And, thus unbraced, Cafca, as you fee,

Have bar'd my bofom to the thunder-fone: storm ? AT And, when the cross blue lightning feem'd to open

The breaft of heaven, I did prefent my felf

Even in the aim and very flafh of it.

Cafea. 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 thofe fparks 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 yourfelf in wonder,
To fee the ftrange impatience of the heavens:
But if you would confider the true caufe,
Why all thefe fires, why all thefe gliding ghofts,
Why birds, and beafts, from quality and kind ;9
Why old men fools, and children calculate;2
Why all these things change, from their ordinance,
Their natures, and pre-formed faculties,
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 monstrous ftate. Now could I, Cafca,
Name to thee a man moft like this dreadful night;
That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars

That is, Why they deviate froin quality and nature. perhaps be more properly placed after the next line:

Why birds, and beafts, from quality and kind,

As

This line might

Why all these things change from their ordinance. JOHNSON. 2 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 the nativity, is the technical term. JOHNSON.

There is certainly no prodigy in old men's calculating from their paft experience. The wonder is, that old men fhould not, and that children fhould. I would therefore [instead of old men, fools, and children, &c.] point thus:

Why old men fools, and children calculate. BLACKSTONE.

As doth the lion in the Capitol:

A man no mightier than thyself, or me,
In perional action; yet prodigious grown,3
And fearful as thefe ftrange eruptions are.

Cafca. 'Tis Cæfar that you mean: Is it not, Caffius?
Cf. Let it be who it is: for Romans now
Have thewes and limbs 4 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 show us womanish.

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

And he fhall 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 most strong;
Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat:
Nor ftony tower, nor walls of beaten braís,
Nor airless dungeon, nor ftrong links of iron,
Can be retentive to the strength of fpirit;
But life, being weary of thefe wordly bars,
Never lacks power to difmifs itself.

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

Cafea.
So can I:
So every bondman in his own hand bears
The power to cancel his captivity.

Caf. And why fhould Cæfar he 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

3 Prodigious is portentous. STEEVENS.

4 Thews is an obfolete word implying nerves or mufcular ftrength.

So

STEEVENS.

So vile a thing as Cæfar? But, O, grief!
Where haft thou led me? 1, perhaps, speak this
Before a willing bondman: then I know
My anfwer must be made:5 But I am arm'd,
And dangers are to me indifferent.

Cafca. You fpeak to Cafca; and to fuch a man,
There is no fleering tell-tale. Hold my hand :6
Be factious for redress 7 of all these griefs;

And I will fet this foot of mine as far,

There's a bragain made.

Now know you, Cafca, I have mov'd already
Some 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,

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

5 I shall be called to account, and must answer as for feditious words.

6 Is the fame as, Here's my band. JOHNSON.

7 Factious feems here to mean active. JOHNSON.

JOHNSON.

It means, I apprehend, embody a party or faction. MALONE. Perhaps Dr. Johnfon's explanation is the true one. Menenius, in Coriolanus, fays, "I have been always factionary on the part of your general;" and the speaker, who is defcribing himself, would scarce have employed the word in its common and unfavourable fenfe. STEEVENS.

8 The old edition reads:

Is favors, like the work,

think we should read:

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

Favour is look, countenance, appearance. JOHNSON.
To favour is to refemble. STEEVENS.

Perhaps fev'rous is the true reading: So, in Macbeth:
Some fay the earth

"Was feverous, and did shake." REED.

& But in the next scence the very panty for requess of all these quefs is called the "faction" "They are the faction" says Bunters

Enter CINNA.

Cafca. Stand clofe awhile, for here comes one in haste.
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 seen strange fights. Caf. Am I not ftaid for, Cinna? Tell me.

Cin.

You are. O, Caffius, if you could but win

The noble Brutus to our party—

Yes,

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 houfe. Well, I will hie,
And fo beftow these papers as you bade me.
Caf. That done, repair to Pompey's theatre.

[Exit CINNA.

Come, Casca, 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.
Cafea. 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.

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 sure of him.

[Exeunt.

ACT

ACT II. SCENE I.

The fame. Brutus's Orchard,

Enter BRUTUS.

Bru. What, Lucius! ho!

I cannot, by the progrefs of the ftars,

Give guess how near to day.-Lucius, I fay!-
I would it were my fault to fleep fo foundly.-
When, Lucius, when? Awake, I say: What Lucius!

Enter LUCIUS.

Luc. Call'd you, my lord?

Bru. Get me a taper in my ftudy, Lucius:
When it is lighted, come and call me here.

Luc. I will, my lord.

Bru. It must be by his death: and, for my part,

I know no perfonal cause to spurn at him,

[Exit.

But

9 The modern editors read garden, but orchard feems anciently to have had the fame meaning. STEEVENS.

That these two words were anciently fynonymous, appears from a line in this play:

"6 - he hath left you all his walks,

"His private arbours, and new-planted orchards,

"On this fide Tiber." MALONE.

The number of treatifes written on the fubject of horticulture, even at the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, very strongly controvert Mr. Malone's fuppofition relative to the unfrequency of gardens at fo early a period. STEEVENS.

Orchard was anciently written bort-yard; hence its original meaning is obvious. HENLEY.

By the following quotation, however, it will appear that these words had in the days of Shakspeare acquired a distinct meaning. "It shall be good to have understanding of the ground where ye do plant either orebard or garden with fruite." A Booke of the Arte and maner borve to plant and graffe all fortes of trees, &c. 1574. 4to. And when Justice Shallow invites Falstaff to fee his orchard, where they are to eat a last year's pippin of bis own graffing, he certainly uses the word in its prefent acceptation.

Leland alfo in his Itinerary diftinguishes them." At Morle in Derbyfhire (fays he) there is as much pleasure of orchards of great variety of frute, and fair made walks, and gardens, as in any place of Lancashire."

HOLT WHITE.

"Juhur, Googe, & Markham, Busbar about Shake:'s time, all distinguish Orchand tharden. &by what they