Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare [top ten books of all time txt] 📗

lord, fly. Brutus

Hence! I will follow. Exeunt Clitus, Dardanius, and Volumnius.
I prithee, Strato, stay thou by thy lord:
Thou art a fellow of a good respect;
Thy life hath had some smatch of honour in it:
Hold then my sword, and turn away thy face,
While I do run upon it. Wilt thou, Strato?

Strato Give me your hand first. Fare you well, my lord. Brutus

Farewell, good Strato. Runs on his sword. Caesar, now be still:
I kill’d not thee with half so good a will. Dies.

Alarum. Retreat. Enter Octavius, Antony, Messala, Lucilius, and the army. Octavius What man is that? Messala My master’s man. Strato, where is thy master? Strato

Free from the bondage you are in, Messala:
The conquerors can but make a fire of him;
For Brutus only overcame himself,
And no man else hath honour by his death.

Lucilius

So Brutus should be found. I thank thee, Brutus,
That thou hast proved Lucilius’ saying true.

Octavius

All that served Brutus, I will entertain them.
Fellow, wilt thou bestow thy time with me?

Strato Ay, if Messala will prefer me to you. Octavius Do so, good Messala. Messala How died my master, Strato? Strato I held the sword, and he did run on it. Messala

Octavius, then take him to follow thee,
That did the latest service to my master.

Antony

This was the noblest Roman of them all:
All the conspirators save only he
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar;
He only, in a general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle, and the elements
So mix’d in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world “This was a man!”

Octavius

According to his virtue let us use him,
With all respect and rites of burial.
Within my tent his bones to-night shall lie,
Most like a soldier, order’d honourably.
So call the field to rest; and let’s away,
To part the glories of this happy day. Exeunt.

Colophon

Julius Caesar
was published in 1599 by
William Shakespeare.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Emma Sweeney,
and is based on a transcription produced in 1993 by
Jeremy Hylton
for the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and on digital scans available at the
HathiTrust Digital Library.

The cover page is adapted from
Julius Caesar,
a painting completed in 1619 by
Peter Paul Rubens.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.

The first edition of this ebook was released on
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Uncopyright

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