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? [sol Why are you breathless? and why stare you 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

[seen Have rived the knotty oaks; and I have 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.
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 wonder. ful?

Casca. A common slave (you know him well by sight) [burn Held up his left hand, which did flame and Like twenty torches join'd; and yet his hand, Not sensible of fire, remain'd unscorch'd. Besides, (I have not since put up my sword,) Against the Capitol I met a lion,

Who glared 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; 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, [selves. Clean from the purpose of the things themComes 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 dis

turbed sky

Is not to walk in.

Casca, by your voice.

Casca. Your ear is good. Cassius, what

night is this!

Cas. A very pleasing night to honest men. Casca. Who ever knew the heavens men. ace 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 should be in a Roman you do want,
Or else you use not. You look pale, and

gaze, [der, And put on fear, and cast yourself in wonTo see the strange impatience of the heav

ens:

But if you would consider the true cause Why all these fires, why all these gliding ghosts, kind; Why birds and beasts, from quality and Why old men, fools, and children calculate; Why all these things change from their or dinance,

Their natures, and pre-formed faculties,
To monstrous quality;-why you shall find,
That heaven hath infused them with these
[ing
To make them instruments of fear and warn
Unto some monstrous state.

spirits,

Now could I, Casca, name to thee a man
Most like this dreadful night;

[roars That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and 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.
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,

[its; And we are govern'd with our mothers' spirOur 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.

Casca.

[Thunder stll.

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

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.