"In personal action; yet prodigious grown,

And fearful, as these strange eruptions are.

CASCA. "T is Cæsar that you mean: Is it not, Cassius? CAS. Let it be who it is: for Romans now

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 sufferance show us womanish.

CASCA. Indeed they say the senators to-morrow
Mean to establish Cæsar as a king:

And he shall wear his crown by sea and land,
In every place save here in Italy.

CAS. I know where I will wear this dagger then;
Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius:
Therein, ye gods, you make the weak most strong;
Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat:
Nor stony 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,
Never lacks power to dismiss itself.

If I know this, know all the world besides,
That part of tyranny that I do bear

I can shake off at pleasure.

CASCA.

So can I:

So every bondman in his own hand bear's

The power to cancel his captivity.

[Thunder still.

CAS. And why should Cæsar be a tyrant then?
Poor man! I know he would not be a wolf,
But that he sees the Romans are but sheep:
He were no lion were not Romans hinds.

Those that with haste will make a mighty fire
Begin it with weak straws: What trash is Rome,
What rubbish, and what offal, when it serves
For the base matter to illuminate

So vile a thing as Cæsar!
Where hast thou led me?
Before a willing bondman:

But, O, grief!

I, perhaps, speak this then I know

My answer must be made: But I am arm'd,
And dangers are to me indifferent.

CASCA. You speak to Casca; and to such a man
That is no fleering tell-tale. Hold, my hand:
Be factious for redress of all these griefs;
And I will set this foot of mine as far

As who goes farthest.

CAS.

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 enterprise

Of honourable-dangerous consequence;
And I do know by this they stay for me
In Pompey's porch: For now, this fearful night,
There is no stir or walking in the streets;
And the complexion of the element

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

Enter CINNA.

CASCA. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste. CAS. 'T is 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? CAS. No, it is Casca; one incorporate

To our attempts. Am I not staid for, Cinna?

What a fearful night is this! us have seen strange sights.

CIN. I am glad on 't.
There's two or three of
CAS. Am I not staid for? Tell me.

CIN.
Yes, you are.
O, Cassius, if you could but win the noble Brutus

To our party

CAS. 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: set this up with wax

Upon old Brutus' statue: 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 seek you at your house. Well, I will hie,
And so bestow these papers as you bade me

CAS. That done, repair to Pompey's theatre. Earit CINNA Come, Casca, you and I will yet, ere day,

See Brutus at his house: three parts of him

Is ours already; and the man entire,

Upon the next encounter, yields him ours.

CASCA. O, he sits 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.

Cas. 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 II.

SCENE I.-The same.

Brutus's Orchard.

Enter BRUTUS.

BRU. What, Lucius! ho!

I cannot, by the progress of the stars,

Give guess how near to day.-Lucius, I say!-
I would it were my fault to sleep so soundly.—
When, Lucius, when! Awake, I say! What, Lucius!

Enter LUCIUS.

LUC. Call'd you, my lord?

BRU. Get me a taper in my study, 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 personal cause to spurn at him,

[Exit

But for the general. He would be crown'd:-
How that might change his nature, there's the question.
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 sting in him,
That at his will he may do danger with.
The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins
Remorse from power: And, to speak truth of Cæsar,
I have not known when his affections sway'd
More than his reason. But 't is a common proof
That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,
Whereto the climber-upward turns his face:
But when he once attains the utmost round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend: So Cæsar may;

Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since 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 serpent'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, sir. Searching the window for a flint, I found This paper, thus seal'd up; and, I am sure, It did not lie there when I went to bed.

BRU. Get you to bed again, it is not day.
Is not to-morrow, boy, the ides of March?
Luc. I know not, sir.

BRU. Look in the calendar, and bring me word.
Luc. I will, sir.

BRU. The exhalations, whizzing in the air,

Give so much light that I may read by them.

[Exit.

[Opens the letter, and reads.

"Brutus, thou sleep'st; awake, and see thyself. Shall Rome, &c. Speak, strike, redress!

Brutus, thou sleep'st; awake!"

Such instigations have been often dropp'd
Where I have took them up.

Shall Rome, &c." Thus must I piece it out;

Shall Rome stand under one man's awe? What! Rome?

My ancestors did from the streets of Rome

The Tarquin drive, when he was call'd a king.

Speak, strike, redress!"-Am I entreated

To speak, and strike? O Rome! I make thee promise,
If the redress will follow, thou receivest

Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus!

Re-enter LUCIUS.

Luc. Sir, March is wasted fourteen days.

[Knock within.

BRU. 'Tis good. Go to the gate: somebody knocks.

Since Cassius first did whet me against Cæsar

I have not slept.

Between the acting of a dreadful thing

And the first motion, all the interim is
Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream:
The genius and the mortal instruments
Are then in council; and the state of a man,
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then

The nature of an insurrection.

[Exit LUCIUS.

Re-enter LUCIUS.

Luc. Sir, 't is your brother Cassius at the door, Who doth desire to see you.

Luc. No, sir, there are more with him.

BRU.

Do you know them?

Luc. No, sir; their hats are pluck'd about their ears,

And half their faces buried in their cloaks,

That by no means I may discover them

By any mark of favour.

They are the faction. O Conspiracy!

[Exit LUCIUS.

Sham'st thou to show thy dangerous brow by night,
When evils are most free? O, then, by day

Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough

To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, Conspiracy; Hide it in smiles and affability: