man?.

pleased them, as they ufe to do the players in the theatre, pleafed I am no true man 7.

Bru. What faid he, when he came unto himself?

Cafca. Marry, before he fell down, when he perceiv'd the common herd was glad he refufed the crown, he pluck'd me ope his doublet, and offer'd them his throat to cut.-An I had been a man of any occupation, if L would not have taken him at a word, I would I might go to hell among the rogues :-and fo he fell. When he came to himself again, he said, If he had done, or faid, any thing amifs, he defired their worships to think it was his infirmity. Three or four wenches, where I stood, cry'd, Alas, good foul!-and forgave him with all their hearts: But there's no heed to be taken of them; if Cæfar had stabb'd their mothers, they would have done no less. Bru. And after that, he came, thus fad, away? Cafca. Ay.

Caf. Did Cicero fay any thing?
Cafca. Ay, he spoke Greek,,
Caf. To what effect?

Cafca. Nay, an I tell you that, I'll ne'er look you i' the face again: But thofe, that understood him, fmiled at one another, and fhook their heads: but, for mine own part, it was Greek to me. I could tell you more news too: Marullus and Flavius, for pulling scarfs of Cæfar's images, are put to filence. Fare you well. There was more foolery yet, if I could remember it.

Caf. Will you fup with me to-night, Casca?
Cafca. No, I am promifed forth.

Caf. Will you dine with me to-morrow?

Cafca. Ay, if I be alive, and your mind hold, and your dinner worth the eating.

Caf. Good; I will expect you.

Cafca. Do fo: Farewel both.

[Exit CASCA

Bru. What a blunt fellow is this grown to be?

He was quick mettle, when he went to school.
Caf. So he is now, in execution.

Of any bold or noble enterprize,

7 no true man.] No honeft man.

How.

8 Had I been a mechanick, one of the Plebeians to whom he offered

his throat.

1

However he puts on this tardy form.

This rudeness is a fauce to his good wit,
Which gives men stomach to digest his words
With better appetite.

Bru. And fo it is. For this time I will leave you:
To-morrow, if you please to speak with me,
I will come home to you; or, if you will,
Come home to me, and I will wait for you.
Caf. I will do fo:-till then, think of the world.
[Exit BRUTUS.
Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I fee,
Thy honourable metal may be wrought

From that it is difpos'd9: Therefore 'tis meet -
That noble minds keep ever with their likes:
For who fo firm, that cannot be feduc'd?

Cæfar doth bear me hard; but he loves Brutus :
If I were Brutus now, and he were Caffius,
He should not humour me. I will this night,
In feveral hands, in at his windows throw, -
As if they came from feveral citizens,
Writings, all tending to the great opinion
That Rome holds of his name; wherein obfcurely
Cafar's ambition shall be glanced at:

And, after this, let Cæsar seat him fure;
For we will shake him, or worse days endure:

SCENE III.

The fame. A Street.

[Exit

Lightning. Enter, from oppofite fides, CASCA, with his fword drawn, and CICERO.

Cic. Good even, Cafca: Brought you Cæfar home2? Why are you breathlefs? and why stare you fo?

Cafca.

9 The best metal or temper may be worked into qualities contrary to its original constitution.

1 The meaning I think is, Cæfar loves Brutus, but if Brutus and I were to change places, bis love should not bumour me, should not take: hold of my affection, so as to make me forget my principles.

2 - • Brought you Cæfar bome ?] Did you attend Cælar home?

Cajca. Are you not mov'd, when all the sway of earth3 Shakes, like a thing unfirm? O Cicero,

I have seen tempefts, when the fcolding winds
Have riv'd the knotty oaks; and I have seen
The ambitious ocean fwell, and rage, and foam,
To be exalted with the threat'ning clouds:
But never till to-night, never till now,
Did I go through a tempeft dropping fire.
Either there is a civil ftrife in heaven;
Or elfe the world, too faucy with the gods,
Incenses them to fend destruction.

