y watching his moods
and crotchets, and to touch him accordingly. It is somewhat in
doubt whether the 'he' in the preceding line refers to Brutus
or to Caesar. If to Brutus, the meaning of course is: he
should not play upon my humors and fancies as I do upon his.
And this sense is fairly required by the context, for the
whole speech is occupied with the speaker's success in
cajoling Brutus, and with plans for cajoling and shaping him
still further. Johnson refers 'he' to Caesar.]

[Note 313: /hands:/ handwritings. So the word is used
colloquially to-day.]

[Note 319: We will either shake him, or endure worse days in
suffering the consequences of our attempt.--Shakespeare makes
Cassius overflow with intense personal spite against Caesar.
This is in accordance with what he read in North's Plutarch.]

[Page 30]

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 you not mov'd, when all the sway of earth
Shakes like a thing unfirm? O Cicero,
I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds 5
Have riv'd 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 to-night, never till now,
Did I go through a tempest dropping fire. 10
Either there is a civil strife in heaven,
Or else the world, too saucy with the gods,
Incenses them to send destruction.

[Note: SCENE III Capell | Scene VI Pope.]

[Note: _Enter, from ..._ | Enter Caska, and Cicero Ff.]

[Note 10: /tempest dropping fire/ Rowe | tempest-dropping-fire
Ff.]

[Note: SCENE III. Rowe added "with his sword drawn" to the
Folio stage direction, basing the note on l. 19.

A month has passed since the machinery of the conspiracy was
set in motion. The action in the preceding scene took place on
the day of the Lupercalia; the action in this is on the eve of
the Ides of March.]

[Note 1: /brought:/ accompanied. Cf. _Richard II_, I, iv, 2.]

[Note 3-4: /sway of earth:/ established order. "The balanced
swing of earth."--Craik. "The whole weight or momentum of this
globe."--Johnson. In such a raging of the elements, it seems
as if the whole world were going to pieces, or as if the
earth's steadfastness were growing 'unfirm.'