Julius Caesar — Act 1, Scene 3

original text and modern English, side by side

The same. A street · Cicero, Casca, Cassius, Cinna

On the storm-torn night before the ides of March, Casca describes a series of omens to Cicero — a hand burning without pain, a lion loose by the Capitol, an owl shrieking at noon. Cassius reads the same portents as warnings about Caesar, recruits the shaken Casca into the conspiracy, and sends Cinna to plant forged letters where Brutus will find them. The scene turns private grievance into an organized plot and sets up Brutus's decision in Act 2.

Thunder and lightning. Enter, from opposite sides, Casca with his sword drawn, and Cicero.

Cicero

Good even, Casca:

Good evening, Casca.

brought you Caesar home?

Did you see Caesar home?

Why are you breathless, and why stare you so?

Why are you out of breath, and why that look on your face?

Casca

Are not you moved, when all the sway of earth

Shakes like a thing unfirm?

Doesn't it shake you, when the whole balance of the earth trembles like something about to give way?

O Cicero,

I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds

Have riv’d the knotty oaks;

Cicero, I've seen storms where the raging wind split solid oaks.

and I have seen

Th’ ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam,

To be exalted with the threatening clouds:

I've seen the ocean swell and rage and foam as if it wanted to climb up to the storm clouds.

But never till tonight, never till now,

Did I go through a tempest dropping fire.

But never until tonight — never until now — have I walked through a storm raining fire.

Either there is a civil strife in heaven,

Or else the world too saucy with the gods,

Incenses them to send destruction.

Either there's a civil war going on in heaven, or the world has offended the gods once too often and they're sending destruction.

Cicero

Why, saw you anything more wonderful?

Why, did you see anything even stranger?

Casca

A common slave, you’d 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.

A slave — an ordinary man you'd recognize on sight — held up his left hand, and it blazed like twenty torches bundled together, yet the hand felt no heat and wasn't burned.

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 since then I haven't put my sword away: near the Capitol I ran into a lion, which stared at me and stalked past without touching 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 there were a hundred terrified women huddled together, so transformed by fear that they swore they'd seen men on fire walking up and down the streets.

And yesterday the bird of night did sit,

Even at noonday upon the marketplace,

Hooting and shrieking.

And yesterday an owl sat in the marketplace at midday, hooting and shrieking.

When these prodigies

Do so conjointly meet, let not men say,

“These are their reasons; they are natural”;

When so many freak events happen at once, don't let anyone tell you "there's a natural explanation for each of these."

For I believe, they are portentous things

Unto the climate that they point upon.

I believe they're omens warning the country they appear over.

Cicero

Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time.

It's certainly a strange, unsettled time.

But men may construe things after their fashion,

Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.

But men will interpret things to suit themselves, completely missing what the things actually mean.

Comes Caesar to the Capitol tomorrow?

Is Caesar coming to the Capitol tomorrow?

Casca

He doth,

He is.

for he did bid Antonius

Send word to you he would be there tomorrow.

He told Antony to send you word that he'd be there.

Cicero

Goodnight then, Casca:

Goodnight then, Casca.

this disturbed sky

Is not to walk in.

This is no sky to be walking about under.

Casca

Farewell, Cicero.

Goodbye, Cicero.

Exit Cicero.

Enter Cassius.

Cassius

Who’s there?

Who's there?

Casca

A Roman.

Cassius

Casca, by your voice.

That's Casca, by the voice.

Casca

Your ear is good.

You have a good ear.

Cassius, what night is this!

Cassius, what a night this is!

Cassius

A very pleasing night to honest men.

A very agreeable night, for honest men.

Casca

Who ever knew the heavens menace so?

Who has ever seen the heavens threaten like this?

Cassius

Those that have known the earth so full of faults.

Anyone who has seen how full of wrongs the earth is.

For my part, I have walk’d about the streets,

Submitting me unto the perilous night;

And, thus unbraced, Casca, as you see,

Have bar’d my bosom to the thunder-stone;

As for me, I've been walking the streets, offering myself up to this dangerous night — and with my clothes open like this, Casca, I've bared my chest to the thunderbolts.

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.

When the forked blue lightning seemed to split heaven open, I stood right in its path, in the flash itself.

Casca

But wherefore did you so much tempt the Heavens?

But why would you provoke the heavens like that?

It is the part of men to fear and tremble,

When the most mighty gods by tokens send

Such dreadful heralds to astonish us.

Men are supposed to be afraid and tremble when the mightiest gods send such terrifying messengers to shock us.

Cassius

You are dull, Casca;

You're being slow, Casca.

and those sparks of life

That should be in a Roman you do want,

Or else you use not.

Either you lack the spark of life a Roman should have, or you're refusing to use it.

