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? He was quick mettle, when he went to school. Cas. So is he now, in execution Of any bold or noble enterprize, However he puts on this tardy form. This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit, Which gives men stomach to digest his words [Exit. 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, For we will shake him, or worse days endure. [Exit. [2] The best metal or temper may be worked into qualities contrary to its original constitution. JOHNS. [3] The meaning, I think is this. "Cæsar loves Brutus, but if Brutus and I were to change places, his love should not humour me," should not take hold of my affection, so as to make me forget my principles. JOHNS. The same. A Street. SCENE III. Thunder and lightning. Enter, from op posite 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 mov'd, when all the sway of earth 5 Shakes, like a thing unfirm ? O Cicero, I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds Have riv'd the knotty oaks; and I have seen The ambitious ocean swell, and rage, and foam, To be exalted with the threat'ning 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 have not since put up my sword,) Against the Capitol I met a lion, Who glar'd 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: Casca. He doth; for he did bid Antonius JOHNS. [5] The whole weight or momentum of this globe. [6] Glar'd has a singular propriety, as it is highly expressive of the furious scintillation of a lion's eye. STEEV. Cic. Good night then, Casca: this disturbed sky Is not to walk in. Casca. Farewell, Cicero. [Exit CICERO. Enter CASSIUS. Cas. Who's there? Casca. A Roman. Cas. 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, Casc. But wherefore did you so much tempt the heavens? 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 ; 8 Why all these things change, from their ordinance, Their natures, and pre-formed faculties, To monstrous quality; why, you shall find, That heaven hath infus'd 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, [6] A stone fabulously supposed to be discharged by thunder. STEEV. [7] That is, Why they deviate from quality and nature. This line might perhaps be more properly placed after the next lines: Why birds, and beasts, from quality and kind; Why all these thing change from their ordinance. [8] Calculate here signifies to foretel, to prophesy. JOHNS. WARB. In personal action, yet prodigious grown,9 Casca. Indeed, they say, the senators to-morrow Cas. I know where I will wear this dagger then; Casca. So can I: So every bondman in his own hand bears Cas. And why should Cæsar be a tyrant then? So vile a thing as Cæsar? But, O grief! Casca. You speak to Casca; and to such a man, [9] Prodigious is portentous. STEEV. [1] Thewes is an obsolete word implying nerves or muscular strength. STEEV. JOHNS. [2] I shall be called to account, and must answer as for seditious words. That is no fleering tell-tale. Hold my hand ;3 Cas. There's a bargain made. 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. Yes, You are. O, Cassius, if you could but win Cas. Be you content: Good Cinna, take this paper, 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. [ExitCIN. 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. [3] Here's my hand. JOH. [4] Factious, seems here to mean active. JOH. |