The Complete Works of William Shakespeare In Plain and Simple English (Translated) (901 page)

Yes! This and more! You can worry until your heart breaks. Why don’t you go show your slaves how sick you are and try to make them scared? You won’t do that to me. Do you expect me to cower in your presence? You will die first. From this day forward, I will use you for comic relief.

Cassius

Is it come to this?

So this is what it’s come to?

Brutus

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 abler men.

You say you are a better soldier. Prove it.

Cassius

You wrong me every way, you wrong me, Brutus.


I said, an elder soldier, not a better:


Did I say "better"?

How dare you! I said, “I was a wiser solder, not a better one.”

Brutus

If you did, I care not.

Whatever.

Cassius

When Caesar lived, he durst not thus have moved me.

Caesar never made me this angry when he lived.

Brutus

Peace, peace! you durst not so have tempted him.

You dared not treat him like this.

Cassius

I durst not?

I dared not!

Brutus

No.

No.

Cassius

What, durst not tempt him?

I dared not anger him!

Brutus

For your life you durst not.

You feared for your life, so you didn’t dare.

Cassius

Do not presume too much upon my love;


I may do that I shall be sorry for.

You assume too much based on my love for you. You may force me to do something I will be sorry for.

Brutus

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:


By Heaven, I had rather coin my heart,


And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring


From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash


By any indirection:--I did send


To you for gold to pay my legions,


Which you denied me: was that done like Cassius?


Should I have answer'd Caius Cassius so?


When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous


To lock such rascal counters from his friends,


Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts,


Dash him to pieces!

You already have, and I am not afraid of your threats. Your idle threats go right by me. I sent you a request for money to pay for my army, and you denied me. Should I have resorted to steal from my friends to pay for my men, like you? May the gods curse me with their thunderbolts and tear me to pieces, if I do that!

Cassius

I denied you not.

I didn’t deny you.

Brutus

You did.

Yes, you did.

Cassius

I did not. He was but a fool


That brought my answer back. Brutus hath rived my heart:


A friend should bear his friend's infirmities,


But Brutus makes mine greater than they are.

I did not. My messenger must have been a fool when he delivered my answer. You have broken my heart. You should know me better than that. I am full of faults, but I would never do that to you.

Brutus

I do not, till you practise them on me.

I didn’t think so, until you used them against me.

Cassius

You love me not.

You don’t love me.

Brutus

I do not like your faults.

I don’t like your faults.

Cassius

A friendly eye could never see such faults.

A friend would not see such faults.

Brutus

A flatterer's would not, though they do appear


As huge as high Olympus.

I am your friend, not your slave, and your faults are as great as Mount Olympus.

Cassius

Come, Antony and young Octavius, come,


Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius,


For Cassius is a-weary of the world;


Hated by one he loves; braved by his brother;


Check'd like a bondman; all his faults observed,


Set in a note-book, learn'd and conn'd by rote,


To cast into my teeth. O, I could weep


My spirit from mine eyes!--There is my dagger,


And here my naked breast; within, a heart


Dearer than Plutus' mine, richer than gold:


If that thou be'st a Roman, take it forth;


I, that denied thee gold, will give my heart:


Strike as thou didst at Caesar; for I know,


When thou didst hate him worst, thou lovedst him better


Than ever thou lovedst Cassius.

Come, Antony and young Octavius are coming. You must fight them alone, because I am tired of this world. I am hated by someone I love. My faults have been listed and remembered to be thrown back in my face. Take this dagger and plunge it into my chest. Remove my heart, Roman, which is more valuable than Pluto’s silver, if I denied you money. Kill me like you did Caesar, because I know you know you loved him better than me.

Brutus

Sheathe your dagger:


Be angry when you will, it shall have scope;


Do what you will, dishonor shall be humour.


O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb


That carries anger as the flint bears fire;


Who, much enforced, shows a hasty spark,


And straight is cold again.

Put your dagger away. Be angry later, when it’s time to be angry. You are like a lamb and I am like a flint with fire when it comes to carrying anger, here one minute and gone the next.

Cassius

Hath Cassius lived


To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus,


When grief, and blood ill-temper'd, vexeth him?

Am I just a cause to laugh at, Brutus, when you are angry?

Brutus

When I spoke that, I was ill-temper'd too.

I was angry when I said that.

Cassius

Do you confess so much? Give me your hand.

You admit it then? Give me your hand.

Brutus

And my heart too.

Take my hand and my heart, too.

Cassius

O Brutus,--

Oh, Brutus!

Brutus

What's the matter?

What’s wrong?

Cassius

--Have not you love enough to bear with me,


When that rash humor which my mother gave me


Makes me forgetful?

Do you love me enough to forgive me when my faults are inherited from my mother?

Brutus

Yes, Cassius; and from henceforth,


When you are over-earnest with your Brutus,


He'll think your mother chides, and leave you so.

Yes, Cassius, and from now on when you are acting like this with me, I’ll blame your mother.

Poet

Within.

Let me go in to see the generals:


There is some grudge between 'em; 'tis not meet


They be alone.

Let me in to see the generals. They shouldn’t be alone.

Lucilius

 [Within.] You shall not come to them.

You can’t go in.

Poet

 [Within.] Nothing but death shall stay me.

You’ll have to kill me to stop me.

Enter Poet, followed by Lucilius, Titinius, and Lucius.

Cassius

How now! What's the matter?

Hey! What’s the matter?

Poet

For shame, you generals! what do you mean?


Love, and be friends, as two such men should be;


For I have seen more years, I'm sure, than ye.

Shame on you generals for letting something come between such good friends.

Cassius

Ha, ha! How vilely doth this cynic rhyme!

Ha ha! This man is a terrible poet.

Brutus

Get you hence, sirrah; saucy fellow, hence!

Get out of here, you silly man!

Cassius

Bear with him, Brutus; 'tis his fashion.

Be patient with him, Brutus. That’s just how he is.

Brutus

I'll know his humor when he knows his time:


What should the wars do with these jigging fools?--


Companion, hence!

He should know when to be humorous. What is he doing here during a war? Companion?

Cassius

Away, away, be gone!

You better go! Go on!

Exit Poet.

Brutus

Lucilius and Titinius, bid the commanders


Prepare to lodge their companies tonight.

Lucilius and Titinius tell the commanders to prepare their companies to stay tonight.

Cassius

And come yourselves and bring Messala with you


Immediately to us.

Go get Messala and come back to us immediately.

Brutus

Lucius, a bowl of wine!

Lucius, bring me a glass of wine.

Exit Lucius.

Cassius

I did not think you could have been so angry.

I didn’t think you could get so angry.

Brutus

O Cassius, I am sick of many griefs.

Oh Cassius, I am sick with grief.

Cassius

Of your philosophy you make no use,


If you give place to accidental evils.

I thought your philosophy was to not let things like this bother you.

Brutus

No man bears sorrow better. Portia is dead.

I have more to be sorrowful about; Portia is dead.

Cassius

Ha! Portia!

No way! Portia!

Brutus

She is dead.

She is dead.

Cassius

How 'scaped I killing, when I cross'd you so?--


O insupportable and touching loss!--


Upon what sickness?

How did I escape being killed when I angered you? What a terrible loss! Was she sick?

Brutus

Impatient of my absence,


And grief that young Octavius with Mark Antony


Have made themselves so strong;--for with her death


That tidings came;--with this she fell distract,


And, her attendants absent, swallow'd fire.