Puslapio vaizdai
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tabblement hooted, and clapp'd their chopt hands, and threw up their sweaty night-caps, and utter'd such a deal of stinking breath, because Cafar refus'd the crown, that it had almost choaked Cafar; for he fwooned, and fell down at it; and for mine own part, I durst not laugh, for fear of opening my lips, and receiving the bad air.

Caf. But, soft, I pray you. What? Did Cafar fwoon?

Casca. He fell down in the market-place, and foam'd at mouth, and was speechless.

Bru. 'Tis very like; he hath the falling Sickness. Caf. No, Cæfar hath it not; but you and I, And honest Cafca, we have the falling fickness.

Cafca. I know not what you mean by that; but, I am sure, Cefar fell down. If the tag-rag people did not clap him, and hiss him, according as he pleas'd, and displeas'd them, as they used to do the Players in the Theatre, I am no true man.

Bru. What said he, when he came unto himself? Cafca. Marry, before he fell down, when he perceiv'd the common herd was glad he refus'd the Crown, he pluckt me ope his doublet, and offer'd them his throat to cut. An' I had been a man of any occupation, if I would not have taken him at a word, I would I might go to hell among the rogues. And so he fell. When he came to himself again, he faid, If be bad done, or faid any thing amifs, be defir'd their Worships to think it was his infirmity. Three or four wenches where I stood, cry'd, alas, good foul!and forgave him with all their hearts: but there's no heed to be taken of them; if Cefar had stabb'd their mothers, they would have done no less.

Bru. And after that, he came, thus sad, away?
Cafca. Ay.

6

a man of any occupation,] Had Plebeians to whom he offered his I been a mechanick, one of the throat.

Caf.

Caf. Did Cicero say any thing?
Cafca. Ay, he spoke Greek.
Caf. To what effect?

Cafca. Nay, an' I tell you that, I'll ne'er look you i' th' face again. But those, that understood him, fmil'd at one another, and shook their heads; but for mine own part, it was Greek to me. I could tell you more news too. Marullus and Flavius, for pulling scarfs off Cesar's Images, are put to filence. Fare you well. There was more foolery yet, if I could remember it.

Caf. Will you sup with me to night, Cafca ?

Cafca. No, I am promis'd forth.

Caf. Will you dine with me to-morrow?

Cafca. Ay, if I be alive, and your mind hold, and

your dinner be worth the eating.

Caf. Good. I will expect you.

Casca. Do fo. Farewel Both.

[Exit.

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

He was quick mettle, when he went to school.

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However he puts on this tardy form.
This rudeness is a fauce to his good wit,
Which gives men stomach to digeft his words
With better appetite.

Bru. And so it is. For this time I will leave you. 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.

Caf. I will do fo. Till then, think of the world. [Exit Brutus.

Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I fee, 2 Thy honourable Metal may be wrought

7 Thy honourable Metal may be wrought

From what it is dispos'd;

The best metal or temper may be worked into qualities contrary to its original conftitution.

From

From what it is dispos'd; therefore 'tis meet,
That noble minds keep ever with their likes,
For who so firm, that cannot be seduc'd?
Cafar doth bear me hard, but he loves Brutus;
* If I were Brutus now, and he were Caffius,
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 obfcurely
Cafar's ambition shall be glanced at.
And, after this, let Cæfar seat him fure;

For we will shake him, or worse days endure. [Exit.

SCENE VI.

Thunder and lightning. Enter Casca, bis sword drawn and Cicero, meeting bim:

Cic. Good even, Cafca. Brought you Cafar home? Why are you breathless, and why stare you fo?

Cafca. Are not you mov'd, when all the way of

earth

Shakes like a thing unfirm? O Cicero!
I have seen tempefts, when the scolding winds
Have riv'd the knotty oaks; and I have seen

• If I were Brutus now, and
be were Caffius,

He should not humour me.-] This is a reflexion on Brutus'singratitude; which concludes, as is usual on such occasions, in an encomium on his own better conditions. If I were Brutus, (says he) and Brutus, Caffius, he should not cajole, me as I do him. To bumour signifies here to turn and wind him, by inflaming his paffions. The Oxford Editor alters the laft line to

VOL. VII.

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Cæfar should not love me. What he means by it, is not worth inquiring. WARB.

The meaning, I think, is this, Cæfar loves Brutus, but if Brutus and I were to change places, bis love should not bumour me, should not take hold of my affection, so as to make me forget my principles.

9-Brought you Cæfar home?] Did you attend Cafar home?

1-fway of earth] The whole weight or momentum of this globe. C

Th

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Th' ambitious ocean swell, and rage, and foam,
To be exalted with the threatning clouds;
But never till to-night, never till now,
Did I go through a tempest dropping fire.
Either there is a civil strife in heav'n;
Or else the world, too faucy with the Gods,
Incenses them to send destruction.

Cic. Why, faw you any thing more wonderful?
Cafca. A common slave, you know him well by fight,

Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn,
Like twenty torches join'd; and yet his hand,
Not fenfible of fire, remain'd unscorch'd.
Besides, I ha' not since put up my fword,
Against the Capitol I met a lion,

* Who glar'd 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 fit,
Ev'n 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 beleve, 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 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.

Cafta. Farewel, Cicero.

2 Who glar'd upon me,-] The first edition reads,

[Exit Cicero.

Who glaz'd upon me, Perhaps, Who gaz'd upon me.

SCENE

SCENE VII.

Enter Caffius.

!

Caf. Who's there?

Cafca. A Roman.

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Caf. Cafca, by your voice.

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

Caf. A very pleasing night to honest men.

Cafca. Whoever knew the heavens menace fo?

Caf. Those, 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, Cafta, as you fee,
Have bar'd my bafom to the thunder-stone,
And when the cross blue lightning seem'd to open
The breast of heav'n, I did present myself

Ev'n in the aim and very flash of it.

Cafca. But wherefore did you so much tempt the

heav'ns?

1

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

21

Caf. You are dull, Cafca; and those sparks of life,

That should be in a Roman, you do want,
Or else you use not; you look pale, and gaze,
And put on fear, and caft yourself in wonder,
To fee the strange impatience of the heav'ns:
But if you would confider the true cause,"
Why all these fires, why all these gliding ghosts,
3 Why birds and beafts, from quality and kind,

3 W'by birds and beasts, from quality and kind,] That is, Why they deviste from quality and nature. This line might perhaps be more properly placed

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after the next line.

W'by birds and beasis, from qua-
Lity and kind,

Why all these things change
from their ordinance.

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