CAS. Who offered him the crown?
CASCA. Why, Antony.

BRU. Tell us the manner of it, gentle Casca. CASCA. I can as well be hanged, as tell the manner of it: it was mere foolery. I did not mark it. I saw Mark Antony offer him a crown ;-yet 'twas not a crown neither, 'twas one of these coronets ;3 -and, as I told you, he put it by once; but, for all that, to my thinking, he would fain have had it. Then he offered it to him again; then he put it by again: but, to my thinking, he was very loath to lay his fingers off it. And then he offered it the third time; he put it the third time by: and still as he refused it, the rabblement hooted, and clapped their chopped hands, and threw up their sweaty night-caps, and uttered such a deal of stinking breath because Cæsar refused the crown, that it had almost choked Cæsar; for he swooned, and fell down at it: And for mine own part, I durst not laugh, for fear of opening my lips, and receiving the bad air.

CAS. But, soft, I pray you: What? did Cæsar

swoon?

CASCA. He fell down in the market-place, and foamed at mouth, and was speechless.

BRU. 'Tis very like: he hath the falling-sick

ness.

CAS. No, Cæsar hath it not; but you, and I, And honest Casca, we have the falling-sickness. CASCA. I know not what you mean by that; but, I am sure, Cæsar fell down. If the tag-rag people

one of these coronets;] So, in the old translation of Plutarch: "he came to Cæsar, and presented him a diadem wreathed about with laurel." STEEVENS.

did not clap him, and hiss him, according as he pleased, and displeased them, as they use to do the players in the theatre, I am no true man.*

BRU. What said he, when he came unto himself?

CASCA. Marry, before he fell down, when he perceiv'd the common herd was glad he refused the crown, he plucked me ope his doublet, and offered them his throat to cut.-An I had been a man of any occupation,5 if I would not have taken him at a word, I would I might go to hell among the rogues:-and so he fell. When he came to himself again, he said, If he had done or said any thing amiss, he desired their worships to think it was his infirmity. Three or four wenches, where I stood, cried, Alas, good soul!-and forgave him with all their hearts: But there's no heed to be taken of them; if Cæsar had stabbed their mothers, they would have done no less.

BRU. And after that, he came, thus sad, away ? CASCA. Ay.

CAS. Did Cicero say any thing?

CASCA. Ay, he spoke Greek.

CAS. To what effect?

CASCA. Nay, an I tell you that, I'll ne'er look you i' the face again: But those, that understood him, smiled at one another, and shook their heads: but, for mine own part, it was Greek to me. I

4

no true man.] No honest man. See Vol. VI. p. 347,

n. 7. MALone.

a man of any occupation,] Had I been a mechanick, one of the Plebeians to whom he offered his throat.

So, in Coriolanus, Act IV. sc. vi:

You that have stood so much
"Upon the voice of occupation." MALONE.

JOHNSON.

could tell you more news too: Marullus and Flavius, for pulling scarfs off Cæsar's images, are put to silence. Fare you well. There was more foolery yet, if I could remember it.

CAS. Will you sup with me to-night, Casca?
CASCA. No, I am promised forth.

CAS. Will you dine with me to-morrow?

CASCA. Ay, if I be alive, and mind hold,

and your dinner worth the eating.

CAS. Good; I will expect you.

CASCA. Do so: Farewell, both.

your

[Exit CASCA.

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

Of any

bold or noble enterprize,

However he puts on this tardy form.

This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit,
Which gives men stomach to digest his words
With better appetite.

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,
Come home with me, and I will wait for

you.

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

6

• Thy honourable metal may be wrought

From that it is dispos'd:] The best metal or temper may be worked into qualities contrary to its original constitution.

JOHNSON.

That noble minds keep ever with their likes one
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,

8

He should not humour me. 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
Cæsar's ambition shall be glanced at:

And, after this, let Cæsar seat him sure;
For we will shake him, or worse days endure.

[Exit.

From that it is dispos'd, i. e. dispos'd to. See Vol. XV. p. 196, n. 4. MALone.

7

doth bear me art;] i. e. has an unfavourable opinion of me. The same phrase curs again in the first scene of Act III. STEEVENS

8

If I were Brutus now, and he were Cassius,

He should not humour me.] This is a reflection on Brutus's ingratitude; which concludes, as is usual on such occasions, in an encomium on his own better conditions. If I were Brutus,. (says he) and Brutus Cassius, he should not cajole me as I do him. To humour signifies here to turn and wind him, by inflaming his passions. WARBURTON.

The meaning, I think, is this: Caesar 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. JOHNSON.

SCENE III.

The same. A Street.

Thunder and Lightning. Enter, from opposite sides, CASCA, with his Sword drawn, and CICERO.

CIC. Good even, Casca: Brought you Cæsar home?9

Why are you breathless? and why stare you so? CASCA. Are not you mov'd, when all the sway of earth1

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
The ambitious ocean swell, and rage, and foam,
To be exalted with the threat'ning clouds:
But never till to-night, never till now,
Did I go through a tempest dropping fire.
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 slave2 (you know him well by sight,)

9-Brought you Casar home?] Did you attend Cæsar JOHNSON.

home?

1

So, in Measure for Measure:

"That we may bring you something on the way."

See Vol. VI. p. 196, n. 1. MALone.

sway of earth-] The whole weight or momentum of this globe. JOHNSON.

* A common slave &c.] So, in the old translation of Plutarch: -a slave of the souldiers that did cast a marvelous burning