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pleased them, as they use to do the players in the theatre, I am no true man.4

Bru. What said he, when he came unto himself?

Casca. Marry, before he fell down, when he perceiv'd the common herd was glad he refused the crown, he plucked me ope his doublet, and offered them his throat to cut. An I had been a man of any occupation,5 if I would not have taken him at a word, I would I might go to hell among the rogues:-and so he fell. When he came to himself again, he said, If he had done, or said, any thing amiss, he desired their worships to think it was his infirmity. Three or four wenches, where I stood, cried, Alas, good soul!—and forgave him with all their hearts: But, there's no heed to be taken of them; if Cæsar had stabbed their mothers, they would have done no less.

Bru. And after that, he came, thus sad, away?
Casca. Ay.

Cas. Did Cicero say any thing?

Casca. Ay, he spoke Greek.

Cas. To what effect?

Casca. Nay, an I tell you that, I'll ne'er look you i' the face again: But those, that understood him, smiled at one another, and shook their heads: but, for mine own part, it was Greek to me. I could tell you more news too: Marullus and Flavius, for pulling scarfs off Cæsar's images, are put to silence. Fare you well. There was more foolery yet, if I could remember it. Cas. Will you sup with me to-night, Casca? Cassa. No, I am promised forth.

Cas. Will you dine with me to-morrow?

Casca. Ay, if I be alive, and your mind hold, and your

dinner worth the eating.

5

Cas. Good: I will expect you.

Casca. Do so: Farewel, both.

[Exit CASCA.

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

no true man] No honest man. See Vol. VIII, p. 209, n. 3.

Malone

a man of any occupation,] Had I been a mechanick, one of the Plebeians to whom he offered his throat. Johnson.

So, in Coriolanus, Act. IV, sc. vi:

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He was quick mettle, when he went to school.
Cas. So is he now, in execution

Of any bold or noble enterprize,

However he puts on this tardy form.
This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit,
Which gives men stomach to digest his words

With better appetite.

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.

Cas. I will do so:-till then, think of the world.

[Exit BRU..

Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see,
Thy honourable metal 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?
Cæsar doth bear me hard ; but he loves Brutus:
If I were Brutus now, and he were Cassius,
He should not humour me.8 I will this night,
In several hands, in at his windows throw,
As if they came from several citizens,
Writings, all tending to the great opinion

That Rome holds of his name; wherein obscurely
Cæsar's ambition shall be glanced at:

And, after this, let Casar seat him sure ;

For we will shake him, or worse days endure. [Exit.

Thy honourable metal may be wrought

From that it is dispos'd:] The best metal or temper may be worked into qualities contrary to its original constitution. Johnson. From that it is dispos'd, i. e. dispos'd to.

n. 2. Malone.

See Vol. XI, p. 341,

7 - doth bear me hard;] i. e. has an unfavourable opinion of me. The same phrase occurs again in the first scene of Act III Steevens. 8 If I were Brutus now, and he twere Gassius,

He should not humour me] This is a reflection on Brutus's ingratitude; which concludes, as is usual on such occasions, in an encomium on his own better conditions. If I were Brutus, (says he) and Brutus, Cassius, he should not cajole me as I do him. To humour sig. nifies here to turn and wind him, by inflaming his passions. Warburton. The meaning, I think, is this: Cesar loves Brutus, but if Brutus and I were to change places, his love should not humour me, should not take hold of my affection, so as to make me forget my principles.

Johnson.

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?9 Why are you breathless? and why stare you so?

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
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.
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?
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.
Besides, (I have not since put up my sword)
Against the Capitol I met a lion,

Who glar'd upon me,3 and went surly by,

9

Brought you Cæsar home?] Did you attend Cæsar home?

So, in Measure for Measure:

"That we may bring you something on the way."

See Vol. IX, p, 252, n. 8. Malone.

1

Johnson.

sway of earth-] The whole weight or momentum of this globe. Johnson.

2 A common slave &c.] So, in the old translation of Plutarch: "-a slave of the souldiers that did cast a marvelous burning flame out of his hande, insomuch as they that saw it, thought he had bene burnt; but when the fire was out, it was found he had no hurt." Steevens. 3 Who glar'd upon me,] The first [and second] edition reads: Who glaz'd upon me,

Perhaps, Who gaz'd upon me. Johnson.

Glar'd is certainly right. So, in King Lear : "Look where he stands and glares!"

Again, in Hamlet:

"Look you, how pale he glares!"

Without annoying me: And there were drawn
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,
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;
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 Cæsar to the Capitol to-morrow?

Casca. He doth; for he did bid Antonius
Send word to you, he would be there to-morrow.
Cic. Good night then, Casca: this disturbed sky
Is not to walk in.

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[Exit Cic.

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Casca, by your

voice.

Casca. Your ear is good. Cassius, what night is this? 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,
Submitting me unto the perilous night;
And, thus unbraced, Casca, as you see,
Have bar'd my bosom to the thunder-stone :5

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Again, Skelton in his Crowne of Lawrell, describing "a lybbard:" "As gastly that glaris, as grimly that grones." Again, in the Ashridge MS. of Milton's Comus, as published by the ingenious and learned Mr Todd, verse 416:

"And yawning denns, where glaringe monsters house" To gaze is only to look stedfastly, or with admiration. Glar'd has a singular propriety, as it expresses the furious scintilla ion of a lion's eye and, that a lion should appear full of fury, and yet attempt no violence augments the prodigy. Steevens.

4 Clean from the purpose-] Clean is altogether, entirely. See Vol. VIII, p. 70, n. 9. Malone.

And, when the cross blue lightning seem'd to open
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,
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,
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,
Why all these fires, why all these gliding ghosts,
Why birds, and beasts, from quality and kind;6
Why old men, fools, and children calculate ;7*

5

thunder-stone:] A stone fabulously supposed to be discharged by thunder. So, in Cymbeline:

"Fear no more the lightning-flash,

"Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone." Steevens.

6 Why birds, and beasts, from quality and kind; &c.] That is, Why they deviate from quality and nature. This line might perhaps be more properly placed after the next line:

Why birds, and beasts, from quality and kind,

Why all these things change from their ordinance. Johnson.

71

and children calculate;] Calculate here signifies to foretel or prophesy: for the custom of foretelling fortunes by judicial astrology (which was at that time much in vogue) being performed by a long tedious calculation, Shakspeare, with his usual liberty, employs the species [calculate] for the genus [forete!]. Warburton.

Shakspeare found the liberty established. To calculate the nativity, is the technical term. Johnson.

So, in The Paradise of Daintie Deuises, edit. 1576, Art. 54, signed, M. Bew:

"Thei calculate, thei chaunt, thei charme,

"To conquere us that meane no harme."

This author is speaking of women. Steevens.

There is certainly no prodigy in old men's calculating from their past experience. The wonder is, that old men should not, and that children should. I would therefore [instead of old men, fools, and children, &c.] point thus:

stone.

Why old men fools, and children calculate.

Blackstone.

*I cannot perceive the necessity of the alteration suggested by BlackHe has used the word calculate in its literal sense to support his position-not in the sense in which it is used by our author, and so fully explained by Warburton and Johnson. Am. Ed.

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