JULIUS CAESAR

Act 1 Scene 3

(Thunder and lightning. Enter Casca, at one door, with his sword drawn, and Cicero at another)
l1l	Cicero	Good even, Casca. Brought you Caesar home?
l2l		Why are you breathless, and why stare you so?
l3l	Casca	Are not you moved, when all the sway of earth
l4l		Shakes like a thing unfirm? O Cicero,
l5l		I have seen tempests when the scolding winds
l6l		Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen
l7l		Th’ ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam
l8l		To be exalted with the threat’ning clouds;
l9l		But never till tonight, never till now,
l10l		Did I go through a tempest dropping fire.
l11l		Either there is a civil strife in heaven,
l12l		Or else the world, too saucy with the gods,
l13l		Incenses them to send destruction.
l14l	Cicero	Why, saw you anything more wonderful?
l15l	Casca	A common slave—you know him well by sight—
l16l		Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn
l17l		Like twenty torches joined; and yet his hand,
l18l		Not sensible of fire, remained unscorched.
l19l		Besides—I ha’ not since put up my sword—
l20l		Against the Capitol I met a lion
l21l		Who glazed upon me, and went surly by
l22l		Without annoying me. And there were drawn
l23l		Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women,
l24l		Transformèd with their fear, who swore they saw
l25l		Men all in fire walk up and down the streets.
l26l		And yesterday the bird of night did sit
l27l		Even at noonday upon the market-place,
l28l		Hooting and shrieking. When these prodigies
l29l		Do so conjointly meet, let not men say
l30l		“These are their reasons”, “they are natural”,
l31l		For I believe they are portentous things
l32l		Unto the climate that they point upon.
l33l	Cicero	Indeed it is a strange-disposèd time;
l34l		But men may construe things after their fashion,
l35l		Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.
l36l		Comes Caesar to the Capitol tomorrow?
l37l	Casca	He doth, for he did bid Antonio
l38l		Send word to you he would be there tomorrow.
l39l	Cicero	Good night then, Casca. This disturbèd sky
l40l		Is not to walk in.
	Casca	Farewell, Cicero.
		(Exit Cicero)
		(Enter Cassius, unbraced)
l41l	Cassius	Who’s there?
	Casca				A Roman.
	Cassius							Casca, by your voice.
l42l	Casca	Your ear is good. Cassius, what night is this?
l43l	Cassius	A very pleasing night to honest men.
l44l	Casca	Who ever knew the heavens menace so?
l45l	Cassius	Those that have known the earth so full of faults.
l46l		For my part, I have walked about the streets,
l47l		Submitting me unto the perilous night;
l48l		And thus unbracèd, Casca, as you see,
l49l		Have bared my bosom to the thunder-stone;
l50l		And when the cross blue lightning seemed to open
l51l		The breast of heaven, I did present myself
l52l		Even in the aim and very flash of it.
l53l	Casca	But wherefore did you so much tempt the heavens?
l54l		It is the part of men to fear and tremble
l55l		When the most mighty gods by tokens send
l56l		Such dreadful heralds to astonish us.
l57l	Cassius	You are dull, Casca, and those sparks of life
l58l		That should be in a Roman you do want,
l59l		Or else you use not. You look pale, and gaze,
l60l		And put on fear, and cast yourself in wonder,
l61l		To see the strange impatience of the heavens;
l62l		But if you would consider the true cause
l63l		Why all these fires, why all these gliding ghosts,
l64l		Why birds and beasts from quality and kind—
l65l		Why old men, fools, and children calculate—
l66l		Why all these things change from their ordinance,
l67l		Their natures, and preformèd faculties,
l68l		To monstrous quality—why, you shall find
l69l		That heaven hath infused them with these spirits
l70l		To make them instruments of fear and warning
l71l		Unto some monstrous state. Now could I, Casca,
l72l		Name to thee a man most like this dreadful night,
l73l		That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars
l74l		As doth the lion in the Capitol;
l75l		A man no mightier than thyself or me
l76l		In personal action, yet prodigious grown,
l77l		And fearful, as these strange eruptions are.
l78l	Casca	’Tis Caesar that you mean, is it not, Cassius?
l79l	Cassius	Let it be who it is; for Romans now
l80l		Have thews and limbs like to their ancestors.
l81l		But woe the while! Our fathers’ minds are dead,
l82l		And we are governed with our mothers’ spirits.
l83l		Our yoke and sufferance show us womanish.
l84l	Casca	Indeed they say the senators tomorrow
l85l		Mean to establish Caesar as a king,
l86l		And he shall wear his crown by sea and land
l87l		In every place save here in Italy.
