SCENE I. _The plains of Philippi_

THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE

JULIUS CÆSAR

INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY

HENRY NORMAN

HUDSON, LL.D.

EDITED AND REVISED BY

EBENEZER CHARLTON

BLACK LL.D. (GLASGOW)

WITH THE COÖPERATION OF

ANDREW JACKSON

GEORGE LITT.D. (AMHERST)

GINN AND COMPANY

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO LONDON

ATLANTA DALLAS COLUMBUS SAN FRANCISCO

ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL

COPYRIGHT, 1908

BY GINN AND COMPANY

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

424.12

_The Athenæum Press_

GINN AND COMPANY PROPRIETORS

BOSTON U.S.A.

[Illustration:

THE LIVES

OF THE NOBLE GRECIANS

AND ROMAINES, COMPARED

TOGETHER BY THAT GRAVE LEARNED

PHILOSOPHER AND HISTORIOGRAPHER,

_Plutarke of Chæronea._

Translated out of Greeke into French by IAMES AMIOT Abbot

and great Amner of France. With the liues of HANNIBAL and of SCIPIO

AFRICAN: translated out of Latine into French by CHARLES

de l'ESCLVSE, and out of French into English,

_By Sir Thomas North Knight._

_Hereunto are also added the lives of_ Epaminondas, _of_ Philip

_of Macedon, of_ Dionysius _the elder,

tyrant of Sicilia, of_ Augustus Cæsar, _of_ Plutarke, _and of_

Seneca: _with the liues of nine other

excellent Chiefetaines of warre: collected out of_ Æmylius Probus,

_by_

S. G. S. _and Englished by the aforesaid Translator._

Imprinted at London by RICHARD FIELD

for GEORGE BISHOP

1603.

]

TITLE-PAGE OF NORTH'S PLUTARCH, THIRD EDITION

Reproduced from the copy in the Boston Public Library

PREFACE

The text of this edition of _Julius Cæsar_ is based upon a collation of

the seventeenth century Folios, the Globe edition, and that of Delius.

As compared with the text of the earlier editions of Hudson's

Shakespeare, it is conservative. Exclusive of changes in spelling,

punctuation, and stage directions, very few emendations by eighteenth

century and nineteenth century editors have been adopted; and these,

with every variation from the First Folio, are indicated in the textual

notes. These notes are printed immediately below the text so that a

reader or student may see at a glance the evidence in the case of a

disputed reading and have some definite understanding of the reasons for

those differences in the text of Shakespeare which frequently surprise

and very often annoy. A consideration of the more poetical, or the more

dramatically effective, of two variant readings will often lead to rich

results in awakening a spirit of discriminating interpretation and in

developing true creative criticism. In no sense is this a textual

variorum edition. The variants given are only those of importance and

high authority.

The spelling and the punctuation of the text are modern, except in the

case of verb terminations in _-ed_, which, when the _e_ is silent, are

printed with the apostrophe in its place. This is the general usage in

the First Folio. Modern spelling has to a certain extent been followed

in the text variants; but the original spelling has been retained

wherever its peculiarities have been the basis for important textual

criticism and emendation.

With the exception of the position of the textual variants, the plan of

this edition is similar to that of the old Hudson Shakespeare. It is

impossible to specify the various instances of revision and

rearrangement in the matter of the Introduction and the interpretative

notes, but the endeavor has been to retain all that gave the old edition

its unique place and to add the results of what seems vital and

permanent in later inquiry and research.

While it is important that the principle of _suum cuique_ be attended to

so far as is possible in matters of research and scholarship, it is

becoming more and more difficult to give every man his own in

Shakespearian annotation. The amount of material accumulated is so great

that the identity-origin of much important comment and suggestion is

either wholly lost or so crushed out of shape as to be beyond

recognition. Instructive significance perhaps attaches to this in

editing the works of one who quietly made so much of materials gathered

by others. But the list of authorities given on page li will indicate

the chief source of much that has gone to enrich the value of this

edition. Professor W. P. Trent, of Columbia University, has offered

valuable suggestions and given important advice; and to Mr. M. Grant

Daniell's patience, accuracy, and judgment this volume owes both its

freedom from many a blunder and its possession of a carefully arranged

index.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

PAGE

I. SOURCES vii

THE MAIN STORY vii

NORTH'S _PLUTARCH_ vii

APPIAN'S _ROMAN WARS_ xii

EARLIER PLAYS xiii

THE SCENE OF THE ASSASSINATION xiv

"_ET TU, BRUTE_" xvi

BRUTUS'S SPEECH, III, ii. xvi

II. DATE OF COMPOSITION xvii

EXTERNAL EVIDENCE xviii

INTERNAL EVIDENCE xx

III. EARLY EDITIONS xxiii

FOLIOS xxiii

THE QUARTO OF 1691 xxiv

ROWE'S EDITIONS xxiv

IV. THE TITLE xxv

V. DRAMATIC CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT xxv

ANALYSIS BY ACT AND SCENE xxvi

VI. MANAGEMENT OF TIME AND PLACE xxx

HISTORIC TIME xxx

DRAMATIC TIME xxxi

PLACE xxxi

VII. VERSIFICATION AND DICTION xxxii

BLANK VERSE xxxii

RHYME xxxiii

PROSE xxxiii

VIII. THE CHARACTERS xxxiv

JULIUS CÆSAR xxxiv

BRUTUS xli

BRUTUS AND CASSIUS xlvii

PORTIA xlix

ANTONY li

THE PEOPLE liii

IX. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS liii

AUTHORITIES (WITH ABBREVIATIONS) lv

CHRONOLOGICAL CHART lvi

DISTRIBUTION OF CHARACTERS lx

THE TEXT

ACT I 3

ACT II 42

ACT III 79

ACT IV 116

ACT V 144

INDEX

I. WORDS AND PHRASES 169

II. QUOTATIONS FROM PLUTARCH 173

INTRODUCTION

NOTE. In citations from Shakespeare's plays and nondramatic poems the

numbering has reference to the Globe edition, except in the case of this

play, where the reference is to this edition.

