BRU. A soothsayer, bids you beware the ides of March. CAS. Set him before me; let me see his face. CAS. Fellow, come from the throng: look upon Cæsar. CES. What say'st thou to me now? speak once again. SOOTH. Beware the Ides of March. CES. He is a dreamer; let us leave him;-pass. [Sennet. Exeunt all but BRUTUS and CASSIUS. CAS. Will you go see the order of the course? BRU. Not I. CAS. I pray you, do. BRU. I am not gamesome: I do lack some part CAS. Brutus, I do observe you now of late: Cassius, Be not deceiv'd: if I have veil'd my look, Which give some soil, perhaps, to my behaviours; CAS. Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your passion; By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried BRU. No, Cassius: for the eye sees not itself, But by reflection by some other things. CAS. 'Tis just: That you would have me seek into myself CAS. Therefore, good Brutus, be prepar❜d to hear: And, since you know you cannot see yourself [Flourish and shout. BRU. What means this shouting? I do fear the people Choose Cæsar for their king. CAS. Ay, do you fear it? Then must I think you would not have it so. BRU. I would not, Cassius; yet I love him well. But wherefore do you hold me here so long? I was born free as Cæsar; so were you: And bade him follow: so, indeed, he did. or, "-from some other things," the second "by" in the o.d text being an accidental repetition of the compositor. d Were I a common laugher,-] Rowe's correction; the old copy having, "Laughter." As Mr. Craik remarks, neither word seems to be quite satisfactory. Cæsar cried, Help me, Cassius, or I sink. I, as Æneas, our great ancestor, Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber Did I the tired Cæsar: and this man Is now become a god; and Cassius is A wretched creature, and must bend his body And bear the palm alone. [Flourish, and shout. I do believe that these applauses are For some new honours that are heap'd on Cæsar. CAS. Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus; and we petty men Men at some time are masters of their fates: Why should that name be sounded more than yours? Write them together, yours is as fair a name; Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods! A -wide walks-] Modern editors nearly all adopt the emendation, wide walls, proposed by Rowe, but the original, "wide walks," i.e." spacious bounds," ought not to be displaced. "In the time of civil warres the souldiers of the Castell and chanons of Old Sarum fell at ods, insomuch that after other bralles they fell at last to sad blowes. It happened therefore in a rogation weeke that the clergie going in solemne procession a controversie fell betweene them about certeine walkes and limits which the one side claimed and the other denied. Such also was the hot entertainment on ech part, that at the last the Castellanes espieng their time, gate betweene the cleargie and the towne, and so cotled them as they returned homeward, that they feared anie a That her wide walks encompass'd but one man? O, you and I have heard our fathers say, There was a Brutus once that would have brook'd BRU. That you do love me, I am nothing What you would work me to, I have some aim; I will with patience hear; and find a time Than to repute himself a son of Rome CAS. I am glad that my weak words Have struck but thus much show of fire from [turning. Brutus. BRU. The games are done, and Cæsar is reCAS. As they pass by, pluck Casca by the sleeve; And he will, after his sour fashion, tell you What has proceeded worthy note to-day. Re-enter CESAR and his Train. BRU. I will do so:-but, look you, Cassius, The angry spot doth glow on Cæsar's brow, And all the rest look like a chidden train : Calphurnia's check is pale; and Cicero Looks with such ferret and such fiery eyes, As we have seen him in the Capitol, Being cross'd in conference by some senators. CAS. Casca will tell us what the matter is. CES. Antonius,— ANT. Cæsar. CES. Let me have men about me that are fat; Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights: Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous." ANT. Fear him not, Cæsar, he's not dangerous; He is a noble Roman, and well given. more to gang about their bounds for a yeare.-HOLINSHED'S Description of Britaine, p. 57. b Let me have men about me that are fat; " &c.] So in North's translation of Plutarch's Life of Julius Cæsar:-"Cæsar also had Cassius in great jealousie, and suspected him much: whereupon he said on a time to his friends, what wil Cassius do, thinke ye? I like not his pale lookes. Another time when Cæsars friends complained unto him of Antonius and Dolabella, that they pretended some mischiefe towards him, he answered them again, As for those fat men and smooth combed heads, quoth he, I never reckon of them; but these pale visaged and carion leane people, I feare them most, meaning Brutus and Cassius." CES. Would he were fatter!