You look pale and gaze,

And put on fear and cast yourself in wonder,

To see the strange impatience of the Heavens:

You go pale and stare, you make yourself afraid and lose yourself in astonishment at the heavens' strange fury.

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,

Why all these things change from their ordinance,

Their natures, and pre-formed faculties,

To monstrous quality; why, you shall find

That Heaven hath infus’d them with these spirits,

To make them instruments of fear and warning

Unto some monstrous state.

But if you thought about the real reason for all these fires, all these drifting ghosts, why birds and beasts act against their nature, why old men and fools and children turn prophet, why all these things abandon their normal function and behaviour and turn monstrous — you'd realize that heaven has filled them with these energies to make them instruments of fear, warning us about some monstrous condition in the 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;

Casca, I could name you a man exactly like this terrible night — a man who thunders and flashes and opens graves and roars like that lion at the Capitol.

A man no mightier than thyself, or me,

In personal action; yet prodigious grown,

And fearful, as these strange eruptions are.

A man no stronger than you or me in himself, yet who has grown to a monstrous size and become as frightening as these unnatural events.

Casca

’Tis Caesar that you mean; is it not, Cassius?

You mean Caesar, don't you, Cassius?

Cassius

Let it be who it is:

Let it be whoever 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;

Romans today have the muscles and limbs their ancestors had, but — what a shame — our fathers' spirit is dead in us, and we're ruled by our mothers' temperament.

Our yoke and sufferance show us womanish.

Letting ourselves be yoked and putting up with it makes us look like women.

Casca

Indeed, they say the senators tomorrow

Mean to establish Caesar as a king;

In fact they say the senators intend to crown Caesar king tomorrow,

And he shall wear his crown by sea and land,

In every place, save here in Italy.

and that he'll wear his crown everywhere by sea and land — everywhere except here in Italy.

Cassius

I know where I will wear this dagger then;

Then I know where I'll wear this dagger.

Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius:

Cassius will free Cassius from slavery.

Therein, ye gods, you make the weak most strong;

That's how you gods make the weak strong;

Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat.

that's how you gods defeat tyrants.

Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,

Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,

Can be retentive to the strength of spirit;

No stone tower, no wall of hammered brass, no airless dungeon, no chain of iron can hold in a determined spirit.

But life, being weary of these worldly bars,

Never lacks power to dismiss itself.

Life, once it tires of these worldly restraints, always has the power to release itself.

If I know this, know all the world besides,

That part of tyranny that I do bear

I can shake off at pleasure.

If I know this — and the whole world knows it too — then whatever share of tyranny I'm forced to carry, I can throw off whenever I choose.

Thunder still.

Casca

So can I:

So can I.

So every bondman in his own hand bears

The power to cancel his captivity.

Every slave holds in his own hand the power to end his captivity.

Cassius

And why should Caesar be a tyrant then?

So why should Caesar be a tyrant at all?

Poor man! I know he would not be a wolf,

But that he sees the Romans are but sheep:

The poor man wouldn't be a wolf if he didn't see that the Romans are sheep.

He were no lion, were not Romans hinds.

He wouldn't be a lion if Romans weren't deer.

Those that with haste will make a mighty fire

Begin it with weak straws.

Men who want a big fire fast start it with feeble straw.

What trash is Rome,

What rubbish, and what offal, when it serves

For the base matter to illuminate

So vile a thing as Caesar!

What garbage Rome must be, what rubbish, what waste, if it's the cheap fuel that lights up something as worthless as Caesar.

But, O grief,

Where hast thou led me?

But — oh, grief, where have you led me?

I, perhaps, speak this

Before a willing bondman: then I know

My answer must be made;

I may be saying this in front of a man who's happy to be a slave, in which case I know I'll have to answer for it.

but I am arm’d,

And dangers are to me indifferent.

But I'm armed, and danger doesn't concern me.

Casca

You speak to Casca, and to such a man

That is no fleering tell-tale.

You're talking to Casca — a man who is no sneering informer.

Hold, my hand:

Here, take my hand.

Be factious for redress of all these griefs,

And I will set this foot of mine as far

As who goes farthest.

Organize a faction to put all these wrongs right, and I'll go as far as anyone who goes furthest.

Cassius

There’s a bargain made.

Then we have a deal.

Now know you, Casca, I have mov’d already

Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans

To undergo with me an enterprise

Of honourable-dangerous consequence;

Now I can tell you, Casca, that I've already persuaded several of the most honourable-minded Romans to join me in an enterprise that is dangerous but honourable.

And I do know by this, they stay for me

In Pompey’s Porch:

I know that right now they're waiting for me at Pompey's Porch

for now, this fearful night,

There is no stir or walking in the streets;

— because on a frightening night like this there's no one stirring 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.

and the look of the sky matches the work we have in hand: bloody, fiery, and utterly terrible.