I. SOURCES

No event in the history of the world has made a more profound impression

upon the popular imagination than the assassination of Julius Cæsar.

Apart from its overwhelming interest as a personal catastrophe, it was

regarded in the sixteenth century as a happening of the greatest

historical moment, fraught with significant public lessons for all time.

There is ample evidence that in England from the beginning of

Elizabeth's reign it was the subject of much literary and dramatic

treatment, and in making the murder of "the mightiest Julius" the climax

of a play, Shakespeare was true to that instinct which drew him for

material to themes of universal and eternal interest.

THE MAIN STORY

I. _North's Plutarch._ There is no possible doubt that in _Julius Cæsar_

Shakespeare derived the great body of his historical material from _The

Life of Julius Cæsar_, _The Life of Marcus Brutus_, and _The Life of

Marcus Antonius_ in Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch.[1] This

work was first printed in 1579 in a massive folio dedicated to Queen

Elizabeth. A second edition appeared in 1595, and in all probability

this was the edition read by Shakespeare. The title-page is reproduced

in facsimile on page ix. This interesting title-page gives in brief the

literary history of North's translation, which was made not directly

from the original Greek of Plutarch, but from a French version by

Jacques Amyot, bishop of Auxerre.[2] In 1603 appeared a third edition

with additional _Lives_ and new matter on the title-page.[3] There were

subsequent editions in 1612,[4] 1631, 1656, and 1676. The popularity of

this work attested by these reprintings was thoroughly deserved, for

North's Plutarch is among the richest and freshest monuments of

Elizabethan prose literature, and, apart altogether from the use made of

it by Shakespeare, is in itself an invaluable repertory of honest,

manly, idiomatic English. No abstract of the Plutarchian matter need be

given here, as all the more important passages drawn upon for the play

are quoted in the footnotes to the text. These will show that in most of

the leading incidents the great Greek biographer is closely followed,

though in many cases these incidents are worked out and developed with

rare fertility of invention and art. It is very significant that in the

second half of _The Life of Julius Cæsar_, which Shakespeare draws upon

very heavily, Plutarch emphasizes those weaknesses of Cæsar which are

made so prominent in the play. Besides this, in many places the

Plutarchian form and order of thought, and also the very words of

North's racy and delectable English are retained, with such an embalming

for immortality as Shakespeare alone could give.[5]

[Footnote 1: Professor W. W. Skeat's _Shakespeare's Plutarch_ (The

Macmillan Company) gives these _Lives_ in convenient form with a text

based upon the edition of 1612.]

[Footnote 2: A Latin translation of Plutarch's _Lives_ was printed at

Rome as early as 1470, and there is evidence that through a Latin

version the work first attracted the attention of Amyot. But his famous

French version, first published in 1559, shows thorough familiarity with

the original Greek text.]

[Footnote 3: This title-page is given in facsimile as the frontispiece

of this volume.]

[Footnote 4: There is a famous copy of this edition in the Greenock

Library with the initials "W. S." at the top of the title-page and

seventeenth century manuscript notes in _The Life of Julius Cæsar_. See

Skeat's _Shakespeare's Plutarch_, Introduction, p. xii.]

[Footnote 5: See Trench's _Lectures on Plutarch_, Leo's _Four Chapters

of North's Plutarch_, and Delius's _Shakespeare's Julius Cæsar und seine

Quellen in Plutarch_ (_Shakespeare Jahrbuch_, XVII, 67).]

[Illustration:

THE LIVES

OF THE NOBLE GRECIANS

AND ROMANES, COMPARED

TOGETHER BY THAT GRAVE LEARNED

PHILOSOPHER AND HISTORIOGRAPHER,

_Plutarch of Chæronea_:

Translated out of Greeke into French by IAMES AMIOT, Abbot of

Bellozane,

Bishop of Auxerre, one of the Kings priuie counsell, and great

Amner of France, and out of French into English, by

_Thomas North_.

Imprinted at London by Richard Field for

Bonham Norton.

1595.

]

In _Julius Cæsar_ Shakespeare's indebtedness to North's Plutarch may be

summed up as extending to (1) the general story of the play; (2) minor

incidents and happenings, as Cæsar's falling-sickness, the omens before

his death, and the writings thrown in Brutus's way; (3) touches of

detail, as in the description of Cassius's "lean and hungry look" and of

Antony's tastes and personal habits; and (4) noteworthy expressions,

phrases, and single words, as in III, ii, 240-241, 246-248; IV, iii, 2;

IV, iii, 178; V, i, 80-81; V, iii, 109.

On the other hand, Shakespeare's alteration of Plutarchian material is

along the lines of (1) idealization, as in the characters of Brutus and

Cassius; (2) amplification, as in the use Antony makes of Cæsar's rent

and bloody mantle; and (3) simplification and compression of the action

for dramatic effect, as in making Cæsar's triumph take place at the

time of "the feast of Lupercal," in the treatment of the quarrel between

Brutus and Cassius, which in Plutarch lasts for two days, and in making

the two battles of Philippi occur on the same day. See note, p. 159, ll.

109-110. See also below, The Scene of the Assassination.

2. _Appian's Roman Wars._ In 1578 there was published in London an

English translation of the extant portions of Appian's _History of the

Roman Wars both Civil and Foreign_, with the interesting title page

shown in facsimile on page xi.

[Illustration:

AN AVNCIENT

Historie and exquisite Chronicle

_of the Romanes warres, both_

Ciuile and Foren.

Written in Greeke by the noble Orator and Historiographer,

_Appian_ of _Alexandria_, one of the learned

Counsell to the most mightie Emperoures,

_Traiane_ and _Adriane_

In the which is declared:

_Their greedy desire conquere others.

Their mortall malice to destroy themselves.

Their seeking of matters to make warre abroad.

Their picking of quarels to fall out at home.

All the degrees of Sedition, and the effects of Ambition.

A firme determination of Fate, thorowe all the changes of Fortune.

And finally, an evident demonstration, That peoples rule must give

place, and Princes power prevayle._

With a continuation, bicause that parte

of _Appian_ is not extant, from the death of _Sextus

Pompeius_, second sonne to _Pompey_ the Great,

_till the overthrow of_ Antonie _and_ Cleopatra,

after the vvhich time, _Octavianus Cæsar_,

had the Lordship of all, alone.

