I know no personal cause to spurn at him,

But for the general. He would be crowned —

How that might change his nature, there's the question.

It is the bright day that brings forth the adder,

And that craves wary walking. Crown him that,

And then, I grant, we put a sting in him

That at his will he may do danger with.

The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins

Remorse from power, and — to speak truth of Caesar —

​

I have not known when his affections swayed

More than his reason. But 'tis a common proof,

That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,

Whereto the climber-upward turns his face;

But when he once attains the upmost round

He then unto the ladder turns his back,

Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees

By which he did ascend. So Caesar may.

Then, lest he may, prevent. And since the quarrel

Will bear no color for the thing he is,

Fashion it thus: that what he is, augmented,

Would run to these and these extremities;

And therefore think him as a serpent's egg —

Which, hatched, would, as his kind, grow mischievous —

And kill him in the shell.