Act I. Scene III. Julius Cæsar. Craig, W.J., ed. 1914. The Oxford Shakespeare

Reference > William Shakespeare > The Oxford Shakespeare > Julius Cæsar > Act I. Scene III.

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William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The Oxford Shakespeare. 1914.

Julius Cæsar

Act I. 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?
Why are you breathless? and why stare you so?	4
Casca. Are not you mov’d, when all the sway of earth
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	8
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.	12
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?	16
Casca. A common slave—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.	20
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,
Without annoying me; and there were drawn	24
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,	28
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;’	32
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,	36
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.	40
Cic. Good-night then, Casca: this disturbed sky
Is not to walk in.
Casca. Farewell, Cicero. [Exit CICERO.

Enter CASSIUS.	44
Cas. Who’s there?
Casca. A Roman.
Cas. Casca, by your voice.
Casca. Your ear is good. Cassius, what night is this!	48
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,	52
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	56
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	60
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,	64
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	68
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,	72
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	76
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	80
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.	84
Casca. ’Tis Cæsar that you mean; is it not, Cassius?
Cas. Let it be who it is: for Romans now
Have thews and limbs like to their ancestors;
But, woe the while! our fathers’ minds are dead,	88
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;	92
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:	96
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,	100
Can be retentive to the strength of spirit;
But life, being weary of those worldly bars,
Never lacks power to dismiss itself.
If I know this, know all the world besides,	104
That part of tyranny that I do bear
I can shake off at pleasure. [Thunder still.
Casca. So can I:
So every bondman in his own hand bears	108
The power to cancel his captivity.
Cas. And why should Cæsar be a tyrant then?
Poor man! I know he would not be a wolf
But that he sees the Romans are but sheep;	112
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	116
For the base matter to illuminate
So vile a thing as Cæsar! But, O grief!
Where hast thou led me? I, perhaps, speak this
Before a willing bondman; then I know	120
My answer must be made: but I am arm’d,
And dangers are to me indifferent.
Casca. You speak to Casca, and to such a man
That is no fleering tell-tale. Hold, my hand:	124
Be factious for redress of all these griefs,
And I will set this foot of mine as far
As who goes furthest.
Cas. There’s a bargain made.	128
Now know you, Casca, I have mov’d already
Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans
To undergo with me an enterprise
Of honourable-dangerous consequence;	132
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	136
In favour’s like the work we have in hand,
Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible.
Casca. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste.
Cas. ’Tis Cinna; I do know him by his gait:	140
He is a friend.

Enter CINNA.
Cinna, where haste you so?
Cin. To find out you. Who’s that? Metellus Cimber?	144
Cas. No, it is Casca; one incorporate
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.	148
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—	152
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	156
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	160
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	164
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:	168
And that which would appear offence in us,
His countenance, like richest alchemy,
Will change to virtue and to worthiness.
Cas. Him and his worth and our great need of him	172
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.

CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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