He was quick mettle, when he went to school.

Cas. So is he 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.

Bru. And so it is. For this time I will leave you;. To-morrow, 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.

Cas. I will do so:-till then, think of the world.

[Exit BRU.

Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see,
Thy honourable metal may be wrought
From that it is dispos'd: 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; but he loves Brutus:
If I were Brutus now, and he were Cassius,
He should not humour 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
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.

6 Thy honourable metal may be wrought

From that it is dispos'd:] The best metal or temper may be worked into qualities contrary to its original constitution, Johnson. From that it is dispos'd, i. e. dispos'd to. See Vol. XI, p. 341, 2. Malone.

27

- doth bear me hard;] i. e. has an unfavourable opinion of me. The same phrase occurs again in the first scene of Act III. Steevens. 8 If I were Brutus now, and he were Cassius,

cl

A He should not humour me.] This is a reflection on Brutus's ingraide; which concludes, as is usual on such occasions, in an encosuum on his own better conditions. If I were Brutus, (says he) and utus, Cassius he should not cajole me as I do him. To humour siges here to turn and wind him, by inflaming his passions. Warburton. 'he meaning, I think, is this: Cæsar loves Brutus, but if Brutus 3 I were to change places, his love should not humour me, should not hold of my affection, so as to make me forget my principles. with Johnson.

SCENE III.

The same. A Street.

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

Cic. Good even, Casca: Brought you Cæsar home ?9 Why are you breathless? and why stare you so?

Casca. Are not you mov'd when all the sway of earth1 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 slave2 (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,

Who glar'd upon me, and went surly by,

Brought you Cæsar home?] Did you attend Cæsar home?
Johnson.

So, in Measure for Measure:

"That we may bring you something on the way.”

See Vol. IX, p, 252, n. 8. Malone.

1

sway of earth - The whole weight or momentum of this globe. Johnson.

2 A common slave &c.] So, in the old translation of Plutarch: "-а slave of the souldiers that did cast a marvelous burning flame out of his hande, insomuch as they that saw it, thought he had bene burnt; but when the fire was out, it was found he had no hurt." Steevens.

3 Who glar'd upon me,] The first [and second] edition reads:

Who glaz'd upon me,

Perhaps. Who gaz'd upon me. Johnson.

Glar'd is certainly right. So, in King Lear:

"Look where he stands and glares!"

Again, in Hamlet:

"Look you, how pale he glares !"

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 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.

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 :5

Again, Skelton in his Crowne of Lawrell, describing "a lybbard," "As gastly that glaris, as grimly that grones.”

Again, in the Ashridge MS. of Milton's Comus, as published by the ingenious and learned Mr. Todd, verse 416:

"And yawning denns, where glaringe monsters house " To gaze is only to look stedfastly, or with admiration. Glard has a singular propriety, as it expresses the furious scintillation of a lion's eye: and, that a lion should appear full of fury, and yet attempt no violence, augments the prodigy. Steevens.

4 Clean from the purpose - Clean is altogether, entirely. See Vol. VIII, p. 70, n. 9. Malone.

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 hea

vens?

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 ;6
Why old men, fools, and children calculate ;7*

5-thunder-stone:] A stone fabulously supposed to be discharged

by thunder. So, in Cymbeline:

"Fear no more the lightning-flash,

"Nor the all dreaded thunder-stone."

Steevens.

Why birds, and beasts, from quality and kind; &c.] That is, Why they deviate from quality and nature. This line might perhaps be more properly placed after the next line:

7

Why birds, and beasts, from quality and kind,

Why all these things change from their ordinance. Johnson.

- and children calculate;) Calculate here signifies to foretel or prophesy: for the custom of foretelling fortunes by judicial astrology (which was at that time much in vogue) being performed by a long tedious calculation, Shakspeare, with his usual liberty, employs the species [calculate] for the genus [forete!]. Warburton.

Shakspeare found the liberty established. To calculate the nativity, is the technical term. Johnson.

So, in The Paradise of Daintie Deuises, edit. 1576, Art. 54, signèd, M. Bew:

"Thei calculate, thei chaunt, thei charme,
"To conquere us that meane no harme."

This author is speaking of women.

Steevens.

There is certainly no prodigy in old men's calculating from their past experience. The wonder is, that old men should not, and that children should. I would therefore [instead of old men, fools, and children, &c.] point thus:

Why old men fools, and children calculate. Blackstone. * I cannot perceive the necessity of the alteration suggested by Blackstone. He has used the word calculate in its literal sense to support his position-not in the sense in which it is used by our author, and se fully explained by Warburton and Johnson. Am. Ed.

Why all these things change, from their ordinance,
Their natures, and pre-formed faculties,
To monstrous quality; why, you shall find,

That heaven hath infus'd 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 Cæsar that you mean: Is it not, Cassius?
Cas. Let it be who it is: for Romans now
Have thewes 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 to-morrow
Mean to establish Cæsar as a king:
And he shall wear his crown, by sea, and land,
In every place, save here in Italy.

Cas. 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,

8

- prodigious grown,] Prodigious is portentous. So, in Troilus and Cressida:

"It is prodigious, there will be some change."

See Vol. II, p. 378, n. 5. Steevens.

9 Have thewes and limbs] Thewes is an obsolete word implying nerves or muscular strength. It is used by Falstaff, in The Second Part of King Henry IV, and in Hamlet:

"For nature, crescent, does not grow alone
"In thewes and bulk."

The two last folios, [1664 and 1685] in which some words are injudiciously modernized, read-sinews. Steevens.