Enter Cinna.

Casca

Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste.

Stay back a moment — someone's coming in a hurry.

Cassius

’Tis Cinna; I do know him by his gait;

It's Cinna; I know him by his walk.

He is a friend.

He's one of us.

Cinna, where haste you so?

Cinna, where are you rushing to?

Cinna

To find out you.

To find you.

Who’s that? Metellus Cimber?

Who's that? Metellus Cimber?

Cassius

No, it is Casca, one incorporate

To our attempts.

No, it's Casca — he's joined our plans.

Am I not stay’d for, Cinna?

Aren't they waiting for me, Cinna?

Cinna

I am glad on’t.

I'm glad to hear it.

What a fearful night is this!

What a terrifying night!

There’s two or three of us have seen strange sights.

Two or three of us have seen strange things.

Cassius

Am I not stay’d for?

Are they waiting for me?

tell me.

Tell me.

Cinna

Yes, you are.

Yes, they are.

O Cassius, if you could

But win the noble Brutus to our party—

Oh, Cassius — if only you could bring the noble Brutus over to our side—

Cassius

Be you content.

Don't worry about that.

Good Cinna, take this paper,

And look you lay it in the praetor’s chair,

Where Brutus may but find it;

Good Cinna, take this paper and be sure to lay it on the praetor's chair, where only Brutus will find it.

and throw this

In at his window;

Throw this one in at his window,

set this up with wax

Upon old Brutus’ statue:

and fix this one with wax to the statue of the old Brutus.

all this done,

Repair to Pompey’s Porch, where you shall find us.

When you've done all that, come to Pompey's Porch, where you'll find us.

Is Decius Brutus and Trebonius there?

Are Decius Brutus and Trebonius there?

Cinna

All but Metellus Cimber, and he’s gone

To seek you at your house.

Everyone except Metellus Cimber, and he's gone looking for you at your house.

Well, I will hie,

And so bestow these papers as you bade me.

Right, I'll hurry off and place these papers as you told me.

Cassius

That done, repair to Pompey’s theatre.

Then come to Pompey's theatre.

Exit Cinna.

Cassius

Come, Casca, you and I will yet, ere day,

See Brutus at his house:

Come on, Casca. You and I will go and see Brutus at his house before morning.

three parts of him

Is ours already, and the man entire

Upon the next encounter, yields him ours.

Three quarters of him is already ours, and the whole man will be ours after one more meeting.

Casca

O, he sits high in all the people’s hearts!

He stands high in everyone's affection.

And that which would appear offence in us,

His countenance, like richest alchemy,

Will change to virtue and to worthiness.

What would look like a crime coming from us, his support — like the finest alchemy — will turn into virtue and worth.

Cassius

Him, and his worth, and our great need of him,

You have right well conceited.

You've got him exactly right: what he's worth, and how badly we need him.

Let us go,

For it is after midnight;

Let's go. It's past midnight,

and ere day,

We will awake him, and be sure of him.

and before daybreak we'll wake him and make sure of him.

Exeunt.

Julius Caesar Act 1, Scene 3 summary

Who appears in this scene

Cicero, Casca, Cassius, Cinna — The same. A street.

Famous lines in Julius Caesar Act 1, Scene 3, explained

“But men may construe things after their fashion, / Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.” (line 34): Cicero's one memorable line in the play, and a warning about the whole plot: people read omens to mean whatever they already want them to mean, entirely missing the actual point. Cassius proves it two minutes later by deciding the storm is about Caesar, and Decius proves it again in 2.2 by reinterpreting Calphurnia's nightmare to lure Caesar to the Senate. Shakespeare puts the play's supernatural signs in front of us and then, through Cicero, tells us to distrust every interpretation we are given.
“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.” (line 108): Cassius argues that tyranny is created by the people who submit to it: Caesar can only be a predator because Romans have agreed to be prey. It restates his line to Brutus in 1.2 that the fault lies in ourselves, but with the anger showing through — the target here is the Roman public, not the stars. The argument is genuinely persuasive and also self-serving, since it lets Cassius present a personal grudge against Caesar as a diagnosis of the nation.
“And that which would appear offence in us, / His countenance, like richest alchemy, / Will change to virtue and to worthiness.” (line 163): Casca explains bluntly why the conspirators need Brutus: the same killing looks like murder if they do it and like principle if Brutus is standing among them. Alchemy was the supposed art of turning base metal into gold, so Brutus's reputation is being treated as a device for transmuting a crime into a virtue. It is the coldest line in the scene about the play's most idealistic character — Brutus thinks he is joining the conspiracy, while the conspiracy is acquiring him as public cover.

