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
    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,
    A man no mightier than thyself or me
    In personal action, yet prodigious grown
    And fearful, as these strange eruptions are.
  CASCA. 'Tis Caesar that you mean, is it not, Cassius?
  CASSIUS. Let it be who it is, for Romans now
    Have thews 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 tomorrow
    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.
    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
    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. Thunder still.
  CASCA. So can I.
    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.
    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 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 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.
    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.
    Now know you, Casca, I have moved already
    Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans
    To undergo with me an enterprise
    Of honorable-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
    In favor's like the work we have in hand,
    Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible.

Enter Cinna.

  CASCA. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste.
  CASSIUS. 'Tis Cinna, I do know him by his gait;
    He is a friend. Cinna, where haste you so?
  CINNA. To find out you. Who's that? Metellus Cimber?
  CASSIUS. No, it is Casca, one incorporate
    To our attempts. Am I not stay'd for, Cinna?
  CINNA. I am glad on't. What a fearful night is this!
    There's two or three of us have seen strange sights.
  CASSIUS. Am I not stay'd for? Tell me.
  CINNA. Yes, you are.
    O Cassius, if you could
    But win the noble Brutus to our party-
  CASSIUS. Be you content. Good Cinna, take this paper,
    And look you lay it in the praetor'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?
  CINNA. 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.
  CASSIUS. 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 offense in us,
    His countenance, like richest alchemy,
    Will change to virtue and to worthiness.
  CASSIUS. 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.

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ACT II. SCENE I.

Enter Brutus in his orchard.

  BRUTUS. What, Lucius, ho!
    I cannot, by the progress of the stars,
    Give guess how near to day. Lucius, I say!
    I would it were my fault to sleep so soundly.
    When, Lucius, when? Awake, I say! What, Lucius!

Enter Lucius.

  LUCIUS. Call'd you, my lord?
  BRUTUS. Get me a taper in my study, Lucius.
    When it is lighted, come and call me here.
  LUCIUS. I will, my lord. Exit.
  BRUTUS. It must be by his death, and, for my part,
    I know no personal cause to spurn at him,
    But for the general. He would be crown'd:
    How that might change his nature, there's the question.
    It is the bright day that brings forth the adder
    And that craves wary walking. Crown him that,
    And then, I grant, we put a sting in him
    That at his will he may do danger with.
    The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins
    Remorse from power, and, to speak truth of Caesar,
    I have not known when his affections sway'd
    More than his reason. But 'tis a common proof
    That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,
    Whereto the climber-upward turns his face;
    But when he once attains the upmost round,
    He then unto the ladder turns his back,
    Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
    By which he did ascend. So Caesar may;
    Then, lest he