As who goes farthest.

Cas.
There's a bargain made.
Now know you, Casca, I have mov'd already
Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans,
To undergo 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,

In favour's like the work' we have in hand,
Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible.

Enter CINNA.

Casca. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste.

Cas. 'Tis Cinna, I do know him by his gait : He is a friend.-Cinna, where haste you so? Cin. To find out you. Who's that? Cimber?

Cas. No, it is Casca; one incorporate

Metellus

To our attempts. Am I not stay'd 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.
Cas. Am I not stay'd for? Tell me.

Cin.

Yes, you are. O, Cassius! if you could but win the noble Brutus

To our party

Cas. 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; set this up with wax

Upon old Brutus' statue: all this done,

Repair to Pompey's porch, where you shall find us.

1 In FAVOUR'S like the work-] i. e. In appearance, or, more strictly, in countenance, is like the work, &c. The folios all read, "Is favour's," for "In

favour's."

Is Decius Brutus, and Trebonius, there?

Cin. All but Metellus Cimber, and he's gone
To seek you at your house. Well, I will hie,
And so bestow these papers as you bade me.
Cas. That done, repair to Pompey's theatre.

[Exit CINNA.

Come, Casca, 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.

Casca. O! he sits 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.

Cas. 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 sure of him.

[Exeunt.

Enter BRUTUS.

Bru. What, Lucius! ho!

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!

Enter LUCIUS.

Luc. Call'd you, my lord?

Bru. Get me a taper in my study, Lucius:

When it is lighted, come and call me here.
Luc. I will, my lord.

[Exit.

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;
And then, I grant, we put a sting in him,
That at his will he may do danger with.
Th' 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 'tis a common proof,
That lowliness 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, 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.

[Giving him the Letter. Bru. Get you to bed again; it is not day.

Is not to-morrow, boy, the ides of March??

2

the IDES of March ?] All the folios read," the first of March," a decided error, corrected by Theobald.

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.

"Brutus, thou sleep'st: awake, and see thyself.

Shall Rome, &c. Speak, strike, redress!
Brutus, thou sleep'st: awake!"-

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

"Shall Rome, &c." Thus must I piece it out;
Shall Rome stand under one man's awe?

Rome?

My ancestors did from the streets of Rome The Tarquin drive, when he was call'd a king. "Speak, strike, redress!"-Am I entreated

What!

To speak, and strike? O Rome! I make thee promise,

If the redress will follow, thou receiv'st

Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus !

Re-enter LUCIUS.

Luc. Sir, March is wasted fourteen days3.

[Knocking within.

Bru. 'Tis good. Go to the gate; somebody knocks.

[Exit LUCIUS.

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,

3 Sir, March is wasted FOURTEEN days.] "Fifteen days" in all editions before that of Theobald, who truly states that March was only wasted fourteen days, inasmuch as Lucius was speaking at the dawn of the fifteenth day.

Are then in council; and the state of a man,
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then

The nature of an insurrection.

Re-enter LUCIUS.

Luc. Sir, 'tis your brother Cassius* at the door, Who doth desire to see you.

Bru.

Is he alone?

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

Bru.

Do

you know them?

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 favour.

Bru.

Let them enter.

[Exit LUCIUS.

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:

For if thou paths, 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?

Sir, 'tis your BROTHER Cassius-] Cassius was brother to Brutus by reason of the marriage of the former with the sister of the latter. 5 For if thou PATH,] This verb was in use for walk by Drayton, one of the best writers of his time. All the old editions concur in "path;" but Southern, in his copy of the folio, 1685, has altered the word to put. Coleridge also, in his Lit. Rem. vol. ii. p. 140, would read put, being, as he states, not aware that any writer of Shakespeare's age had used" to path" in the sense of to walk.