Crying, 'Long live! Hail, Cæsar!'
Cas. Antony,32
The posture of your blows are yet unknown;
But for your words, they rob the Hybla bees,
And leave them honeyless.
Ant. Not stingless too!
Bru. O yes, and soundless too;36
For you have stol'n their buzzing, Antony,
And very wisely threat before you sting.
Ant. Villains! you did not so when your vile daggers
Hack'd one another in the sides of Cæsar:40
You show'd your teeth like apes, and fawn'd like hounds,
And bow'd like bondmen, kissing Cæsar's feet;
Whilst damned Casca, like a cur, behind
Struck Cæsar on the neck. O you flatterers!44
Cas. Flatterers! Now, Brutus, thank yourself:
This tongue had not offended so to-day.
If Cassius might have rul'd.
Oct. Come, come, the cause: if arguing make us sweat,48
The proof of it will turn to redder drops.
Look:
I draw a sword against conspirators;
When think you that the sword goes up again?62
Never, till Cæsar's three-and-thirty wounds
Be well aveng'd; or till another Cæsar
Have added slaughter to the sword of traitors.
Bru. Cæsar, thou canst not die by traitors' hands,56
33 posture: nature (?)
33 are: a plural by attraction
34 Hybla: town in Sicily, famous for its honey
41 show'd . . . apes: simulated smiles of affection, like favorite pets
44 flatterers: treacherous hypocrites
48 the cause: let's get down to business
53 three-and-thirty; cf. n.
