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Re-enter CESAR and his Train.

Bru. The games are done, and Cæsar is returning.

Cas. As they pass by, pluck Casca by the sleeve; And he will, after his sour fashion, tell you What hath proceeded worthy note to day.

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 cheek is pale: and Cicero
Looks with such ferret and such fiery eyes
As we have seen him in the Capitol,
Being crossed in conference by some senators.
Cas. Casca will tell us what the matter is.
Cæs. Antonius:

Ant. Cæsar.

Cæs. Let me have men about me that are fat; Sleekheaded 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.

Cas. '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:.
Seldom he smiles; and smiles in such a sort
As if he mocked himself, and scorned his spirit
That could be moved to smile at anything.
Such men as he be never at heart's ease
Whiles they behold a greater than themselves;
And therefore are they very dangerous.
I rather tell thee what is to be feared,
Than what I fear; for always I am Cæsar.
Come on my right hand (for this ear is deaf),
And tell me truly what thou think'st of him.
[Exeunt CESAR and his Train. CASCA stays
behind.

Casca. You pulled me by the cloak: would you speak with me?

Bru. Ay, Casca: tell us what hath chanced to-day,

That Cæsar looks so sad?

Casca. Why, you were with him, were you not? Bru. I should not then ask Casca what hath chanced.

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?
Casca. Why, for that too.

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?
Casca. Why, Antony.

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, 't was 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 loath 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 hooted, and clapped their chapped hands, and threw up their sweaty nightcaps, and uttered such a deal of stinking breath because Cæsar refused the crown, that it had almost choked Cæsar; 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

sickness.

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 anything 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.

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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 more foolery yet, if I could remember it.

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. Cas. Good: I will expect you. Casca. Do so: farewell both.

[Exit.

Bru. What a blunt fellow is this grown to be! He was quick mettle when he went to school. Cas. So is he now in execution

Of any bold or noble enterprise,
However he puts on this tardy form.
This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit,
Which gives men stomach to digest his words
With better appetite.

Bru. And so 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.
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 disposed. Therefore 't is meet
That noble minds keep ever with their likes:
For who so firm that cannot be seduced?
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 shall shake him, or worse days endure.
[Exit.

SCENE III.-The same. A Street.
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 moved, when all the sway of earth

Shakes like a thing unfirm? O Cicero,
I have seen tempests when the scolding winds
Have rived the knotty oaks; and I have seen
The ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam,
To be exalted with the threatening clouds:
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

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

Cic. Indeed it is a strange-disposéd 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.

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And when the cross blue lightning seemed 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.

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 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-forméd faculties,

To monstrous quality;-why, you shall find
That heaven hath infused 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 father's minds are dead, And we are governed with our mothers' spirits: Our yoke and sufferance shew 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;
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.

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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 armed,
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.

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And look you lay it in the prætor's chair,
Where Brutus may but find it: and throw this
In at his window: set this up with wax
Upon old Brutus' statue. All this done,
Repair to Pompey's porch, where you shall
find us.

Is Decius Brutus and Trebonius there?

Cin. All but Metellus Cimber; and he's gone 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 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 sure of him.

[Exeunt.

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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 hatched, would, as his kind, grow mis-
chievous;

And kill him in the shell.

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