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JULIUS CAESAR
(in 10 Minutes)

Abridged by
David Rosario
Edited by
Dr. Joachim Emilio Antonio

SETTING: Rome

CHARACTERS: (8-15 actors)

CAESAR can double as Pindarus and Strato
ANTONY

BRUTUS
CASSIUS
CASCA can double as Titinius
CINNA can double as Messala
DECIUS can double as Cato and Lucillus

OCTAVIUS can double as Soothsayer

PINDARUS can double as Caesar and Strato

TITINIUS can double as Casca
MESSALA can double as Cinna
CATO can double as Decius and Lucillus
LUCILIUS can double as Decius and Cato
STRATO can double as Caesar and Pindarus

SOOTHSAYER can double as Octavius

CITIZENS and SOLDIERS can be doubled by everyone except Caesar, Brutus, Antony,
and Cassius
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THE PLAY:

[Enter, in procession, CAESAR; ANTONY, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, and CASCA; a great crowd
following, among them a SOOTHSAYER.]

SOOTHSAYER: Caesar! Beware the ides of March.

[Sennet. Exeunt all but BRUTUS and CASSIUS. Flourish and shout.]

BRUTUS: 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.

CASSIUS: What should be in that Caesar?

BRUTUS: What you have said I will consider. Brutus had rather be a villager than to
repute himself a son of Rome under these hard conditions.

[Re-enter CAESAR and his Train.]

CAESAR: Antonius. Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look..

ANTONY: Fear him not, Caesar. He is a noble Roman and well given.

CAESAR: Would he were fatter! But I fear him not.

[Exeunt CAESAR and his train. CASCA stays.]

BRUTUS: Casca, tell us what hath chanced today, that Caesar looks so sad.
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CASCA: Why, there was a crown offered him. He would fain have had it.

CASSIUS: Who offered him the crown?

CASCA: Mark Antony.

[Exit BRUTUS.]

CASSIUS: Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet I see thy honorable mettle may be
wrought; for so firm that can be seduced?

CASCA: They say the senators tomorrow mean to establish Caesar as a king.

CASSIUS: I know he would not be a wolf but that he sees the Romans are but sheep.
I know where I will wear this dagger then: Cassius from bondage will deliver
Cassius.

CASCA: So will I. Hold, my hand.

[Enter CINNA.]

CASSIUS: `Tis Cinna. He is a friend.

CINNA: O Cassius, if you could but win the noble Brutus to our party-

CASSIUS: Be you content. Three parts of him is ours already, and the man entire
upon the next encounter yields him ours!

[They Exit. Enter BRUTUS.]

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BRUTUS: [Opens the letter and reads.] `Brutus, thou sleepst. Awake and see
thyself! Speak, strike, redress!

[Enter CASSIUS, CASCA, DECIUS, CINNA.]

BRUTUS: Give me your hands all over, one by one.

DECIUS: Shall no man else be touched but only Caesar?

CASSIUS: I think it is not meet Mark Antony, so well beloved of Caesar, should
outlive Caesar.

BRUTUS: Lets be sacrificers, but not butchers, Cassius. And for Mark Antony, think
not of him.

[Clock strikes.]

CASSIUS: Friends, disperse yourselves, but all remember what you have said, and
show yourselves true Romans.

[Exeunt. Enter CAESAR.]

CAESAR: Those predictions are to the world in general as to Caesar. Cowards die
many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.

[Enter DECIUS.]

DECIUS: Caesar, all hail!

CAESAR: Decius, bear my greetings to the senators, and tell them that I will not
come today. Calphurnia, my wife, stays me at home. She dreamt tonight she saw
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my statue, which, like a fountain with an hundred spouts, did run pure blood, and
many lusty Romans came smiling and did bathe their hands in it.

DECIUS: This dream is all amiss interpreted, it signifies that from you great Rome
shall suck reviving blood. And know it now: the senate have concluded to give
this day a crown to mighty Caesar. If you shall send them word you will not
come, their minds may change.

CAESAR: How foolish do your fears seem now, Calphurnia! I will go.

[Enter BRUTUS, CASSIUS, CASCA, CINNA, SOOTHSAYER .]

CAESAR: The ides of March are come.

SOOTHSAYER: Ay, Caesar, but not gone.

[All the SENATORS rise. CAESAR and the SENATORS take their seats.]

BRUTUS: I kiss thy hand, but not in flattery, Caesar.

CAESAR: What Brutus?

CINNA: O Caesar

CAESAR: Doth not Brutus bootless kneel?

CASCA: Speak hands for me!

[As CASCA strikes, the OTHERS rise up and stab CAESAR.]

CAESAR: Et tu, Brute?Then fall, Caesar!

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[Dies. The SENATORS and PEOPLE retire in confusion.]

CINNA: Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!

BRUTUS: Fly not, stand still, ambitions debt is paid! Stoop, Romans, stoop, and let
us bathe our hands in Caesars blood then walk we forth.

CASSIUS: So often shall the knot of us be called the men that gave their country
liberty.

[Enter ANTONY.]

ANTONY: O mighty Caesar! I know not, gentlemen, what you intend, who else must
be let blood; if I myself there is no hour so fit as Caesars death hour.

BRUTUS: O Antony! Beg not your death of us. Only be patient till we have
appeased the multitude, and then we will deliver you the cause why I, that did
love Caesar when I struck him, have thus proceeded.

ANTONY: I doubt not of your wisdom. Let each man render me his bloody hand.

BRUTUS: Our reasons are so full of good regard. You should be satisfied.

ANTONY: Thats all I seek; and am, moreover, suitor that I may produce his body to
the market-place, and, as he becomes a friend, speak in the order of his funeral.

