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.

Cas.

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 honourable-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 favour's like the work we have in hand,
Most bloody fiery, and most terrible.

Casca. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in

haste.

Cas. 'Tis Cinna; I do know him by his gait:

Cas. No, it is Casca; one incorporate

To our attempts. Am I not stayed for, Cinna?

Cin. I am glad on't. What a fearful night is

this!

There's two or three of us have seen strange sights.

Cas. Am I not stayed for?

Cin.

O Cassius, if you could

Tell me.

Yes, you are

But win the noble Brutus to our party

Cas. Be you content: Good Cinna, take this

paper,

And look you lay it in the prætor'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?

Cin. 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. Cas. 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 offence in us,

His countenance, like richest alchymy,
Will change to virtue and to worthiness.

Cas. 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.

ACT II.

SCENE I.-Rome.

BRUTUS'S Orchard.

Enter BRUTUS.

Bru. 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!

Lucius !

Enter LUCIUS.

Luc. Called you, my lord?

What,

Bru. Get me a taper in my study, Lucius:

When it is lighted, come and call me here.

Luc. I will, my lord.

[Exit.

Bru. 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 crowned

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.

that;

Crown him?—

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
Cæsar,

I have not known when his affections swayed
More than his reason. But 't is 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 Cæsar may :
Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since the quarrel
Will bear no colour for the thing he is,
Fashion it thus: that what he is, augmented,

Would run to these and these extremities :

And therefore think him as a serpent's egg,

Which, hatched, would as his kind grow mis chievous;

And kill him in the shell.

Re-enter LUCIUS.

Luc. The taper burneth in your closet, sir. Searching the window for a flint, I found

[Giving him a letter. This paper, thus sealed up; and, I am sure, 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.

[Exit.

Bru. The exhalations whizzing in the air Give so much light that I may read by them. [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 dropped
Where I have took them up.

'Shall Rome, &c.' Thus must I piece it out: