Performance Assessment

Act 1 scene 2 Lines 25-175

Cassius Will you go see the order of the course?

Brutus Not I.

Cassius I pray you do.

Brutus I am not gamesome: I do lack some part

Of that quick spirit that is in Antony.

Let me not hinder, Cassius, your desires;

I’ll leave you.

Cassius Brutus, I do observe you now of late:

I have not from your eyes that gentleness

And show of love as I wont to have.

You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand

Over your friend that loves you.

Brutus Cassius,

Be not deceiv’d: if I have veil’d my look,

I turn the trouble of my countenance

Merely upon myself. Vexed I am

Of late with passions of some difference,

Conceptions only proper to myself,

Which give some soil, perhaps, to my behaviours;

But let not therefore my good friends be griev’d—

Among which number, Cassius, be you one –

Nor construe any further my neglect,

Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war,

Forgets the shows of love to other men.

Cassius Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your passion;

By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried

Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations.

Tell me, good Brutus, can you see your face?

Brutus No, Cassius; for the eye sees not itself

But by reflection, by some other things.

Cassius ‘Tis just;

And it is very much lamented, Brutus,

That you have no such mirrors as will turn

Your hidden worthiness into your eye,

That you might see your shadow. I have heard,

Where many of the best respect in Rome,

Except immortal Caesar, speaking of Brutus,

And groaning underneath this age’s yoke,

Have wish’d that noble Brutus had his eyes.

Brutus Into what dangers would you lead me, Cassius,

That you would have me seek into myself

For that which is not in me?

Cassius Therefore, good Brutus, be prepar’d to hear;

And since you know you cannot see yourself

So well as by reflections, I, your glass,

Will modestly discover to yourself

That of yourself which you yet know not of.

And be not jealous on me, gentle Brutus:

Were I a common laugher, or did use

To stale with ordinary oaths my love

To every new protester; if you know

That I do fawn on men and hug them hard,

And after scandal them or if you know

That I profess myself in banqueting

To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.

[Flourish and shout]

Brutus What means this shouting? I do fear the people

Choose Caesar for their king.

Cassius Ay, do you fear it?

Then must I think you would not have it so.

Brutus I would not, Cassius; yet I love him well.

But wherefore do you hold me here so long?

What is it that you would impart to me

If it be aught toward the general good,

Set honour in one eye, and death i’ th’ other,

And I will look on both indifferently;

For let the gods so speed me as I love

The name of honour more than I fear death.

Cassius I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,

As well as I do know your outward favour.

Well, honour is the subject of my story.

I cannot tell what you and other men

Think of this life; but for my single self,

I had as life not to be as live to be

In awe of such a thing as I myself.

I was born free as Caesar; so were you;

We both have fed as well, and we can both

Endure the winter’s cold as wel1 as he:

For once, upon a raw and gusty day,

The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores,

Caesar said to me, ‘Dar’st thou, Cassius, now

Leap in with me into this angry flood

And swim to yonder point?’ Upon the word,

Accoutred as I was, I plunged in

And bade him follow; so indeed he did.

The torrent roar’d, and we did buffet it

With lusty sinews, throwing it aside

And stemming it with hearts of controversy.

But ere we could arrive the point propos’d,

Caesar cried, ‘Help me, Cassius, or I sink.’

I, as Aeneas, our great ancestor,

Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder

The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber

Did I the tired Caesar. And this man

Is now become a god, and Cassius is

A wretched creature, and must bend his body

If Caesar carelessly but not on him.

He had a fever when he was in Spain,

And when the fit was on him, I did mark

How he did shake; ‘tis true, this god did shake;

His coward lips did from their colour fly,

And that same eye whose bend doth awe the world

Did lose his lustre; I did hear him groan;

Ay, and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans

Mark hi and write his speeches in their books,

Alas, it cried, ‘Give me some drink, Titinius,’

As a sick girl. Ye gods, it doth amaze me

A man of such feeble temper should

So get the start of the majestic world,

And bear the palm along.

[Flourish and shout]

Brutus Another general shout?

I do believe that these applauses are

For some new honours that are heap’d on Caesar.

Cassius Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world

Like a Colossus, and we petty men

Walk under his huge legs, and peep about

To find ourselves dishonourable graves.

Men at some time are masters of their fates:

The fault dear Brutus, is not in our stars,

But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

Brutus and Caesar: what should be in that ‘Caesar’?

Why should that name be sounded more than yours?

Write them together yours is as fair a name;

Sound them, it doth becomes the mouth as well;

Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with ‘em,

‘Brutus’ will start a spirit as soon as ‘Caesar’.

Now in the names of all the gods at once,

Upon what meat doth this our Casesar feed,

That he is grown so great? Age, thou art sham’d!

Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!

When went there by an age, since the great flood,

But it was fam’d with more than with one man?

When could they say, til now, that talk’d of Rome,

That her wide walks encompass’d but one man?

Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough,

When there is in it but one only man.

O, you and I have hear our fathers say,

There was a Brutus once that would have brook’d

Th’ eternal devil to keep his state in Rome

As easily as a king.

Brutus That you do love me, I am nothing jealous;

What you would work me to, I have some aim:

How I have thought of this, and of these times,

I shall recount hereafter. For this present,

I would not, so with love I might entreat you,

Be any further mov’d. What you have said

I will consider; what you have to say

I will with patience hear, and find a time

Both meet to hear and answer such high things.

Till then, my noble friend, chew upon this:

Brutus had rather be a villager

Than to repute himself a son of Rome

Under these hard conditions as this time

Is like to lay upon us.

Cassius I am glad.

That my weak words have struck but thus much show

Of fire from Brutus.

Cassius is attempting to convince Brutus that Ceasar is a threat, and that he is not fit for leadership by appealing to Brutus' honor, and telling him stories of Ceasar's weakness. Brutus listens to Cassius' flattery, and stories, but is unsure of what to think of them. He tells Cassius he will think of what he said, but promises nothing.

This scene is when the characters of Brutus and Cassius are introduced into the story. Through their conversation, it characterizes the characters beautifully, Cassius as a enabling conspirator who plays on peoples weaknesses, and Brutus as a man who is easily swayed and who's tradgic flaw is his need for honor.

Cassius: Liam

Brutus: Martin

All text will be preformed, no other characters present.