Shakespheare: Julius Caesar

In the passage I am performing Brutus is up late at night thinking about what Cassius told him in earlier that day. Cassius was trying to persuade Brutus to join the conspiracy against Caesar and Brutus is deciding whether to join or not. This passage is important because Brutus' decision will determine if the conspirators will have any chance of being supported by the plebeians after they kill Caesar. Brutus is respected by the people and considered the most honorable man in Rome, so if he joins the conspirators their cause will seem justified.

This passage takes place in Act 2 Scene 1, lines 10 to 35

BRUTUS
It must be by his death: and for my part,

I know no personal cause to spurn at him,

But for the general. He would be crown'd:

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 sway'd

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 colour 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, hatch'd, would, as his kind, grow mischievous,

And kill him in the shell.