I cannot, by the progress of the stars,

Give guess how near to day.-Lucius, I say!

I would it were my fault to sleep so soundly.

When, Lucius, when"! Awake, I say! What, Lucius!

BRU. It must be by his death: and, for my part,

I know no personal cause to spurn at him,
But for the general. He would be crown'd:-
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;—

[Exit.

And then, I grant, we put a sting in him,
That at his will he may do danger with.
The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins
Remorse from power: And, to speak truth of Cæsar,
I have not known when his affections sway'd
More than his reason. But 't is a common proof

That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,
Whereto the climber-upward turns his face:
But when he once attains the utmost round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend: So Cæsar may;

Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since 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 serpent's egg,

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

Re-enter LUCIUS.

Luc. The taper burneth in your closet, sir.
Searching the window for a flint, I found
This paper, thus seal'd up; and, I am sure,
It did not lie there when I went to bed.
BRU. Get you to bed again, it is not day.

Is not to-morrow, boy, the ides of March?
Luc. I know not, sir.

BRU. Look in the calendar, and bring me word.
Luc. I will, sir.

BRU. The exhalations, whizzing in the air,

Give so much light that I may read by them.

[Exit.

[Opens the letter, and reads.

Shall Rome stand 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.

• Remorse-pity-tenderness. A sense in which it is commonly used by Shakspere.

Ides of March. In the original the first of March. Shakspere found it so in North's 'Plutarch;' and he adopted the date without consideration. Presently Lucius says, in the original, "March is wasted fifteen days." Theobald made the necessary correction in both instances.

y

"Speak, strike, redress!"-Am I entreated a

To speak, and strike? O Rome! I make thee promise,
If the redress will follow, thou receivest

Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus !

Re-enter LUCIUS.

Luc. Sir, March is wasted fourteen days.

BRU. "T is good. Go to the gate: somebody knocks.
Since Cassius first did whet me against Cæsar

I have not slept.

Between the acting of a dreadful thing

And the first motion, all the interim is

Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream:

The genius and the mortal instruments
Are then in council; and the state of a man",
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then

The nature of an insurrection.

[Knock within.

[Exit LUCIUS.

Luc. No, sir; their hats are pluck'd about their ears,

And half their faces buried in their cloaks,

That by no means I may discover them

By any mark of favourd

They are the faction. O Conspiracy!

Sham'st thou to show 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 monstrous visage? Seek none, Conspiracy;
Hide it in smiles and affability:

[Exit LUCIUS.

a Steevens introduces then after entreated. He will in no case comprehend that a pause, such as must be made after redress, stands in the place of a syllable.

A man. So the original; but Steevens and other modern editors omit the article. A man individualises the description; and shows that "the genius," on the one hand, means the spirit, or the impelling higher power moving the spirit, whilst "the mortal instruments" has reference to the bodily powers which the will sets in action. The condition of Macbeth before the murder of Duncan illustrates this:

"I am settled, and bend up

Each corporal agent to this terrible feat."

Mr. Dyce holds that the article, a, is a barbarous addition.
Cassius had married Junia, the sister of Brutus.

& Favour-countenance.

It in. By the perpetuation of an error in some edition, all the modern readings have in it.

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.

CAS. I think we are too bold upon your rest:

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?
CAS. 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.

CAS. This, Casca; this, Cinna; and this, Metellus Cimber.
BRU. They are all welcome.

What watchful cares do interpose themselves
Betwixt your eyes and night?

CAS. Shall I entreat a word?

DEC. Here lies the east: Doth not the day break here?
CASCA. NO.

CIN. O, pardon, sir, it doth; and yon gray lines
That fret the clouds are messengers of day.

CASCA. You shall confess that you are both deceiv'd.
Here, as I point my sword, the sun arises;
Which is a great way growing on the south,
Weighing the youthful season of the year.
Some two months hence, up higher toward the north
He first presents his fire; and the high east
Stands, as the Capitol, directly here.

BRU. Give me your hands all over, one by one.
CAS. And let us swear our resolution.

BRU. No, not an oath: If not the face of men,
The sufferance of our souls, the time's abuse,—
If these be motives weak, break off betimes,
And every man hence to his idle bed;
So let high-sighted tyranny range on,
Till each man drop by lottery. But if these,

As I am sure they do, bear fire enough

To kindle cowards, and to steel with valour

The melting spirits of women; then, countrymen,

[They whisper.

a Path-walk on a trodden way-move forward amidst observation.

What need we any spur but our own cause
To prick us to redress? what other bond,
Than secret Romans, that have spoke the word,
And will not palter? and what other oath,
Than honesty to honesty engag'd,

That this shall be, or we will fall for it?
Swear priests, and cowards, and men cautelous,
Old feeble carrions, and such suffering souls
That welcome wrongs; unto bad causes swear
Such creatures as men doubt: but do not stain
The even virtue of our enterprise,

Nor th' insuppressive metal of our spirits,

To think that, or our cause, or our performance,
Did need an oath; when every drop of blood
That every Roman bears, and nobly bears,
Is guilty of a several bastardy,

If he do break the smallest particle

Of any promise that hath pass'd from him.
CAS. But what of Cicero? Shall we sound him?
I think he will stand very strong with us.
CASCA. Let us not leave him out.

CIN.
No, by no means.
MET. O let us have him; for his silver hairs

Will purchase us a good opinion,

And buy men's voices to commend our deeds:
It shall be said his judgment rul'd our hands;
Our youths, and wildness, shall no whit appear,
But all be buried in his gravity.

BRU. O, name him not; let us not break with him;
For he will never follow anything

CAS.

That other men begin.

Then leave him out.

CASCA. Indeed, he is not fit.

DEC. Shall no man else be touch'd but only Cæsar?
CAS. Decius, well urg'd:-I think it is not meet,
Mark Antony, so well belov'd of Cæsar,
Should outlive Cæsar: We shall find of him
A shrewd contriver; and you know his means,
If he improve them, may well stretch so far
As to annoy us all: which to prevent,
Let Antony and Cæsar fall together".

BRU. Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius,
To cut the head off, and then hack the limbs;

Like wrath in death, and envy afterwards:

Cautelous-wary-circumspect.