What happens in this scene

On the storm-torn night before the ides of March, Casca — sword drawn, badly shaken — meets Cicero in the street and catalogues the night's omens: a slave whose hand blazed like twenty torches without burning, a lion by the Capitol that stalked past him, a hundred terrified women swearing they saw men on fire walking the streets, an owl shrieking in the marketplace at noon. Casca insists these are warnings to the country; Cicero answers coolly that 'men will interpret things to suit themselves, completely missing what the things actually mean,' confirms Caesar comes to the Capitol tomorrow, and goes home. Cassius then appears — he has been walking bare-chested through the storm, daring the lightning to strike him.

Cassius reinterprets the omens for Casca: heaven is warning Rome about a man 'no stronger than you or me in himself' who has grown monstrous — and when Casca names Caesar, Cassius won't confirm it, only blames Romans for submitting like sheep. Casca reports that the senators mean to crown Caesar king tomorrow; Cassius answers that his dagger can free him from slavery, since no tyranny can hold 'a determined spirit.' Casca offers his hand and joins. Cassius reveals that conspirators are already waiting at Pompey's Porch, and when Cinna arrives, hands him the forged papers to plant where Brutus will find them — the praetor's chair, Brutus's window, the statue of his ancestor. They will visit Brutus before morning: 'Three quarters of him is already ours.' Casca closes by explaining why Brutus is worth all this — his support, 'like the finest alchemy,' will turn what would look like a crime into virtue.

Why this scene matters

This scene converts private grievance into an organized plot with a deadline. The rumored coronation tomorrow is what fixes the assassination on the ides of March — the conspirators are no longer grumbling, they're racing a clock. It also completes the machinery for capturing Brutus (the forged letters go out here, and pay off at the start of Act 2), and Casca's alchemy line states, with total cynicism, what Brutus is actually for: not counsel but cover, a reputation that launders murder into principle. Cicero's warning about interpretation hangs over all of it — we watch Cassius read the storm to mean exactly what he needs it to mean.

Key decisions and motivations

Everyone in this scene chooses how to read the same storm. Casca reads terror, Cicero chooses detachment and walks home out of the play, and Cassius chooses to perform fearlessness — baring his chest to the lightning — and to sell the omens as a verdict on Caesar. Casca's handshake is the scene's real conversion: a man too frightened to sheath his sword an hour earlier decides to go 'as far as anyone who goes furthest.' And Cassius's declaration that he'll wear his dagger against his own bondage is a choice of principle that will circle back on him — the idea that suicide is the ultimate freedom from tyranny is exactly how he dies in Act 5.

Themes in this scene

The scene's first theme is interpretation itself: Cicero says men construe things to suit themselves, and Cassius immediately proves it, turning weather into recruitment material. Second, tyranny as a bargain struck by the submissive — Caesar 'wouldn't be a wolf if he didn't see that the Romans are sheep,' which relocates blame from the tyrant to the citizens. Third, reputation as currency: Casca's image of Brutus as alchemy makes explicit that the conspiracy needs not another blade but a name that transmutes offence into worthiness.

Common questions about this scene

How do Casca, Cicero, and Cassius each interpret the storm, and who is right?: Casca reads it as divine anger — the gods sending destruction or fighting a civil war in heaven. Cicero refuses to read it at all, warning that people find whatever meaning suits them. Cassius reads it as a targeted warning about Caesar, which is transparently the meaning he wants. The play never rules; it lets Cicero's skepticism sit under everything, so the audience watches the conspirators build a murder partly on an interpretation.
Why do the conspirators need Brutus specifically?: Not for muscle — for legitimacy. Casca says it outright: the same act that would 'look like a crime coming from us' will, with Brutus attached, 'turn into virtue and worth,' like alchemy turning base metal to gold. Brutus's honour is being acquired as a public-relations asset, which is the scene's coldest irony, since Brutus will believe he was recruited for his principles.
What does Cassius mean when he says 'Cassius will free Cassius from slavery'?: That if Caesar becomes king, he can escape tyranny by killing himself — no tower or chain can imprison a spirit willing to die. It sounds like defiance, and it is, but it's also the play quietly loading a gun: Cassius's belief that death is the answer to defeat is precisely what he acts on at Philippi. Casca's reply — every slave holds that power — turns the private vow into the logic of the whole conspiracy.

Keep reading

About this translation: the original text follows the public-domain Project Gutenberg Globe edition; the modern English translation was written in-house for Polytranslator and is reviewed on an ongoing basis (last revised August 2026). Free to print and photocopy for classroom use. Cite as: “Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene 3. Polytranslator side-by-side translation, polytranslator.com/shakespeare/julius-caesar/act-1-scene-3.”

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