JULIUS CAESAR. William Shakespeare

unscorch’d.

       Besides,—I ha’ not since put up my sword,—

       Against the Capitol I met a lion,

       Who glared 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 Antonius

       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 thunder-stone;

       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;—

       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.

       [Thunders 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