sweaty nightcaps, and uttered such a deal of stinking breath because Cæsar 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?

CASCA. Nay, an I tell you that I'll ne'er look you i'the face again: but those that understood him smiled at one another, and shook 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 off Cæsar's images, are put to silence. Fare you well. There was foolery yet, if I could remember it.

more

CAS. Will you sup with me to-night, Casca? CASCA. No, I am promised forth.

CAS. Will you dine with me to-morrow? CASCA. Ay, if I be alive, and your mind hold, and your dinner worth the eating.

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,
I will come home to you; or, if you will,
Come home to me, and I will wait for you.
CAS. I will do so :-till then, think of the world.
[Exit BRUTUS.
Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see
Thy honourable metal may be wrought
From that it is dispos'd: therefore it is meet
That noble minds keep ever with their likes;
For who so firm that cannot be seduc'd?
Cæsar doth bear me hard; but he loves Brutus :
If I were Brutus now, and he were Cassius,
He should not humour me. I will this night,
In several hands, in at his windows throw,
As if they came from several citizens,
Writings, all tending to the great opinion
That Rome holds of his name; wherein obscurely
Cæsar's ambition shall be glanced at :
And, after this, let Cæsar seat him sure;
For we will shake him, or worse days endure.

SCENE III.-The same. A Street.

[Exit.

Thunder and lightning. Enter, from opposite sides, CASCA, with his sword drawn, and CICERO.

Cic. Good even, Casca: brought you Cæsar home?

Why are you breathless? and why stare you so? CASCA. Are not you mov'd, when all the sway of earth

Shakes like a thing unfirm? O, Cicero,

I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds
Have riv'd the knotty oaks; and I have seen
The ambitious ocean swell, and rage, and foam,
To be exalted with the threat'ning clouds:

"if you bear me hard,"

(i.e. if you fear to trust me)

"Now, whilst your purpled hands do reek and smoke. Fulfil your pleasure."

Compare also, Act I. Sc. 2,

"You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand

Over your friend that loves you."

But never till to-night, never till now,
Did I go through a tempest dropping fire.
Either there is a civil strife in heaven;
Or else the world, too saucy with the gods,
Incenses them to send destruction.

CIC. Why, saw you anything more wonderful? CASCA. A common slave (you know him well by sight)

Held

up his left hand, which did flame and burn Like twenty torches join'd; and yet his hand, Not sensible of fire, remain'd unscorch'd." Besides, (I have not since put up my sword) Against the Capitol I met a lion,

Who glar'd upon me, and went surly by
Without annoying me: and there were drawn
Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women,
Transformed with their fear; who swore they saw
Men, all in fire, walk up and down the streets.
And yesterday the bird of night did sit,
Even at noon-day, upon the market-place,
Hooting and shrieking. When these prodigies
Do so conjointly meet, let not men say
These are their reasons,-they are natural;

(*) Old text, glaz'd.

A common slave (you know him well by sight)
Held up his left hand, &c.]

"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

For, I believe, they are portentous things
Unto the climate that they point upon.

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.

CAS. Those that have known the earth so 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 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

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; b 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.

C

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.

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

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.

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

So

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.

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.

which is intolerable; or, as given by Mr. Knight,-
"Yes, you are.

O, Cassius, if you could but win the noble Brutus
To our party;

which is not much better. We adopt the distribution of the lines proposed by Mr. Craik, though even this will hardly satisfy the requirements of an ear accustomed to Shakespearian rhythm.

6 Where Brutus may but find it ;] We should now say, "Where only Brutus may find it."