As who goes farthest. Cas. Of honourable-dangerous consequence; In favour's like the work' we have in hand, Enter CINNA. Casca. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste. Cas. '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? Cimber? Cas. No, it is Casca; one incorporate Metellus To our attempts. Am I not stay'd for, Cinna? 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 Upon old Brutus' statue: all this done, Repair to Pompey's porch, where you shall find us. 1 In FAVOUR'S like the work-] i. e. In appearance, or, more strictly, in countenance, is like the work, &c. The folios all read, "Is favour's," for "In favour's." Is Decius Brutus, and Trebonius, there? Cin. All but Metellus Cimber, and he's gone [Exit CINNA. Come, Casca, you and I will, yet, ere day, Upon the next encounter, yields him ours. Casca. O! he sits high in all the people's hearts; 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, [Exeunt. Enter BRUTUS. Bru. What, Lucius! ho! I cannot, by the progress of the stars, 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. [Exit. Bru. It must be by his death; and, for my part, I know no personal cause to spurn at him, 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, Which, hatch'd, would, as his kind, grow mischievous, 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. [Giving him the Letter. Bru. Get you to bed again; it is not day. Is not to-morrow, boy, the ides of March?? 2 the IDES of March ?] All the folios read," the first of March," a decided error, corrected by Theobald. Luc. I know not, sir. Bru. Look in the calendar, and bring me word. Bru. The exhalations, whizzing in the air, [Exit. [Opens the Letter, and reads. "Brutus, thou sleep'st: awake, and see thyself. Shall Rome, &c. Speak, strike, redress! Such instigations have been often dropp'd "Shall Rome, &c." Thus must I piece it out; 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 What! To speak, and strike? O Rome! I make thee promise, If the redress will follow, thou receiv'st Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus ! Re-enter LUCIUS. Luc. Sir, March is wasted fourteen days3. [Knocking within. Bru. 'Tis good. Go to the gate; somebody knocks. [Exit LUCIUS. Since Cassius first did whet me against Cæsar, Between the acting of a dreadful thing, 3 Sir, March is wasted FOURTEEN days.] "Fifteen days" in all editions before that of Theobald, who truly states that March was only wasted fourteen days, inasmuch as Lucius was speaking at the dawn of the fifteenth day. Are then in council; and the state of a man, The nature of an insurrection. Re-enter LUCIUS. Luc. Sir, 'tis your brother Cassius* at the door, Who doth desire to see you. Bru. Is he alone? 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. Bru. Let them enter. [Exit LUCIUS. They are the faction. O conspiracy! Sham'st thou to show thy dangerous brow by night, Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, conspiracy; Hide it in smiles, and affability: For if thou paths, thy native semblance on, Not Erebus itself were dim enough To hide thee from prevention. Enter CASSIUS, CASCA, DECIUS, CINNA, METELLUS CIMBER, and TREBONIUS. Cas. I think we are too bold upon your rest: Good morrow, Brutus; do we trouble you? Sir, 'tis your BROTHER Cassius-] Cassius was brother to Brutus by reason of the marriage of the former with the sister of the latter. 5 For if thou PATH,] This verb was in use for walk by Drayton, one of the best writers of his time. All the old editions concur in "path;" but Southern, in his copy of the folio, 1685, has altered the word to put. Coleridge also, in his Lit. Rem. vol. ii. p. 140, would read put, being, as he states, not aware that any writer of Shakespeare's age had used" to path" in the sense of to walk. |