-When I spoke that, I was ill-temper'd too.
Cas. Do you confess so much? Give me your hand.
Bru.-And my heart too.
Cas. O Brutus!
Bru.-What's the matter?
Cus.-Have you not love enough to bear with me, When that rash humour which my mother gave me, Makes me forgetful?
Bru. Yes, Cassius; and, from henceforth, When you are over-earnest with your Brutus, He'll think your mother chides, and leave you so.
VI. GLOUCESTER'S SPEECH TO THE NOBLES.
BRAVE Peers of England, pillars of the state!
То
you Duke Humphrey must unload his grief,
Your grief, the common grief of all the land.
What did my brother Henry spend his youth,
His valour, coin, and people in the wars?
Did he so often lodge in open field,
In winter's cold, and summer's parching heat,
To conquer France, his true inheritance?
And did my brother Bedford toil his wits,
To keep by policy what Henry got?
Have you yourselves, Somerset, Buckingham,
Brave York, and Salisbury, victorious Warwick,
Receiv'd deep scars in France and Normandy?
Or hath mine uncle Beaufort and myself,
With all the learned council of the realm,
Studied so long, sat in the council-house
Early and late, debating to and fro,
How France and Frenchmen might be kept in awe?
And was his Highness in his infancy
Crowned in Paris, in despite of foes?
And shall these labours and these honours die?
Shall Henry's conquest, Bedford's vigilance,
Your deeds of war, and all our counsel, die?
O Peers of England! shameful is this league,
Fatal this marriage, cancelling your fame,
Blotting your names from books of memory,
Razing the characters of your renown,
Defacing monuments of conquer'd France,
Undoing all, as all had never been!
VII.-HENRY V. AND LORD CHIEF JUSTICE.
Ch. Just.-I am assur'd, if I be measur'd rightly,
Your majesty has no just cause to hate me.
P. Henry.-No!
How might a prince of my great hopes forget
So great indignities you laid upon me?
What! rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison
Th' immediate heir of England! was this easy?
May this be wash'd in Lethe and forgotten?
Ch. Just. I then did use the person of your
The image of his pow'r lay then in me:
And in th' administration of his law,
While I was busy for the Commonwealth,
Your Highness pleased to forget my place,
The majesty and pow'r of law and justice,
The image of the king whom I presented,
And struck me in my very seat of judgment;
Whereon, as an offender to your father,
gave bold
way to my authority,
And did commit you. If the deed were ill,
Be you contented, wearing now the garland,
To have a son set your decrees at nought;
To pluck down justice from your awful bench;
To trip the course of law, and blunt the sword
That guards the peace and safety of your person:
Nay more, to spurn at your most royal image,
And mock your workings in a second body.
Question your royal thoughts, make the case yours;
Be now the father, and propose a son;
Hear your own dignity so much profan'd;
See your most dreadful laws so loosely slighted;
Behold yourself so by a son disdain'd;
And then imagine me taking your part,
And in your pow'r so silencing your son.
After this cold consid'rance sentence me;
And, as you are a king, speak in your state,
What I have done that misbecame my place,
My person, or my Liege's sov'reignty.
P. Henry. You are right, Justice, and you weigh this well Therefore still bear the balance and the sword:
And I do wish your honours may increase,
Till you do live to see a son of mine
Offend you, and obey you, as I did:
So shall I live to speak my father's words:
"Happy am I, that have a man so bold
That dares do justice on my proper son;
And no less happy, having such a son,
That would deliver up his greatness so,
Into the hand of justice”–
For which I do commit into your hand
Th' unstain'd sword that you have us'd to bear;
With this remembrance, that you use the same
With a like bold, just, and impartial spirit,
As you have done 'gainst me. There is my hand,
You shall be as a father to my youth:
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