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.

Farewell, Cicero. [Exit CICERO.

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 walked about the streets,
Submitting me unto the perilous night;
And, thus unbraced, Casca, as you see,

Have bared my bosom to the thunder-stone; 2

reads gazed. Steevens has shown, from the Poet's own works, that his emendation is the true one.

1 Altogether, entirely.

2 What is now called a thunder bolt.

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;1
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 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 2 grown,
And fearful, as these strange eruptions are.
Casca. 'Tis Cæsar that you mean.

Cassius?

Is it not,

Cas. Let it be who it is; for Romans now

1 i. e. “why birds and beasts deviate from their condition and nature; why old men, fools, and children calculate;" i. e. foretell or prophesy. At the suggestion of sir William Blackstone this last line has been erroneously pointed in all the late editions:

"Why old men fools, and children calculate."

He observed, that "there was no prodigy in old men's calculating; but who were so likely to listen to prophecies as children, fools, and the superstitious eld?"

2 Portentous.

Have thews1 and limbs like to their ancestors:
But, woe the while! our fathers' minds are dead,
And we are governed 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;
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.

Casca.

So can I;

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?
Where hast thou led me?
Before a willing bondman;
My answer must be made.
And dangers are to me indifferent.

But, O grief!

I, perhaps, speak this
then I know
But I am armed,

1 i. e. sinews, muscular strength. See note on King Henry IV. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 2.

2 "I know I shall be called to account, and must answer for having uttered seditious words."

1

Casca. You speak to Casca; and to such a man, That is no fleering telltale. 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 moved already
Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans,
To undergo, with me, an enterprise
Of honorable-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 favor's like the work we have in hand,
Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible.

Enter CINNA.

Casca. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste.

Cas. 'Tis Cinna; I do know him by his gait;
He is a friend.-Cinna, where haste you so?
Cin. To find out you. Who's that?
Cimber?

Cas. No, it is Casca; one incorporate
To our attempts. Am I not staid for, Cinna?

Metellus

Cin. I am glad on't. What a fearful night is this! There's two or three of us have seen strange sights. Cas. Am I not staid for, Cinna? Tell me.

Cin.

You are.

O Cassius, if you could but win

The noble Brutus to our party

Yes,

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

Where Brutus may but find it; and throw this

1 "Hold my hand" is the same as "Here's my hand." "Be factious for redress," means, be contentious, enterprising for redress.

2 The old copy reads, " Is favors." Favor here is put for appearance, look.

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 alchemy,

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.

ACT II.

SCENE I. The same. Brutus's Orchard.1

Enter BRUTUS.

Bru. What, Lucius! ho!

I cannot, by the progress of the stars,

Give guess how near to day.-Lucius, I say!—
I would it were my fault to sleep so soundly.-
When, Lucius, when? Awake, I say. What, Lucius!

1 Orchard and garden appear to have been synonymous with our

ancestors.