would not have taken him at a word, I would I might go to hell among the rogues :-and fo he fell. When he came to himself again, he said, If he had done, or said, any thing amifs, he defired their worthips to think it was his infirmity. Three or four wenches, where I flood, cry'd, Alas, good foul!-and forgave him with all their hearts: But there's no heed to be taken of them; if Cæfar had ftabb'd their mothers, they would have done no less. Bru. And after that, he came, thus fad, away? Cafea. Ay.

Caf. Did Cicero fay any thing?

Cafca. Ay, he spoke Greek.
Caf. To what effect?

Cafea. Nay, an I tell you that, I'll ne'er look you i' the face again: But thofe, that understood him, smiled at one another, and fhook their heads: but, for mine I could tell you more own part, it was Greek to me. news too: Marullus and Flavius, for pulling scarfs off Cæfar's images, are put to filence. Fare you well. There was more foolery yet, if I could remember it.

Caf. Will you fup with me to-night, Casca?

Cafca. No, I am promised forth.

Caf. Will you dine with me to-morrow?

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

dinner worth the eating.

Caf. Good; I will expect you.

Cafca. Do fo: Farewel both.

[Exit CASCA

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

He was quick mettle, when he went to school.

Caf. So he is now, in execution

Of any bold or noble enterprize,

However he puts on this tardy form.

This rudeness is a fauce to his good wit,

Which gives men ftomach to digeft his words

With better appetite.

Bru. And fo 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.

Caf. I will do fo:-till then, think of the world.
[Exit BRUTUS.

Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I fee,
Thy honourable metal may be wrought
From that it is difpos'd': Therefore 'tis meet
That noble minds keep ever with their likes:
For who fo firm, that cannot be feduc'd?
Cæfar 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 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 shall be glanced at:

And, after this, let Cæfar feat him fure;
For we will shake him, or worse days endure.

SCENE III.

The fame. A Street.

[Exit.

Thunder and lightning. Enter, from oppofite fides, CASCA; with his word drawn, and CICERO.

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

7 Thy bonourable metal may be wrought

From that it is difpos'd:] The best metal or temper may be worked into qualities contrary to its original conftitution. JOHNSON. From that it is difpos'd, i. e. difpos'd to. See p. 128, n. 8.

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

MALONE.

He fhould not humour me.] The meaning I think is, Cæfar loves Brutus, but if Brutus and I were to change places, bis love should not bumour me, thould not take hold of my affection, fo as to make me forget my principles. JOHNSON.

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

See Vol. V. p. 490, n. 4. MALONE.

JOHNSON.

Cafca

Cafea. 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 threat'ning 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;
Or elfe the world, too faucy with the gods,
Incenfes them to fend destruction.

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 sword,)

Against the Capitol I met a lion,

Who gaz'd upon me, and went furly by 3,
Without annoying me: And there were drawn

Upon

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

JOHNSON.

2 A common flave, &c.] So, in the old tranflation of Plutarch: <ta flave of the fouldiers that did cast a marvelous burning flame out of his hande, infomuch as they that faw it, thought he had bene burnt; but when the fire was out, it was found he had no hurt."

STEEVENS.

3 Who gaz'd upon me, and went furly by,] The old copy readsglaz'd, for which Mr. Pope substituted glar'd, and this reading has been adopted by all the fubfequent editors. Glar'd certainly is to our ears a more forcible expreffion; I have however adopted a reading propofed by Dr. Johnson, gaz'd, induced by the following paffage in Stowe's Chronicle, 1615, from which the word gaze feems in our auhour's time to have been peculiarly applied to the fierce aspect of a lion, and therefore may be prefumed to have been the word here intended. The writer is defcribing a trial of valour (as he calls it,) between a lion, a bear, a ftone-horse and a maftiff; which was exhibited in the Tower, in the year 1609, before the king and all the royal family, diverse great lords, and many others: "Then was the great lyon put forth, who gazed awhile, but never offered to affault or approach the bear." Again: "the above mentioned young lufty lyon and lyonefs were

both

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 fe 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 ftrange-difpofed time:
But men may conftrue things after their fafltion,
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, Casca: this disturbed sky
Is not to walk in.

Cafca. Farewel, Cicero.

Caf. Who's there?

Cafca. A Roman.

[Exit CICERO.

Enter CASSIUS.

Caf. Cafca, by your voice.

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

both put together, to see if they would rescue the third, but they would not, but fearfully [that is, dreadfully] gazed upon the dogs." Again: "The lyon having fought long, and his tongue being torne, lay ftaring and panting a pretty while, fo as all the beholders thought he had been utterly fpoyled and fpent; and upon a fodaine gazed upon that dog which remained, and fo foon as he had spoyled and worried, almost deStroyed him."

In this laft inftance gaz'd feems to be used as exactly fynonymous to the modern word glar'd, for the lion immediately afterwards proceeds to worry and destroy the dog. MALONE.

Glar'd is certainly right. To gaze is only to look ftedfaftly, or with admiration. Glar'd has a fingular propriety, as it expreffes the furious fcintillation of a lion's eyes: and, that a lion fhould appear full of fury, and yet attempt no violence, augments the prodigy. STEEVENS.

4 Clean from the purpose-] Clean is altogether, entirely. See Vol. V. P. 51. n. 9. MALONE.

Y 3

Caf.

Caf. A very pleasing night to honeft 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, Calca, as you fee,

Have bar'd my bosom to the thunder-ftone:

And, when the cross blue lightning feem'd to open
The breast of heaven, I did prefent myself

Even in the aim and very flash of it.

Cafca. But wherefore did you fo much tempt the hea

vens?

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 strange impatience of the heavens:
But if you would confider the true cause,

Why all these fires, why all these gliding ghofts,
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,
To monftrous quality; why, you fhall find,
That heaven hath infus'd them with thefe fpirits,
To make them inftruments of fear, and warning,

5 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.

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

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

Unto