you well. There was more foolery yet, if I could remember it.

Caf. Will you fup with me to night, Cafea
Cafca. No, I am promis'd forth.

Caf. Will you dine with me to-morrow?

Cafca. Ay, if I be alive, and your mind hold, and dinner be worth the eating.de refa boh

your Good. I will expect you. indeed kv st 107

Cafca. Do fo. Farewel Both.

[Exit. Bru. What a blunt fellow is this grown to be? He was quick mettle, when he went to school. Caf. So is he now, in execution

Of any bold or noble enterprife,

However he puts on this tardy form.

This rudeness is a

to his good wit,

Which gives men ftomach to digeft his words

With better appetite.

Bru. And fo it is. For this time I will leave you: To-morrow, if you please to speak with me,

'I will come home to you;

if you

will,

Come home to me, and I will wait for

you.

Caf. I will do fo. Till then, think of the world.

[Exit Brutus! feeds Al

Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I fee, (7) Thy honourable Metal' may be wrought doT From what it i difpos'd; therefore tis meet, That noble minds keep ever with their likes,it For who fo, firm that cannot be feduc'd?

Cafar doth bear me hard, but he loves Brutus;

now,

and he were Call 10

adgir yd llow ittid wons nog waknoni20) Aal

He

~ (2) Thy bonourable Metal may be wrought id quodabi From what it is difpos'd;]

The best metal or temper may be worked into qualities contrary to its original conftitution.

(8) If I were Brutus now, and he were Caffius,

He bould not humour me.-]

This is a reflection on Brutus's ingratitude; which concludes, as is ufual on fuch occafions, in an encomium on his own better conditions. If I were Brutus, [fays he] and Brutus Caffius, be fbould not cajole me as

and wind him, by infim. To bumour fignifies here to turn

ters the laft line to

his pations. The Oxford Editor al

He should not humour me. I will, this night,isol
In feveral hands, in at his windows throw,
As if they came from feveral citizens,
Writings, all tending to the great opinion
That Rome holds of his name, wherein obfcurely
Cafar's ambition shall be glanced at.

And, after this, let Cæfar feat him fure;

For we will shake him, or worse days endure. [Exit.

SCENE VI.

Thunder and lightning. Enter Cafca, his fword drawn; and Cicero, meeting him.

Cic. Good even, Cafca. (9) Brought you Cæsar

home?

Why are you breathlefs, and why ftare you fo? Cajca. Are not you mov'd, when all the (1) fway of earth

Shakes like a thing unfirm ? O Cicero !

I have feen tempefts, when the fcolding winds
Haye riv'd the knotty oaks; and I have seen
Th' ambitious ocean fwell, and rage and foam,
To be exalted with the threatning clouds;
But never till to-night, never till now,
Did I go through a tempeft dropping fire.
Either there is a a civil ftrife heav'n;
te in
Or elfe the world, too faucy with
with und

Incenses them to fend destruction, the Gods,

1 Cic. Why, faw you any thing more wonderful? Cafca. A common flave, you know him well by fight, Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn, Like twenty torches join'd; and yet his hand,

Cæfar fhould not love me.

What he means by it, is not worth inquiring.

WARBUR.

The meaning, I think, is this, Cæfar loves Brutus, but if Brutus and I were to change places, his love should not humour me, fhould not take hold of my affection, fo as to make me for get my principles,

(9)-Brought you Cæfar home ? Did you attend Cæfar home? (1)-way of earth.] The whole weight or momentum of this globe.

Not

Not fenfible of fire, remain'd unfcorch'd.us bith
Befides, I ha' not fince put up my fword, ' OVE
Against the Capitol I met a lion,

(2) Who glar'd upon me, and went furly by,
Without annoying me. And there were drawn
Upon a heap a hundred ghaftly women, k
Transformed with their fear; who fwore, they faw
Men, all in fire, walk up and down the streets.
And yesterday the bird of night did fit,
Ev'n at noon-day, upon the market-place,
Hooting and fhrieking. When thefe Prodigies.
Do fo conjointly meet, let not men fay,
Thefe are their reafons. They are natural ;conta
For, I believe, they are portentous things o tag De
Unto the Climate, that they point upon.

Cic. Indeed, it is ftrange-difpofed time;
But men may conftrue things after their fashion,
Clean from the purpofe of the things themselves.
Comes Cæfar to the Capitol to-morrow?

Cafca. He doth: for he did bid Antoniuse
Send word to you, he would be there to-morrow.
Cic. Good night then, Cafca; this disturbed sky
Is not to walk in.

Cafca. Farewel, Cicero. esterambatan[Exit Cicero.

SCENE VII. Ovilbling vilá

Caf. Who's there?

Cafca. A Roman.

Enter Caffius.

Caf Cafea, by your voice.

Cafca. Your ear is good. Caffius, what night is this! Caf. A very pleafing night to honest 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 perilous night b

(2) Who glar'd upon me,] The first edition reads,
Who glaz'd upon me-

Perhaps, Who gaz'd upon me.

And

And thus unbraced, Cafca, as you fee, diab
Have bar'd my bofom to the thunder-ftone,
And when the cross blue lightning feem'd to open
The breaft of heav'n, I did prefent myself
Ev'n in the aim and very flash of it.

Cafca. 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 astonish us.

Caf. 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 caft yourself in wonder,
To fee the ftrange impatience of the heav'ns:
But if you would confider the true caufe,
Why all thefe fires, why all thefe gliding ghofts,
(3) Why birds and beafts, from quality and kind,
Why old men, fools, (4) and children calculate;
Why all these things change from their ordinanee,
Their natures and pre-formed faculties

To monftrous quality; why, you shall find,
That heav'n has 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

Most 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,

This line might

(3) Why birds and beafts, from quality and kind,] That is Why they deviate from quality and nature. perhaps be more properly placed after the next line,

Why birds and beasts, from quality and kind,

Why all these things change from their ordinance. (4)and children calculate ;] Calculate here fignifies to foretel or prophecy: For the custom of foretelling fortunes by judicial Aftrology [which was at that time much in vogue] being performed by a long tedious calculation, Shakespeare, with, his ufual liberty, employs the fpecies [calculate] for the genus [foretel.] WARBURTON.

Shakespeare found the liberty established. Ta calculate tivity, is the technical term.

a na

In perfonal action; yet prodigious grown,
And fearful as thefe ftrange eruptions

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; But, woe the while! our fathers' minds are dead, And we are govern'd with our mothers' fpirits: Our yoke and fuff'rance fhew us womanish.

Cafca. Indeed, they fay, the Senators to-morrow
Mean to establish Cafar 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 brafs,
Nor airless dungeon, nor ftrong links of iron,
Can be retentive to the ftrength of spirit:
But life, being weary of thefe worldly bars,
Never lacks power to difmifs itself.

If I know this; know all the world befides,
That part of tyranny, that I do bear,
I can thake off at pleasure.

Cafca. So can I:

So 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
were not Romans hinds,
Thofe that with hafte will make a mighty fire,
Begin it with weak straws. What trash is Rome,

What rubbish, and what offal, when it ferves
For the bafe matter to illuminate

So vile a thing as Cæfar? But, oh grief!
Where haft thou led me I, perhaps, fpeak this
Before a willing bondman: then I know,
(5) My answer must be made. But I am arm'd, i

(5) My answer must be made.—] I shall be called to accounts and must answer as for feditious words,

And