Βασιλίδι χρἁτιϛη, δεσπὁτιδι τ' ἐπιεικἐϛατη

IMPRINTED AT LONDON

_by Raufe Newbery, and_

Henrie Bynniman.

Anno. 1578.

]

In this translation of Appian the events before and after Cæsar's death

are described minutely and with many graphic touches. Compare, for

example, with the quotation from Plutarch given in the note, p. 68, l.

33, this account of the same incident in Appian: "The day before that

Cæsar should go to the senate, he had him at a banquet with Lepidus ...

and talking merrily what death was best for a man, some saying one and

some another, he of all praised sudden death." Here are some of the

marginal summaries in Appian: "Cæsar refuseth the name of King," "A

crown upon Cæsar's image by one that was apprehended of the tribunes

Marullus and Sitius," "Cæsar hath the Falling-Sickness," "Cæsar's Wife

(hath) a fearful Dream," "Cæsar contemneth sacrifices of evil Luck,"

"Cæsar giveth over when Brutus had stricken him," "The fear of the

Conspirators," "The bad Angel of Brutus."

What gives interest and distinction to Appian's translation as a

probable source for material in _Julius Cæsar_ is that in it we have

speeches by Antony, Brutus, and Lepidus at the time of the reading of

Cæsar's will. In this translation Antony's first speech begins, "They

that would have voices tried upon Cæsar must know afore that if he

ruled as an officer lawfully chosen, then all his acts and decrees must

stand in force...." On Antony's second speech the comment is, "Thus

wrought Antony artificially." His speech to the Senate begins, "Silence

being commanded, he said thus, 'Of the citizens offenders (you men of

equal honour) in this your consultation I have said nothing....'" The

speech of Lepidus to the people has this setting: "When he was come to

the place of speech he lamented, weeping, and thus said, 'Here I was

yesterday with Cæsar, and now am I here to inquire of Cæsar's death....

Cæsar is gone from us, an holy and honourable man in deed.'" The effect

of this speech is commented on as follows: "Handling the matter thus

craftily, the hired men, knowing that he was ambitious, praised him and

exhorted him to take the office of Cæsar's priesthood." A long speech by

Brutus follows the reading of Cæsar's will. It begins: "Now, O citizens,

we be here with you that yesterday were in the common court not as men

fleeing to the temple that have done amiss, nor as to a fort, having

committed all we have to you.... We have heard what hath been objected

against us of our enemies, touching the oath and touching cause of

doubt...." The effect of this speech is thus described: "Whiles Brutus

thus spake, all the hearers considering with themselves that he spake

nothing but right, did like them well, and as men of courage and lovers

of the people, had them in great admiration and were turned into their

favour."

3. _Earlier Plays._ As already mentioned, England had plays on the

subject of Julius Cæsar from the first years of Elizabeth's reign. As

not one of these earlier plays is extant, there can be no certainty as

to whether Shakespeare drew upon them for materials or inspiration, but,

as Professor Herford says, "he seems to be cognisant of their

existence." His opening scene is addressed to a public familiar with the

history of Pompey and Pompey's sons. Among these earlier plays was one

almost contemporary with the first production of _Gorboduc_, the first

English tragedy. It is referred to under the name of _Julyus Sesar_ in

an entry in Machyn's _Diary_ under February 1, 1562. In _Plays confuted

in five Actions_, printed probably in 1582, Stephen Gosson mentions the

history of _Cæsar and Pompey_ as a contemporary play. A Latin play on

Cæsar's death was acted at Oxford in 1582, and for it Dr. Richard Eedes

(Eades, Edes) of Christ Church wrote the epilogue (_Epilogus Cæsaris

Intersecti_). In Henslowe's _Diary_ under November 8, 1594, a _Seser and

pompie_ is mentioned as a new play. Mr. A. W. Verity (_Julius Cæsar_,

The Pitt Press edition) makes the interesting suggestion that in III, i,

111-116, there may be an allusion to these earlier plays. Cf. also

_Hamlet_, III, ii, 107-111, quoted below.

THE SCENE OF THE ASSASSINATION

In transferring the assassination of Cæsar from the _Porticus Pompeia_

("Pompey's porch," I, iii, 126) to the Capitol, Shakespeare departed

from Plutarch and historical accuracy to follow a popular tradition that

had received the signal imprimatur of Chaucer:

This Iulius to the Capitolie wente

Upon a day, as he was wont to goon,[1]

And in the Capitolie anon him hente[2]

This false Brutus, and his othere foon[3]

And stikede him with boydekins[4] anoon

With many a wounde, and thus they lete him lye;

But never gronte[5] he at no strook but oon,

Or elles at two, but if[6] his storie lye.

_The Monkes Tale_, ll. 715-718. (Skeat's _Chaucer_.)

[Footnote 1: go.]

[Footnote 2: seized.]

[Footnote 3: foes.]

[Footnote 4: daggers.]

[Footnote 5: groaned.]

[Footnote 6: unless.]

This literary and popular tradition is followed in _Hamlet_, III, ii,

107-111:

HAMLET. What did you enact?

POLONIUS. I did enact Julius Cæsar: I was kill'd i' the Capitol:

Brutus kill'd me.

HAMLET. It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there.

So also in _Antony and Cleopatra:_

Since Julius Cæsar,

Who at Philippi the good Brutus ghosted,

There saw you labouring for him. What was 't

That mov'd pale Cassius to conspire; and what

Made the all-honour'd, honest Roman, Brutus,

With the arm'd rest, courtiers of beauteous freedom,

To drench the Capitol; but that they would

Have one man but a man? [II, vi, 12-19.]

We have the same popular tradition in the first scene of the last act of

Fletcher's _The Noble Gentleman_. So, too, in the Prologue to Beaumont

and Fletcher's, or Fletcher and Massinger's, _The False One_, a tragedy

dealing with Cæsar and Cleopatra:

To tell

Of Cæsar's amorous heats, and how he fell

I' the Capitol.

