Now know you, Casca, I have mov'd already 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? Metellus Cimber? Cas. No, it is Casca; one incorporate To our attempts. Am I not staid for, Cinna? 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 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. 3 Is favour'd, -] To favour is to resemble. 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, We will awake him, and be sure of him. [Exeunt. ACT II. SCENE I. The same. Brutus's Orchard. Enter BRUTUS. Bru. What, Lucius! ho! I cannot, by the progress of the stars, Give guess how near to day.-Lucius, I say!- Enter LUCIUS. Luc. Call'd you, my lord? Bru. Get me a taper in my study, Lucius: When it is lighted, come and call me here. Luc. I will, my lord. [Exit. Bru. It must be by his death: and, for my part, I know no personal cause to spurn at him, But for the general. He would be crown'd:- question. It is the bright day, that brings forth the adder; And then, I grant, we put a sting in him, I have not known when his affections sway'd Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since the quarrel And kill him in the shell. Re-enter LUCIUS. Luc. The taper burneth in your closet, sir. Searching the window for a flint, I found This paper, thus seal'd up; and, I am sure, * Remorse from power:] Remorse is pity, tenderness. common proof,] Common proof means a matter proved by Common experience. base degrees] Low steps. 7 as his kind,] i. e. like the rest of his species. It did not lie there, when I went to bed. Bru. Look in the calendar, and bring me word. Bru. The exhalations, whizzing in the air, Give so much light, that I may read by them. [Exit. [Opens the Letter, and reads. Brutus, thou sleep'st; awake, and see thyself. Shall Rome, &c. Speak, strike, redress! Brutus, thou sleep'st; awake,―― Such instigations have been often dropp'd Where I have took them up. Shall Rome, &c. Thus must I piece it out; Shall Rome stand under one man's awe? What! Rome? My ancestors did from the streets of Rome The Tarquin drive, when he was call'd a king. Re-enter LUCIUS. Luc. Sir, March is wasted fourteen days. [Knock within. Bru. 'Tis good. Go to the gate; somebody knocks. [Exit LUCIUS. Since Cassius first did whet me against Cæsar, I have not slept. Between the acting of a dreadful thing Like to a little kingdom, suffers then Re-enter LUCIUS. Luc. Sir, 'tis your brother Cassius at the door, Who doth desire to see you. Bru. Is he alone? Luc. No, sir, there are more with him. Bru. Do you know them? Luc. No, sir; their hats are pluck'd about their ears, And half their faces buried in their cloaks, That by no means I may Bru. discover them Let them enter. Exit LUCIUS. They are the faction. O conspiracy! Sham'st thou to show thy dangerous brow by night, When evils are most free? O, then, by day, Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, conspiracy; Hide in it smiles, and affability: For if thou path, thy native semblance on, Not Erebus itself were dim enough To hide thee from prevention. Enter CASSIUS, CASCA, DECIUS, CINNA, METellus CIMBER, and TREBONIUS. Cas. I think we are too bold upon your rest: Good morrow, Brutus; Do we trouble you? Bru. I have been up this hour; awake, all night. Know I these men, that come along with you? 8 any mark of favour.] Any distinction of countenance. For if thou path, thy native semblance on,] If thou walk in thy true form. |