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Julius Caesar: Act 1, Scene 3

           Thunder and lightning. Enter [from
           opposite sides] CASCA [with his
           sword drawn] and CICERO.

      CICERO
  1   Good even, Casca: brought you Caesar home?
  2   Why are you breathless? and why stare you so?

      CASCA
  3   Are not you moved, when all the sway of earth
  4   Shakes like a thing unfirm? O Cicero,
  5   I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds
  6   Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen
  7   The ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam,
  8   To be exalted with the threatening clouds:
  9   But never till tonight, never till now,
 10   Did I go through a tempest dropping fire.
 11   Either there is a civil strife in heaven,
 12   Or else the world, too saucy with the gods,
 13   Incenses them to send destruction.

      CICERO
 14   Why, saw you any thing more wonderful?

      CASCA
 15   A common slave—you know him well by sight—
 16   Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn
 17   Like twenty torches join'd, and yet his hand,
 18   Not sensible of fire, remain'd unscorch'd.
 19   Besides—I ha' not since put up my sword—
 20   Against the Capitol I met a lion,
 21   Who glaz'd upon me, and went surly by,
 22   Without annoying me: and there were drawn
 23   Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women,
 24   Transformed with their fear; who swore they saw
 25   Men all in fire walk up and down the streets.
 26   And yesterday the bird of night did sit
 27   Even at noon-day upon the market-place,
 28   Hooting and shrieking. When these prodigies
 29   Do so conjointly meet, let not men say
 30   'These are their reasons; they are natural';
 31   For, I believe, they are portentous things
 32   Unto the climate that they point upon.

      CICERO
 33   Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time:
 34   But men may construe things after their fashion,
 35   Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.
 36   Comes Caesar to the Capitol tomorrow?

      CASCA
 37   He doth; for he did bid Antonio
 38   Send word to you he would be there tomorrow.

      CICERO
 39   Good night then, Casca: this disturbed sky
 40   Is not to walk in.

      CASCA
 40                                Farewell, Cicero.

           Exit CICERO.

           Enter CASSIUS.

      CASSIUS
 41   Who's there?

      CASCA
                            A Roman.

      CASSIUS
                                            Casca, by your voice.

      CASCA
 42   Your ear is good. Cassius, what night is this!

      CASSIUS
 43   A very pleasing night to honest men.

      CASCA
 44   Who ever knew the heavens menace so?

      CASSIUS
 45   Those that have known the earth so full of faults.
 46   For my part, I have walk'd about the streets,
 47   Submitting me unto the perilous night,
 48   And, thus unbraced, Casca, as you see,
 49   Have bared my bosom to the thunder-stone;
 50   And when the cross blue lightning seem'd to open
 51   The breast of heaven, I did present myself
 52   Even in the aim and very flash of it.

      CASCA
 53   But wherefore did you so much tempt the heavens?
 54   It is the part of men to fear and tremble,
 55   When the most mighty gods by tokens send
 56   Such dreadful heralds to astonish us.

      CASSIUS
 57   You are dull, Casca, and those sparks of life
 58   That should be in a Roman you do want,
 59   Or else you use not. You look pale and gaze
 60   And put on fear and cast yourself in wonder,
 61   To see the strange impatience of the heavens:
 62   But if you would consider the true cause
 63   Why all these fires, why all these gliding ghosts,
 64   Why birds and beasts from quality and kind,
 65   Why old men, fools, and children calculate,
 66   Why all these things change from their ordinance,
 67   Their natures, and preformed faculties,
 68   To monstrous quality,—why, you shall find
 69   That heaven hath infused them with these spirits,
 70   To make them instruments of fear and warning
 71   Unto some monstrous state.
 72   Now could I, Casca, name to thee a man
 73   Most like this dreadful night,
 74   That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars
 75   As doth the lion in the Capitol,
 76   A man no mightier than thyself or me
 77   In personal action, yet prodigious grown
 78   And fearful, as these strange eruptions are.

      CASCA
 79   'Tis Caesar that you mean; is it not, Cassius?

