Cas. Ha, ha! how vilely doth this cynic rhyme! Bru. Get you hence, sirrah; saucy fellow, hence! Cas. Bear with him, Brutus; 'tis his fashion.

Bru. I'll know his humor when he knows his time: What should the wars do with these jigging fools?

Cas.

Companion, hence!

Away, away, be gone! [Exit Poet. Bru. Lucilius and Titinius, bid the commanders Prepare to lodge their companies to-night. 140 Cas. And come yourselves, and bring Messala with

you

Immediately to us.

Bru.

[Exeunt Lucilius and Titinius. Lucius, a bowl of wine! [Exit Lucius. Cas. I did not think you could have been so angry. Bru. O Cassius, I am sick of many griefs.

Cas. Of your philosophy you make no use,
If you give place to accidental evils.

Bru. No man bears sorrow better: Portia is dead.
Cas. Ha! Portia!

Bru. She is dead.

149

Cas. How 'scaped I killing when I cross'd you so?
O insupportable and touching loss!
Upon what sickness?

Bru.

Impatient of my absence,
And grief that young Octavius with Mark
Antony

133. "vilely"; so F. 4; Ff. 1, 2, "vildely"; F. 3, "vildly.”—I. G. "cynic"; the Cynics, or followers of Diogenes, professed, like their master, a bold manner of speech, and deliberately ignored social conventions.-C. H. H.

Have made themselves so strong: for with her death

That tidings came: with this she fell distract, And, her attendants absent, swallow'd fire. Cas. And died so?

Bru. Cas.

Even so.

O ye immortal gods!

Re-enter Lucius, with wine and taper.

Bru. Speak no more of her. Give me a bowl of wine.

In this I bury all unkindness, Cassius. [Drinks. Cas. My heart is thirsty for that noble pledge. 160 Fill, Lucius, till the wine o'erswell the cup; I cannot drink too much of Brutus' love.

Bru. Come in, Titinius!

[Drinks. [Exit Lucius.

Re-enter Titinius, with Messala.

Welcome, good Messala.

Now sit we close about this taper here, And call in question our necessities. Cas. Portia, art thou gone?

Bru.

No more, I pray you.

Messala, I have here received letters,

156. So in North's Plutarch: "And for Porcia, Brutus wife, Nicolaus the philosopher and Valerius Maximus do write that she, determining to kill herselfe (her parents and friends carefully looking to keepe her from it,) tooke hote burning coles and cast them into her mouth, and kept her mouth so close that she choked herselfe. There was a letter of Brutus found, written to his friends, complaining of their negligence, that, his wife being sicke, they wold not helpe her, but suffered her to kill herself, chusing to die rather than to languish in paine."-H. N. H.

That young Octavius and Mark Antony Come down upon us with a mighty power, Bending their expedition toward Philippi. 170 Mes. Myself have letters of the self-same tenor. Bru. With what addition?

Mes. That by proscription and bills of outlawry Octavius, Antony and Lepidus,

Have put to death an hundred senators. Bru. Therein our letters do not well agree; Mine speak of seventy senators that died By their proscriptions, Cicero being one. Cas. Cicero one!

Mes.

Cicero is dead,

And by that order of proscription.

180

Had you your letters from your wife, my lord? Bru. No, Messala.

Mes. Nor nothing in your letters writ of her?
Bru. Nothing, Messala.

Mes.

That, methinks, is strange.

Bru. Why ask you? hear you aught of her in yours?

Mes. No, my lord.

Bru. Now, as you are a Roman, tell me true.
Mes. Then like a Roman bear the truth I tell:
For certain she is dead, and by strange manner.
Bru. Why, farewell, Portia. We must

Messala:

With meditating that she must die once

I have the patience to endure it now.

die,

190

Mes. Even so great men great losses should endure.

Cas. I have as much of this in art as you,
But yet my nature could not bear it so.

Bru. Well, to our work alive. What do you think
Of marching to Philippi presently?

Cas. I do not think it good.

Bru.

Cas.

Your reason?

This it is:

199

"Tis better that the enemy seek us:

So shall he waste his means, weary his soldiers,
Doing himself offense; whilst we lying still
Are full of rest, defense and nimbleness.

Bru. Good reasons must of force give place to better.

Cas.

The people 'twixt Philippi and this ground
Do stand but in a forced affection,
For they have grudged us contribution:
The enemy, marching along by them,
By them shall make a fuller number up,
Come on refresh'd, new-added and encouraged;
From which advantage shall we cut him off 210
If at Philippi we do face him there,

These people at our back.

Hear me, good brother. Bru. Under your pardon. You must note beside

That we have tried the utmost of our friends,
Our legions are brim-full, our cause is ripe:
The enemy increaseth every day;

We, at the height, are ready to decline.
There is a tide in the affairs of men

Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life

194. "in art"; that is, in theory.-H. N. H.

220

Cas.

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.

Then, with your will, go on;

We'll along ourselves and meet them at
Philippi.

Bru. The deep of night is crept upon our talk,
And nature must obey necessity;

Cas.

Which we will niggard with a little rest.
There is no more to say?

230

Early to-morrow will we rise and hence. Bru. Lucius! [Re-enter Lucius.] My gown. [Exit Lucius.] Farewell, good Messala:

Cas.

Good night, Titinius: noble, noble Cassius,
Good night, and good repose.

O my dear brother!

This was an ill beginning of the night:

Never come such division 'tween our souls!

Farewell, every one.

[Exeunt all but Brutus.

Tit. Mes. Good night, Lord Brutus.

Bru.

Re-enter Lucius, with the gown.

Give me the gown. Where is thy instrument? Luc. Here in the tent.

Bru.

What, thou speak'st drowsily? 240