Cic. Good night', then, Casca: This disturbed sky Casca. Your ear is good. Cassius, what a night is this! Cas. A very pleasing night to honest men.3 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, Have bared my bosom to the thunder-stone.5 And when the cross blue lightning seemed to open Even in the aim and very flash of it. Casca. But wherefore did you so much tempt the heavens? 1 Good night.] Either an exclamatory nominative, or governed by the verb wish or bid understood. 2 To walk in.] An infinitive used adjectively; it describes sky, and forms an infinitive complement to is not. See note 8, p. 6. Pleasing night to honest men.] Because it denotes heaven's displeasure against the dishonourable spirit that prevails. + Those that have known.] None but those who have known. 5 The thunder-stone.] So in Othello, v. 2, 'Are there no stones in heaven, but what serve for the thunder?' and in Cymbeline, iv. 2. 'Fear no more the lightning flash, nor the all-dreaded thunderstone.' A genus of extinct fossil shells called belemnites, were vulgarly called thunder-bolts or thunder-stones; Shakspeare here alludes to a species of dart-shaped meteoric stone fabulously supposed by the Romans to be discharged by the thunder. It is the part of men to fear and tremble, Cas. You are dull, Casca; and those sparks of life you Or else you use not: You look pale, and gaze, 1 By tokens.] That is, send heralds by tokens; send tokens of their power, as heralds to make us stand in awe. 2 That should be in a Roman.] Alluding to the answer Casca had just given when Cassius said Who's there?' 3 Cast yourself.] Put yourself in a state of wonder; or perhaps the meaning is, conjecture with yourself in a spirit of wonder, as it is said of Mary in Luke i, 29, she 'cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.' In, however, may be here used for into, as in 2 Kings ix. 25,' Cast him in the portion of the field.' To see.] At seeing, or because you see; an adverbial infinitive. 5 All these fires.] The 'tempest dropping fire,' 'the cross blue lightning,' the slave's hand which did flame,' &c. Why all these fires appeared. 6 Gliding ghosts.] See Extracts from Plutarch, 6. ▾ Birds and beasts.] The owl and the lion. 8 From quality and kind.] Why birds and beasts appeared in a manner contrary to their dispositions and the nature of their species; that is, the owl sitting and screeching at noonday in the Forum, and the lion over against the Capitol passing surly by Casca without attempting to injure him. • Why old men.] There is perhaps some corruption of the text in this line; or, the meaning may be 'why not only men of age and wisdom, but even fools and children, seeing these prodigies, discern them to be portentous, and construe them as signs of heaven's displeasure. Why all these things change from their ordinance1, To monstrous quality;-why, you shall find, Now could I, Casca, name to thee a man That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars, A man no mightier than thyself, or me 6, Casca. 'Tis Cæsar that you mean: Is it not, Cassius? 1 Change from their ordinance.] Change their natures and preformed faculties from their ordinance to monstrous quality; that is, change their natural state and originally directed propensities, from what creation ordained them to be, into a character most unnatural. 2 Infused them with.] Put into them. 3 Monstrous state.] Some commonwealth that is itself out of natural propriety. * Most like.] Most here means quite, as it frequently does in Shakspeare; so in Othello, i. 3, 'That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter, it is most true.' See note 5, p. 136. 5 That thunders.] A man that fulminates, and flashes, and causes spirits of the dead to rise from their graves, and makes his voice resound in the Capitol, as if he were a lion roaring. Than thyself, or me.] Me, in grammatical strictness, should be I, which, however, would not sound so agreeably. In personal action.] In what he can do of himself; in his natural power as an individual. 8 Prodigious.] Here meaning portentous. So in Troilus and Cressida, v. 1, 'it is prodigious, there will come some change.' Cas. Let it be who it is: for Romans now Have thews 1 and limbs like to their ancestors': But, woe the while! 2 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 And he shall wear his crown by sea and land, Cas. I know where I will wear this dagger, then 4; Therein, ye gods, you make the weak most strong; If I know this, know all the world besides, I can shake off at pleasure. Casca. [Thunder still. So can I: 1 Thews.] Sinews, or muscular strength. 2 Woe the while.] Alas for the present age! 3 Save here in Italy.] See Extracts from Plutarch, 11. • Where I will wear this dagger.] That is, he would sheath it in his own heart; stab himself. 6 5 Retentive to the strength.] Of power to restrain the strength. Being weary.] When it can no longer submit to these worldly restraints. 1 Dismiss itself.] Set itself free. 3 If I know this.] Since I thus know that life has power to liberate itself, I can defy all the rest of the world; let all the world besides know that that part of the yoke of tyranny which is imposed on me I can shake off when I please. So every bondman in his own hand bears Cas. And why should Cæsar be a tyrant, then?1 So vile a thing as Cæsar! Where hast thou led me? But, O grief! 5 I, perhaps, speak this Before a willing bondman; then I know 6 My answer must be made: But I am armed, Casca. You speak to Casca; and to such a man And why should Cæsar.] Why, then, since every man can cancel his captivity, should Cæsar attempt to make the Romans bondmen? Just because, though they have the power to shake off tyranny, he knows they will rather endure it. 2 Hinds.] As timid as the female stag. 3 With weak straws.] Not with large and strong pieces of wood. • To illuminate.] To give splendour to so vile a thing as Cæsar. 5 But, O grief.] But O my aggrieved feeling, to what extent hast thou incited me to speak! This is an example of the way in See Extracts from Plutarch, 19. which Cassius felt his friends.' • Then I know.] In that case, I know he will inform against me, and I shall have to answer for what I have said; I shall be called to account. No fleering tell-tale.] Fleering means here insincere, pretending to approve what is said. Hold my hand.] There, take my hand. 10 Be factious.] Form a party or faction for redress of all these grievances, and I will go as far in enterprise as any one. |