Cæsar's images, are put to silence. Fare you well. 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. Bru. What a blunt fellow is this grown to be? He was quick mettle, when he went to school. Of any bold or noble enterprize, However he puts on this tardy form. Which gives men stomach to digest his words With better appetite. [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, Cas. I will do so :-till then, think of the world. [Exit BRUTUS. Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see, Thy honourable metal may be wrought From that it is dispos'd: Therefore 'tis meet That noble minds keep ever with their likes : For who so firm, that cannot be seduc'd? Cæsar doth bear me hard; but he loves Brutus : If I were Brutus now, and he were Cassius, He should not humour me.3 I will this night, In several hands, in at his windows throw, As if they came from several citizens, Writings, all tending to the great opinion That Rome holds of his name; wherein obscurely [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 Shakes, like a thing unfirm? O Cicero, I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds Cic. Why, saw you any thing more wonderful ? Casca. A common slave (you know him well by sight,) Who glar'd upon me,6 and went surly by, Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women, Transformed with their fear; who swore, they saw Cic. Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time : Casca. He doth; for he did bid Antonius [5] The whole weight or momentum of this globe. JOHNS. [6] Glar'd has a singular propriety, as it is highly expressive of the fu rious scintillation of a lion's eye. STEEV. Cic. Good night then, Casca : this disturbed sky Is not to walk in. Casca. Farewell, Cicero. Enter CASSIUS. Cas. Who's there? Casca. A Roman. 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. Casc. 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 Why all these fires, why all these gliding ghosts, 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. WARB JOHNS. 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 ;' 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! My answer must be made: 2 But I am arm'd, 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. 21 I shall be called to account, and must answer as for seditious words. JOHNS. That is no fleering tell-tale. Hold my hand;3 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 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, And look you lay it in the prætor's chair, 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. [ExitCIN. [3] Here's my hand. JOH. [4] Factious, seems here to mean active. JQH. |