Cic.
Good even, Casca: brought you Cæsar home?
Why are you breathless? and why stare you so?

Casca.
Are not you moved, when all the sway of earth
Shakes like a thing unfirm? O Cicero,
I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds
Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen
The ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam,
To be exalted with the threatening clouds;
But never till to-night, never till now,
Did I go through a tempest dropping fire ^note.
Either there is a civil strife in heaven,
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 ^note 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' ^note not since put up my sword—
Against the Capitol I met a lion,
Who glared ^note upon me and went surly ^note by
Without annoying me: and there were drawn
Upon ^note 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
Even at noon-day upon the market-place,
Hooting ^note and shrieking. When these prodigies
Do so conjointly meet, let not men say
‘These are their reasons ^note: they are natural:’
For, I believe, they are portentous things
Unto the climate that they point upon.

Cic.
Indeed, it is a strange-disposed ^note time:
But men may construe things after their fashion,

Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.
Comes Cæsar to ^note the Capitol to-morrow?

Casca.
He doth; for he did bid Antonius ^note
Send word to you he would be there to-morrow.

Cic.
Good night then, Casca: this disturbed sky
Is not to walk in. ^note

Casca.
Farewell, Cicero. [Exit Cicero. ^noteEnter Cassius.

Cas.
Who's there?

Casca.
A Roman.

Cas.
Casca, by your voice.

Casca.
Your ear is good. Cassius, what night ^note is this! ^{note note}

Cas.
A very pleasing night to honest men.

Casca.
Who ever knew the heavens ^note 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 bared my bosom to the thunder-stone;
And when the cross blue lightning seem'd to open
The breast of heaven, I did present myself
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
That ^note should be in a Roman you do want,
Or else you use not. You look pale and gaze

And put on fear and cast ^note yourself in wonder, ^note
To see the strange impatience of the heavens:
But if you would consider the true cause
Why all these fires, why all these gliding ghosts,
Why birds and beasts from quality and kind, ^note
Why old men fool and ^note children calculate,
Why all these things change, from their ordinance,
Their natures and preformed faculties,
To monstrous quality, why, you shall find
That heaven ^note hath ^note infused them with these spirits
To make them instruments of fear and warning
Unto some monstrous state.
Now could I, Casca, name to ^note thee a man
Most like this dreadful night, ^note
That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars ^note
As doth the lion in ^note the Capitol,
A man no mightier than thyself or me
In personal action, yet prodigious grown
And fearful, as these strange ^note eruptions are.

Casca.
'Tis Cæsar that you mean; is it not, Cassius? ^note

Cas.
Let it be who it is: for Romans now
Have thews ^note 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 ^note the senators to-morrow
Mean to establish Cæsar as a king;
And he shall wear his crown by sea and land,

In every place save here in Italy.

Cas.
I know where I will wear this dagger then ^note:
Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius.
Therein, ye gods, you make the weak most strong;
Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat:
Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,
Can be retentive to the strength of spirit;
But life, being weary of these worldly bars,
Never lacks power to dismiss itself.
If I know this, know all the world besides,
That part of tyranny that I do bear
I can shake off at pleasure. [Thunder still. ^note

Casca.
So can I:
So every bondman in his own hand bears
The power to cancel his captivity.

Cas.
And why should Cæsar be a tyrant then?
Poor man! I know he would not be a wolf
But that he sees the Romans are but sheep:
He were no lion were not Romans hinds.
Those that with haste will make a mighty fire
Begin it with weak straws: what trash is Rome,
What rubbish and what offal, when it serves
For the base matter to illuminate
So vile a thing as Cæsar! But, O grief,
Where hast thou led me? I 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.

Casca.
You speak to Casca, and to such a man
That is no fleering tell-tale. Hold, my ^note hand:
Be factious for redress of all these griefs,
And I will set this foot of mine as far
As who goes farthest.

Cas.
There's a bargain made.
Now know you, Casca, I have moved already

Some certain of the noblest-minded ^note Romans
To undergo with me an enterprise
Of honourable-dangerous ^note consequence;
And I do know, by this they ^note stay for me
In Pompey's porch: for now, this fearful night,
There is no stir or walking in the streets,
And the complexion of the element ^note
In favour's like ^note the work we have in hand,
Most bloody, fiery ^note, and most terrible. Enter Cinna. ^{note note}

Casca.
Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste.

Cas.
'Tis Cinna; I do know him by his gait ^note;
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 ^note. Am I not stay'd for, Cinna?

Cin.
I am ^note glad on't. What a fearful night is this! ^{note note}
There's two or three of us have seen strange sights.

Cas.
Am I not stay'd for? ^note tell me.

Cin.
Yes, you are.
O Cassius, if you could
But win ^note the noble Brutus to our party— ^note

Cas.
Be you content: good Cinna, take this paper,
And look you lay it in the prætor's chair,
Where Brutus may but ^note find it, and throw this
In at his window; set this up with wax
Upon old Brutus' ^note statue: all this done,
Repair to Pompey's porch, where you shall find us.
Is Decius ^note Brutus and Trebonius there?

Cin.
All but Metellus Cimber; and he's gone
To seek you at your house. Well, I will hie,
And so bestow these papers as you bade ^note me.

Cas.
That done, repair to Pompey's theatre. [Exit Cinna.
Come, Casca, you and I will yet ere day
See Brutus at his house: three parts of him
Is ^note ours already, and the man entire
Upon the next encounter yields him ours.

Casca.
O, he sits high in all the people's hearts;
And that which would appear offence in us
His countenance, like richest alchemy,
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. [Exeunt.

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