Question

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

Answer 1

Hello. Although you have presented the text you have not asked the question to which this text is associated. Therefore, I will explain to you what is happening in this text and I hope that this can help you to answer your question.

This text is an excerpt from the play "Julio Cesar" written by Shakespeare. This passage is spoken by Brutus when he feels indignant that Cassius refused to lend him gold, so that he would be able to pay the members of his army. Brutus believes that Cassius is being selfish, as he has a lot of gold and lending a little would not be missed, especially to such a close friend. In this same excerpt, Brutus shows regret for having trusted Cassius' friendship and states that if the situation happened to the contrary he would never deny gold to a friend and would expect him to get gold through criminal or unethical practices such as exploiting peasants, such as Cassius told him to do it.