Here the reference is to Shakespeare's play.

"ET TU, BRUTE"

Dyce and other researchers have made clear that in Shakespeare's day

"_Et tu, Brute_" was a familiar phrase which had special reference to a

wound from a supposed friend. It probably owed its popularity to having

been used in the earlier plays on the subject of Julius Cæsar. In _The

True Tragedie of Richard Duke of York_ (1595), upon which Shakespeare's

_3 Henry VI_ is based, occurs the line,

_Et tu, Brute?_ wilt thou stab Cæsar too?

This line is repeated in S. Nicholson's poem, _Acolastus, his

Afterwitte_ (1600). In Ben Jonson's _Every Man out of His Humour_

(1599), Buffone uses "_Et tu, Brute_" in speaking to Macilente (V, iv).

In the _Myrroure for Magistrates_ (1587) we find,

And Brutus thou, my sonne, quoth I, whom erst I loved best.

The Latin form of the phrase possibly originated, as Malone suggested,

in the Latin play referred to above (Earlier Plays) which was acted at

Oxford in 1582. It is easy to see how the Elizabethan tendency to

word-quibble and equivoque would help to give currency to the Latin

form. Cf. Hamlet's joke on 'brute' quoted above.

BRUTUS'S SPEECH, III, ii

In view of the close connection between _Julius Cæsar_ and _Hamlet_ as

regards date of composition and the characterization of Brutus and

Hamlet, interest attaches to Professor Gollancz's theory (_Julius

Cæsar_, Temple Shakespeare) that the original of the famous speech of

Brutus to the assembled Romans (III, ii) may be found in Belleforest's

_History of Hamlet_, in the oration which Hamlet makes to the Danes

after he has slain his uncle. "The situation of Hamlet is almost

identical with that of Brutus after he has dealt the blow, and the

burden of Hamlet's too lengthy speech finds an echo in Brutus's

sententious utterance. The verbose iteration of the Dane has been

compressed to suit 'the brief compendious manner of speech of the

Lacedæmonians.'"--Gollancz. As the English translation from which

Professor Gollancz quotes in support of his theory is dated 1608, and is

the earliest known,[1] it cannot have been from this that Shakespeare

drew any suggestions or material. The question arises, Did Shakespeare

read the speech in the original French? The volume of Belleforest's

_Histoires Tragiques_, which contained the story of Hamlet, was first

published in 1570, and there were many reprintings of it before 1600.

[Footnote 1: Reprinted in Collier's _Shakespeare's Library_. This

translation shows in more than one place the influence of Shakespeare's

play. For example, Hamlet's exclamation before he kills Polonius, "A

rat! a rat!" is in the English version, but there is no suggestion of it

in the French original.]

II. DATE OF COMPOSITION

Modern editors fix the date of composition of _Julius Cæsar_ within

1601, the later time limit (_terminus ante quem_), and 1598, the earlier

time limit (_terminus post quem_). The weight of evidence is in favor of

1600-1601.

EXTERNAL EVIDENCE

1. _Negative._ _Julius Cæsar_ is not mentioned by Meres in the _Palladis

Tamia_, published in 1598, which gives a list of twelve noteworthy

Shakespeare plays in existence at that time. This establishes 1598 as a

probable _terminus post quem_.

2. _Positive._ In John Weever's _Mirror of Martyrs or the Life and Death

of Sir John Oldcastle Knight, Lord Cobham_, printed in 1601, are the

following lines:

The many-headed multitude were drawne

By _Brutus_ speech that _Cæsar_ was ambitious,

When eloquent _Mark Antonie_ had showne

His vertues, who but _Brutus_ then was vicious?

Man's memorie, with new, forgets the old,

One tale is good, until another's told.

Halliwell-Phillipps was the first to note that here is a very pointed

reference to the second scene of the third act of _Julius Cæsar_, as the

antithesis brought out is not indicated in any of Shakespeare's

historical sources. The fact that Weever states in his Dedication that

the _Mirror_ "some two years agoe was made fit for the print" has been

held by Mr. Percy Simpson[1] to indicate that the play was not brought

out later than 1599, a conclusion supported, he thinks, by a passage in

Ben Jonson's _Every Man out of His Humour_, produced in that year, where

Clove (III, i) says, "Then coming to the pretty animal, as _Reason long

since is fled to animals_, you know," which may be a sneering allusion

to Antony's "O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts" (III, ii,

104). The "_Et tu, Brute_" quotation in the same play has been used to

strengthen the argument. But the lines from the _Mirror of Martyrs_

quoted above may easily have been inserted by Weever into his poem in

consequence of the popularity of Shakespeare's play. This contemporary

popularity is well attested. Leonard Digges,[2] in his verses _Upon

Master William Shakespeare_ prefixed to the 1640 edition of

Shakespeare's Poems, thus compares it with that of Ben Jonson's Roman

plays:

So have I seene, when Cesar would appeare,

And on the Stage at halfe-sword parley were

_Brutus_ and _Cassius_: oh how the Audience

Were ravish'd, with what new wonder they went thence,

When some new day they would not brooke a line

Of tedious (though well laboured) _Catiline_;

_Sejanus_ too was irkesome, they priz'de more

Honest _Iago_, or the jealous _Moore_.

[Footnote 1: In _Notes and Queries_, February, 1899.]

[Footnote 2: Leonard Digges also wrote verses "To the Memorie of the

deceased Authour Maister W. Shakespeare," prefixed to the First Folio.]

"Fustian" Clove's quotation may apply to references to the Pythagorean

doctrine of the transmigration of souls in Shakespeare's earlier plays

and other Elizabethan literature; and little can be based upon the "_Et

tu, Brute_" quotation, as Ben Jonson may have drawn it from the same

source as Shakespeare did.

On the other hand, Henslowe in his _Diary_ under May 22, 1602, notes

that he advanced five pounds "in earneste of a Boocke called _sesers

Falle_," which the dramatists Munday, Drayton, Webster, Middleton "and

the Rest" were composing for Lord Nottingham's Company. _Cæsar's Fall_

was plainly intended to outshine Shakespeare's popular play, but, as

Professor Herford comments, "the lost play ... for the rival company

would have been a somewhat tardy counterblast to an old piece of 1599."

