Cas. Good; I will expect you.

Casca. Do so; Farewell, both.

[Exit CASCA.

Bru. What a blunt fellow is this grown to be?

He was quick mettle, when he went to school.
Cas. So is he now, in execution

Of any bold or noble enterprize,
However he puts on this tardy form.
This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit,
Which gives men stomach to digest his words
With better appetite.

you?

Bru. And so it is. For this time I will leave 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. Cas. I will do so:-till then, think of the world. [Exit BRUTUS, Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see, Thy honourable metal may be wrought From that it is dispos'd': Therefore 'tis meet That noble minds keep ever with their likes: For who so firm, that cannot be seduc'd? Cæsar doth bear me hard: But he loves Brutus : If I were Brutus now, and he were Cassius, He should not humour me. I will this night, 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

7 Thy honourable metal may be wrought

From that it is dispos'd:] The best metal or temper may be worked into qualities contrary to its original constitution.

8

doth bear me hard:] i. e. has an unfavourable opinion of me. 9 If I were Brutus now, and he were Cassius,

He should not humour me.] The meaning, I think, is this: Cæsar loves Brutus, but if Brutus and I were to change places, his love should not humour me, should not take hold of my affection, so as to make me forget my principles. JOHNSON.

Cæsar's ambition shall be glanced at:

And, after this, let Cæsar seat him sure;

For we will shake him, or worse days endure.

SCENE III.

The same. A Street.

[Exit.

Thunder and Lightning. Enter, from opposite sides, CASCA, with his Sword drawn, and CICERO.

Cic. Good even, Casca: Brought you Cæsar home?1 Why are you breathless? and why stare you so? Casca. Are not you mov'd, when all the sway of earth 2

Shakes, like a thing unfirm? O Cicero,

I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds
Have riv'd the knotty oaks; and I have seen
The ambitious ocean swell, and rage, and foam,
To be exalted with the threat'ning 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 any thing more wonderful?
Casca. A common slave (you know him well by sight,)
Held up his left hand, which did flame, and burn
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 glar'd+ upon me, and went surly by,

Brought you Cæsar home?] Did you attend Cæsar home? sway of earth-] The whole weight or momentum of this

+"gaz'd"- MALONE.

THEC

Without annoying me: And there were drawn
Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women,

Transformed with their fear; who swore, they saw
Men, all on 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,
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.

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 walk'd about the streets,
Submitting me unto the perilous night;
And, thus unbraced, Casca, as you see,
Have bar'd my bosom to the thunder-stone :*

3 Clean from the purpose-] Clean, is altogether, entirely.

4

- thunder-stone:] A stone fabulously supposed to be discharged by thunder.