      CASSIUS
 80   Let it be who it is: for Romans now
 81   Have thews and limbs like to their ancestors;
 82   But, woe the while! our fathers' minds are dead,
 83   And we are govern'd with our mothers' spirits;
 84   Our yoke and sufferance show us womanish.

      CASCA
 85   Indeed, they say the senators tomorrow
 86   Mean to establish Caesar as a king;
 87   And he shall wear his crown by sea and land,
 88   In every place, save here in Italy.

      CASSIUS
 89   I know where I will wear this dagger then;
 90   Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius:
 91   Therein, ye gods, you make the weak most strong;
 92   Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat:
 93   Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
 94   Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,
 95   Can be retentive to the strength of spirit;
 96   But life, being weary of these worldly bars,
 97   Never lacks power to dismiss itself.
 98   If I know this, know all the world besides,
 99   That part of tyranny that I do bear
100   I can shake off at pleasure.

           Thunder still.

      CASCA
                                                  So can I;
101   So every bondman in his own hand bears
102   The power to cancel his captivity.

      CASSIUS
103   And why should Caesar be a tyrant then?
104   Poor man! I know he would not be a wolf,
105   But that he sees the Romans are but sheep:
106   He were no lion, were not Romans hinds.
107   Those that with haste will make a mighty fire
108   Begin it with weak straws: what trash is Rome,
109   What rubbish and what offal, when it serves
110   For the base matter to illuminate
111   So vile a thing as Caesar! But, O grief,
112   Where hast thou led me? I perhaps speak this
113   Before a willing bondman; then I know
114   My answer must be made. But I am arm'd,
115   And dangers are to me indifferent.

      CASCA
116   You speak to Casca, and to such a man
117   That is no fleering tell-tale. Hold, my hand:
118   Be factious for redress of all these griefs,
119   And I will set this foot of mine as far
120   As who goes farthest.

      CASSIUS
                                          There's a bargain made.
121   Now know you, Casca, I have moved already
122   Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans
123   To undergo with me an enterprise
124   Of honourable-dangerous consequence;
125   And I do know, by this, they stay for me
126   In Pompey's porch: for now, this fearful night,
127   There is no stir or walking in the streets;
128   And the complexion of the element
129   In favour's like the work we have in hand,
130   Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible.

      CASCA
131   Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste.

      CASSIUS
132   'Tis Cinna; I do know him by his gait;
133   He is a friend.

           Enter CINNA.

                              Cinna, where haste you so?

      CINNA
134   To find out you. Who's that? Metellus Cimber?

      CASSIUS
135   No, it is Casca; one incorporate
136   To our attempts. Am I not stay'd for, Cinna?

      CINNA
137   I am glad on 't. What a fearful night is this!
138   There's two or three of us have seen strange sights.

      CASSIUS
139   Am I not stay'd for? tell me.

      CINNA
                                                    Yes, you are.
140   O Cassius, if you could
141   But win the noble Brutus to our party—

      CASSIUS
142   Be you content: good Cinna, take this paper,
143   And look you lay it in the praetor's chair,
144   Where Brutus may but find it; and throw this
145   In at his window; set this up with wax
146   Upon old Brutus' statue: all this done,
147   Repair to Pompey's porch, where you shall find us.
148   Is Decius Brutus and Trebonius there?

      CINNA.
149   All but Metellus Cimber; and he's gone
150   To seek you at your house. Well, I will hie,
151   And so bestow these papers as you bade me.

      CASSIUS
152   That done, repair to Pompey's theatre.

           Exit CINNA.

153   Come, Casca, you and I will yet ere day
154   See Brutus at his house: three parts of him
155   Is ours already, and the man entire
156   Upon the next encounter yields him ours.

      CASCA
157   O, he sits high in all the people's hearts:
158   And that which would appear offence in us,
159   His countenance, like richest alchemy,
160   Will change to virtue and to worthiness.

      CASSIUS
161   Him and his worth and our great need of him
162   You have right well conceited. Let us go,
163   For it is after midnight; and ere day
164   We will awake him and be sure of him.

           Exeunt.