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
shouted and clapped their chopped hands, and245
threw up their sweaty night-caps, and uttered
such a deal of stinking breath because Cæsar
refused the crown, that it had almost choked
Cæsar; 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.
Cas. But soft, I pray you: what! did Cæsar swound?252
Casca. He fell down in the market-place, and
foamed at mouth, and was speechless.
Bru. 'Tis very like: he hath the falling-sickness.
Cas. No, Cæsar hath it not; but you, and I,
And honest Casca, we have the falling-sickness.
Casca. I know not what you mean by that;258
but I am sure Cæsar 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.263
Bru. What said he, when he came unto himself?
Casca. Marry, before he fell down, when he
perceiv'd 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 a268
244 still: always, ever
245 chopped: chapped, callous
249 swounded: fainted
252 soft: stop, wait
255 like: likely
falling-sickness: epilepsy
259 tag-rag: beggarly, common
262 true: honest
267 me: expletive 'dative of interest'
ope: open
doublet: Elizabethan jacket
268 An: if