-but I fear him not: Yet if my name were liable to fear, I do not know the man I should avoid So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much; He is a great observer, and he looks Quite through the deeds of men: he loves no plays, As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music: [Exeunt CESAR and his Train. CASCA CASCA. You pull'd me by the cloak; would you speak with me? BRU. Ay, Casca; tell us what hath chanc'd today, That Cæsar looks so sad? CASCA. Why, you were with him, were you not? BRU. I should not, then, ask Casca what had chanc'd. CASCA. Why, there was a crown offered him: and being offered him, he put it by with the back of his hand, thus; and then the people fell a shouting. BRU. What was the second noise for? CAS. They shouted thrice: what was the last cry for? CASCA. Why, for that too. BRU. Was the crown offered him thrice? CASCA. Ay, marry, was't, and he put it by thrice, every time gentler than other; and at every putting-by, mine honest neighbours shouted. CAS. Who offered him the crown? BRU. Tell us the manner of it, gentle Casca. CASCA. I can as well be hanged as tell the manner of it: it was mere foolery; I did not mark it. I saw Mark Antony offer him a crown ;-yet 't was not a crown neither, 'twas one of these coronets; and, as I told you, he put it by once; but for all that, to my thinking, he would fain have had it. Then he offered it to him again; then he put it by again: but, to my thinking, he was very loth to lay his fingers off it. And then he offered it the third time; he put it the third time by: and still as he refused it, the rabblement shouted," and clapped their chapped hands, and threw up their the rabblement shouted,-] This emendation is due to Hanmer, the first three folios having howted, and the fourth houted. EE sweaty nightcaps, and uttered such a deal of stinking breath because Caesar refused the crown, that it had almost choked Cæsar ;(2) for he swooned, and fell down at it: and for mine own part, I durst not laugh, for fear of opening my lips, and receiving the bad air. CAS. But, soft, I pray you: what, did Cæsar swoon? CASCA. He fell down in the market-place, and foamed at mouth, and was speechless. BRU. 'Tis very like, he hath the falling sick ness. CAS. No, Cæsar hath it not; but you, and I, And honest Casca, we have the falling sickness. CASCA. I know not what you mean by that; but, I am sure, Cæsar fell down. If the tag-rag people did not clap him and hiss him, according as he pleased and displeased them, as they use to do the players in the theatre, I am no true man. BRU. What said he when he came unto himself? CASCA. Marry, before he fell down, when he perceived the common herd was glad he refused the crown, he plucked me ope his doublet, and offered them his throat to cut !-An I had been a man of any occupation, if I would not have taken him at a word, I would I might go to hell among the rogues—and so he fell. When he came to himself again, he said, If he had done or said any-thing amiss, he desired their worships to think it was his infirmity. Three or four wenches, where I stood, cried Alas, good soul!-and forgave him with all their hearts: but there's no heed to be taken of them; if Cæsar had stabbed their mothers they would have done no less. BRU. And after that, he came, thus sad, away? CASCA. Ay. CAS. Did Cicero say anything? CASCA. Ay, he spoke Greek. CAS. To what effect? a An I had been a man of any occupation,-] If I had been one of the mechanics. b Cæsar doth bear me hard :] The commentators appear to have overlooked the exact force of this. It is an expression borrowed, we believe, from horsemanship, equivalent, literally, to, keeps a tight rein upon me, and, metaphorically, to, does not trust me, or fears, or doubts me: so Antony, in Act III. Sc. 1, says, To-morrow, if you please to speak with me, But never till to-night, never till now, CIC. Why, saw you anything more wonderful? Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn (*) Old text, glaz'd. A common slave (you know him well by sight) "A slave of the souldiers that did cast a marvellous burning flame out of his hands, insomuch as they that saw it thought he had been burnt; but when the fire was out, it was found that he had no hurt."-Life of Julius Cæsar in North's Plutarch. b- what night is this!] Simply, "what a night is this!" the 419 For, I believe, they are portentous things Cic. Indeed, it is a strange disposed time: But men may construe things after their fashion, Clean from the purpose of the things themselves. Comes Cæsar to the Capitol to-morrow? CASCA. 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 not to walk in. CASCA. Farewell, Cicero. [Exit CICERO. |