Why all these things change, from their ordinance,
Their natures, and pre-formed faculties,
To monstrous quality; why, you shall find,
That heaven has 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
As doth the lion in the Capitol :

A man no mightier than thyfelf, or me,
In perfona! action; yet prodigious grown,
And fearful, as these strange 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' fpirits :
Our yoke and fufferance fhew us womanish.

Cafca. Indeed, they fay, 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 moft ftrong; 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]. WARD. 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 implying nerves or mufcular firength. The word is ufed by Falfef in the Second Part of Hen. IV. and in Hamlet,

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

C 3

STEVENS

Nor

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 thefe 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.

Cafea. So can I :

So every bondman in his own hand bears
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.
Thofe that with hafte will make a mighty fire,
Begin it with weak ftraws. 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, oh grief!
Where haft thou led me? I, perhaps, fpeak this
Before a willing bondman: then I know,

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

Cafca. You fpeak to Cafca; and to such a man, That is no flearing tell-tale. 3 Hold my hand: 4 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, Cafca, I have mov'd already
Some certain of the nobleft- minded Romans,

2

My answer must be made.] I fhall be called to account, and muft anfwer as for feditious words.

JOHNSON. 3- Hold my hand :] Is the fame as, Here's my hand. JOHNSON. 4 Be factious for redrijs-] Factious feems here to mean active.

JOHNSON.
Το

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

"It favours, like the work we have in hand,
Moft bloody, fiery, and moft terrible.

Enter Cinna.

Cafca. Stand clofe awhile, for here comes one in hafte.

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 feen ftrange 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

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

5 Is fev'rous, like the work-]

The old edition reads,

It favours, like the work

I think we should read,

In favour's, like the work we have in hand,

Moft bloody, fiery, and most terrible.

Favour is look, countenance, appearance.

JOHNSON.

We should rather read is favour'd. Perhaps Shakespeare has made a verb from the fubftantive favour, i. e. countenance, i. e. it is in appearance or countenance like, &c.

C 4'

STEEVENS.

Upon

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 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 II. SCENE I.

Brutus's Garden.

Enter Brutus.

BRUTUS.

HAT, Lucius! ho!-

WH

I cannot by the progress of the stars, Give guess how near to day.--Lucius, I fay!-I would, it were my fault to fleep fo foundly..

When,

When, Lucius, when? awake, I fay: what, Lu

cius !

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.

[Exit.

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

I know no personal caufe to fpurn at him,

But for the general. He would be crown'd :How that might change his nature, there's the quef

tion.

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
Remorfe from power: and, to fpeak truth of Cæfar,
I have not known when his affections fway'd
More than his reafon. But 'tis a 7 common proof,
That lowliness 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:

8

Then, left he may, prevent. And, fince the quarrel Will bear no colour, for the thing he is,

6 Remorse from power: Remorse, for mercy.

WARB.

Remorfe (fays the Author of the Revisal) fignifics the conscious uneafinefs arifing from a fenfe of having done wrong; to extinguifh which feeling, nothing hath fo great a tendency as abfolute uncontrouled power.

I think Warburton right.

7-common proof,] Common experiment. -baje degrees] Low steps.

JOHNSON.

JOHNSON.

JOHNSON.

Fashion