Caf. And why should 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.
Those that with hafte will make a mighty fire,
Begin it with weak straws: 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, O, grief!
Where haft thou led me? I, perhaps, speak this
Before a willing bondman: then I know
My answer must be made 9: But I am arm'd,
And dangers are to me indifferent.

Cafea. You fpeak to Cafca: and to fuch a man,
That is no flearing tell-tale. Hold my hand':
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, Cafoa, I have mov'd already
Some certain of the nobleft-minded Romans,
To undergo, with me, an enterprize
Of honourable-dangerous confequence;
And I do know, by this, they stay 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,

Is favour'd like the work we have in hand,
Moft bloody, firy, and most terrible.

Enter CINNA.

Cafca. Stand close 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?

Gin. 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 fhall be called to account, and must answer as for feditious words.

Hold my hand:] is the fame as, Here's my band..

& Fallious feems here to mean a&ive.

Cin. I am glad on't. What a fearful night is this? There's two or three of us have seen strange 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
Upon old Brutus' ftatue: 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 feek you at your houfe. Well, I will hie,
And fo beftow these 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 house: 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 fure of him.

ACT II.

[Exeunt.

SCENE I.

The fame. Brutus's Orchard.

Enter BRUTUS.

Bru. What, Lucius! ho!—

I cannot, by the progress of the stars,

Give guefs how near to day.-Lucius, I fay!

I would

I would it were my fault to fleep fo foundly.-
When, Lucius, when? Awake, Ifay: What Lucius !
Enter LUCIUS.

Luc. Call'd you, my lord?

Bru. Get me a taper in my ftudy, 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 perfonal cause to spurn at him,

But for the general. He would be crown'd :

[Exit.

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 fting in him,
That at his will he may do danger with.
The abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins
Remorfe from power: And, to speak truth of Cæfar,
I have not known when his affections sway'd
More than his reafon. But 'tis a common proof3
That lowlinefs 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 base degrees
By which he did afcend: So Cæfar may;

Then, left he may, prevent. And, fince 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 ferpent's egg,

Which, hatch'd, would, as his kind, grow mischievous
And kill him in the fhell.

Re-enter LUCIUS.

Luc. The taper burneth in your closet, fir. Searching the window for a flint, I found This paper, thus feal'd up; and, I am fure, It did not lie there, when I went to bed.

1 common proof,] It is proved by common experience.

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

Bru. Look in the kalendar, and bring me word.
Luc. I will, fir.

Bru. The exhalations, whizzing in the air,
Give fo much light, that I may read by them.

[Exit.

[Opens the letter, and reads.

Brutus, thou fleep'ft; awake, and fee thyself.
Shall Rome-Speak, ftrike, redress!
Brutus, thou fleep'ft; awake,-

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

Shall Rome-Thus muft I piece it out;

Shall Rome ftand 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, ftrike, redrefs! Am Ientreated

To fpeak, and ftrike? O Rome! I make thee promife, If the redrefs will follow, thou receivest

Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus !

Re-enter LUCIUS.

Luc. Sir, March is wafted fourteen days. [Knock within.
Bru. 'Tis good. Go to the gate; fomebody knocks.
[Exit Lucius.
Since Caffius firft did whet me against Cæfar,
I have not flept.

Between the acting of a dreadful thing
And the first motion, all the interim is
Like a phantafma, or a hideous dream:
The genius, and the mortal inftruments,
Are then in council; and the state of a man,
Like to a little kingdom, fuffers then

The nature of an infurrection.

Re-enter LUCIUS.

Luc. Sir, 'tis your brother Caffius at the door,

Who doth defire to see you.

Bri.

▲ your brother Caffius-] Caffius married Junia, Brutus' fifter,

Bru. Is he alone?

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

Bru. Do you know them?

Luc. No, fir; their hats are pluck'd about their ears, And half their faces bury'd in their cloaks,

That by no means I may discover them

By any mark of favour 3.,

Bru. Let them enter.

They are the faction. O confpiracy!

[Exit Lucius.

Sham'ft thou to fhew 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 monftrous vifage? Seek none, confpiracy;
Hide it in fmiles, and affability:

For if thou path, thy native semblance on,

Not Erebus itself were dim enough

To hide thee from prevention."

Enter CASSIUS, CASCA, DECIUS, CINNA, METELLUS
CIMBER, and TREBONIUS.

Caf. I think, we are too bold upon your reft:
Good morrow, Brutus; Do we trouble you?

Bru. I have been up this hour; awake, all night.
Know I these men, that come along with you ?
Caf. Yes, every man of them; and no man here,
But honours you: and every one doth wish,
You had but that opinion of yourself,
Which every noble Roman bears of you.
This is Trebonius.

"Bru. He is welcome hither.

Caf. This Decius Brutus.

Bru. He is welcome too.

Caf. This, Cafca; this, Cinna;

And this, Metellus Cimber.

Bru. They are all welcome.

What watchful cares do interpose themselves

Betwixt your eyes and night?

Caf. Shall I entreat a word?

5 Any diftinction of countenance.

• If thou walk in thỳ true form.

[They whisper.

Dec.