He adds: "_Julius Cæsar_ was certainly not unconcerned in the revival of

the fashion for tragedies of revenge with a ghost in them, which

suddenly set in with Marston's _Antonio and Mellida_ and Chettle's

_Hoffman_ in 1601."

Dr. Furnivall, a strong advocate for 1601 as the date of composition,

has suggested[1] that Essex's ill-judged rebellion against Queen

Elizabeth, on Sunday, February 8, 1601, was the reason of Shakespeare's

producing his _Julius Cæsar_ in that year. "Assuredly," he says, "the

citizens of London in that year who heard Shakespeare's play must have

felt the force of '_Et tu, Brute_,' and must have seen Brutus's death,

with keener and more home-felt influence than we feel and hear the

things with now."

Drayton's revised version of his _Mortimeriados_ (1596-1597); published

in 1603 under the title of _The Barons' Wars_, has a passage which

strongly resembles some lines in Antony's last speech (V, v, 73-74), but

common property in the idea that a well-balanced mixture of the four

elements (earth, air, fire, and water) produces a perfect man

invalidates any argument for the date of the play based upon this

evidence. See note, p. 167, l. 73.

INTERNAL EVIDENCE

Dr. W. A. Wright[2] has argued against an earlier date than 1600 for the

composition of _Julius Caesar_ from the use of 'eternal' for 'infernal'

in I, ii, 160. See note, p. 20, l. 160. Of course there is no certainty

that Shakespeare wished to use the word 'infernal,' and, besides, if

any substitution was made, it may have been at a later date. But

adumbrations of _Hamlet_ everywhere in _Julius Cæsar_, the frequent

references to Cæsar in _Hamlet_, the kinship in character of Brutus and

Hamlet (see note, p. 46, l. 65), the treatment of the supernatural, and

the development of the revenge motive give strong cumulative evidence

that the composition of _Julius Cæsar_ is in time very near to that of

_Hamlet_, the first Shakespearian draft of which is now generally

conceded to date from the first months of 1602. The diction of _Julius

Cæsar_, the quality of the blank verse, the style generally (see below,

Versification and Diction), all point to 1601 as the probable date of

composition. It has been said that a true taste for Shakespeare is like

the creation of a special sense; and this saying is nowhere better

approved than in reference to his subtile variations of language and

style. He began with what may be described as a preponderance of the

poetic element over the dramatic. As we trace his course onward, we may

discover a gradual rising of the latter element into greater strength

and prominence, until at last it had the former in complete subjection.

Now, where positive external evidence is wanting, it is mainly from the

relative strength of these elements that the probable date of the

writing may be argued. In _Julius Cæsar_ the diction is more gliding and

continuous, and the imagery more round and amplified, than in the

earlier dramas or in those known to belong to Shakespeare's latest

period.

[Footnote 1: In _The Academy_, September 18, 1875. See also _The Leopold

Shakspere_, Introduction.]

[Footnote 2: _Julius Cæsar_, The Clarendon Press, Introduction, p.

viii.]

These distinctive notes are of a nature more easily to be felt than

described, and to make them felt examples will best serve. Take then a

passage from the soliloquy of Brutus just after he has pledged himself

to the conspiracy:

'Tis a common proof,

That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,

Whereto the climber upward turns his face;

But when he once attains the upmost round,

He then unto the ladder turns his back,

Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees

By which he did ascend. [II, i, 21-27.]

Here we have a full, rounded period in which all the elements seem to

have been adjusted, and the whole expression set in order, before any

part of it was written down. The beginning foresees the end, the end

remembers the beginning, and the thought and image are evolved together

in an even, continuous flow. The thing is indeed perfect in its way,

still it is not in Shakespeare's latest and highest style. Now take a

passage from _The Winter's Tale_:

When you speak, sweet,

I'ld have you do it ever: when you sing,

I'ld have you buy and sell so, so give alms,

Pray so; and, for the ordering your affairs,

To sing them too: when you do dance, I wish you

A wave o' the sea, that you might ever do

Nothing but that; move still, still so,

And own no other function. [IV, iv, 136-143.]

Here the workmanship seems to make and shape itself as it goes along,

thought kindling thought, and image prompting image, and each part

neither concerning itself with what has gone before, nor with what is

coming after. The very sweetness has a certain piercing quality, and we

taste it from clause to clause, almost from word to word, as so many

keen darts of poetic rapture shot forth in rapid succession. Yet the

passage, notwithstanding its swift changes of imagery and motion, is

perfect in unity and continuity.

III. EARLY EDITIONS

FOLIOS

On November 8, 1623, Edward Blount and Isaac Jaggard obtained formal

license to print "Mr. William Shakespeere's Comedyes, Histories, and

Tragedyes, soe many of the said copies as are not formerly entered to

other men." This is the description-entry in _The Stationers' Registers_

of what is now known as the First Folio (1623), designated in the

textual notes of this edition F1. _Julius Cæsar_ is one of the plays

"not formerly entered,"[1] and it was first printed, so far as is known,

in this famous volume. It is more correctly printed than perhaps any

other play in the First Folio and, as the editors of the Cambridge

Shakespeare suggest, "may perhaps have been (as the preface falsely

implied that all were[2]) printed from the original manuscript of the

author."[3] It stands between _Timon of Athens_ and _Macbeth_, two very

badly printed plays. The running title is _The Tragedie of Julius

Cæsar_, but in the "Catalogve of the seuerall Comedies, Histories, and

Tragedies contained in this Volume," the title is given as _The Life and

Death of Julius Cæsar_.

[Footnote 1: This is strong evidence that the play had not been printed

at an earlier date.]

[Footnote 2: "... Absolute in their numbers, as he conceiued them....

His mind and hand went together: And what he thought, he vttered with

that easinesse, that wee haue scarse receiued from him a blot in his

papers" (Heminge and Condell's Address "To the great Variety of

Readers," First Folio).]

[Footnote 3: Mr. F. G. Fleay in his Shakespeare Manual (1876) argues that

"this play as we have it is an abridgement of Shakespeare's play made by

Ben Jonson."]

