saw Mark Antony offer him a crown: yet 'twas
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 240
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 chopped hands and threw up their
sweaty night-caps and uttered such a deal of
stinking breath because Cæsar refused the crown,
that it had almost choked Cæsar; for he swounded
and fell down at it: and for mine own part, I
durst not laugh, for fear of opening my lips and 250
receiving the bad air.
Cas. But, soft, I pray you: what, did Cæsar swound?
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 260 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 270
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 any thing?
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.
Bru. What a blunt fellow is this grown to be i
He was quick metal 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.
Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see,
Thy honourable metal may be wrought
From that it is disposed: therefore, it 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 will shake him, or worse days endure.
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 any thing 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 ha' not since put up my sword-
Against the Capitol I met a lion,
Who glazed 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':
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. Your ear is good. Cassius, what night is this!
Cas. A very pleasing night to honest men.
Casca. Who ever knew the heavens menace so?
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 bared 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 ?
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