RemarkaBULL Podversations are informal, livestreamed conversations that investigate approaches to essential passages from the Shakespearean and Jacobean canon―and beyond.
Tony Award-winning (and seven-time nominated) director DANIEL SULLIVAN joined host NATHAN WINKELSTEIN, Red Bull’s Associate Artistic Director, for a conversation focused on the ‘Tent Scene’ (Act 4: Scene 3) from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Sullivan has directed the production multiple times, including on Broadway starring Denzel Washington. They read passages from the scene and discuss subtext, character, and friendship in Shakespeare. T
From JULIUS CAESAR's Act 4: Scene 3
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CASSIUS
That you have wrong'd me doth appear in this:
You have condemn'd and noted Lucius Pella
For taking bribes here of the Sardians;
Wherein my letters, praying on his side,
Because I knew the man, were slighted off.
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BRUTUS
You wronged yourself to write in such a case.
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CASSIUS
In such a time as this it is not meet
That every nice offence should bear his comment.
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BRUTUS
Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself
Are much condemn'd to have an itching palm;
To sell and mart your offices for gold
To undeservers.
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CASSIUS
I an itching palm!
You know that you are Brutus that speak this,
Or, by the gods, this speech were else your last.
BRUTUS
The name of Cassius honours this corruption,
And chastisement doth therefore hide his head.
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CASSIUS
Chastisement!
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BRUTUS
Remember March, the ides of March remember:
Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake?
What villain touch'd his body, that did stab,
And not for justice? What, shall one of us
That struck the foremost man of all this world
But for supporting robbers, shall we now
Contaminate our fingers with base bribes,
And sell the mighty space of our large honours
For so much trash as may be grasped thus?
I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon,
Than such a Roman.
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CASSIUS
Brutus, bay not me;
I'll not endure it: you forget yourself,
To hedge me in; I am a soldier, I,
Older in practise, abler than yourself
To make conditions.
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BRUTUS
Go to; you are not, Cassius.
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CASSIUS
I am.
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BRUTUS
I say you are not.
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CASSIUS
Urge me no more, I shall forget myself;
Have mind upon your health, tempt me no further.
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BRUTUS
Away, slight man!
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CASSIUS
Is't possible?
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BRUTUS
Hear me, for I will speak.
Must I give way and room to your rash choler?
Shall I be frighted when a madman stares?
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CASSIUS
O ye gods, ye gods! must I endure all this?
BRUTUS
All this! ay, more: fret till your proud heart break;
Go show your slaves how choleric you are,
And make your bondmen tremble. Must I budge?
Must I observe you? must I stand and crouch
Under your testy humour? By the gods
You shall digest the venom of your spleen,
Though it do split you; for, from this day forth,
I'll use you for my mirth, yea, for my laughter,
When you are waspish.
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CASSIUS
Is it come to this?
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BRUTUS
You say you are a better soldier:
Let it appear so; make your vaunting true,
And it shall please me well: for mine own part,
I shall be glad to learn of noble men.
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CASSIUS
You wrong me every way; you wrong me, Brutus;
I said, an elder soldier, not a better:
Did I say 'better'?
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BRUTUS
If you did, I care not.
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CASSIUS
When Caesar lived, he durst not thus have moved me.
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BRUTUS
Peace, peace! you durst not so have tempted him.
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CASSIUS
I durst not!
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BRUTUS
No.
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CASSIUS
What, durst not tempt him!
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BRUTUS
For your life you durst not!
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CASSIUS
Do not presume too much upon my love;
I may do that I shall be sorry for.
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BRUTUS
You have done that you should be sorry for.
There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats,
For I am arm'd so strong in honesty
That they pass by me as the idle wind,
Which I respect not. I did send to you
For certain sums of gold, which you denied me:
For I can raise no money by vile means:
By heaven, I had rather coin my heart,
And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring
From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash
By any indirection: I did send
To you for gold to pay my legions,
Which you denied me: was that done like Cassius?
Should I have answer'd Caius Cassius so?
When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous,
To lock such rascal counters from his friends,
Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts;
Dash him to pieces!
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CASSIUS
I denied you not.
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BRUTUS
You did.
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CASSIUS
I did not: he was but a fool that brought
My answer back. Brutus hath rived my heart:
A friend should bear his friend's infirmities,
But Brutus makes mine greater than they are.