The Second Folio, F2 (1632), the Third Folio, F3 (1663, 1664), and the

Fourth Folio, F4 (1685), show few variants in the text of _Julius Cæsar_

and none of importance.

THE QUARTO OF 1691

In 1691 _Julius Cæsar_ appeared in quarto form. This Quarto contained

one famous text variant, 'hath' for 'path' in II, i, 83. Though the

Folio text here offers difficulties, and modern editors have suggested

many emendations, no one has been inclined to accept the commonplace

reading of the Quarto.

ROWE'S EDITIONS

In the Folios and in the Quarto of 1691 the play is divided into acts,

but not into scenes, though the first act is headed _Actus Primus, Scæna

Prima_. The first systematic division into scenes was made by Nicholas

Rowe, poet laureate to George I, in the edition which he issued in six

octavo volumes in 1709. In this edition Rowe, an experienced playwright,

marked the entrances and exits of the characters and introduced many

stage directions and the list of dramatis personæ which has been the

basis for all later lists. A second edition in eight volumes was

published in 1714. Rowe followed very closely the text of the Fourth

Folio, but modernized spelling, punctuation, and occasionally grammar.

These are the first critical editions of Shakespeare's plays.

IV. THE TITLE

It has been justly observed that Shakespeare shows much judgment in the

naming of his plays. From this observation several critics have excepted

_Julius Cæsar_, pronouncing the title a misnomer, on the ground that

Brutus, and not Cæsar, is the hero of it. It is indeed true that Brutus

is the hero, but the play is rightly named, for Cæsar is not only the

subject but also the governing power of it throughout. He is the center

and springhead of the entire action, giving law and shape to everything

that is said and done. This is manifestly true in what occurs before his

death; and it is true in a still deeper sense afterwards, since his

genius then becomes the Nemesis or retributive Providence.

V. DRAMATIC CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT

_Julius Cæsar_ is a tragedy of a normal Shakespearian type, in which is

represented a conflict between an individual, or group of individuals,

and certain forces which environ, antagonize, and overwhelm. The unity

of action and of interest is the personality of Julius Cæsar. In

dramatic technique the play is simple and effective. Out of masses of

detail and historical incident the dramatist has shaped a symmetrical

and well-defined plot marked by (1) the exposition, or introduction, (2)

the complication, or rising action, (3) the climax, or turning point,

(4) the resolution, or falling action, and (5) the catastrophe, or

conclusion. It is almost a commonplace of criticism that the opening

scene of a Shakespeare play strikes the keynote of the action. It

certainly does in a remarkable way in _Julius Cæsar_, introducing, on

the one side, a group of excited citizens friendly to Cæsar, and, on the

other, two tribunes hostile to him. It foreshadows the

character-contrasts in the play and the conflict between the state and

the individual. The exposition continues through the second scene, in

which are introduced the leading characters in significant action and

interaction. At the close of this scene Cassius lays his plans to win

Brutus over to the conspiracy, and the complication, or rising action,

of the drama begins. Through the last scene of the first act and the

four scenes of the second act the growth of the complication is

continued, with brief intervals of suspense, until, in the first scene

of the third act, the climax is reached in the assassination of Cæsar

and the wild enthusiasm of the conspirators. With the entry of Antony's

servant begins the resolution, or falling action (see note, p. 89, l.

123), and from now, through intervals of long suspense and many

vicissitudes,[1] the fortunes of the chief conspirators fall inevitably

to the catastrophe.

ANALYSIS BY ACT AND SCENE[2]

[Footnote 1: For an interesting defense of the so-called 'dragging'

tendency and episodical character of the third scene of the fourth act,

see Professor A. C. Bradley's _Shakespearean Tragedy_, pp. 55-61.]

[Footnote 2: "It must be understood that a play can be analyzed into

very different schemes of plot. It must not be thought that one of these

schemes is right and the rest wrong; but the schemes will be better or

worse in proportion as--while of course representing correctly the facts

of the play--they bring out more or less of what ministers to our sense

of design."--Moulton.]

I. THE EXPOSITION, OR INTRODUCTION (TYING OF THE KNOT)

_Act I, Scene i._ The popularity of Cæsar with the Roman mob and the

jealousy of the official classes--the two motive forces of the play--are

revealed. The fickleness of the mob is shown in a spirit of comedy; the

antagonism of Marullus and Flavius strikes the note of tragedy.

_Act I, Scene ii, 1-304._ The supreme characters are introduced, and in

their opening speeches each reveals his temperament and foreshadows the

part which he will play. The exposition of the situation is now

complete.

II. THE COMPLICATION, RISING ACTION, OR GROWTH (TYING OF THE KNOT)

_Act I, Scene ii, 305-319._ In soliloquy Cassius unfolds his scheme for

entangling Brutus in the conspiracy, and the dramatic complication

begins.

_Act I, Scene iii._ Casca, excited by the fiery portents that bode

disaster to the state, is persuaded by Cassius to join "an enterprise of

honourable-dangerous consequence" (lines 123-124). The conspirators are

assigned to their various posts, and Cassius engages to secure Brutus

before morning.

_Act II, Scene i._ The humane character of Brutus, as master, husband,

and citizen, is elaborated, and his attitude to Cæsar and the conspiracy

of assassination clearly shown. He joins the conspirators--apparently

their leader, in reality their tool. In lines 162-183 he pleads that the

life of Antony be spared, and thus unconsciously prepares for his own

ruin.

_Act II, Scene ii._ Cæsar is uneasy at the omens and portents, and gives

heed to Calpurnia's entreaties to remain at home, but he yields to the

importunity of Decius and starts for the Capitol, thus advancing the

plans of the conspirators. The dramatic contrast between Cæsar and

Brutus is strengthened by that between Calpurnia in this scene and

Portia in the preceding.

_Act II, Scene iii._ The dramatic interest is intensified by the warning

of Artemidorus and the suggestion of a way of escape for the

protagonist.

_Act II, Scene iv._ The interest is further intensified by the way in

which readers and spectators are made to share the anxiety of Portia.

