To make them instruments of fear, and warning, 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 As doth the lion in the Capitol:

8

A man no mightier than thyself, or me,
In personal action; yet prodigious grown,
And fearful, as these strange eruptions are.
CASCA. 'Tis Cæsar that you mean: Is it not,
Cassius?

9

CAS. Let it be who it is: for Romans now Have thewes and limbs like to their ancestors; But, woe the while! our fathers' minds are dead, 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:

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: 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,

8

-prodigious grown,] Prodigious is portentous. So, in Troilus and Cressida:

"It is prodigious, there will be some change."

See Vol. IV. p. 496, n. 6. STEEVens.

9 Have thewes and limbs-] Thewes is an obsolete word implying nerves or muscular strength. It is used by Falstaff in The Second Part of King Henry IV. and in Hamlet:

"For nature, crescent, does not grow alone

"In thewes and bulk."

The two last folios, [1664 and 1685,] in which some words are injudiciously modernized, read-sinews. STEEvens.

Can be retentive to the strength of spirit;
But life, being weary of these worldly bars,
Never lacks power to dismiss itself.

If I know this, know all the world besides,
That part of tyranny, that I do bear,
I can shake off at pleasure.

CASCA.

So can I:

So
every bondman in his own hand bears
The power to cancel his captivity.1

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:
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
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
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:3

1

every bondman-bears

The power to cancel his captivity.] So, in Cymbeline, Act V. Posthumus speaking of his chains:

2

66 take this life,

"And cancel these cold bonds."

HENLEY.

My answer must be made:] I shall be called to account, and must answer as for seditious words. JOHNSON.

So, in Much Ado about Nothing: "Sweet prince, let me go no further to mine answer; do you hear me, and let this count kill me." STEEVENS.

3

Hold

my

hand:] Is the same as, Here's my hand.

JOHNSON.

Be factious for redress of all these griefs;
And I will set this foot of mine as far,
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,

5

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

Be factious for redress-] Factious seems here to mean active. JOHNSON.

It means, I apprehend, embody a party or faction. MALONE. Perhaps Dr. Johnson's explanation is the true one. Menenius, in Coriolanus, says: "I have been always factionary on the part of your general;" and the speaker, who is describing himself, would scarce have employed the word in its common and unfavourable sense. STEEVENS.

' Is favour'd, like the work-] The old edition reads: Is favors, like the work.

I think we should read:

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

Favour is look, countenance, appearance. JOHNSON.

To favour is to resemble. Thus Stanyhurst, in his translation of the third Book of Virgil's Æneid, 1582:

"With the petit town gates favouring the principal old

portes.' We may read It favours, or-Is favour'd-i. e. is in appearance or countenance like, &c. See Vol. VI. p. 346, n. 6.

STEEVENS.

Perhaps fev'rous is the true reading. So, in Macbeth: "Some say the earth

"Was feverous, and did shake." REED.

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? Metellus Cimber?

CAS. No, it is Casca; one incorporate To our attempts. Am I not staid 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 staid for, Cinna? Tell me.
CIN.
You are. O, Cassius, if you could but win
The noble Brutus to our party-

Yes,

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.
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.

ACT II. SCENE I.

The same. Brutus's Orchard."

Enter BRUTus.

BRU. What, Lucius! ho!

I cannot, by the progress of the stars,

6

Brutus's orchard.] The modern editors read garden, but orchard seems anciently to have had the same meaning.

STEEVENS.

That these two words were anciently synonymous, appears from a line in this play:

66

he hath left

you

all his walks,

"His private arbours, and new-planted orchards,
"On this side Tyber."

In Sir T. North's translation of Plutarch, the passage which Shakspeare has here copied, stands thus: "He left his gardens and arbours unto the people, which he had on this side of the river Tyber."

So also, in Barret's Alvearie, 1580: "A garden or an orchard, hortus."The truth is, that few of our ancestors had in the age