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 honorable-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

Has favors, like the work we have in hand,
Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible.

Casca. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste.

Cas. 'Tis Cinna, I do know him by his

Cas. No, it is Casca; one incorporate

To our attempts. Am I not stay'd for, Cinna?

Cin. I am glad on't. What a fearful night

is this! [sights. There's two or three of us have seen strange Cas. Am I not stay'd for? Tell me. Cin.

O, Cassius, if you could

Yes, you are.

But win the noble Brutus to our partyCas. 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?
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.
[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,
Will change to virtue and to worthiness.

Cas. Him, and his worth, and our great
need of him,

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 1.-The same. Brutus's Orchard.

Enter BRUTUS.

Brutus.

HAT, Lucius! ho!

I cannot, by the progress of the

stars, [cius, I say!Give guess how near to day.-Lu

I would it were my fault to sleep so soundly.When, Lucius, when! Awake, I say! What,

Enter LUCIUS.

Luc. Call'd 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.

[Exit. 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 crown'd:How that might change his nature, there's the question. [der; It is the bright day that brings forth the ad 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.
The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins
Remorse from power: and, to speak truth of
Cæsar,

I have not known when his affections sway'd
More than his reason. But 'tis a common

proof

That lowliness is young ambition's ladder, Whereto the climber-upward turns his face: But when he once attains the upmost round, He then unto the ladder turns his back, Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees

By which he did ascend: so Cæsar may; Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since the quarrel

Will bear no color for the thing he is, Fashion it thus: that what he is, augmented, Would run to these and these extremities: And therefore think him as a serpent's egg, Which, hatch'd, would as his kind grow mischievous;

And kill him in the shell.

Re-enter LUCIUS.

Luc. The taper burneth in your closet, sir. Searching the window for a flint, I found This paper, thus seal'd up; and, am sure, It did not lie there when I went to bed. [Gives him the letter.

Bru. Get you to bed again, it is not day. Is not to-morrow, boy, the ides of March? Luc. I know not, sit.

Bru. Look in the calendar, and bring me

word.

Luc. I will, sir.

[Exit. Bru. The exhalations, whizzing in the air, Give so much light, that I may read by them. [Opens the letter, and reads.

Brutus, thou sleep'st; awake, and see thyself.
Shall Rome, &c. Speak, strike, redress!—
Brutus, thou sleep'st; awake!—

Such instigations have been often dropp'd
Where I have took them up.

Shall Rome, &c. Thus must I piece it out;
Shall Rome stand under one man's awe?
What! Rome?

My ancestors did from the streets of Rome The Tarquin drive, when he was call'd a

king.

Speak, strike, redress !-Am I entreated
To speak, and strike?

thee promise,

O Rome! I make

If the redress will follow, thou receivest
Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus!

Re-enter LUCIUS.

Luc. Sir, March is wasted fourteen days.
[Knock within
Bru. 'Tis good. Go to the gate: some-
body knocks.
[Exit LUCIUS.

Since Cassius first did whet me against Cæsar

I have not slept.

Between the acting of a dreadful thing

And the first motion, all the interim is