man of any occupation 20, if I would not have taken him at a word, I would I might go to hell among the rogues: and so he fell. When he came to himself again, he said, If he had done, or said any thing amiss, he desired their worships to think it was his infirmity. Three or four wenches, where I stood, cried, Alas, good soul!--and forgave him with all their hearts: But there's no heed to be taken of them; if Cæsar had stabbed their mothers, they would have done no less.

Bru. And after that, he came, thus sad,
Casca. Ay.

Cas. Did Cicero say any thing?

Casca. Ay, he spoke Greek.

Cas. To what effect?

away?

Casca. Nay, an I tell you that, I'll ne'er look you i' the face again: But those, that understood him, smiled at one another, and shook their heads; but, for mine own part, it was Greek to me. I could tell you more news too: Marullus and Flavius, for pulling scarfs off Cæsar's images, are put to silence. Fare you well. There was more foolery yet, if I could remember it.

Cas. Will you sup with me to-night, Casca?
Casca. No, I am promised forth.

Cas. Will you dine with me to-morrow?

Casca. Ay, if I be alive, and your mind hold,

and your dinner worth the eating.

Cas. Good; I will expect you.

Casca. Do so: Farewell, both.

[Exit CASCA.

20 Had I been a mechanic, one of the plebeians to whom he offered his throat.' So in Coriolanus:

You have made good work,

You and your apron-men; you that stood so much
Upon the voice of occupation, and

The breath of garlick-eaters.'

"Men of occupation; Opifices et tabernarii.'-Baret.

Bru. What a blunt fellow is this grown to be? He was quick mettle, when he went to school. Cas. So he is now, in execution

Of any bold or noble enterprize,
However he puts on this tardy form.
This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit,
Which gives men stomach to digest his words
With better appetite.

you:

Bru. And so it is. For this time I will leave To-morrow, if you please to speak with me, I will come home to you: or, if you will, Come home with me, and I will wait for you. Cas. I will do so:-till then, think of the world. [Exit BRUTUS. Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see, Thy honourable metal may be wrought From that it is disposed 21: Therefore 'tis meet That noble minds keep ever with their likes: For who so firm, that cannot be seduc'd? Cæsar doth bear me hard 22; but he loves Brutus : If I were Brutus now, and he were Cassius, He should not humour me 23. 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 Cæsar's ambition shall be glanced at: And, after this, let Cæsar seat him sure;

For we will shake him, or worse days endure.

[Exit.

21 The best metal or temper may be worked into qualities contrary to its disposition, or what it is disposed to.'

22 Has an unfavourable opinion of me.' The same phrase occurs again in the first scene of Act iii.

23 I think Warburton's explanation of this passage the true one:-'If I were Brutus (said he), and Brutus Cassius, he should not cajole me as I do him.' To humour signifies to turn and wind by inflaming his passions.

Thunder and Lightning. Enter, from opposite sides, CASCA, with his sword drawn, and CICERO.

Cic. Good even, Casca: Brought you Cæsar home 1?

Why are you breathless? and why stare you so? Casca. Are not you mov'd, when all the sway of earth 2

Shakes, like a thing unfirm? O Cicero,

I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds
Have riv'd the knotty oaks; and I have seen
The ambitious ocean swell, and rage, and foam,
To be exalted with the threat'ning clouds:
But never till to-night, 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,
Incenses them to send destruction.

Cic. Why, saw you any thing more wonderful? Casca. A common slave3 (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 have not since put up my sword), Against the Capitol I met a lion,

1 'Did you attend Cæsar home.' So in Measure for Mea

sure:

That we may bring you something on the way.'

2 The whole weight or momentum of this globe.'

3. A slave of the souldiers that did cast a marvellous burning flame out of his hande, insomuch as they that saw it thought he had been burnt; but when the fire was out, it was found that he had no hurt.'-North's Plutarch.

Who glar'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 noon-day, upon the market-place,
Hooting, 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.

Cic. Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time:
But men may construe things after their fashion,
Clean 5 from the purpose of the things themselves.
Comes Cæsar to the Capitol to-morrow?

Casca. He doth; for he did bid Antonius Send word to you, he would be there to-morrow. Cic. Good night then, Casca: this disturbed sky Is not to walk in.

Casca.

Farewell, Cicero.

[Exit CICERO.

Malone determined obstinately to oppose himself to Steevens's judicious reading of glar'd, and reads, with less propriety and probability, gaz'd.. Steevens has clearly shown from the poet's own works that his emendation is the true one.

Mr. Boswell made a quotation from King James's translation of the Urania of Du Bartas, in which he found the word glaise (i. e. glose), which he professed not to understand; but supposed it might support the original reading. He was too well acquainted with the old Scottish and old English writers to fall often into such mistakes.

5 Altogether, entirely.

Cas.

Casca, by your voice.

Casca. Your ear is good. Cassius, what night is this?

Cas. A very pleasing night to honest men.
Casca. Who ever knew the heavens menace so ?
Cas. 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 bar'd 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.

Cas. 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 calculate7;

6 What is now, in modern language, called a thunder-bolt. 7 i. e. 'why birds and beasts deviate from their condition and nature; why old men, fools, and children calculate;' i. e. foretel or prophesy. At the suggestion of Sir William Blackstone this last line has been erroneously pointed in all the late editions:'Why old men fools, and children calculate.'

He observed, that there was no prodigy in old men's calculating; but who were so likely to listen to prophecies as children, fools, and the superstitious eld?'