It did not lie there, when I went to bed.

Bru. Get you to bed again, it is not day. Is not to-morrow, boy, the ides of March? 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? What!

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 then
To speak, and strike? O Rome! I make thee promise,
If the redress will follow, thou receivest

Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus!

Re-enter LUCIUS.

Luc. Sir, March is wasted fourteen days.

[Knock within.

Bru. 'Tis good. Go to the gate; somebody [Exit Lucius.

knocks.

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,
Are then in council; and the state of 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, conspi

racy;

Hide in it smiles, and affability:

For if thou path, 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?
Bru. I have been up this hour; awake, all night.

Know I these men, that come along with you?

any mark of favour.] Any distinction of countenance. 9 For if thou path, thy native semblance on,] If thou walk in thy true form.

Cas. Yes, every man of them; and no man here,

But honours you: and every one doth wish,
You had but that opinion of yourself,

Which every noble Roman bears of you.

This is Trebonius.

[They whisper.

Dec. Here lies the east: Doth not the day break

here?

Casca. No.

Cin. O, pardon, sir, it doth; and yon grey lines,

That fret the clouds, are messengers of day.

Casca. You shall confess, that you are both de

ceiv'd.

Here, as I point my sword, the sun arises;
Which is a great way growing on the south,
Weighing the youthful season of the year.

Some two months hence, up higher toward the

north

He first presents his fire; and the high east
Stands, as the Capitol, directly here.

Bru. Give me your hands all over, one by one.
Cas. And let us swear our resolution.

Bru. No, not an oath: If not the face of men,'

No, not an oath: If not the face of men, &c.] Dr. Warburton would read fate of men; but his elaborate emendation is, I think, erroneous. The face of men is the countenance, the regard, the esteem of the publick; in other terms, honour and reputation; or the face of men may mean the dejected look of the people.

JOHNSON.

But if these,

The sufferance of our souls, the time's abuse, -
If these be motives weak, break off betimes,
And every man hence to his idle bed;
So let high-sighted tyranny range on,
Till each man drop by lottery.
As I am sure they do, bear fire enough
To kindle cowards, and to steel with valour
The melting spirits of women; then, countrymen,
What need we any spur, but our own cause,
To prick us to redress? what other bond,
Than secret Romans, that have spoke the word,
And will not palter? and what other oath,
Than honesty to honesty engag'd,
That this shall be, or we will fall for it?
Swear priests, and cowards, and men cautelous,
Old feeble carrions, and such suffering souls
That welcome wrongs; unto bad causes swear
Such creatures as men doubt: but do not stain
The even virtue of our enterprize,
Nor the insuppressive mettle of our spirits,
To think, that, or our cause, or our performance,
Did need an oath; when every drop of blood,
That every Roman bears, and nobly bears,
Is guilty of a several bastardy,
If he do break the smallest particle

5

Of any promise that hath pass'd from him.

Cas. But what of Cicero? Shall we sound him? I think, he will stand very strong with us.

Casca. Let us not leave him out.

Cin.

No, by no means.

* Till each man drop by lottery.] Perhaps the poet alluded to the custom of decimation, i. e. the selection by lot of every tenth soldier, in a general mutiny, for punishment.

* And will not palter ?) And will not shuffle or fly from his en

gagements.

4

cautelous,] Is here cautious, sometimes insidious.

5 The even virtue of our enterprize,] The calm, equable, temperate spirit that actuates us.

Met. O let us have him; for his silver hairs
Will purchase us a good opinion,

And buy men's voices to commend our deeds:
It shall be said, his judgment rul'd our hands;
Our youths, and wildness, shall no whit appear,
But all be buried in his gravity.

Bru. O, name him not; let us not break with

him;

For he will never follow any thing

That other men begin.

Cas.

Then leave him out.

Casca. Indeed, he is not fit.

Dec. Shall no man else be touch'd but only

Cæsar?

Cas. Decius, well urg'd:-I think it is not meet, Mark Antony, so well belov'd of Cæsar, Should outlive Cæsar: We shall find of him A shrewd contriver; and, you know, his means, If he improves them, may well stretch so far, As to annoy us all: which to prevent, Let Antony, and Cæsar, fall together.

Bru. Our course will seem too bloody, Caius

Cassius,

To cut the head off, and then hack the limbs;
Like wrath in death, and envy afterwards:"
For Antony is but a limb of Cæsar.

Let us be sacrificers, but no butchers, Caius.
We all stand up against the spirit of Cæsar;
And in the spirit of men there is no blood:
O, that we then could come by Cæsar's spirit,
And not dismember Cæsar! But, alas,
Cæsar must bleed for it! And, gentle friends,
Let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully;
Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods,

6

7

opinion,] i. e. character.

and envy afterwards:) Enry is here, as almost always in

Shakspeare's plays, malice.