Cassius. 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 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. Cassius. Will you sup with me to-night, Casca? Cassius. Will you dine with me to-morrow? 291 Casca. Ay, if I be alive, and your mind hold, and your dinner worth the eating. Cassius. Good; I will expect you. Casca. Do so farewell, both. Brutus. What a blunt fellow is this grown to be: He was quick mettle when he went to school. Cassius. So is he now, in execution Of any bold or noble enterprise, However he puts on this tardy form. This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit, Which gives men stomach to digest his words [Exit. 300 Brutus 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 to me, and I will wait for you. 310 Cassius. I will do so: till then, think of the world. Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see, For who so firm that cannot be seduc'd? In several hands, in at his windows throw, That Rome holds of his name; wherein obscurely 320 And after this let Cæsar seat him sure; For we will shake him, or worse days endure. [Exit. SCENE III. A strect. Thunder and lightning. Enter, from opposite sides, Casca, with his sword drawn, and CICERO. Cicero. Good even, Casca: brought you Cæsar home? Why are you breathless? and why stare you so? Casca. Are not you mov'd, when all the sway of earth Shakes like a thing unfirm? O Cicero, I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds Cicero. 10 Why, saw you any thing more wonderful? Casca. A common slave-you know him well by sightHeld up his left hand, which did flame and burn Like twenty torches join'd; and yet his hand, Who glar'd upon me, and went surly by, Cicero. Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time: Casca. He doth; for he did bid Antonius Send word to you he would be there to-morrow. Cicero. Good night, then, Casca: this disturbed sky Is not to walk in. 20 30 Casca. Your ear is good. Cassius, what night is this! J. C. 2 Cass. Those that have known the earth so full of faults. For my part, I have walk'd about the streets, And thus unbraced, Casca, as you see, Have bar'd my bosom to the thunder-stone: And when the cross blue lightning seem'd to open 50 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. Cassius. You are dull, Casca; and those sparks of life That should be in a Or else you use not. Roman you do want, 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, To monstrous quality;-why, you shall find Now could I, Casca, name to thee a man Most like this dreadful night, That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars A man no mightier than thyself or me 60 70 In personal action; yet prodigious grown, And fearful, as these strange eruptions are. 80 Casca. 'Tis Cæsar that you mean; is it not, Cassius? Cassius. 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 govern'd 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. Cassius. I know where I will wear this dagger, then; Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius: Therein, ye gods, you make the weak most strong; Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass, If I know this, know all the world besides, I can shake off at pleasure. So every bondman in his own hand bears The power to cancel his captivity. 90 [Thunder still. 100 Cassius. 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, |