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Speeches (Lines) for Casca
in "Julius Caesar"

Total: 39

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# Act, Scene, Line
(Click to see in context)
Speech text

1

I,2,83

Caesar. Calpurnia!

Casca. Peace, ho! Caesar speaks.


2

I,2,99

Caesar. Ha! who calls?

Casca. Bid every noise be still: peace yet again!


3

I,2,308

(stage directions). Sennet. Exeunt CAESAR and all his Train, but CASCA

Casca. You pull'd me by the cloak; would you speak with me?


4

I,2,311

Brutus. Ay, Casca; tell us what hath chanced to-day,
That Caesar looks so sad.

Casca. Why, you were with him, were you not?


5

I,2,313

Brutus. I should not then ask Casca what had chanced.

Casca. Why, there was a crown offered him: and being
offered him, he put it by with the back of his hand,
thus; and then the people fell a-shouting.


6

I,2,317

Brutus. What was the second noise for?

Casca. Why, for that too.


7

I,2,319

Cassius. They shouted thrice: what was the last cry for?

Casca. Why, for that too.


8

I,2,321

Brutus. Was the crown offered 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 neighbours shouted.


9

I,2,325

Cassius. Who offered him the crown?

Casca. Why, Antony.


10

I,2,327

Brutus. Tell us the manner of it, gentle Casca.

Casca. I can as well be hanged 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 hooted and clapped their
chapped 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 swounded 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.


11

I,2,345

Cassius. But, soft, I pray you: what, did Caesar swound?

Casca. He fell down in the market-place, and foamed at
mouth, and was speechless.


12

I,2,350

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.


13

I,2,356

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
plucked 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
stabbed their mothers, they would have done no less.


14

I,2,370

Brutus. And after that, he came, thus sad, away?

Casca. Ay.


15

I,2,372

Cassius. Did Cicero say any thing?

Casca. Ay, he spoke Greek.


16

I,2,374

Cassius. To what effect?

Casca. Nay, an I tell you that, Ill 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 I could
remember it.


17

I,2,383

Cassius. Will you sup with me to-night, Casca?

Casca. No, I am promised forth.


18

I,2,385

Cassius. Will you dine with me to-morrow?

Casca. Ay, if I be alive and your mind hold and your dinner
worth the eating.


19

I,2,388

Cassius. Good: I will expect you.

Casca. Do so. Farewell, both.


20

I,3,424

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
The 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.
Either there is a civil strife in heaven,
Or else the world, too saucy with the gods,
Incenses them to send destruction.


21

I,3,436

Cicero. Why, saw you any thing more wonderful?

Casca. A common slave—you 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 noon-day upon the market-place,
Hooting 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.


22

I,3,458

Cicero. Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time:
But men may construe things after their fashion,
Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.
Come Caesar to the Capitol to-morrow?

Casca. He doth; for he did bid Antonius
Send word to you he would be there to-morrow.


23

I,3,462

Cicero. Good night then, Casca: this disturbed sky
Is not to walk in.

Casca. Farewell, Cicero.


24

I,3,466

Cassius. Who's there?

Casca. A Roman.


25

I,3,468

Cassius. Casca, by your voice.

Casca. Your ear is good. Cassius, what night is this!


26

I,3,470

Cassius. A very pleasing night to honest men.

Casca. Who ever knew the heavens menace so?


27

I,3,479

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.


28

I,3,505

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 fool 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?


29

I,3,511

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 tomorrow
Mean to establish Caesar as a king;
And he shall wear his crown by sea and land,
In every place, save here in Italy.


30

I,3,528

(stage directions). Thunder still

Casca. So can I:
So every bondman in his own hand bears
The power to cancel his captivity.


31

I,3,544

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.


32

I,3,560

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 honourable-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
In favour's like the work we have in hand,
Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible.

Casca. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste.


33

I,3,590

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 offence in us,
His countenance, like richest alchemy,
Will change to virtue and to worthiness.


34

II,1,720

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

Casca. No.


35

II,1,723

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 deceived.
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
Stands, as the Capitol, directly here.


36

II,1,761

Cassius. But what of Cicero? shall we sound him?
I think he will stand very strong with us.

Casca. Let us not leave him out.


37

II,1,773

Cassius. Then leave him out.

Casca. Indeed he is not fit.


38

III,1,1283

Caesar. Doth not Brutus bootless kneel?

Casca. Speak, hands for me!
[CASCA first, then the other Conspirators and
BRUTUS stab CAESAR]


39

III,1,1294

Brutus. People and senators, be not affrighted;
Fly not; stand stiff: ambition's debt is paid.

Casca. Go to the pulpit, Brutus.


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