to detail: these are the three. Without an orderly mind no man can hope (ROGER has gone back to his work ) to excel in any of the learned professions. ( He has found a scrap of paper, rather crushed, in his pocket and smooths its out, uninterestedly, to make a rough spill ). Detail, my good Roger, attention to detail.
That is the beginning of greatness. That is the…..( reading automatically and with some difficulty what is written on the scrap of paper ) ‘ Remember Caesar ’. ( Repeating, with vague interest. He turns the paper back and forth, at a loss.
And then a new idea occurs to him, a rather horrible idea. To ROGER ) What is the date to-day? ( As ROGER, buried again in his work, does 12th - - Page not answer ) Roger! I said, what day of the month is it?
ROGER ( Hardly pausing ): It is the fifteenth, my lord. WESTON: The fifteenth! The fifteenth of March. The Ides of March!
( Looking at the paper again; in a horrified whisper )‘ Remember Caesar ’! ( Louder ) So they want to kill me, do they? They want to kill me? ( ROGER comes to the surface, surprised .) That is what it is to be a judge over men ( all his pompousness is dissolving in agitation ) an instrument of justice.
Sooner or later revenge lies await in the by-ways. And the juster a judge has been, the more fearless ( he waves the paper in the astonished ROGER’s face ), so much greater will be the hate that pursues – ROGER: What is it, my lord? What is it? WESTON: My death warrant if I am not careful.
What cases have we had lately? The treason affair – I refused to be bribed! ( The boast gives him a passing comfort .) The piracy – both sides hate me for that. Or there was that footpad – ROGER: Is it a threat, the paper?
Where did it come from? WESTON: It was in