Cas. I will do so: till then, think of the world.
[Exit Brutus.
Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see,[2949] 305
Thy honourable metal may be wrought[2950]
From that it is disposed: therefore it is meet[2951]
That noble minds keep ever with their likes;
For who so firm that cannot be seduced?
Cæsar doth bear me hard; but he loves Brutus: 310
If I were Brutus now and he were Cassius,
He should not humour me. I will this night,[2952]
In several hands, in at his windows throw,
As if they came from several citizens,
Writings, all tending to the great opinion 315
That Rome holds of his name, wherein obscurely
Cæsar's ambition shall be glanced at:
And after this let Cæsar seat him sure;
For we will shake him, or worse days endure. [Exit.
Scene III. A street.[2953]
Thunder and lightning. Enter, from opposite sides, Casca, with his sword drawn, and Cicero.[2954]
Cic. Good even, Casca: brought you Cæsar home?
Why are you breathless? and why stare you so?
Casca. Are not you 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
The ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam,
To be exalted with the threatening clouds;
But never till to-night, never till now,
Did I go through a tempest dropping fire.[2955] 10
Either there is a civil strife in heaven,
Or else the world too saucy with the gods
Incenses them to send destruction.
Cic. Why, saw you any thing more wonderful?
Casca. A common slave—you know him well by sight—[2956] 15
Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn
Like twenty torches join'd, and yet his hand
Not sensible of fire remain'd unscorch'd.
Besides—I ha' not since put up my sword—[2957]
Against the Capitol I met a lion, 20
Who glared upon me and went surly by[2958]
Without annoying me: and there were drawn
Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women[2959]
Transformed with their fear, who swore they saw
Men all in fire walk up and down the streets. 25
And yesterday the bird of night did sit
Even at noon-day upon the market-place,
Hooting and shrieking. When these prodigies[2960]
Do so conjointly meet, let not men say
'These are their reasons: they are natural:'[2961] 30
For, I believe, they are portentous things
Unto the climate that they point upon.
Cic. Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time:[2962]
But men may construe things after their fashion,
Clean from the purpose of the things themselves. 35
Comes Cæsar to the Capitol to-morrow?[2963]