Cafea. He doth: for he did bid Antonius

Send word to you, he would be there to-morrow.
Cic. Good night then, Cafca; this disturbed sky
Is not to walk in.

Caf. Cafca, by your voice.

[Exit Cicero

Cafea. Your ear is good. Caffius, what night is this? Caf. A very pleafing night to honeft men.

Cafca. Who ever knew the heavens menace fo? Caf. Thofe, that have known the earth fo full of faults. For my part, I have walk'd about the streets, Submitting me unto the perillous night; And thus unbraced, Cafca, as you fee, Have bar'd my bofom to the thunder stone: And when the cross blue lightning feem'd to open The breaft of heaven, I did prefent myself

Ev'n in the aim and very flash of it.

Cafea. But wherefore did you fo much tempt the heav'ns ?

It is the part of men to fear and tremble,
When the most mighty Gods, by tokens, fend
Such dreadful heralds to aftonish us.

Caf. You are dull, Cafca; and thofe fparks 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 caft yourself in wonder,
To fee the strange impatience of the heav'ns :
But if you would consider the true cause,
Why all thefe fires, why all thefe gliding ghofts,
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 shall find,
That heaven has infus'd them with these spirits,
To make them inftruments of fear and warning

Unto

Unto fome monstrous state.

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 thy felf or me,

In personal action; yet prodigious grown,
And fearful, as thefe ftrange eruptions are.

Cafca. 'Tis Cæfar that you mean; is it not, Caffius?
Caf. Let it be who it is: for Romans now

Have thewes and limbs like to their ancestors; (6)
But, woe the while! our fathers minds are dead,
And we are govern'd with our mothers spirits.
Our yoke and fuff'rance 'fhew us womanish.
Cafea. Indeed, they fay, the Senators to-morrow
Mean to establish Cæfar as a King:

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

Caf. 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 brass,
Nor airless 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 difmifs itself.

If I know this; know all the world befides,

(6) Have thews and limbs.- - Mr. Pope has fubjoin'd, to both his editions, an explanation of Thews, as if it fignified, manners or capacities. 'Tis certain, it fometimes has thefe fignifications; but he's mistaken ftrangely to imagine it has any fuch fenfe here: Nor, indeed, do I ever remember its being used by our author in those acceptations. With him, I think, it always fignifies, Mufcles, Sinewos, bodily Strength. So, in the 2d Part of Henry IV.

Care I for the Limb, the Thews, the Stature, Bulk, and big femblanceof a Man?

And in Hamlet;

For Nature crefcent does not grow alone
In Therus and bulk..

That

That part of tyranny, that I do bear,
I can shake off at pleasure.

So

Cafca. So can I:

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

Caf. 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.
Thofe 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 Cafar? But, oh grief!
Where haft thou led me? 1, perhaps, speak this
Before a willing bondman: then I know,
My answer must be made. But I am arm'd,
And dangers are to me indifferent.

Cafea. You fpeak to Cafea, and to fuch a man,
That is no fleering tell-tale. Hold my hand: (7)
Be factious for redress of all these griefs,

And I will fet this foot of mine as far,
As who goes farthest.

Caf. There's a bargain made.

Now know you, Cafea, I have mov'd already
Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans,
To undergo, with me, an enterprize
Of honourable dang'rous 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 fev'rous, like the work we have in hand;
Moft bloody, fiery, and moft terrible.

Enter Cinna.

Cafca. Stand close a while, for here comes one in hafte.

(7)

-Hold, my band.] This comma muft certainly be removed. Cafca bids Caffius take his hand, as it were to bind their league and amity. So afterwards, in this play;

Give me thy hand, Mejala.

Caf.

Caf. '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? Caf No, it is Cafea, 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. Caf. Am I not ftaid for? tell me.

Cin. Yes, you are.

O Caffius! could you win the noble Brutus

To our party

Cafe 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 In at his window; fet this up with wax Upon old Brutus' Statue: all this done, Repair to Pompey's porch, where you thall find us. Is Decius Brutus, and Trebonius there?

Cin. All, but Metellus Cimber, and he's gone To feek you at your houfe. Well, I will hie, And fo bestow thefe papers as you bade me. Caf. That done, repair to Pompey's Theatre.

[Exit Cinna

Come, Cafea, 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.
Cafca. O, he fits 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 worthinefs.

- Caf. Him, and his worth, and our great need of him,
You have right well conceited; let us go,
For it is after mid-night; and ere day,
We will awake him, and be fure of him.

[Exeunt.

A C T II.

SCENE, BRUTUS's Garden.

Enter BRUTUS.

BRUTUS.

HAT, Lucius? ho!

I cannot by the progrefs of the ftars
Give guefs how near to day-Lucius, I fay!
I would, it were my fault to fleep fo foundly.
When, Lacius, when? awake, I fay! what, Lucius!
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.

Bru. It must be by his death: and, for my part,

I know no personal caufe to fpurn at him;

But for the general. He would be crown'd

[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-
And then I grant we put a fling in him,
That at his will he may do danger with.
Th' abuse of Greatnefs is, when it disjoins
Remorfe from Power: and, to fpeak truth of Cafar,
I have not known when his affections fway'd
More than his reafon. But 'tis a common proof,
That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,
Whereto the climber upward turns his face;
But when he once attains the upmost round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back?
Looks in the clouds, fcorning the base degrees
By which he did afcend: fo Cæfar may:
Then, left he may, prevent. And fince the quarrel
Will bear no colour, for the thing he is,

Fashion