Even at noon-day, upon the market-place,
Hooting, and fhrieking. When these prodigies
Do fo conjointly meet, let not men say,
These 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 strange-difpofed time:
But men may conftrue things after their fashion,
Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.
Comes Cæfar 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. Your ear is good. Caffius, what night is this?

CAS. A very pleafing night to honest men.

CASCA. Who ever knew the heavens menace fo?

CAS. Those, 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, Cafca, 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.

CASCA. But wherefore did you fo much tempt
It is the part of men to fear and tremble,
When the most mighty gods, by tokens, fend
VOL. V. -

Р

[vens?

the hea

Such dreadful heralds to aftonish us.

CAS. You are dull, Casca; and those sparks of life That should be in a Roman, you do want,

Or else you use not: You look pale, and gaze,
And put on fear, and caft yourself in wonder,
To see the strange impatience of the heavens:
But if you would confider the true cause,

Why all thefe fires, why all these gliding ghosts,
Why birds, and beafts, 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 monftrous quality; why, you shall find,
That heaven hath infus'd them with thefe fpirits,
To make them inftruments of fear, and warning,
Unto fome monftrous 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,
And fearful, as thefe ftrange eruptions arc.

CASCA. 'Tis Cæfar that you mean: Is it not, Caffius?
CAS. Let it be who it is: for Romans now

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

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

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

CAS. 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 brafs,
Nor airless dungeon, nor ftrong links of iron,
Can be retentive to the ftrength of fpirit;
But life, being weary of these worldly bars,
Never lacks power to dismiss itself.

If I know this, know all the world befides,
That part of tyranny, that I do bear,

I can fhake off at pleasure.

So

CASCA. SO Can I :

every

bondman in his own hand bears

The power to cancel his captivity.

CAS. And why fhould Cæfar be a tyrant then?
Poor man! I know, he would not be a wolf,
But that he fees, the Romans are but sheep:
He were no lion, were not Romans hinds.
Those that with hafte 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 Cæfar? But, O, grief!
Where haft thou led me? I, perhaps, fpeak 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 Cafca; and to fuch a man,
That is no fleering tell-tale. Hold my hand:
Be factious for redrefs of all thefe griefs;

And I will fet this foot of mine as far,

Now know you,

Cafca, I have mov'd already
Some certain of the nobleft-minded Romans,
To undergo, with me, an enterprize
Of honourable-dangerous confequence;
And I do know, by this, they ftay for me
In Pompey's porch: For now, this fearful night,
There is no ftir, or walking in the streets;
And the complexion of the element,

Is favour'd, like the work we have in hand,
Moft bloody, fiery, and moft terrible.

Enter CINNA.

CASCA. Stand clofe awhile, for here comes one in hafte. GAS. 'Tis Cinna, I do know him by his gait;

He is a friend.-Cinna, where haste you fo?

CIN. To find out you: Who's that? Metellus Cimber? CAS. No, it is Cafca; one incorporate

To our attempts. Am I not ftaid for, Cinna?

CIN. I am glad on't. What a fearful night is this? There's two or three of us have feen ftrange fights. CAS. Am I not ftaid for, Cinna? Tell me.

CIN. Yes,

You are. O, Caffius, if you

could but win

The noble Brutus to our party—

CAS. Be you content: Good Cinna, take this
And look you lay it in the prætor's chair,

Where Brutus may but find it; and throw this
In at his window: fet this up
with wax

Upon old Brutus' ftatue: all this done,

paper,

Repair to Pompey's porch, where you fhall find us.
Is Decius Brutus, and Trebonius, there?

CIN. All but Metellus Cimber; and he's gone
To feek you at your houfe. Well, I will hie,
And fo bestow these papers as you bade me.

CAS. That done, repair to Pompey's theatre.

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

[Exit CINNA.

CASCA. O, he fits high in all the people's hearts:
And that, which would appear offence in us,
His countenance, like richest alchymy,

Will change to virtue, and to worthiness.

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 fure of him.

ACT II.

SCENE I. The fame. BRUTUS's Orchard.

Enter BRUTUS.

BRU. What, Lucius! ho!

[Exeunt.

I cannot, by the progress of the stars,
Give guess how near to day.-Lucius, I fay!
I would it were my fault to fleep fo foundly.-
When, Lucius, when? Awake, I fay: What Lucius!

Enter LUCIUS.

Luc. Call'd you, my lord?

BRU. Get me a taper in my study, Lucius :

When it is lighted, come and call me here.

Luc. I will, my lord.

BRU. It must be by his death: and, for my part,

I know no perfonal cause to spurn at him,

But for the general. He would be crown'd :

[Exit.

How that might change his nature, there's the question.