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 270 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 any thing?

Casca. Ay, he spoke Greek.

Cas. To what effect?

280

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 290 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.

268. a man of any occupation, of any trade; a mechanic.

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 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.

[Exit.

300

310

320

me, Brutus should not work up. on me, as I have done upon him. Others understand 'he' of Cæsar. But this is foreign to the context.

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 glared upon me, and went surly by,

3. sway, controlled and regular order. The notion of 'balanced swing,' or the like, more obvious to us, is not supported by Shakespeare's use of the word.

to.

18. Not sensible of, insensible

ΤΟ

20

21. glared, Rowe's emendation for Ff 'glazed.' The Camb. edd. retain this, but Shakespeare always elsewhere uses 'glare' and 'glaze' in their perfectly distinct modern senses; and 'glaze' has not been adduced in any other.

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.

3C

Farewell, Cicero. [Exit Cicero. 40

Enter CASSIUS.

Cas. Who's there?

Casca.

Cas.

A Roman.

Casca, by your voice.

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 50
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 Román 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 fool and children calculate,
Why all these things change from their ordinance
Their natures and preformed 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

48. unbraced, with doublet open. Elizabethan dress is assumed throughout. Cf. i. 2. 267.

50. cross, forked.

56. astonish, stun with terror. 60. cast yourself in wonder, throw yourself into a state of wonder. Casca's fear and wonder are in so far voluntary

as he might avoid them

60

70

if he

would consider the true case'

of the marvels.

64. from; cf. v. 35.

ib. kind, nature.

65. fool, act like fools, lose their heads; Mitford's probable emendation of Ff 'fooles.'

65. calculate, prognosticate. 67. preformed, original.