Cic. Good night then, Casca: this disturbed sky Is not to walk in. Casca. Farewell, Cicero. Cas. Who's there? Casca. A Roman. Enter CASSIUS. Cas. Casca, by your voice. [Exit CICERO 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 bar'd my bosom to the thunder-stone : And, when the cross blue lightning seem'd to open 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 [6] A stone fabulously supposed to be discharged by thunder. STEEVENS. 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 things change from their ordinance. [8] Calculate here signifies to foretell, to prophesy. JOHNSON. WARBURTON. A man no mightier than thyself, or me, In personal action, yet prodigious grown,9 Casca. 'Tis Cæsar that you mean: Is it not, Cassius ? Cas. Let it be who it is: for Romans now Have thewes and limbs like to their ancestors ;1 But, woe the while! our fathers' minds are dead And we are govern'd with our mothers' spirits; Our yoke and sufferance show us womanish. Casca. Indeed, they say, the senators to-morrow And he shall wear his crown by sea, and land, Cas. I know where I will wear this dagger then ; Therein, ye gods, you make the weak most strong; If I know this, know all the world besides, 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, STEEVENS. Prodigious is portentous. STEE. JOHN That is no fleering tell-tale. Hold my hand; Cas. There's a bargain made. Now know you, Casca, I have mov'd already Is favour'd, like the work we have in hand, Enter CINNA. Casca. Stand close a while, 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, Where Brutus may but find it; and throw this Upon old Brutus' statue: all this done, Repair to Pompey's porch, where you shall find us. Cin. All but Metellus Cimber; and he's gone To seek you at your house. Well, I will hie, Cas. That done, repair to Pompey's theatre. [Exit CIN., Come, Casca, you and I will, yet, ere day, See Brutus at his house: three parts of him [8] Here's my hand. [4] Factious, seems here to mean active. JOHNSON. Casca. O, he sits high, in all the people's hearts: 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. ACT II. [Exeunt. SCENE I.-Brutus' garden. Enter BRUTUS Bru. WHAT, Lucius ! ho! I cannot, by the progress of the stars, Give guess how near to day.-Lucius, I say!— 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. Bru. It must be by his death: for my part, I know no personal cause to spurn at him, [Exit How that might change his nature, there's the question. It is the bright day, that brings forth the adder; And that craves wary walking. Crown him?—That ;- That at his will he may do danger with. Remorse from power : And, to speak truth of Cæsar, Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since the quarrel [5] Remorse for mercy. WARBURTON. [6] That is, low steps. JOHNSON. Will bear no colour for the thing he is, Which, hatch'd, would, as his kind,' grow mischievous; And kill him in the shell. Re-enter Lucius. Luc. The taper burneth in your closet, sır. Bru. Look in the calendar, and bring me word. Bru. The exhalations, whizzing in the air, [Exit. [Opens the letter, and reads. Such instigations have been often dropp'd 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. Speak, strike, redress !—Am I entreated then To speak, and strike? O Rome! I make thee promise, Re-enter LUCIUS. Luc. Sir, March is wasted fourteen days. [Knock within. [Exit LUCIUS. Bru. 'Tis good. Go to the gate; somebody knocks. Since Cassius first did whet me against Cæsar, I have not slept. Between the acting of a dreadful thing And the first motion, all the interim is Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream : According to his nature. JOHNSON. That nice critic, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, complains that of all kind of |