Cic. Why, faw you any thing more wonderful?
Cafca. A common flave (you know him well by fight)
Held up
his left hand, which did flame, and burn
Like twenty torches join'd; and yet his hand,
Not fenfible of fire, remain❜d unscorch'd.
Befides, (I have not fince put up my fword,)
Against the Capitol I met a lion,

Who gaz'd upon me, and went furly by,
Without annoying me: And there were drawn

Upon a heap a hundred ghaftly women,

Transformed with their fear; who fwore, they faw
Men, all in fire, walk up and down the streets.
And, yesterday, the bird of night did fit,
Even at noon-day, upon the market-place,
Hooting, and fhrieking. When these prodigies
Do fo conjointly meet, let not men say,
Thefe are their reafons,―They are natural;
For, I believe, they are portentous things
Unto the climate that they point upon.

Cic. Indeed, it is a ftrange-difpoled time:
But men may conftrue things after their fashion,
Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.
Comes Cæfar to the Capitol to-morrow?

Cafea. He doth; for he did bid Antonius
Send word to you, he would be there to-morrow.
Cic. Good night then, Casca: this disturbed sky

Is

3-fway of earth-] The whole weight or momentum of this globe. 4 Clean is altogether, entirely.

Is not to walk in.

[Exit CICERO,

Enter CASSIUS.

Cafca. Farewel, Cicero.

Caf. Who's there?

Cafca. A Roman.

Caf. Cafca, by your voice.

Cafca. Your ear is good. Caffius, what night is this? Caf. A very pleafing night to honeft men.

Cafca. Who ever knew the heavens menace fo?

Caf. Thofe, that have known the earth fo full of faults,

For my part, I have walk'd about the streets,
Submitting me unto the perilous night;

And, thus unbraced, Casca, as you fee,

Have bar'd my bofom to the thunder-ftone:

And, when the cross blue lightning feem'd to open
The breaft of heaven, I did prefent myself

Even in the aim and very flash of it.

Cafca. But wherefore did you so much tempt the hea

vens ?

It is the part of men to fear and tremble,
When the most mighty gods, by tokens, fend

Such dreadful heralds to aftonish us.

Caf. You are dull, Cafca; and those sparks of life
That fhould be in a Roman, you do want,
Or else you use not: You look pale, and gaze,
And put on fear, and caft yourfelf in wonder,
To fee the strange impatience of the heavens:
But if you would confider the true cause,

Why all thefe fires, why all thefe gliding ghofts,
Why birds, and beafts, from quality and kind;
Why old men fools and children calculate;
Why all these things change, from their ordinance,

Their

5 That is, Why, they deviate from quality and nature. 6 Calculate here fignifies to foretel or prophely: for the custom of foretelling fortunes by judicial aftrology (which was at that time much in vogue) being performed by a long tedious calculation, Shakspeare, with his ufual liberty, employs the Species [calculate] for the genus [forete!]. WARBURTON. I

Shakspeare found the liber. the technical term. JOHNSO

ished. To calculate a nativity, is

Their natures, and pre-formed faculties,
To monftrous quality; why, you fhall find,
That heaven hath infus'd them with these spirits,
To make them inftruments of fear, and warning,
Unto fome monstrous ftate. Now could I, Cafca,

Name to thee a man moft like this dreadful night;
That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars
As doth the lion in the Capitol:

A man no mightier than thyfelf, or me,
In perfonal action; yet prodigious grown 7,
And fearful, as thefe ftrange eruptions are.

Cafea. 'Tis Cæfar that you mean: Is it not, Caffius è
Caf. Let it be who it is: for Romans now

8

Have thews and limbs 3 like to their ancestors;
But, woe the while! our fathers' minds are dead,
And we are govern'd with our mothers' spirits;
Our yoke and fufferance fhew us womanish.

Cafea. Indeed, they say, the fenators to-morrow
Mean to establish Cæfar as a king:

And he shall wear his crown, by fea, and land,
In every place, fave here in Italy.

Caf. I know where I will wear this dagger then ;
Caffius from bondage will deliver Caffius:
Therein, ye gods, you make the weak moft ftrong;
Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat:
Nor ftony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor ftrong links of iron,
Can be retentive to the ftrength of fpirit;
But life, being weary of thefe worldly bars,
Never lacks power to difmifs itself.

If I know this, know all the world befides,
That part of tyranny, that I do bear,
I can shake off at pleasure.

Cafea. So can Ĩ:

So every bondman in his own hand bears
The power to cancel his captivity.

7

Caf

Prodigious is portentous.

8 Theres is an obfolete word implying nerves or muscular strength. It is used by Falstaff in the Second Part of K. Henry IV, and in Hamler.