	Cassius	(drawing his dagger)
l88l		I know where I will wear this dagger then:
l89l		Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius.
l90l		Therein, ye gods, you make the weak most strong;
l91l		Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat.
l92l		Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
l93l		Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,
l94l		Can be retentive to the strength of spirit;
l95l		But life, being weary of these worldly bars,
l96l		Never lacks power to dismiss itself.
l97l		If I know this, know all the world besides,
l98l		That part of tyranny that I do bear
l99l		I can shake off at pleasure.
		(Thunder still)
	Casca								So can I.
l100l		So every bondman in his own hand bears
l101l		The power to cancel his captivity.
l102l	Cassius	And why should Caesar be a tyrant then?
l103l		Poor man, I know he would not be a wolf
l104l		But that he sees the Romans are but sheep.
l105l		He were no lion, were not Romans hinds.
l106l		Those that with haste will make a mighty fire
l107l		Begin it with weak straws. What trash is Rome,
l108l		What rubbish, and what offal, when it serves
l109l		For the base matter to illuminate
l110l		So vile a thing as Caesar! But, O grief,
l111l		Where hast thou led me? I perhaps speak this
l112l		Before a willing bondman; then I know
l113l		My answer must be made. But I am armed,
l114l		And dangers are to me indifferent.
l115l	Casca	You speak to Casca, and to such a man
l116l		That is no fleering tell-tale. Hold. My hand.
l117l		Be factious for redress of all these griefs,
l118l		And I will set this foot of mine as far
l119l		As who goes farthest.
		(They join hands)
	Cassius							There’s a bargain made.
l120l		Now know you, Casca, I have moved already
l121l		Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans
l122l		To undergo with me an enterprise
l123l		Of honourable-dangerous consequence.
l124l		And I do know by this they stay for me
l125l		In Pompey’s Porch; for now, this fearful night,
l126l		There is no stir or walking in the streets,
l127l		And the complexion of the element
l128l		In favour’s like the work we have in hand,
l129l		Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible.
		(Enter Cinna)
l130l	Casca	Stand close a while, for here comes one in haste.
l131l	Cassius	’Tis Cinna; I do know him by his gait.
l132l		He is a friend.—Cinna, where haste you so?
l133l	Cinna	To find out you. Who’s that? Metellus Cimber?
l134l	Cassius	No, it is Casca, one incorporate
l135l		To our attempts. Am I not stayed for, Cinna?
l136l	Cinna	I am glad on ’t. What a fearful night is this!
l137l		There’s two or three of us have seen strange sights.
l138l	Cassius	Am I not stayed for? Tell me.
l139l	Cinna	Yes, you are.
l140l		O Cassius, if you could
l141l		But win the noble Brutus to our party—
l142l	Cassius	Be you content. Good Cinna, take this paper,
		(He gives Cinna letters)
l143l		And look you lay it in the Praetor’s Chair,
l144l		Where Brutus may but find it; and throw this
l145l		In at his window. Set this up with wax
l146l		Upon old Brutus’ statue. All this done,
l147l		Repair to Pompey’s Porch where you shall find us.
l148l		Is Decius Brutus and Trebonius there?
l149l	Cinna	All but Metellus Cimber, and he’s gone
l150l		To seek you at your house. Well, I will hie,
l151l		And so bestow these papers as you bade me.
l152l	Cassius	That done, repair to Pompey’s Theatre.
		(Exit Cinna)
l153l		Come, Casca, you and I will yet ere day
l154l		See Brutus at his house. Three parts of him
l155l		Is ours already, and the man entire
l156l		Upon the next encounter yields him ours.
l157l	Casca	O, he sits high in all the people’s hearts,
l158l		And that which would appear offence in us
l159l		His countenance, like richest alchemy,
l160l		Will change to virtue and to worthiness.
l161l	Cassius	Him and his worth, and our great need of him,
l162l		You have right well conceited. Let us go,
l163l		For it is after midnight, and ere day
l164l		We will awake him and be sure of him.
		(Exeunt)