Cas.

Urge me no more, I shall forget myself

Have mind upon your health-tempt me no further.

Bru. Hear me, for I will speak.

Cas.

Must I give way and room to your rash choler?
Shall I be frightened when a madman stares?

Must I endure all this?

Bru. All this! ay, more. Fret till your proud heart breaks. Go show your slaves how choleric your are,

Cas.

And make your bondmen tremble. Must I budge?
Must I observe you? Must I stand and crouch
Under your testy humour? Nay, Cassius,
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 my laughter,
When you are waspish.

Is it come to this?

Bru. You say you are a better soldier;

Cas.

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.

You wrong me every way-you wrong me,
I said an elder soldier, not a better:

Brutus ;

Did I say better?

Cas.

When Cæsar lived, he durst not thus have moved me. Bru. Peace, peace; you durst not so have tempted him. I durst not?

Cas.

Cas.

Do not presume too much upon my love,

I may do that I shall be sorry for.

Bru. You have done what 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 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:
No, Cassius, I had rather coin my heart,

And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring

From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash,

DIALOGUES.

QUARREL OF BRUTUS AND CASSIUS.

BRUTUS, haughty and warm at times. CASSIUS, testy and very impassioned.

Cas. THAT you have wronged me doth appear in this→
You have condemned and noted Lucius Pella,
For taking bribes here of the Sardians;
Wherein my letter (praying on his side,
Because I knew the man) were slighted off.

Bru. You wronged yourself to write in such a case.
Cas. In such a time as this, it is not meet

That every nice offence should bear his comment.
Bru. Yet let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself

Cas.

Are much condemned to have an itching palm;
To sell and mart your offices for gold

To undeservers.

I an itching palm!

You know that you are Brutus that spake this,
Or, I avow, this speech were else your last.
Bru. The name of Cassius honors this corruption,
And chastisement doth therefore hide its head.

Cas.

Bru.

Chastisement!

Remember March, the Ides of March remember;
Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake?
What villain touched his body, that did stab
And not for justice? What! shall one of us
That struck the foremost man of all the world,
But for supporting robbers,-shall we now
Contaminate our fingers with base bribes ?
And sell the mighty meed of our large honors
For so much trash, as may be grasped thus?—
I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon,
Than such a Roman.

Cas. Brutus, bay not me,

I'll not endure it. You forget yourself,
To hedge me in: I am a soldier

Older in practice, abler than yourself
To make conditions.

Bru. Go to; you are not Cassius.

Bru. I say you are not.

Cas.

Bru.

Cas.

Bru.

Cas.

Bru.

Cas.

Urge me no more, I shall forget myself

Have mind upon your health-tempt me no further.

Away, slight man!

Is't possible?

Hear me, for I will speak.

Must I give way and room to your rash choler?
Shall I be frightened when a madman stares?

Must I endure all this?

All this! ay, more. Fret till your proud heart breaks.
Go show your slaves how choleric your are,

And make your bondmen tremble. Must I budge?
Must I observe you? Must I stand and crouch
Under your testy humour? Nay, Cassius,
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 my laughter,
When you are waspish.

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:

Did I say better?

Bru. If you did, I care not.

Cas.

When Cæsar lived, he durst not thus have moved me. Bru. Peace, peace; you durst not so have tempted him. I durst not?

Cas.

Bru. No.

Cas.

What! durst not tempt him?

Bru. For your life you durst not.

Cas. Do not presume too much upon my love,
I may do that shall be sorry for.

Bru. You have done what 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 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:
No, Cassius, I had rather coin my heart,

And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring

From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash,

Cas.

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 answered Caius Cassius so?
When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous,
To lock each rascal counter from his friends,
Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts
Dash him to pieces!

I denied you not.

Bru. You did.

Cas.

I did not: he was but a fool

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

A friend should bear a friend's infirmities;

But Brutus makes mine greater than they are.

Bru. I do not. Still you practice them on me.
You love me not.

Cas.

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
As huge as high Olympus.

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; braved by his brother;
Checked like a bondman; all his faults observed,
Set in a note-book, learn'd and conn'd by rote,
To cast into my teeth. Oh, I could weep
My spirit from my eyes! There is my dagger,
Here my naked breast.

Strike! as thou didst at Cæsar; for I know

When thou didst hate him worst, thou lovedst him better
Than ever thou loved'st Cassius.

Bru. Sheathe your dagger.

Cas.

Be angry when you will, it shall have scope;
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.

Has Cassius lived

To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus,
When grief and blood ill-tempered vexeth him?

Bru. When I spoke that, I was ill-tempered too.
Cas. Do you confess so much? Give my your hand.
Bru. And my heart too.

(embraces.)

Cas.

What's the matter?

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.
William Shakspeare.

THE TRIAL OF THE MACEDONIAN PRINCES.

CHARACTERS.

PHILIP (the last), King of Macedon.
PERSEUS, his eldest son.

DEMETRIUS, his younger son.
DYMAS, the King's favourite.
PERICLES, the friend of PERSEUS.
ANTIGONUS, a Minister of State.

The King is seated. Dymas stands by the side of the King. The King's manner is dignified and solemn, and the peculiar circumstance of being the judge between his two sons, requires the tone of voice to be most solemn, and expressive of the feelings which must necessarily harass and distress his mind.

King.

BRING forth the prisoners.

Strange trial this! here sit I to debate,

Which vital limb to lop, nor that to save

But render wretched life more wretched still.

What see I, but Heaven's vengeance in my sons;
Their guilty scourge for mine. 'Tis thus heaven writes
Its awful meaning plain in human deeds,

And language leaves to man.

[Enter Perseus and Demetrius in chains, from opposite sides ; Perseus followed by Pericles, and Demetrius by Antigonus.

Dymas.

King.

Dread Sire, your sons.

I have no sons, and that I ever had

Is now my heaviest curse. And yet, what care,
What pains I took to curb their rising rage!
How often have I ranged through history
To find examples for their private use.
The Theban brothers did I set before them-
What blood-what desolation! but in vain.