Imatges de pàgina
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He should not humour me. I will, this night,
In feveral 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
Cæfar's ambition fhall be glanced at:

And, after this, let Cæfar feat him fure;

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

SCENE III.

Thunder and lightning. Enter Cafca, his sword drawn ; and Cicero, meeting him.

Cic. Good even, Cafca. Brought you Cæfar home? Why are you breathlefs? and why stare

you fo? Cafca. Are you not mov'd, when all the 'fway of

earth

Shakes, like a thing unfirm? O Cicero,
I have seen tempefts, when the fcolding winds
Have riv'd the knotty oaks; and I have seen
The ambitious ocean fwell, and rage, and foam,
To be exalted with the threatening clouds:
But never till to-night, never till now,
Did I go through a tempeft dropping fire.
Either there is a civil ftrife in heaven;

encomium on his own better conditions. If I were Brutus (fays he) and Brutus, Caffius, he should not cajole me as I do him. To bumour fignifies here to turn and wind him, by inflaming his paffions. The Oxford Editor alters the laft line to

Cafar fhould 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, his love should not humour me, fhould not take hold of my affection, fo as to make me forget my principles. JOHNSON.

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

6

JOHNSON.

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

JOHNSON.

Or

Or else the world, too faucy with the Gods,
Incenfes them to fend deftruction.

Cic. Why, faw you any thing more wonderful? Cafca. A common flave (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 unfcorch'd. Befides (I have not fince put up my fword)

Against the Capitol I met a lion,

"Who glar'd upon me, and went furly by,
Without annoying me. And there were drawn
Upon a heap a hundred ghaftly women,
Transformed with their fear; who fwore, they faw
Men, all in fire, walk up and down the streets.
And, yesterday, the bird of night did fit,
Even at noon-day, upon the market-place,
Hooting and fhrieking. When these prodigies
Do fo conjointly meet, let not men say,
Thefe are their reafons-They are natural;
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 difturbed fky

Is not to walk in.

Cafca. Farewell, Cicero.

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

Who glaz'd upon me,—

Perhaps, Who gaz'd upon mc.

[Exit Cicero.

JOHNSON. Glar'd is certainly right. To gaze is only to look ftedfaftly, or with admiration. Gar'd has a fingular propriety, as it is highly expreffive of the furious fcintillation of a lion's eyes. STEEVENS.

[blocks in formation]

Caf. Who's there?

Cafca. A Roman.

Enter Caffius.

Caf. Cafca, by your voice.

Cafca. Your ear is good. Callius, what night is this? Caf. A very pleafing night to honeft men.

Cafca. Whoever 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-ftone:
And when the cross 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 fo much tempt the

heavens ?

It is the part of men to fear and tremble,
When the moft mighty Gods, by tokens, fend
Such dreadful heralds to aftonish 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 put on fear, and caft yourself in wonder,
To fee the ftrange impatience of the heavens :
But if you would confider the true caufe,

8

Why all these fires, why all these gliding ghosts;
Why birds, and beafts, from quality and kind;
Why old men, fools, and children calculate;

8

Why

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.

W by 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

Why all these things change, from their ordinance,
Their natures, and pre-formed faculties,

To monftrous quality; why, you shall find,
That heaven has 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
Moft 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 perfona! action; yet prodigious grown,
And fearful, as thefe ftrange eruptions are.

Cafca. '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; 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.

Cafea. Indeed, they fay, 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 strong; Therein, ye Gods, you tyrants do defeat:

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, Shakespeare, with his ufual liberty, employs the fpecies [calculate] for the genus [foretel]. WARB. Shakespeare found the liberty established. To calculate a nati vity, is the technical term. JOHNSON.

'Have thewes and limbs-] Therves is an old obfolete word im plying nerves or mufcular firength. The word is ufed by Falfff in the Second Part of Hen. IV. and in Hamlet,

"For nature, crefcent, does not grow alone
"In thewes and bulk."

C 3

STEEVE

Nor

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 bestow 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.
Cafca. 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 worthinefs.

Caf. Him, and his worth, and our great need of him,

You have right well conceited. Let us go,

For it is after midnight; and, ere day,

We will awake him, and be fure of him. [Exeunt.

ACT II. SCENE I.

Brutus's Garden.

Enter Brutus.

BRUTUS,

HAT, Lucius! ho!-

WH

I cannot by the progrefs of the stars, Give guefs how near to day.--Lucius, I fay!-I would, it were my fault to fleep so soundly.

When,

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