III. THE CLIMAX, CRISIS, OR TURNING POINT (THE KNOT TIED)

_Act III, Scene i, 1-122._ The dramatic movement is now rapid, and the

tension, indicated by the short whispered sentences of all the speakers

except Cæsar, is only increased by his imperial utterances, which show

utter unconsciousness of the impending doom. In the assassination all

the complicating forces--the self-confidence of Cæsar, the unworldly

patriotism of Brutus, the political chicanery of Cassius, the

unscrupulousness of Casca, and the fickleness of the mob--bring about an

event which changes the lives of all the characters concerned and

threatens the stability of the Roman nation. The death of Cæsar is the

climax of the physical action of the play; it is at the same time the

emotional crisis from which Brutus comes with altered destiny.

IV. THE RESOLUTION, FALLING ACTION, OR CONSEQUENCE (THE UNTYING OF THE

KNOT)

_Act III, Scene i, 123-298._ With Brutus's "Soft! who comes here? A

friend of Antony's" begins the resolution, or falling action, of the

play. "The fortune of the conspirators, hitherto in the ascendant, now

declines, while 'Cæsar's spirit' surely and steadily prevails against

them."--Verity. Against the advice of Cassius, Brutus gives Antony

permission to deliver a public funeral oration. Antony in a soliloquy

shows his determination to avenge Cæsar, and the first scene of the

falling action closes with the announcement that Octavius is within

seven leagues of Rome.

_Act III, Scene ii--Scene iii._ The orations of Antony, in vivid

contrast to the conciliatory but unimpassioned speeches of Brutus, fire

the people and liberate fresh forces in the falling action. Brutus and

Cassius have to fly the city, riding "like madmen through the gates of

Rome." In unreasoning fury the mob tears to pieces an innocent poet who

has the same name as a conspirator.

_Act IV, Scene i._ Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus, having formed a

triumvirate of which Antony is the master spirit, agree on a

proscription list and join forces against Brutus and Cassius, who "are

levying powers."

_Act IV, Scene ii._ Brutus and Cassius, long parted by pride and

obstinacy, meet to discuss a plan of action.

_Act IV, Scene iii._ This is one of the most famous individual scenes in

Shakespeare (see note, page 123). Its intensely human interest is always

conceded, but its dramatic propriety, because of what seems a 'dragging'

tendency, has been often questioned. The scene opens with Brutus and

Cassius bandying recriminations, and the quarrel of the two generals

bodes disaster to their cause. As the discussion proceeds, they yield

points and become reconciled. Brutus then quietly but with peculiar

pathos tells of Portia's death by her own hand. In all the great

tragedies, with the notable exception of _Othello_, when the forces of

the resolution, or falling action, are gathering towards the dénouement,

Shakespeare introduces a scene which appeals to an emotion different

from any of those excited elsewhere in the play. "As a rule this new

emotion is pathetic; and the pathos is not terrible or lacerating, but,

even if painful, is accompanied by the sense of beauty and by an outflow

of admiration or affection, which come with an inexpressible sweetness

after the tension of the crisis and the first counter-stroke. So it is

with the reconciliation of Brutus and Cassius, and the arrival of the

news of Portia's death."--Bradley. While the shadow of her tragic

passing overhangs the spirits of both, Brutus overhears the shrewd,

cautious counsel of Cassius and persuades him to assent to the fatal

policy of offering battle at Philippi. That night the ghost of Cæsar

appears to Brutus.

_Act V, Scene i._ The action now falls rapidly to the quick, decisive

movement of the dénouement. The antagonists are now face to face. Brutus

and Cassius have done what Antony and Octavius hoped that they would do.

The opposing generals hold a brief parley in which Brutus intimates that

he is willing to effect a reconciliation, but Antony rejects his

proposals and bluntly charges him and Cassius with the wilful murder of

Cæsar. Cassius reminds Brutus of his warning that Antony should have

fallen when Cæsar did. Antony, Octavius, and their army retire, and the

scene closes with the noble farewell without hope between Brutus and

Cassius.

_Act V, Scene ii._ The opposing armies meet on the field, and a final

flare-up of hope in the breast of Brutus is indicated by his spirited

order to Messala to charge. The scene implies that Cassius was defeated

by being left without support by Brutus.

V. DÉNOUEMENT, CATASTROPHE, OR CONCLUSION (THE KNOT UNTIED)

_Act V, Scene iii._ The charge ordered by Brutus has been successful,

and Octavius has been driven back, but Cassius is thus left unguarded,

and Antony's forces surround him. He takes refuge on a hill and sends

Titinius to see "whether yond troops are friend or enemy." Believing

Titinius to be slain, he begs Pindarus to stab him, and Cassius dies

"even with the sword that kill'd" Cæsar. With the same sword Titinius

then slays himself, and Brutus, when Messala bears the news to him,

exclaims in words that strike the keynote of the whole falling action

and dénouement:

O Julius Cæsar, thou art mighty yet!

Thy spirit walks abroad, and turns our swords

In our own proper entrails.

_Act V, Scene iv._ Like Hamlet, Brutus at the last is a man of supreme

action. He rallies his forces for a last attack. With hopeless failure

before him, he is at once a heroic figure and one of infinite pathos.

Young Cato falls. Lucilius is attacked; assuming the name of Brutus, he

is not killed but taken prisoner. Antony recognizes him and gives orders

that he be treated kindly.

_Act V, Scene v._ Brutus dies by his own sword, and his last words tell

the story of failure and defeat. Like a true Roman, he meets his doom

without a murmur of complaint. He had been true to his ideals. The

tragic dénouement comes as the inevitable consequence, not of wilful

sin, but of a noble mistake. In death he commands the veneration of both

Antony and Octavius, who pronounce over his body the great

interpretation of his character, and in their speeches the tragedy

closes as with a chant of victory for the hero of defeat.

