Unto fome monftrous ftate. Now could I, Casca,
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 thyself, or me,
In perfonal action; yet prodigious grown 7,
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

8

Have thews 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.

Cafca. Indeed, they say, the senators 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 ftrong;
Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat:
Nor ftony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor ftrong links of iron,
Can be retentive to the ftrength of fpirit;
But life, being weary of these worldly bars,
Never lacks power to dismiss itself.

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

So

7

Cafca. So can Ï:

every bondman in his own hand bears

prodigious grown,] Prodigious is portentous. STEEVENS.

8 Have thewes and limbs-] Thewes is an obfolete word implying nerves or mufcular ftrength. It is used by Falstaff in the Second Part of K. Henry IV. and in Hamlet:

"For nature, crefcent, does not grow alone

"In thewes and bulk."

The two laft folios, in which fome words are injudiously modernized, read finews. STEEVENS.

Y 4

The

The power to cancel his captivity.

Caf. And why fhould Cæfar be 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.
Those 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

So vile a thing as Cæfar? But, O, grief!
Where haft thou led me? I, perhaps, speak this
Before a willing bondman: then I know
My answer must be made 9: But I am arm'd,
And dangers are to me indifferent.

Cafea. You fpeak to Cafca: and to fuch a man,
That is no flearing tell-tale. Hold my hand':
Be factious for redrefs of all these griefs;
And I will fet this foot of mine as far,
As who goes fartheft.

Caf. There's a bargain made.

Now know you, Casca, I have mov'd already
Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans,
To undergo, with me, an enterprize
Of honourable-dangerous confequence;
And I do know, by this, they stay 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 work3 we have in hand,

Moft

9 My answer must be made :] I fhall be called to account, and muft enfwer as for feditious words. JoHNSON.

·Hold my band:] is the fame as, Here's my band. JoHNSON. 2 Be factious for redress-] Factious feems here to mean active.

JOHNSON.

It means, I apprehend, embody a party or faction. MALONE. 3 Is favour'd like the work-] The old edition reads:

Is favors, like the work

I think we should read:

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

Favour is lock, countenance, appearance. JOHNSON.

To

Moft bloody, firy, and moft terrible.

Enter CINNA.

Cafca. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in hafte. Caf. 'Tis Cinna, I do know him by his gait;

He is a friend.-Cinna, where haste you so?

Cin. To find out you; Who's that? Metellus Cimber? Caf. No, it is Cafca; one incorporate

To our attempts.

Am I not staid 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? Tell me.

Cin. Yes,

You are.

O, Caffius, if you could but win

The noble Brutus to our party

paper,

Caf. Be you content: Good Cinna, take this
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 shall 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 these 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.
Caf. 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.

To favour is to refemble. Thus Stanyhurft in his tranflation of the Third Book of Virgil's Æneid, 1582:

"With the petit town gates favouring the principal old portes." We may read It favours, or-Is favour'd-i. e. is in appearance or Countenance like, &c.

STEEVENS,

Caf.

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.

SCENE I.

ACT II.

The fame.

Brutus's Orchard.

[Exeunt.

Enter BRUTUS.

Bru. What, Lucius! ho!

I cannot, by the progress of the stars,

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

But for the general. He would be crown'd :

[Exit.

How that might change his nature, there's the question.

4- Brutus's orchard.] 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 :

"he hath left you all his walks,'

"His private arbours, and new-planted orchards,

"On this fide Tiber."

In Sir T. North's Tranflation of Plutarch, the paffage which Shakfpeare has here copied, ftands thus: "He left his gardens and arbours unto the people, which he had on this fide of the river Tyber."

So alfo in Barret's Alvearie, 1580: "A garden or an orchard, hortus." -The truth is, that few of our ancestors had in the age of Queen Elizabeth any other garden but an orchard; and hence the latter word was confidered as fynonymous to the former. MALONE.

5 When, Lucius, when?] This was a common expreffion of impatience in Shakspeare's time. See Vol. V. p. 9. n. 8. MALONE,

It is the bright day, that brings forth the adder;
And that craves wary walking. Crown him?-That ;-
And then, I grant, we put a fting in him,
That at his will he may do danger with.
The abuse of greatnefs is, when it disjoins.
Remorse from power: And, to speak truth of Cæfar,
I have not known when his affections fway'd
More than his reafon. But 'tis a common proof",
That lowlinefs is young ambition's ladder,
Whereto the climber-upward turns his face:
But when he once attains the upmost round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, fcorning the bafe degrees,
By which he did afcend: So Cæfar may;

Then, left he may, prevent. And, fince the quarrel
Will bear no colour for the thing he is,
Fashion it thus; that what he is, augmented,
Would run to these, and these extremities:
And therefore think him as a ferpent's egg,

Which, hatch'd, would, as his kind', grow mischievous;
And kill him in the shell.

Re-enter LUCIUS.

Luc. The taper burneth in your closet, fir.

6 Remorse from power:] Remorse, for mercy. WARBURTON. See Vol. II. p. 37, n. 5; p. 112, n. 1; Vol. III. p. 74, n. 3; Vol. IV. p. 205, n. 2, and p. 544, n. I. In all these paffages it means, tendernefs, pity, &c. MALONE.

Remorfe is pity, and has twice occurred in that sense in Measure for Meafure, Act II. and A&t V. STEEVENS.

1 - common proof,] It is proved by common experience. MASON. 8 But when be once attains the upmost round,

He then unto the ladder turns bis back, &c.] So, in Daniel's Civil Wars, 1602:

"The afpirer, once attain'd unto the top,

"Cuts off thofe means by which himfelf got up:
"And with a harder hand, and ftraighter rein,
"Doth curb that looseness he did find before;
"Doubting the occafion like might serve again;
"His own example makes him fear the more."
-bafe degrees] Low fteps. JoHNSON.

MALONE.

-as bis kind,-1 According to his nature. JOHNSON.

Perhaps rather, as all thofe of his kind, that is, nature. MALONE.

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