JULIUS CAESAR. William Shakespeare
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CASCA.
Why, for that too.
BRUTUS.
Was the crown offer’d him thrice?
CASCA. Ay, marry, was’t, and he put it by thrice, every time gentler than other; and at every putting-by mine honest neighbors shouted.
CASSIUS.
Who offer’d him the crown?
CASCA.
Why, Antony.
BRUTUS.
Tell us the manner of it, gentle Casca.
CASCA. I can as well be hang’d, as tell the manner of it: it was mere foolery; I did not mark it. I saw Mark Antony offer him a crown;—yet ‘twas not a crown neither, ‘twas one of these coronets;—and, as I told you, he put it by once: but, for all that, to my thinking, he would fain have had it. Then he offered it to him again: then he put it by again: but, to my thinking, he was very loath to lay his fingers off it. And then he offered it the third time; he put it the third time by; and still, as he refused it, the rabblement shouted, and clapp’d their chopt hands, and threw up their sweaty night-caps, and uttered such a deal of stinking breath because Caesar refused the crown, that it had almost choked Caesar, for he swooned and fell down at it: and for mine own part, I durst not laugh for fear of opening my lips and receiving the bad air.
CASSIUS.
But, soft! I pray you. What, did Caesar swoon?
CASCA. He fell down in the marketplace, and foam’d at mouth, and was speechless.
BRUTUS.
‘Tis very like: he hath the falling-sickness.
CASSIUS.
No, Caesar hath it not; but you, and I,
And honest Casca, we have the falling-sickness.
CASCA. I know not what you mean by that; but I am sure Caesar fell down. If the tag-rag people did not clap him and hiss him, according as he pleased and displeased them, as they use to do the players in the theatre, I am no true man.
BRUTUS.
What said he when he came unto himself?
CASCA. Marry, before he fell down, when he perceived the common herd was glad he refused the crown, he pluck’d me ope his doublet, and offered them his throat to cut: an I had been a man of any occupation, if I would not have taken him at a word, I would I might go to hell among the rogues:—and so he fell. When he came to himself again, he said, if he had done or said any thing amiss, he desired their worships to think it was his infirmity. Three or four wenches where I stood cried, “Alas, good soul!” and forgave him with all their hearts. But there’s no heed to be taken of them: if Caesar had stabb’d their mothers, they would have done no less.
BRUTUS.
And, after that he came, thus sad away?
CASCA.
Ay.
CASSIUS.
Did Cicero say any thing?
CASCA.
Ay, he spoke Greek.
CASSIUS.
To what effect?
CASCA. Nay, an I tell you that, I’ll ne’er look you i’ the face again: but those that understood him smiled at one another and shook their heads; but for mine own part, it was Greek to me. I could tell you more news too: Marullus and Flavius, for pulling scarfs off Caesar’s images, are put to silence. Fare you well. There was more foolery yet, if could remember it.
CASSIUS.
Will you sup with me tonight, Casca?
CASCA.
No, I am promised forth.
CASSIUS.
Will you dine with me tomorrow?
CASCA. Ay, if I be alive, and your mind hold, and your dinner worth the eating.
CASSIUS.
Good; I will expect you.
CASCA.
Do so; farewell both.
[Exit CASCA.]
BRUTUS.
What a blunt fellow is this grown to be!
He was quick mettle when he went to school.
CASSIUS.
So is he now in execution
Of any bold or noble enterprise,
However he puts on this tardy form.
This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit,
Which gives men stomach to digest his words
With better appetite.
BRUTUS.
And so it is. For this time I will leave you:
Tomorrow, if you please to speak with me,
I will come home to you; or, if you will,
Come home to me, and I will wait for you.
CASSIUS.
I will do so: till then, think of the world.—
[Exit Brutus.]
Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see,
Thy honorable metal may be wrought,
From that it is disposed: therefore ‘tis meet
That noble minds keep ever with their likes;
For who so firm that cannot be seduced?
Caesar doth bear me hard, but he loves Brutus;
If I were Brutus now and he were Cassius,
He should not humor me. I will this night,
In several hands, in at his windows throw,
As if they came from several citizens,
Writings all tending to the great opinion
That Rome holds of his name; wherein obscurely
Caesar’s ambition shall be glanced at:
And after this let Caesar seat him sure;
For we will shake him, or worse days endure.
[Exit.]
SCENE III. The same. A street.
[Thunder and lightning. Enter, from opposite sides, CASCA, with his 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