| LIVES OF THE NOBLE | |
| | |
IULIUS | a time to his frendes, What will Cassius doe, thinke ye? I | |
CÆSAR | like not his pale lookes. An other time when Caesars frendes | |
| complained unto him of Antonius, and Dolabella, that they | |
| pretended some mischiefe*
towardes him: he aunswered them | |
| againe, As for those fatte men and smooth comed heades, | |
| quoth he, I never reckon of them: but these pale visaged | |
| and carian leane people, I feare them most, meaning Brutus | |
| and Cassius. Certainly, destenie may easier be foreseene, | |
Predictions, | then avoyded: considering the straunge and wonderfull | |
and fore- | signes that were sayd to be seene before Caesars death. For, | |
shewes of | touching the fires in the element, and spirites running up | |
Caesars death. | and downe in the night, and also these solitarie birdes to be | |
| seene at noone dayes sittinge in the great market place: are | |
| not all these signes perhappes worth the noting, in such a | |
| wonderfull chaunce as happened? But Strabo the Philosopher | |
| wryteth, that divers men were seene going up and downe in | |
| fire: and furthermore, that there was a slave of the souldiers, | |
| that did cast a marvelous burning flame out of his hande, | |
| insomuch as they that saw it, thought he had bene burnt, | |
| but when the fire was out, it was found he had no hurt. | |
| Caesar selfe also doing sacrifice unto the goddes, found that | |
| one of the beastes which was sacrificed had no hart: and | |
| that was a straunge thing in nature, how a beast could live | |
| without a hart. Furthermore, there was a certaine Sooth- | |
| sayer that had geven Caesar warning long time affore, to take | |
Caesars day | heede of the day of the Ides of Marche, (which is the fifteenth | |
of his death | of the moneth) for on that day he shoulde be in great daunger. | |
prognosti- | That day being come, Caesar going unto the Senate house, | |
cated by a | and speaking merily to the Soothsayer, tolde him, The Ides | |
Soothsayer. | of Marche be come: So be they, softly aunswered the Sooth- | |
| sayer, but yet are they not past. And the very day before, | |
| Caesar supping with Marcus Lepidus, sealed certaine letters | |
| as he was wont to do at the bord : so talke falling out | |
| amongest them, reasoning what death was best: he prevent- | |
| ing their opinions, cried out alowde, Death unlooked for. | |
| Then going to bedde the same night as his manner was, and | |
| lying with his wife Calpurnia, all the windowes and dores of | |
| his chamber flying open, the noyse awooke him, and made | |
| him affrayed when he saw such light: but more, when he | |
| 64 | |