CAS. Those that have known the earth so full of faults.

a

For my part, I have walk'd about the streets,
Submitting me unto the perilous night;
And, thus unbraced, Casca, as you see,
Have bar'd my bosom to the thunder-stone:
And when the cross blue lightning seem'd to open
The breast of heaven, I did present myself
Even in the aim and very flash of it.

CASCA. But wherefore did you so much tempt the heavens?

It is the part of men to fear and tremble,
When the most mighty gods, by tokens, send
Such dreadful heralds to astonish us.

[life

b

CAS. You are dull, Casca; and those sparks of
That should be in a Roman you do want,
Or else you use not. You look pale, and gaze,
And put on fear, and cast yourself in wonder,
To see the strange impatience of the heavens:
But if you would consider the true cause
Why all these fires, why all these gliding ghosts,
Why birds and beasts, from quality and kind;
Why old men fools, and children calculate;
Why all these things change from their ordinance,
Their natures, and pre-formed faculties,
To monstrous quality;-why, you shall find,
That heaven hath infus'd them with these spirits,
To make them instruments of fear and warning
Unto some monstrous state.

Now could I, Casca, name to thee a man
Most like this dreadful night,

That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars
As doth the lion in the Capitol,-
A man no mightier than thyself or me,
In personal action; yet prodigious grown,
And fearful, as these strange eruptions are.

CASCA. 'Tis Cæsar that you mean; is it not,
Cassius?

CAS. Let it be who it is: for Romans now
Have thews and limbs 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 sufferance show us womanish.

CASCA. Indeed, they say the senators to-morrow Mean to establish Cæsar as a king; And he shall wear his crown by sea and land, In every place, save here in Italy.

CAS. I know where I will wear this dagger then ; Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius: Therein, ye gods, you make the weak most strong;

athe thunder-stone:] "The thunder-stone is the imaginary produce of the thunder, which the ancients called Brontia, mentioned by Pliny (N. H. xxxvii. 10) as a species of gem, and as that which, falling with the lightning, does the mischief."CRAIK.

b Why birds and beasts, from quality and kind;] That is, why they reverse their habits and nature.

Why old men fools, and children calculate ;] The old copy points thus,

"Why old men, fools, and children calculate; "

Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat:
Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,
Can be retentive to the strength of spirit;
But life, being weary of these worldly bars,
Never lacks power to dismiss itself.
If I know this, know all the world besides,
That part of tyranny that I do bear
I can shake off at pleasure.
CASCA.

[Thunder still.

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

CAS. And why should Cæsar be a tyrant, then?
Poor man ! I know he would not be a wolf,
But that he sees the Romans are but sheep:
He were no lion, were not Romans hinds.
Those that with haste will make a mighty fire
Begin it with weak straws: what trash is Rome,
What rubbish, and what offal, when it serves
For the base matter to illuminate

So vile a thing as Cæsar!-but, O, grief!
Where hast thou led me? I, perhaps, speak this
Before a willing bondman; then I know
My answer must be made: but I am arm'd,
And dangers are to me indifferent.

CASCA. You speak to Casca; and to such a man
That is no fleering tell-tale. Hold my hand:
Be factious for redress of all these griefs;
And I will set this foot of mine as far
As who goes farthest.

CAS.
There's a bargain made.
Now know you, Casca, I have mov'd already
Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans,
To undergo with me an enterprise

Of honourable-dangerous consequence;
And I do know, by this, they stay for me

In Pompey's porch for now, this fearful night,
There is no stir or walking in the streets;
And the complexion of the element

In favour's like the work we have in hand,
Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible.

[haste. CASCA. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in CAS. 'Tis Cinna,-I do know him by his gait; He is a friend.

but the punctuation we adopt, which was long ago suggested by Blackstone, clearly gives the sense and antithesis intended, i. e. why we have all these fires, &c. why old men, in spite of their experience, have turned fools, and children prophesy. dmonstrous-] unnatural, ominously prophetic. eprodigious-] Portentous, ominous.

f In favour's like] This is Johnson's reading. The folio has, "Is Favors, like," &c. Capell proposed, "Is favoured like; Rowe, "Is fererous like," &c.; and Mr. Hunter would substitute "It favours like," &c.

To seek you at your house. Well, I will hie,
And so bestow these papers as you bade me.

CAS. That done, repair to Pompey's theatre.
[Exit CINNA.

Come, Casca, you and I will yet, ere day,
See Brutus at his house: three parts of him
Is ours already; and the man entire,
Upon the next encounter, yields him ours.

CASCA. O, he sits high in all the people's hearts:
And that which would appear offence in us,
His countenance, like richest alchemy,
Will change to virtue and to worthiness. (3)
CAS. Him, and his worth, and our great need
of him,

You have right well conceited. Let us go,
For it is after midnight; and, ere day,
We will awake him, and be sure of him. [Exeunt.

question.

It is the bright day that brings forth the adder; And that craves wary walking. Crown him?that;

And then, I grant, we put a sting in him,
That at his will he may do danger with.
The abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins
Remorse from power: and, to speak truth of
Cæsar,

I have not known when his affections sway'd
More than his reason. But 't is a common proof,
That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,
Whereto the climber-upward turns his face;
But when he once attains the upmost round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend: so Cæsar may;
Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since the

quarrel

Will bear no colour for the thing he is,
Fashion it thus ;-that what he is, augmented,
Would run to these and these extremities:
And therefore think him as a serpent's egg,
Which, hatch'd, would, as his kind, grow mis-
chievous;

And kill him in the shell.

BRU. Get you to bed again, it is not day. Is not to-morrow, boy, the ides of March? Luc. I know not, sir.

BRU. Look in the calendar, and bring me word. Luc. I will, sir. [Exit. BRU. The exhalations, whizzing in the air, Give so much light, that I may read by them. [Opens the letter and reads. "Brutus, thou sleep'st; awake! and see thyself. Shall Rome, &c. Speak, strike, redress !"— Brutus, thou sleep'st; awake!

Such instigations have been often dropp'd
Where I have took them up.

Shall Rome, &c. Thus must I piece it out;
Shall Rome stand under one man's awe? What

Re-enter LUCIUS.

Luc. The taper burneth in your closet, sir. Searching the window for a flint, I found [Giving a letter. This thus seal'd up; and, I am sure, paper, It did not lie there when I went to bed.

I know no personal cause to spurn at him,
But for the general,-he would be crown'd:]

This may either mean,-I know no personal cause of enmity against him; only the general, i.e. the public good; or,-I know no personal cause, &c. only the general one, that he would be crowned. bhe may do danger with.] He may do damage, or mischief with.

c-prevent.] We have before explained that to prevent (prævenire) in Shakespeare's day was always employed in the sense of to come before, or anticipate; whether the purpose of prevention were to hinder or to aid.

das his kind,-] According to his nature; or, like his species.