The arden shakespeare co.., p.142
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works, page 142
again; then he put it by again; but to my thinking, he
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was very loth to lay his fingers off it. And then he
offered it the third time; he put it the third time by;
and still as he refused it the rabblement hooted, and
clapped their chopped hands, and threw up their
sweaty nightcaps, and uttered such a deal of stinking
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breath because Caesar refused the crown that it had
almost choked Caesar; for he swooned and fell down at
it. And for mine own part, I durst not laugh, for fear
of opening my lips and receiving the bad air.
CASSIUS But soft, I pray you: what, did Caesar swoon?
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CASKA He fell down in the market-place, and foamed at
mouth, and was speechless.
BRUTUS ’Tis very like. He hath the falling sickness.
CASSIUS No, Caesar hath it not: but you, and I,
And honest Caska, we have the falling sickness.
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CASKA I know not what you mean by that, but I am sure
Caesar fell down. If the tag-rag people did not clap
him and hiss him according as he pleased and
displeased them, as they use to do the players in the
theatre, I am no true man.
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BRUTUS What said he when he came unto himself?
CASKA Marry, before he fell down, when he perceived
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,
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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 anything amiss, he desired their worships
to think it was his infirmity. Three or four wenches
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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 Caesar had stabbed their mothers, they would
have done no less.
BRUTUS And after that he came thus sad away.
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CASKA Ay.
CASSIUS Did Cicero say anything?
CASKA Ay, he spoke Greek.
CASSIUS To what effect?
CASKA Nay, an I tell you that, I’ll ne’er look you i’th’
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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: Murellus and Flavius, for pulling scarves off
Caesar’s images, are put to silence. Fare you well.
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There was more foolery yet, if I could remember it.
CASSIUS Will you sup with me tonight, Caska?
CASKA No, I am promised forth.
CASSIUS Will you dine with me tomorrow?
CASKA Ay, if I be alive, and your mind hold, and your
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dinner worth the eating.
CASSIUS Good. I will expect you.
CASKA Do so. Farewell, both. Exit.
BRUTUS What a blunt fellow is this grown to be!
He was quick mettle when he went to school.
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CASSIUS So is he now, in execution
Of any bold or noble enterprise,
However he puts on this tardy form.
This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit,
Which gives men stomach to digest his words
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With better appetite.
BRUTUS And so it is.
For this time I will leave you.
Tomorrow 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.
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CASSIUS I will do so. Till then, think of the world.
Exit Brutus.
Well, Brutus, thou art noble: yet I see
Thy honourable mettle may be wrought
From that it is disposed. Therefore it is meet
That noble minds keep ever with their likes;
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For who so firm that cannot be seduced?
Caesar doth bear me hard, but he loves Brutus.
If I were Brutus now, and he were Cassius,
He should not humour me. I will this night
In several hands in at his windows throw,
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As if they came from several citizens,
Writings all tending to the great opinion
That Rome holds of his name – wherein obscurely
Caesar’s ambition shall be glanced at.
And after this, let Caesar seat him sure,
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For we will shake him, or worse days endure. Exit.
1.3 Thunder and lightning. Enter CASKA and CICERO.
CICERO Good even, Caska. Brought you Caesar home?
Why are you breathless, and why stare you so?
CASKA Are you not moved, when all the sway of earth
Shakes like a thing unfirm? O Cicero,
I have seen tempests when the scolding winds
5
Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen
Th’ambitious ocean swell, and rage, and foam,
To be exalted with the threatening clouds:
But never till tonight, never till now,
Did I go through a tempest dropping fire.
10
Either there is a civil strife in heaven,
Or else the world, too saucy with the gods,
Incenses them to send destruction.
CICERO Why, saw you anything more wonderful?
CASKA
A common slave – you know him well by sight –
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Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn
Like twenty torches joined; and yet his hand,
Not sensible of fire, remained unscorched.
Besides – I ha’not since put up my sword –
Against the Capitol I met a lion
20
Who glazed upon me and went surly by
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.
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And yesterday the bird of night did sit
Even at noonday 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’:
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For I believe they are portentous things
Unto the climate that they point upon.
CICERO Indeed it is a strange-disposed time.
But men may construe things after their fashion
Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.
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Comes Caesar to the Capitol tomorrow?
CASKA He doth, for he did bid Antonio
Send word to you he would be there tomorrow.
CICERO Good night then, Caska: this disturbed sky
Is not to walk in.
CASKA Farewell, Cicero. Exit Cicero.
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Enter CASSIUS.
CASSIUS Who’s there?
CASKA A Roman.
CASSIUS Caska, by your voice.
CASKA Your ear is good. Cassius, what night is this?
CASSIUS A very pleasing night to honest men.
CASKA Whoever knew the heavens menace so?
CASSIUS
Those that have known the earth so full of faults.
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For my part, I have walked about the streets,
Submitting me unto the perilous night,
And thus unbraced, Caska, as you see,
Have bared my bosom to the thunder-stone:
And when the cross blue lightning seemed to open
50
The breast of heaven, I did present myself
Even in the aim and very flash of it.
CASKA
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
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Such dreadful heralds to astonish us.
CASSIUS You are dull, Caska, 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
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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,
Why old men, fools, and children calculate,
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Why all these things change from their ordinance
Their natures and preformed faculties
To monstrous quality, why, you shall find
That heaven hath infused them with these spirits
To make them instruments of fear and warning
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Unto some monstrous state.
Now could I, Caska, name to thee a man
Most like this dreadful night
That thunders, lightens, opens graves and roars
As doth the lion in the Capitol:
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A man no mightier than thyself, or me,
In personal action, yet prodigious grown
And fearful, as these strange eruptions are.
CASKA ’Tis Caesar that you mean. Is it not, Cassius?
CASSIUS Let it be who it is: for Romans now
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Have thews and limbs like to their ancestors:
But woe the while, our fathers’ minds are dead,
And we are governed with our mothers’ spirits:
Our yoke and sufferance show us womanish.
CASKA Indeed, they say the senators tomorrow
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Mean to establish Caesar as a king,
And he shall wear his crown by sea and land
In every place save here in Italy.
CASSIUS I know where I will wear this dagger then:
Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius.
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Therein, ye gods, ye 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,
Can be retentive to the strength of spirit:
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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. [Thunder still]
CASKA So can I.
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So every bondman in his own hand bears
The power to cancel his captivity.
CASSIUS And why should Caesar be a tyrant then?
Poor man, I know he would not be a wolf
But that he sees the Romans are but sheep.
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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
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So vile a thing as Caesar? 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 armed
And dangers are to me indifferent.
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CASKA You speak to Caska, and to such a man
That is no fleering tell-tale. Hold, my hand.
Be factious for redress of all these griefs
And I will set this foot of mine as far
As who goes farthest.
CASSIUS There’s a bargain made.
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Now know you, Caska, I have moved already
Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans
To undergo with me an enterprise
Of honourable dangerous consequence;
And I do know by this, they stay for me
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In Pompey’s Porch. For now this fearful night
There is no stir or walking in the streets;
And the complexion of the element
In favour’s like the work we have in hand,
