to him again: then he put it by again; but, to my thinking, he was very loth to lay his fingers off it. And then he offer'd it the third time; he put it the third time by; and still as he refus'd it, the rabblement houted, and clapp'd their chopt hands, and threw up their sweaty night-caps, and uttered such a deal of stinking breath, because Cafar refus'd the Crown, that it had almost choaked Cafar; for he swooned, 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 swoon? Cafca. He fell down in the market-place, and foam'd at mouth, and was speechless.

Bru. 'Tis very like; he hath the falling Sickness. Cas. No, Cafar hath it not; but you and I, And honest Casca, we have the falling-fickness.

Cafca. I know not what you mean by that; but I am fure, 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 faid 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 said, "If he had " done, or faid any thing amiss, he defir'd their Wor"ships 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 fad, away?
Cafca. Ay.

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

K 4

Casca

Casca. Nay, an' I tell you that, I'll ne'er look you i'th' face again. But those, that understood him, smil'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.

Cafca. Do so: farewel Both.

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

He was quick mettle, when he went to school.

Caf. So is he now, in execution

Of any bold or noble enterprize,

However he puts on this tardy form :

This rudeness is a fawce to his good wit,
Which gives men stomach to digest his words
With better appetite.

[Exit.

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.

5

[Exit Brutus.

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

A

That Rome holds of his name: Wherein obscurely

:

Cefar's

Cefar's ambition shall be glanced at.
And, after this, let Cæfar feat him sure;

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

Thunder and lightning. Enter Casca, bis sword drawn; and Cicero, meeting him.

Cic. Good even, Casca; brought you Cafar home ? Why are you breathless, and why stare you so ?

Cafca. Are not you mov'd, when all the sway of earth 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 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 saucy with the Gods, Incenses them to send destruction.

Cic. Why, saw 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 sensible of fire, remain'd unscorch'd.
Befides, (I ha' not since put up my sword)
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 gastly women,
Transformed with their fear; who swore, they faw
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,
Houting 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 Cafar 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, Cafta; this difturbed sky
Is not to walk in.

Cafca. Farewel, Cicero.

Enter Caffius.

Caf. Who's there?

Casca. A Roman.

Caf. Cafca, by your voice.

[Exit Cicero.

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

Caf. A very pleasing night to honest men.

Cafca. Who ever knew the heavens menace so ?

Caf. Those, that have known the earth so full of faults.

For my part, I have walk'd about the streets,
Submitting me unto the perillous night;
And thus unbraced, Cafca, as you fee,

Have bar'd my bosom to the thunder-stone :
And when the cross blue lightning seem'd to open
The breast of heaven, I did present my self
Ev'n in the aim and very flash of it.

Cafca. But wherefore did you so much tempt the

heav'ns?

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

Caf. You are dull, Casca; 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 your felf in wonder,
To see the strange impatience of the heav'ns :
But if you would consider the true cause,
Why all these fires, why all these gliding ghofts,
Why birds and beasts, 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
To monstrous quality; why, you shall find,
That heaven has infus'd them with these spirits,
To make them instruments of fear and warning
Unto some monstrous state.

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 thy felf or me,
In personal action; yet prodigious grown,
And fearful, as these strange eruptions are.
Casca. 'Tis Cæfar that you mean; is it not, Caffius ?
Caf. Let it be who it is: for Romans now
Have thewes and limbs like to their ancestors; (6)
But, woe the while! our fathers minds are dead,
And we are govern'd with our mothers spirits :
Our yoke and suff'rance shew us womanish.

Cafca. Indeed, they say, the Senators to morrow
Mean to establish Cæfar as a King:
And he shall wear his Crown by sea and land,
In every place, save 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 most strong;
Therein, ye Gods, you tyrants do defeat:
Nor ftony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,
Can be retentive to the strength of spirit:
But life, being weary of these worldly bars,

(6) Have thews and Limbs. ] Mr. Pope has fubjoin'd, to both his Editions, an Explanation of Thews, as if it signified, manners or capacities. "Tis certain, it sometimes has these Significations; but he's mistaken strangely to imagine it has any fuch Sense here: Nor, indeed, do I ever remember its being used by our Author in those Acceptations. With him, I think, it always fignifies, Muscles, Sinews, bedily Strength. So, in the 2d Part of Henry IV,

Care I for the Limb, the Thewes, the Stature, Bulk,and big semblance of a Man?

And in Hamlet;

For Nature crescent does not grow alone

In Thewes and Bulk.