[Note 95: /Decius Brutus./ See notes, Dramatis Personae, and p.
40, l. 148.]

[Page 50]

BRUTUS. They are all welcome.
What watchful cares do interpose themselves
Betwixt your eyes and night? 99

CASSIUS. Shall I entreat a word? [_They whisper_]

DECIUS. Here lies the east: doth not the day break here?

CASCA. No.

CINNA. O, pardon, sir, it doth; and yon gray lines
That fret the clouds are messengers of day.

CASCA. You shall confess that you are both deceiv'd. 105
Here, as I point my sword, the sun arises,
Which is a great way growing on the south,
Weighing the youthful season of the year.
Some two months hence up higher toward the north
He first presents his fire, and the high east 110
Stands, as the Capitol, directly here.

BRUTUS. Give me your hands all over, one by one.

CASSIUS. And let us swear our resolution.

[Note 101-111: This little side-talk on a theme so different
from the main one of the scene, is finely conceived, and aptly
marks the men as seeking to divert anxious thoughts of the
moment by any casual chat. It also serves the double purpose
of showing that they are not listening, and of preventing
suspicion if any were listening to them. In itself it is
thoroughly Shakespearian; and the description of the
dawn-light flecking the clouds takes high place among
Shakespeare's great sky pictures.]

[Note 104: /fret:/ "mark with interlacing lines like
fretwork."--Clar. There are two distinct verbs spelled 'fret,'
one meaning 'to eat away,' the other 'to ornament.' See Skeat.
In _Hamlet_, II, ii, 313, we have "this majestical roof
fretted with golden fire."]

[Note 107: /growing on:/ encroaching upon, tending towards.]

[Note 108: /Weighing:/ if you take into consideration.]

[Note 110: /high:/ full, perfect. Cf. 'high day,' 'high noon,'
etc.]

[Note 112: /all over:/ one after the other until all have been
included.]

[Page 51-52]

BRUTUS. No, not an oath: if not the face of men,
The sufferance of our souls, the time's abuse,-- 115
If these be motives weak, break off betimes,
And every man hence to his idle bed;
So let high-sighted tyranny range on,
Till each man drop by lottery. But if these,
As I am sure they do, bear fire enough 120
To kindle cowards and to steel with valour
The melting spirits of women, then,