READ STUDY GUIDE: Act I, scene iii |
|
Act I, Scene iii:
The same. A street.
The same. A street.
| [Thunder and lightning. Enter, from opposite sides, CASCA, withhis sword drawn, and CICERO.] |
| CICERO: |
| Good even, Casca: brought you Caesar 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 |
| 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. |
| 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? |
| CASCA: |
| A common slave—you'd know him well by sight— |
| 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,— |
| Against the Capitol I met a lion, |
| Who glared 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. |
| And yesterday the bird of night did sit |
| Even at noonday upon the marketplace, |
| Howling and shrieking. When these prodigies |
| Do so conjointly meet, let not men say |
| "These are their reasons; they are natural"; |
| 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. |
| Comes Caesar to the Capitol tomorrow? |
| CASCA: |
| He doth, for he did bid Antonius |
| Send word to you he would be there to-morrow. |
| CICERO: |
| Good then, Casca: this disturbed sky |
| Is not to walk in. |
| CASCA: |
| Farewell, Cicero. |
| [Exit Cicero.] |
| [Enter Cassius.] |
| CASSIUS: |
| Who's there? |
| CASCA: |
| A Roman. |
| CASSIUS: |
| Casca, by your voice. |
| CASCA: |
| Your ear is good. Cassius, what night is this! |
| CASSIUS: |
| A very pleasing night to honest men. |
| CASCA: |
| Who ever knew the heavens menace so? |
| CASSIUS: |
| Those that have known the earth so full of faults. |
| For my part, I have walk'd about the streets, |
| Submitting me unto the perilous night; |
| And, thus unbraced, Casca, as you see, |
| Have bared my bosom to the thunder-stone; |
| And when the cross blue lightning seem'd to open |
| The breast of heaven, I did present myself |
| Even in the aim and very flash of it. |
| CASCA: |
| 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 |
| Such dreadful heralds to astonish us. |
| CASSIUS: |
| You are dull, Casca;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, |
| 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;— |
| 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 |
| 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 to-morrow |
| 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. |
| [Thunders 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 |
| Is favor'd like the work we have in hand, |
| Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible. |
| CASCA: |
| Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste. |
| CASSIUS: |
| 'Tis Cinna; I do know him by his gait; |
| He is a friend.— |
| [Enter Cinna.] |
| 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.] |
|
|
||||
|
