Brutus is an excerpt from “Killing Caesar” (2020) by Jon Pescevich.
(…Brutus sits alone and thinks…)
Brutus:
Since Cassia first did turn me against Caesar I have not slept.
I suffer the nature of an insurrection within my breast.
It must be by his death:
and, for my part, I know no cause to kill him.
But then there’s this.
He would be crown’d!
(…Protesters, calling to each other off stage…)
Chorus:
Speak, strike, redress.
Speak, strike, redress.
Brutus:
It is the bright day that brings forth the adder;
and that craves wary walking.
And if we crown him, we put a sting in him,
and he may do danger then.
He would be crown’d!
He would be crown’d!
(…Protesters, calling to each other off stage…)
Chorus:
Speak, strike, redress.
Speak, strike, redress.
Speak, strike, redress.
Brutus:
Lowliness is the ladder, whereto every climber turns his face;
but when he once attains the upmost rung, he then unto the ladder turns his back.
Looking in the clouds,
he scorns the base degrees by which he did ascend.
So might Caesar change.
He would be crown’d!
He would be crown’d!
He would be crown’d!
(…Protesters, calling to each other off stage…)
Chorus:
Speak, strike, redress.
Speak, strike, redress.
Speak, strike, redress.