Julius Caesar - The Original Classic Edition. Shakespeare William

men stomach to digest his words

       With better appetite.

       BRUTUS. And so it is. For this time I will leave you. Tomorrow, 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.

       CASSIUS. I will do so. Till then, think of the world.

       Exit Brutus. Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see

       Thy honorable mettle may be wrought

       From that it is disposed; therefore it is meet That noble minds keep ever with their likes; For who so firm that cannot be seduced?

       Caesar doth bear me hard, but he loves Brutus. If I were Brutus now and he were Cassius,

       He should not humor me. I will this night, In several 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 obscurely

       Caesar's ambition shall be glanced at. And after this let Caesar seat him sure;

       For we will shake him, or worse days endure. Exit. SCENE III. A street. Thunder and lightning.

       Enter, from opposite sides, Casca, with his sword drawn, and

       Cicero.

       CICERO. Good even, Casca. Brought you Caesar home? Why are you breathless, and why stare you so?

       CASCA. Are not you moved, when all the sway of earth

       Shakes like a thing unfirm? O Cicero,

       I have seen tempests when the scolding winds Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen The ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam To be exalted with the threatening clouds,

       But never till tonight, never till now,

       Did I go through a tempest dropping fire.

       Either there is a civil strife in heaven,

       Or else the world too saucy with the gods

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       Incenses them to send destruction.

       CICERO. Why, saw you anything more wonderful? CASCA. A common slave-you know him well by sight-Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn

       Like twenty torches join'd, and yet his hand Not sensible of fire remain'd unscorch'd. Besides-I ha' not since put up my sword-Against the Capitol I met a lion,

       Who glaz'd upon me and went surly by Without annoying me. And there were drawn Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women Transformed with their fear, who swore they saw Men all in fire walk up and down the streets.

       And yesterday the bird of night did sit Even at noonday upon the marketplace, Howling and shrieking. When these prodigies Do so conjointly meet, let not men say "These are their reasons; they are natural": For I believe they are portentous things

       Unto the climate that they point upon. CICERO. Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time. But men may construe things after their fashion,

       Clean from the purpose of the things themselves. Comes Caesar to the Capitol tomorrow?

       CASCA. He doth, for he did bid Antonio

       Send word to you he would be there tomorrow. CICERO. Good then, Casca. This disturbed sky Is not to walk in.

       CASCA. Farewell, Cicero. Exit Cicero. Enter Cassius.

       CASSIUS. Who's there? CASCA. A Roman.

       CASSIUS. Casca, by your voice.

       CASCA. Your ear is good. Cassius, what night is this! CASSIUS. A very pleasing night to honest men. CASCA. Who ever knew the heavens menace so?

       CASSIUS. Those that have known the earth so full of faults. For my part, I have walk'd about the streets,

       Submitting me unto the perilous night, And thus unbraced, Casca, as you see,

       Have bared my bosom to the thunderstone;

       And when the cross blue lightning seem'd to open

       The breast of heaven, I did present myself

       Even in the aim and very flash of it.

       CASCA. But wherefore did you so much tempt the heavens? It is the part of men to fear and tremble

       When the most mighty gods by tokens send

       Such dreadful heralds to astonish us.

       CASSIUS. You are dull, Casca, and those sparks of life

       That should be in a Roman you do want,

       Or else you use not. You look pale and gaze And put on fear and cast yourself in wonder To see the strange impatience of the heavens. But if you would consider the true cause

       Why all these fires, why all these gliding ghosts, Why birds and beasts from quality and kind, Why old men, fools, and children calculate,

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       Why all these things change from their ordinance, Their natures, and preformed faculties

       To monstrous quality, why, you shall find

       That heaven hath infused them with these spirits To make them instruments of fear and warning Unto some monstrous state.

       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 personal action, yet prodigious grown

       And fearful, as these strange eruptions are.

       CASCA. 'Tis Caesar that you mean, is it not, Cassius? CASSIUS. 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 tomorrow Mean to establish Caesar as a king,

       And he shall wear his crown by sea and land

       In every place save here in Italy.

       CASSIUS. 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. Thunder still. CASCA. So can I.

       So every bondman in his own hand bears

       The power to cancel his captivity.

       CASSIUS. And why should Caesar 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 Caesar? But, O grief,

       Where hast thou led me? I perhaps speak this

       Before a willing bondman; 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.

       CASSIUS. There's a bargain made.

       Now know you, Casca, I have moved already