CASCA. Your ear is good. Caffius, what night is this?

CAS. A very pleasing night to honest men.

CASCA. Who ever knew the heavens menace fo? 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 bofom to the thunder-ftone: "
And, when the crofs blue lightning feem'd to open
The breast of heaven, I did prefent myself
Even in the aim and very flash of it.

fo

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, fend
Such dreadful heralds to astonish us.

CAS. You are dull, Cafca; 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 fee the strange impatience of the heavens:
But if you would confider the true cause,

Why all these fires, why all these gliding ghofts,

5 thunder-ftone:] A ftone fabulously supposed to be difcharged by thunder. So, in Cymbeline :

"Fear no more the lightning-flash,

"Nor the all-dreaded thunder-ftone." STEEVENS.

Why birds, and beafts, from quality and kind; '
Why old men fools, and children calculate;"
Why all these things change, from their ordinance,
Their natures, and pre-formed faculties,
To monftrous quality; why, you fhall find,
That heaven hath infus'd them with these spirits,
To make them inftruments of fear, and warning,
Unto fome monftrous ftate. Now could I, Cafca,
Name to thee a man moft like this dreadful night;
That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars
As doth the lion in the Capitol :

A man no mightier than thyfelf, or me,
In perfonal action; yet prodigious grown,'

5 Why birds, and beafts, from quality and kind; &c.] That is, Why they deviate from quality and nature. This line might perhaps be more properly placed after the next line:

Why birds, and beafts, from quality and kind,

Why all these things change from their ordinance. JOHNSON. 6 — and children calculate;] Calculate here fignifies to foretel or prophefy for the cuftom of foretelling fortunes by judicial aftrology (which was at that time much in vogue) being performed by a long tedious calculation, Shak fpeare, with his ufual liberty, employs the Species [calculate] for the genus [foretel]. WARBURTON. Shakspeare found the liberty established. To calculate the nati vity, is the technical term. JOHNSON.

So, in The Paradife of Daintie Deuifes, edit. 1576. Article 54, figned, M. Bew:

"Thei calculate, thei chaunt, the charme,

"To conquere us that meane no harme."

This author is fpeaking of women.

STEEVENS.

There is certainly no prodigy in old men's calculating from their past experience. The wonder is, that old men fhould not, and that children fhould. I would therefore [inftead of old men, fools, and children, &c.] point thus:

7

Why old men fools, and children calculate. BLACKSTONE.

prodigious grown,] Prodigious is portentous. So, in Troilus and Creffida:

"It is prodigious, there will be fome change." See Vol. V. p. 170, n. 7. STEEVENS.

And fearful, as these strange eruptions are.

CASCA. 'Tis Cæfar that you mean: Is it not,

Caffius?

CAS. Let it be who it is: for Romans now Have thewes and limbs like to their ancestors; But, woe the while! our fathers' minds are dead, And we are govern'd with our mothers' fpirits; Our yoke and fufferance show us womanish.

CASCA. Indeed, they fay, the fenators to-morrow Mean to establish Cæfar as a king:

And he fhall wear his crown, by fea, and land,
In every place, fave here in Italy.

CAS. I know where I will wear this dagger then;
Caffius from bondage will deliver Caffius:
Therein, ye gods, you make the weak moft ftrong;
Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat:
Nor ftony tower, nor walls of beaten brafs,
Nor airlefs dungeon, nor ftrong links of iron,
Can be retentive to the ftrength of fpirit;
But life, being weary of thefe worldly bars,
Never lacks power to dismiss itself.

If I know this, know all the world befides,
That part of tyranny, that I do bear,

I can fhake off at pleasure.

CASCA.

So can I :

So every bondman in his own hand bears
The power to cancel his captivity."

8 Have thewes and limbs-] Thewes is an obfolete word implying nerves or mufcular ftrength. It is ufed by Falstaff in the Second Part of King Henry IV. and in Hamlet:

"For nature, crefcent, does not grow alone

"In theres and bulk."

The two laft folios, [1664 and 1685] in which fome words are injudiciously modernized, read finews. STEEVENS.

every bondman-bears

The power to cancel bis captivity.] So, in Cymbeline, A& V. Pofthumus fpeaking of his chains:

CAS. And why should Cæfar be a tyrant then?
Poor man! I know, he would not be a wolf,
But that he fees, the Romans are but sheep:
He were no lion, were not Romans hinds.
Those that with hafte will make a mighty fire,
Begin it with weak ftraws: What trash is Rome,
What rubbish, and what offal, when it ferves
For the base matter to illuminate

So vile a thing as Cæfar? But, O, grief!
Where haft thou led me? I, perhaps, fpeak this
Before a willing bondman: then I know
My answer must be made: But I am arm'd,
And dangers are to me indifferent.

CASCA. You fpeak to Casca; and to fuch a man,
That is no fleering tell-tale. Hold my hand: '
Be factious for redrefs of all these griefs;
And I will fet this foot of mine as far,

As who goes fartheft.

CAS.

There's a bargain made.

Now know you, Cafca, I have mov'd already
Some certain of the nobleft-minded Romans,

"And cancel these cold bonds." HENLEY.

2 My answer must be made:] I fhall be called to account, and must answer as for feditious words. JOHNSON.

So, in Much ado about Nothing: "Sweet prince, let me go no further to mine anfwer; do you hear me, and let this count kill me." STEEVENS.

3 Hold my hand:] Is the fame as, Here's my hand.

JOHNSON. 4 Be factious for redress · -] Factious seems here to mean active, JOHNSON.

It means, I apprehend, embody a party or faction. MALONE. Perhaps Dr. Johnfon's explanation is the true one. Menenius, in Coriolanus, fays, "I have been always factionary on the part of your general;" and the speaker, who is defcribing himself, would fcarce have employed the word in its common and unfavourable fenfe. STEEVENE.

To undergo, with me, an enterprize
Of honourable-dangerous confequence;
And I do know, by this, they stay for me
In Pompey's porch: For now, this fearful night,
There is no ftir, or walking in the streets;
And the complexion of the element,

Is favour'd, like the work we have in hand,
Moft bloody, fiery, and moft terrible.

Enter CINNA.

CASCA. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in hafte.

CAS. 'Tis Cinna, I do know him by his gait; He is a friend.-Cinna, where hafte you fo?

CIN. To find out you: Who's that? Metellus Cimber?

CAS. No, it is Cafca; one incorporate

To our attempts. Am I not ftaid for, Cinna? CIN. I am glad on't. What a fearful night is this?

There's two or three of us have feen ftrange fights.

Is favour'd, like the work-] The old edition reads :

Is favors, like the work

I think we fhould read:

In favour's like the work we have in hand,

Moft bloody, fiery, and moft terrible.

Favour is look, countenance, appearance. JOHNSON.

To favour is to refemble. Thus Stanyhurst in his translation of the Third Book of Virgil's Eneid, 1582:

"With the petit town gates favouring the principal old portes."

We may read It favours, or-Is favour'd-i. e. is in appearance or countenance like, &c. See Vol. IV. p. 323, n. 3.

Perhaps fev'rous is the true reading: So, in Macbeth:

"Some fay the earth

"Was feverous, and did fhake." REED.

STEEVENS,