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;

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For we will shake him, or worse days endure.

[Exit.

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?
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
Th' 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.
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 anything more wonderful?

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CASCA. A common slave, you know him well by sight,
Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn
Like twenty torches joined, and yet his hand,
Not sensible of fire, remained unscorched.
Besides I ha' not since put up my sword-
Against the Capitol I met a lion,

Who glazed 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
Even 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;

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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.

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CASCA.

Farewell, Cicero.

[Exit CICERO.

CASCA. Your ear is good. Cassius, what night is this! CAS. A very pleasing night to honest men.

CASCA. Who ever knew the heavens menace so?

CAS. Those that have known the earth so full of faults. For my part, I have walked about the streets,

Submitting me unto the perilous night,

And thus unbraced, Casca, as you see,

And when the cross blue lightning seemed to open

Have bared my bosom to the thunder-stone;

The breast of heaven, I did present myself

Even in the aim and very flash of it.

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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 should be in a Roman you do want,
Or else you use not. You look pale and gaze
And put on fear and cast yourself in wonder,
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,
Why old men fool and children calculate,
Why all these things change from their ordinance
Their natures and preformed faculties,

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To monstrous quality, why, you shall find

That heaven hath infused them with these spirits,

To make them instruments of fear and warning
Unto some monstrous state.

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Now could I, Casca, 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 thyself or me

In personal action, yet prodigious grown

And fearful, as these strange eruptions are.

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CASCA. 'Tis Cæsar that you mean; is it not, Cassius? CAS. Let it be who it is: for Romans now Have thews and limbs like to their ancestors; But, woe the while, our fathers' minds are dead, And we are governed with our mothers' spirits; Our yoke and sufferance show us womanish.

CASCA. Indeed, they say 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 ;
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.

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[Thunder still.

So can I :

CASCA.
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

C

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For the base matter, to illuminate

So vile a thing as Cæsar!
Where hast thou led me?
Before a willing bondman;

But, O grief,

I perhaps speak this
then I know

My answer must be made. But I am armed,
And dangers are to me indifferent.

CASCA. You speak to Casca, and to such a man
That is no fleering tell-tale. Hold, my 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 Romans
To undergo with me an enterprise

Of honourable-dangerous consequence;
And I do know, by this they 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

Is feverous like the work we have in hand,
Most bloody-fiery, and most terrible.

Enter CINNA.

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CASCA. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste. CAS. 'Tis Cinna; I do know him by his gait ;

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. Am I not stayed for, Cinna?

CIN. I am glad on 't. What a fearful night is this!
There's two or three of us have seen strange sights.
CAS. Am I not stayed for? tell me.
CIN.

O Cassius, if you could

Yes, you are.

But win the noble Brutus to our party

CAS. Be 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; set this up with wax
Upon old Brutus' statue: all this done,

Repair to Pompey's porch, where you shall find us.
Is Decius Brutus and Trebonius there?

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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 me. CAS. That done, repair to Pompey's theatre.

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[Exit CINNA.

Come, Casca, 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.

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

CAS. Him and his worth and our great need of him

Will change to virtue and to worthiness.

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.

ACT II.

SCENE I. Rome. BRUTUS' orchard.

Enter BRUTUS.

BRU. What, Lucius, ho!

I cannot, by the progress of the stars,

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[Exeunt.

Give guess how near to day. Lucius, I say!
I would it were my fault to sleep so soundly.
When, Lucius, when? awake, I say: what, Lucius!

Enter LUCIUS.

Luc. Called 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 cause to spurn at him,

But for the general. He would be crowned :

[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 sting in him,

That at his will he may do danger with.

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