Cicero, meeting him.
Cic.
Good even, Casca. 9 noteBrought you Cæsar home?
Why are you breathless, and why stare you so?
Casca.
Are not you mov'd, when all the 1 notesway of earth
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
-- 18 --
Th' ambitious ocean swell, and rage, and foam,
To be exalted with the threatning clouds;
But never till to-night, never till now,
Did I go through a tempest dropping fire.
Either there is a civil strife in heav'n;
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 ha' not since put up my sword,
Against the Capitol I met a lion,
2 note
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,
Ev'n 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;
But men may construe things after their fashion,
Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.
Comes Cæsar to the Capitol to morrow?
Casca.
He doth: for he did bid Antonius
Send word to you, he would be there to-morrow.
Cic.
Good night then, Casca; this disturbed sky
Is not to walk in.
Casca.
Farewel, Cicero.
[Exit Cicero.
-- 19 --
Samuel Johnson [1765], The plays of William Shakespeare, in eight volumes, with the corrections and illustrations of Various Commentators; To which are added notes by Sam. Johnson (Printed for J. and R. Tonson [and] C. Corbet [etc.], London) [word count] [S11001].
