For, I believe, they are portentous things
Unto the climate, that they point upon.

Cic. Indeed, it is a strange-difpofed time:
But men may conftrue things after their fashion,
Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.
Comes Cæfar to the Capitol to-morrow?

Cafca. He doth; for he did bid Antonius
Send word to you, he would be there to-morrow.
Cic. Good night then, Cafca: this disturbed sky
Is not to walk in.

Cafca. Farewel, Cicero.

[Exit Cicero.

Enter Caffius.

Caf. Who's there?

Cafca. A Roman.

Caf. Cafca, by your voice.

Cafca. Your ear is good. Caffius, what night is this?

Caf. A very pleasing night to honest men.

Cafca. Who ever knew the heavens menace fo?
Caf. Thofe, that have known the earth fo full of
faults.

For my part, I have walk'd about the streets,
Submitting me unto the perilous night;
And, thus unbraced, Cafca, as you fee,
Have bar'd my bofom to the thunder-stone :
And, when the crofs blue lightning feem'd to open
The breaft of heaven, I did prefent myself
Even in the aim and very flash of it.

Cafca. But wherefore did you so much tempt
fo the
heavens ?

It is the part of men to fear and tremble,
When the most mighty gods, by token, fend
Such dreadful heralds to astonish us.

Caf. You are dull, Cafca; and those sparks of life
That fhould be in a Roman, you do want,
Or else you use not: You look pale, and gaze,

And

And put on fear, and caft yourself in wonder,
To see the strange impatience of the heavens:
But if you would confider the true caufe,
Why all these fires, why all thefe gliding ghofts,
9 Why birds, and beafts, from quality and kind;
Why old men, fools, and children calculate;
Why all these things change, from their ordinance,
Their natures, and pre-formed faculties,

I

To monftrous quality; why, you fhall find,
That heaven hath infus'd them with thefe fpirits,
To make them inftruments of fear, and warning,
Unto fome monftrous ftate.

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

That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars
As doth the lion in the Capitol:

A man no mightier than thyfelf, or me,
In perfonal action; yet prodigious grown",
And fearful, as thefe ftrange eruptions are.

Cafca. 'Tis Cæfar that you mean: Is it not, Caffius?

Why birds, and beafts, from quality and kind;] That is, Why they deviate from quality and nature. This line might perhaps be more properly placed after the next line:

Why birds, and beafts, from quality and kind;
Why all these things change from their ordinance.

JOHNSON.

-and children calculate ;] Calculate here fignifies to foretel or prophefy for the custom of foretelling fortunes by judicial aftrology (which was at that time much in vogue) being performed by a long tedious calculation, Shakspeare, with his ufual liberty, employs the fpecies [calculate] for the genus [foretel]..

WARBURTON.

Shakspeare found the liberty established. To calculate a nativity, is the technical term. JOHNSON.

There is certainly no prodigy in old men's calculating from their past experience. The wonder is, that old men fhould not, and that children fhould. I would therefore point thus:

2

Why old men fools, and children calculate.

BLACKSONE.

-prodigious grown,] Prodigious is portentous. See Vol. III. p. 134.

STEEVENS.

Caf. 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 fufferance fhew us womanish.

Cafca. Indeed, they say, the fenators to-morrow Mean to establish Cæfar as a king:

And he shall wear his crown, by fea, and land,
In every place, fave here in Italy.

Caf. I know where I will wear this dagger then;
Caffius from bondage will deliver Caffius :
Therein, ye gods, you make the weak moft ftrong;
Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat:
Nor ftony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor ftrong links of iron,
Can be retentive to the ftrength of spirit;
But life, being weary of thefe worldly bars,
Never lacks power to dismiss itself.

If I know this, know all the world befides,
That part of tyranny, that I do bear,
I can fhake off at pleasure.

Cafca. So can I:

So every bondman in his own hand bears
The power to cancel his captivity.

Caf. And why fhould Cæfar be a tyrant then?
Poor man! I know, he would not be a wolf,
But that he fees, the Romans are but sheep:
He were no lion, were not Romans hinds..
Thofe that with hafte will make a mighty fire,
Begin it with weak straws: What trash is Rome,
What rubbish, and what offal, when it ferves
For the base matter to illuminate

So vile a thing as Cæfar? But, O, grief!

3 Have thewes and limbs. ] Thewes is an obfolete word implying nerves or muscular strength. It is ufed by Falstaff in the Second Part of Henry IV. and in Hamlet.

The two laft folios, in which fome words are injudiciously modernized, read finews. STEEVENS.

Where

Where haft thou led me? I, perhaps, fpeak this
Before a willing bondman: then I know

* My answer must be made: But I am arm'd,
And dangers are to me indifferent.

6

Cafca. You fpeak to Cafca: and to fuch a man, That is no flearing tell-tale. Hold my hand: Be factious for redrefs of all these griefs; And I will fet this foot of mine as far, As who goes farthest.

Caf. There's a bargain made.

Now know you, Casca, I have mov'd already
Şome certain of the nobleft-minded Romans,
To undergo, with me, an enterprize
Of honourable-dangerous confequence;
And I do know, by this, they ftay for me
In Pompey's porch: For now, this fearful night,
There is no ftir, or walking in the streets;
And the complexion of the element,

It favours like the work we have in hand,
Moft bloody, fiery, and moft terrible,

4 My answer must be made.] I fhall be called to account, and must answer as for feditious words. JOHNSON.

5 Hold my hand :] Is the fame as, Here's my band.

JOHNSON.

• Be factious for redress-] Factious feems here to mean active,

JOHNSON.

7 Is fev'rous, like the work-] The old edition reads:

Is favors, like the work

I think we should read:

In favour's like the work we have in hand,
Moft bloody, fiery, and most terrible.

Favour is look, countenance, appearance. See Vol. II. p. 118.

JOHNSON.

To favour is to refemble. Thus Stanyhurft in his translation of the Third Book of Virgil's Æneid, 1582:

We

"With the petit town gates favouring the principal old portes."

may read It favours, or-Is favour'd-i. e. is in appearance or countenance like, &c. STEEVENS.

Enter

Enter Cinna.

Cafca. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in hafte.

Caf. 'Tis Cinna, I do know him by his gait; He is a friend.-Cinna, where hafte you fo? Cin. To find out you: Who's that, Metellus Cimber?

Caf. No, it is Cafca; one incorporate

To our attempts. Am I not ftaid for, Cinna?
Cin. I am glad on't. What a fearful night is this?
There's two or three of us have feen ftrange fights.
Caf. Am I not ftaid for? Tell me.

Cin. Yes,

You are. O, Caffius, if you could but win
The noble Brutus to our party——

Caf. 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; fet this up with wax
Upon old Brutus' ftatue: all this done,

Repair to Pompey's porch, where you fhall find us.
Is Decius Brutus, and Trebonius, there?

Cin. All but Metellus Cimber; and he's gone
To feek you at your house. Well, I will hie,
And fo beftow thefe papers as you bade me.
Caf. That done, repair to Pompey's theatre.
[Exit Cinna.

Come, Cafca, you and I will, yet, ere day,
See Brutus at his houfe: three parts of him
Is ours already; and the man entire
Upon the next encounter, yields him ours.

Cefca. O, he fits high in all the people's hearts:
And that, which would appear offence in us,
His countenance, like richest alchymy,
Will change to virtue, and to worthiness.