Page 2172 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

Have bared my bosom to the thunder-stone;
And when the cross blue lightning seemed to open [50]
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 [55]
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, [60]
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, [65]

Why all these things change from their ordinance,
Their natures and preformèd faculties,
To monstrous quality, why, you shall find
That heaven hath infused them with these spirits

To make them instruments of fear and warning [70]
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 − [75]
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?