The Ides of May; A Tragedy

Act III, Scene i:
Washington DC. Before the Capitol; the Senate sitting.

[A crowd of people in the street leading to the Capitol, among them Limbaugh(Aridopolus) and Savage(Soothsayer). Flourish. Enter RNC(Caesar), Frist(Brutus), Cassius(McCain), Casca(Kennedy), Decius(Rove), Metellus(Specter) Cinna(Hagel), Popilius(Sessions) and others.]

RNC:
The Ides of May are come.

SAVAGE:
Ay, RNC; but not gone.

LIMBAUGH:
Hail, RNC! read this schedule.

ROVE:
Bush doth desire you to o'er-read,
At your best leisure, this his humble suit.

LIMBAUGH:
O Republican, read mine first; for mine's a suit
That touches RNC nearer: read it, great RNC.

RNC:
What touches us ourself shall be last served.

LIMBAUGH:
Delay not, RNC; read it instantly.

RNC:
What, is the fellow mad?

ROVE:
Sirrah, give place.

McCAIN:
What, urge you your petitions in the street?
Come to the Capitol.

[RNC enters the Capitol, the rest following. All the Senators rise.]

SESSIONS:
I wish your enterprise to-day may thrive.

McCAIN:
What enterprise, Sessions?

SESSIONS:
Fare you well.
Advances to RNC.

FRIST:
What said Jeff Sessions?

McCAIN:
He wish'd to-day our enterprise might thrive.
I fear our purpose is discovered.

FRIST:
Look, how he makes to RNC: mark him.

McCAIN:
Kennedy, be sudden, for we fear prevention.
Frist, what shall be done? If this be known,
McCain or RNC never shall turn back,
For I will slay myself.

FRIST:
McCain, be constant:
Jeff Sessions speaks not of our purposes;
For, look, he smiles, and RNC doth not change.

ROVE
Where is Arlen Specter? Let him go,
And presently prefer his suit to RNC.

FRIST:
He is address'd; press near and second him.

HAGEL:
Kennedy, you are the first that rears your hand.

KENNEDY:
Are we all ready?

RNC:
What is now amiss
That RNC and his Senate must redress?

SPECTER
Most high, most mighty, and most puissant RNC,
Arlen Specter throws before thy seat
An humble heart.
[Kneeling.]

RNC:
I must prevent thee, Arlen.
These couchings and these lowly courtesies
Might fire the blood of ordinary men,
And turn pre-ordinance and first decree
Into the law of children. Be not fond,
To think that RNC bears such rebel blood
That will be thaw'd from the true quality
With that which melteth fools; I mean, sweet words,
Low-crooked curtsies, and base spaniel-fawning.
Thy legislation (S.2611) by decree is banished:
If thou dost bend, and pray, and fawn for it,
I spurn thee like a cur out of my way.

SPECTER:
RNC, thou dost me wrong.

RNC:
RNC did never wrong but with just cause,
Nor without cause will he be satisfied.

SPECTER:
Is there no voice more worthy than my own,
To sound more sweetly in great RNC's ear
For the repealing of my banish'd legislation?

FRIST:
I kiss thy hand, but not in flattery, RNC;
Desiring thee that Arlen Specter may
Have an immediate freedom of repeal.

RNC:
What, Frist?

McCAIN:
Pardon, RNC; RNC, pardon:
As low as to thy foot doth McCain fall,
To beg enfranchisement for Specter and Hagel.

RNC:
I could be well moved, if I were as you;
If I could pray to move, prayers would move me:
But I am constant as the northern star,
Of whose true-fix'd and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.
The skies are painted with unnumber'd sparks,
They are all fire, and every one doth shine;
But there's but one in all doth hold his place:
So in the world; 'tis furnish'd well with men,
And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive;
Yet in the number I do know but one
That unassailable holds on his rank,
Unshaked of motion: and that I am he,
Let me a little show it, even in this,
That I was constant Specter and Hagel's legislation
should be banish'd, And constant do remain
to keep it so.

HAGEL:
O RNC,

RNC:
Hence! I wilt thou lift up the Conservative Base?

ROVE:
Great RNC,

RNC:
Doth not Frist bootless kneel?

KENNEDY:
Speak, hands, for me!

[ Kennedy stabs RNC in the neck. RNC catches hold of his arm.He is then stabbed by several other Conspirators, and at last by Bill Frist.]

RNC:
Et tu, Frist? Then fall, RNC!

[RNC Dies. The Senators and People retire in confusion.]


The Senators took their hidden daggers from their toga's today and plunged them into the heart of the Republican Party. I can only hope the Republic does not fall.


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