Cask. Do so: Farewel both.

Bru. What a blunt Fellow is this grown to be?

He was quick Mettel, when he went to School.

Caf. So is he now, in Execution

Of any bold or noble Enterprize,
However he puts on this tardy Form:
This Rudeness is a Sawce to his good Wit,
Which gives Men stomach to digeft his Words
With better Appetites.

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.
Caf. I will do fo: 'till then, think of the World.

[Exit.

[Exit Brutus.

Well Brutus, thou art Noble: Yet I fee
Thy honourable Mettel 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?
Cafar doth bear me hard, but he loves Brutus.
If I were Brutus now, and he were Caffius,
He should not humour me. I will this Night,
In several Hands, in at his Windows throw,
As if they came from feveral Citizens,
Writings, all tending to the great Opinion
That Rome holds of his Name: Wherein obfcurely

Cafar's ambition shall be glanced at.

And after this, let Cafar feat him sure,

For we will shake him, or worse days endure.

[Exit.

Thunder and Lightning. Enter Caska with his Sword drawn,

and Cicero.

Cic. Good Even, Caska; brought you Cafar home? Why are you breathless, and why stare you so?

Cask. Are not you mov'd, when all the sway of Earth

Shakes, like a thing unfirm? O Cicero !
I have seen Tempefts, when the scolding Winds
Have riv'd the knotty Oaks, and I have seen
Th' ambitious Ocean swell, and rage, and foam,
To be exalted with the threatning Clouds:

M 4

But

But never 'till to Night, never 'till now,
Did I go through a Tempest dropping Fire.
Either there is a Civil Strife in Heav'n,
Or else the World, too sawcy with the Gods,
Incenses them to fend Destruction.

Cic. Why, faw you any thing more wonderful?
Cask. A common Slave, you know him well by fight,
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.
Befides, I ha' not since put up my Sword,
Against the Capitol I met a Lion,
Who glaz'd upon me, and went furly by,
Without annoying me. And there were drawn
Upon a heap, a hundred ghastly Women,
Transformed with their fear, who swore, they faw
Men, all in fire, walk up and down the Streets.
And yesterday, the Bird of Night did fit,
Even at Noon-day, upon the Market place,
Houting 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 Cafar to the Capitol to morrow?

Cask. He doth: For he did bid Antonio
Send word to you, he would be there to morrow.
Cic. Good Night then, Caska; this disturbed Sky
Is not to walk in.

Caf. Caska, by your Voice.

Cask. Your Ear is good. Caffius, what Night is this?

Caf. A very pleasing Night to honest Men.

Cask. Who ever knew the Heav'ns menace so?

Caf. Caf. Those that have known the Earth so full of Faults.

For my part I have walk'd about the Streets,

Submitting me unto the perillous Night;
And thus unbraced, Caska, as you fee,

Have bar'd my Bosom to the Thunder-stone:
And when the cross blue Lightning seem'd to open

The Breast of Heav'n, I did present my felf,

Even in the aim and very flash of it.

Cask. But wherefore did you so much tempt the Heav'ns?

It is the part of Men to fear and tremble,
When the most mighty Gods, by tokens, fend
Such dreadful Heralds, to aftonish us.

Caf. You are dull, Caska; 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 your self in wonder,
To see the strange impatience of the Heav'ns:
But if you would confider 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 pre-formed Faculties,
To monstrous quality; why, you shall find,
That Heav'n hath infus'd them with these Spirits,
To make them instruments of fear and warning,
Unto some monstrous State.

Now could I, Caska, 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 thy felf, or me,
In personal Action; yet prodigious grown,
And fearful, as these strange Eruptions are.
Cask. 'Tis Cafar that you mean; is it not, Caffius?

Caf. 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 shew us womanish.

Cask.

Cask. Indeed, they say, the Senators, to morrow,
Mean to establish Cafar as a King:
And he shall wear his Crown by Sea, and Land,
In every Place, fave here in Italy.

Cask. I know where I will wear this Dagger then;
Caffins from Bondage will deliver Caffius.
Therein, ye Gods, you make the weak most strong;
Therein, ye Gods, you Tyrants do defeat:
Nor ftony 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 it felf.
If I know this, know all the World besides,
That part of Tyranny, that I do bear,
I can shake off at pleasure.

Cask. So can I:

So every Bondman in his own Hand bears
The power to cancel his Captivity.

Caf. And why should Cafur 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 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 Cafar. But, oh 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.

Cask. You speak to Caska, and to such a Man,
That is no flearing Tell-tale. Hold, my Hand:
Be factious for redress 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, Caska, I have mov'd already
Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans,

A

To

To under-go, with me, an Enterprize,
Of honourable dangerous Consequence;
And I do know, by this they stay for me
In Pompey's Porch; for now this fearful Night,
There is no stir, or walking in the Streets,
And the Complexion of the Element
Is Feav'rous, like the work we have in hand,
Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible.

Enter Cinna.

Cask. Stand close a while, for here comes one in haste. Caf. 'Tis Cinna, I do know him by his Gate,

He is a Friend. Cinna, where haste you fo?

Cin. To find out you: Who's that, Metellus mber ? Caf. No, it is Caska, one incorporate

To our Attempts. Am I not staid for, Cinna?

Cin. I am glad on't. What a fearful Night is this? There's two or three of us have seen strange Sights. Caf. Am I not staid 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 Prætors Chair,
Where Brutus may but find it; and throw this
In at his Window; set this up with Wax
Upon old Brutus Statue: 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 House. Well, I will hie,
And fo bestow these Papers as you bad me.

Caf. That done, repair to Pompey's Theater.

Come Caska, you and I will, yet, e'er Day,
See Brutus at his House; three parts of him
Is ours already, and the Man entire,
Upon the next Encounter, yields him ours.

[Exit Cinna.

Gask