BRUTUS: You shall, Mark Antony.

CASSIUS: [Aside to BRUTUS.] You know not what you do. Know you how much
the people may be moved by that which he will utter.
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BRUTUS: [Aside to CASSIUS.] I will myself into the pulpit first, and show the
reason of our Caesars death.

CASSIUS: [Aside to BRUTUS.] I know not what may fall; I like it not.

BRUTUS: Mark Antony, take you Caesars body. You shall not in your funeral
speech blame us but speak all good you can devise of Caesar and say dot by our
permission, else you shall not have any hand at all about his funeral.

ANTONY: Be it so.

[Exeunt all but ANTONY.]

ANTONY: O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, that I am meek and gentle with
these butchers. Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood. Fierce civil strife shall
cumber all the parts of Italy. Caesars spirit shall in these confines cry Havoc!
and let slip the dogs of war that this foul deed shall smell above the earth.

[Exeunt with CAESAR'S body. Enter BRUTUS with a throng of CITIZENS.]

BRUTUS: Romans, hear me for my cause. As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he
was valiant, I honor him; but as he was ambitious, I slew him! Who is here so
rude that would not be a Roman? If any, speak for him I have offended.

CITIZENS: None, Brutus, none.

BRUTUS: I have done no more to Caesar than you shall do to Brutus. I have the
same dagger for myself, when it shall please my country to need my death!

CITIZENS: Live, Brutus! Live! Live!

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BRUTUS: Good countrymen, let me depart alone and for my sake, stay here with
Antony: I do entreat you, not a man depart, save I alone, till Antony have spoke.

[Exit. Enter ANTONY and others, with CAESAR'S body.]

ANTONY: Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears! I come to bury Caesar,
not to praise him. He was my friend, faithful and just to me; but Brutus says he
was ambitious, and Brutus is a honorable man. You all did see I thrice presented
him a kingly crown which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition? Look, in this
place ran Cassius dagger through. Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabbed.
Brutus, as you know, was Caesars angel. This was the unkindest cut of all.

CITIZEN1: O traitors, villains!

ANTONY: Great friends, let me not stir you up to such a sudden flood of mutiny.

CITIZENS: Well mutiny.

[Exeunt CITIZENS, with the body. Drum. Enter BRUTUS, CASSIUS and SOLDIERS;]

BRUTUS: I have here received letters that young Octavius and Mark Antony come
down upon us with a mighty power.

[Exeunt. Drum. Enter OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, and their Armies; MESSALA and others.]

BRUTUS: Words before blows, countrymen?

ANTONY: O you flatterers!

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OCTAVIUS: Come, Antony, away! Traitors, if you dare fight today, come to the field.
If not, when you have stomachs.

[OCTAVIUS, ANTONY and their army exit.]

CASSIUS: Now, most noble Brutus, if we lose this battle, are you contented to be led
in triumph through the streets of Rome?

BRUTUS: No, Cassius, no. But this same day must end that work the ides of March
begun. For ever, and for ever, farewell, Cassius! If we do meet again, why,
we shall smile; if not, why then this parting was well made.

[Exeunt. Alarum. Enter CASSIUS and TITINIUS.]

PINDARUS: O my lord! Titinius is enclosed round about. Hes taken.

CASSIUS: Behold no more. Here, take thou the hilts and guide thou sword.

[PINDARUS stabs him]

CASSIUS: Caesar, thou art revengd, even with the sword that killd thee.

[CASSIUS dies. PINDARUS exits. Enter TITINIUS and MESSALA.]

MESSALA: Where did you leave him?

TITINIUS: With Pindarus, on this hill.

MESSALA: Is that not he?

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TITINIUS: No, this was he, Messala, but Cassius is no more. Mistrust of my success
hath done this deed.

MESSALA: O hateful error, why dost thou show to the apt thoughts of men the things
that are not?

TITINIUS: Where art thou Pindarus?

MESSALA: Seek him Titinius while I go to meet the noble Brutus.

[MESSALA exits.]

TITINIUS: Alas, thou hast misconstrued everything. By your leave, gods, this is a
Romans part. Come, Cassius sword, and find Titinius heart!

[He dies on CASSIUS sword. Alarum. Enter BRUTUS, MESSALA, young CATO]

BRUTUS: Where doth his body lie?

MESSALA: Yonder, and Titinius is mourning it.

CATO: He is slain.

BRUTUS: O Julius Caesar, thou art mighty yet! The last of all the Romans, fare thee
well! Friends, I owe more tears to this dead man than you shall see me
pay. I shall find time, Cassius, I shall find time

[They exit. Enter LUCILIUS. Enter SOLDIERS and fight]

LUCILIUS: I am Brutus! Kill Brutus and be honored in his death!

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[Enter ANTONY.]

ANTONY: This is not Brutus, friend but I assure you a prize no less in worth. Keep
this man safe, id rather have such men my friends than enemies.

[Exeunt. Enter BRUTUS, STRATO.]

BRUTUS: I shall have glory by this losing day more than Octavius and Mark Antony.
Night hangs upon my eyes, my bones would rest that have but laboured to
attain this hour.

[BRUTUS runs into his sword]

BRUTUS: Caesar, now be still, I killed not thee with half so good a will.

[BRUTUS dies. Alarum. Enter ANTONY, OCTAVIUS, MESSALA, LUCILIUS and the army.]

MESSALA: Strato, where is thy master?

STRATO: Free from the bondage you are in, Messala. For Brutus only overcame
himself, and no man else hath honor by his death.

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 mixed 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.
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