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BRUTUS
I do not, till you practise them on me.
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CASSIUS
You love me not.
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BRUTUS
I do not like your faults.
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CASSIUS
A friendly eye could never see such faults.
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BRUTUS
A flatterer's would not, though they do appear
As huge as high Olympus.
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CASSIUS
Come, Antony, and young Octavius, come,
Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius,
For Cassius is aweary of the world;
Hated by one he loves; braved by his brother;
Cheque'd like a bondman; all his faults observed,
Set in a note-book, learn'd, and conn'd by rote,
To cast into my teeth. O, I could weep
My spirit from mine eyes! There is my dagger,
And here my naked breast; within, a heart
Dearer than Plutus' mine, richer than gold:
If that thou be'st a Roman, take it forth;
I, that denied thee gold, will give my heart:
Strike, as thou didst at Caesar; for, I know,
When thou didst hate him worst, thou lovedst him better
Than ever thou lovedst Cassius.
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BRUTUS
Sheathe your dagger:
Be angry when you will, it shall have scope;
Do what you will, dishonour shall be humour.
O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb
That carries anger as the flint bears fire;
Who, much enforced, shows a hasty spark,
And straight is cold again.
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CASSIUS
Hath Cassius lived
To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus,
When grief, and blood ill-temper'd, vexeth him?
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BRUTUS
When I spoke that, I was ill-temper'd too.
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CASSIUS
Do you confess so much? Give me your hand.
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BRUTUS
And my heart too.
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CASSIUS
O Brutus!
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BRUTUS
What's the matter?
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CASSIUS
Have not you love enough to bear with me,
When that rash humour which my mother gave me
Makes me forgetful?
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BRUTUS
Yes, Cassius; and, from henceforth,
When you are over-earnest with your Brutus,
He'll think your mother chides, and leave you so.
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Poet
[Within] Let me go in to see the generals;
There is some grudge between 'em, 'tis not meet
They be alone.
Nothing but death shall stay me.
Enter Poet
CASSIUS
How now! what's the matter?
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Poet
For shame, you generals! what do you mean?
Love, and be friends, as two such men should be;
For I have seen more years, I'm sure, than ye.
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CASSIUS
Ha, ha! how vilely doth this cynic rhyme!
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BRUTUS
Get you hence, sirrah; saucy fellow, hence!
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CASSIUS
Bear with him, Brutus; 'tis his fashion.
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BRUTUS
I'll know his humour, when he knows his time:
What should the wars do with these jigging fools?
Companion, hence!
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CASSIUS
Away, away, be gone.
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Exit Poet
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BRUTUS
Lucius, a bowl of wine!
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Exit LUCIUS
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CASSIUS
I did not think you could have been so angry.
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BRUTUS
O Cassius, I am sick of many griefs.
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CASSIUS
Of your philosophy you make no use,
If you give place to accidental evils.
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BRUTUS
No man bears sorrow better. Portia is dead.
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CASSIUS
Ha! Portia!
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BRUTUS
She is dead.
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CASSIUS
How 'scaped I killing when I cross'd you so?
O insupportable and touching loss!
Upon what sickness?
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BRUTUS
Impatient of my absence,
And grief that young Octavius with Mark Antony
Have made themselves so strong:--for with her death
That tidings came;--with this she fell distract,
And, her attendants absent, swallow'd fire.
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CASSIUS
And died so?
BRUTUS
Even so.
CASSIUS
O ye immortal gods!
Re-enter LUCIUS, with wine and taper
BRUTUS
Speak no more of her. Give me a bowl of wine.
In this I bury all unkindness, Cassius.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
DANIEL SULLIVAN has directed more than forty productions on Broadway—outpacing any living director—in addition to scores of productions Off Broadway and at regional theatres throughout the United States. He has served as artistic director for the Seattle Repertory Theatre and Manhattan Theatre Club. He also serves as resident artist for the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theatre.
Daniel Sullivan was honored with the 2001 Tony Award for his direction of the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning Proof by David Auburn. He has also been nominated for the Tony Award on six other occasions. Productions directed by him have been nominated for more than fifty Tony Awards. Awards: Theatre Hall of Fame, George Abbott Lifetime Achievement Award, the Obie Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the NAACP Image Award, the Ovation Award, the Joan Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity, and the Julia Hansen Award for Excellence.