I dare assure thee that no enemy

Shall ever take alive the noble Brutus.

The gods defend him from so great a shame.

When you do find him, or alive or dead,

He will be found like Brutus, like himself.

ANTONY (to First Soldier)

This is not Brutus, friend, but, I assure you,

A prize no less in worth. Keep this man safe.

Give him all kindness. I had rather have

Such men my friends than enemies.

⌈To another Soldier⌉ Go on,

And see whe’er Brutus be alive or dead,

And bring us word unto Octavius’ tent

How everything is chanced.

Exeunt ⌈the Soldier at one door, Antony, Lucillius and other Soldiers, some bearing Cato’s body, at another door⌉

5.5 Enter Brutus, Dardanius, Clitus, Strato, and Volumnius

BRUTUS

Come, poor remains of friends, rest on this rock.

⌈He sits. Strato rests and falls asleep⌉

CLITUS

Statillius showed the torchlight, but, my lord,

He came not back. He is or ta’en or slain.

BRUTUS

Sit thee down, Clitus. Slaying is the word:

It is a deed in fashion. Hark thee, Clitus.

He whispers

CLITUS

What I, my lord? No, not for all the world.

BRUTUS

Peace, then, no words.

CLITUS I’ll rather kill myself.

He stands apart

BRUTUS

Hark thee, Dardanius.

He whispers

DARDANIUS Shall I do such a deed?

He joins Clitus

CLITUS O Dardanius!

DARDANIUS O Clitus!

CLITUS

What ill request did Brutus make to thee?

DARDANIUS

To kill him, Clitus. Look, he meditates.

CLITUS

Now is that noble vessel full of grief,

That it runs over even at his eyes.

BRUTES

Come hither, good Volumnius. List a word.

VOLUMNIUS

What says my lord?

BRUTUS Why this, Volumnius.

The ghost of Caesar hath appeared to me

Two several times by night—at Sardis once,

And this last night, here in Philippi fields.

I know my hour is come.

VOLUMNIUS

Not so, my lord.

BRUTUS

Nay, I am sure it is, Volumnius.

Thou seest the world, Volumnius, how it goes.

Our enemies have beat us to the pit,

Low alarums

It is more worthy to leap in ourselves

Than tarry till they push us. Good Volumnius,

Thou know’st that we two went to school together.

Even for that, our love of old, I prithee,

Hold thou my sword hilts whilst I run on it.

VOLUMNIUS

That’s not an office for a friend, my lord.

Alarun still

CLITUS

Fly, fly, my lord! There is no tarrying here.

BRUTUS

Farewell to you, and you, and you, Volumnius.—

Strato, thou hast been all this while asleep.

⌈Strato wakes⌉

Farewell to thee too, Strato. Countrymen,

My heart doth joy that yet in all my life

I found no man but he was true to me.

I shall have glory by this losing day,

More than Octavius and Mark Antony

By this vile conquest shall attain unto.

So fare you well at once, for Brutus’ tongue

Hath almost ended his life’s history.

Night hangs upon mine eyes. My bones would rest,

That have but laboured to attain this hour.

Alarum. Cry within: ‘Fly, fly, fly!’

CLITUS

Fly, my 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.

Strato holds the sword, while Brutus runs on it Caesar, now be still.

I killed not thee with half so good a will.

He dies

Alarum. Retreat. Enter Antony, Octavius, Messala, Lucillius, 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.

LUCILLIUS

So Brutus should be found. I thank thee, Brutus,

That thou hast proved Lucillius’ saying true.

OCTAVIUS

All that served Brutus, I will entertain them.

(To Strato)

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 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.

Within my tent his bones tonight shall lie,

Most like a soldier, ordered honourably.

So call the field to rest, and let’s away

To part the glories of this happy day.

Exeunt [with Brutus’ body]

AS YOU LIKE IT

As You Like It is first heard of in the Stationers’ Register on 4 August 1600, and was probably written not long before. In spite of its early entry for publication, it was not printed until 1623. This play, with its contrasts between court and country, its bucolic as well as its aristocratic characters, its inset songs and poems, its predominantly woodland setting, its conscious artifice and its romantic ending, is the one in which Shakespeare makes most use of the conventions of pastoral literature, though he does not wholly endorse them.