VI. MANAGEMENT OF TIME AND PLACE

1. _Historic time._ Cæsar's triumph over the sons of Pompey was

celebrated in October, B.C. 45. Shakespeare makes this coincident with

"the feast of Lupercal" on February 15, B.C. 44. In the play Antony

delivers his funeral oration immediately after Cæsar's death;

historically, there was an interval of days. Octavius did not reach Rome

until upwards of two months after the assassination; in III, ii, 261,

Antony is told by his servant immediately after the funeral oration that

"Octavius is already come to Rome." In November, B.C. 43, the triumvirs

met to make up their bloody proscription, and in the autumn of the

following year were fought the two battles of Philippi, separated

historically by twenty days, but represented by Shakespeare as taking

place on the same day.

2. _Dramatic Time._ Historical happenings that extended over nearly

three years are represented in the stage action as the occurrences of

six days, distributed over the acts and scenes as follows:

Day 1.--I, i, ii.

Interval.

Day 2.--I, iii.

Day 3.--II, III.

Interval.

Day 4.--IV, i.

Interval.

Day 5.--IV, ii, iii.

Interval.

Day 6.--V.

This compression for the purposes of dramatic unity results in action

that is swift and throbbing with human and ethical interest.

3. _Place._ Up to the second scene of the fourth act Rome is the natural

place of action. The second and third scenes of the fourth act are at

Sardis in Asia Minor; the last act shifts to Philippi in Macedonia. The

only noteworthy deviation from historical accuracy is in making the

conference of the triumvirs take place at Rome and not at Bononia. See

note, p. 116. But there is peculiar dramatic effectiveness in placing

this fateful colloquy in the city that was the center of the political

unrest of the time.

VII. VERSIFICATION AND DICTION

BLANK VERSE

The characteristics of Shakespeare's blank verse--the rhymeless, iambic

five-stress (decasyllabic) verse, or iambic pentameter, introduced into

England by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, about 1540--and its proportion

to rhyme and to prose have been much used in recent years to determine

the chronological order of the plays and the development of the poet's

art. In blank verse as used by Shakespeare we have really an epitome of

the development of the measure in connection with the English drama. In

his earlier plays the blank verse is often similar to that of

_Gorboduc_, the first English tragedy. The tendency is to adhere to the

syllable-counting principle, to make the line the unit, the sentence and

phrase coinciding with the line (end-stopped verse), and to use five

perfect iambic feet to the line. In plays of the middle period, such as

_The Merchant of Venice_ and _As You Like It_, written between 1596 and

1600, the blank verse is more like that of Kyd and Marlowe, with less

monotonous regularity in the structure and an increasing tendency to

carry on the sense from one line to another without a syntactical or

rhetorical pause at the end of the line (run-on verse, _enjambement_).

Redundant syllables now abound and the melody is richer and fuller. In

Shakespeare's later plays the blank verse breaks away from all bondage

to formal line limits, and the organic continuity is found in a

succession of great metrical periods.

The verse of _Julius Cæsar_ is less monotonously regular than that of

the earlier plays; it is more flexible and varied, more musical and

sonorous, but it lacks the superb movement of the verse in _Othello_,

_The Winter's Tale_, and _The Tempest_. End-stopped, normally regular

iambic pentameter lines often occur (as, for instance, I, i, 37, 41, 44,

62, 76), but everywhere are variations and deviations from the norm, and

there is an unusual number of short lines and interjectional lines of

two or three stresses. See Abbott's _A Shakespearian Grammar_, §§ 511,

512.

RHYME

Apart from the use of rhyme in songs, lyrics, and portions of masques

(as in _The Tempest_, IV, i, 60-138), a progress from more to less rhyme

is a sure index to Shakespeare's development as a dramatist and a master

of expression. In the early _Love's Labour's Lost_ are more than one

thousand rhyming five-stress iambic lines; in _The Tempest_ are only

two; in _The Winter's Tale_ not one. _In Julius Cæsar_ are found only

thirty-four rhyming lines.

PROSE

If "of the soule the bodie forme doth take," it is small wonder that

attempts have been made to explain Shakespeare's distinctive use of

verse and prose. Of recent years there have been interesting discussions

of the question "whether we are justified in supposing that Shakespeare

was guided by any fixed principle in his employment of verse and prose,

or whether he merely employed them, as fancy suggested, for the sake of

variety and relief."[1] It is a significant fact that in many of

Shakespeare's earlier plays there is little or no prose, and that the

proportion of prose to blank verse increases with the decrease of rhyme.

In _Julius Cæsar_ three kinds of prose may be distinguished: (1) The

prose of homely dialogue, as in the talk of the common people in I, i,

and III, iii. (2) The prose of serious information as to the nature of a

situation, as in Casca's description of the offer of the crown to Cæsar.

This kind of prose reaches its highest development in Brutus's famous

speech, III, ii, with its dignified defense and laconic exposition of

his honesty of purpose. (3) The prose of formal documents, as in the

letter of Artemidorus, II, iii, 1-8.

[Footnote 1: Professor J. Churton Collins's _Shakespeare as a Prose

Writer_. See Delius's _Die Prosa in Shakespeares Dramen (Shakespeare

Jahrbuch_, V, 227-273); Janssen's _Die Prosa in Shakespeares Dramen_;

Professor Hiram Corson's _An Introduction to the Study of Shakespeare_,

pp. 83-98.]

VIII. THE CHARACTERS

JULIUS CÆSAR

The characterization of this drama in some of the parts is not a little

perplexing. Hardly one of the speeches put into Cæsar's mouth can be

regarded as historically characteristic; taken all together, they seem

little short of a caricature. As here represented, Cæsar appears little

better than a braggart; and when he speaks, it is in the style of a

glorious vapourer, full of lofty airs and mock thunder. Nothing could

be further from the truth of the man, whose character, even in his

faults, was as compact and solid as adamant, and at the same time as

limber and ductile as the finest gold. Certain critics have seized and

worked upon this, as proving Shakespeare's lack of classical knowledge,

or carelessness in the use of his authorities. It proves neither the one

nor the other.

It is true, Cæsar's ambition was gigantic, but none too much so for the

mind it dwelt in; for his character in all its features was gigantic.

And no man ever framed his ambition more in sympathy with the great

forces of nature, or built it upon a deeper foundation of political

wisdom and insight. Now this "last infirmity of noble minds" is the only

part of him that the play really sets before us; and even this we do not

see as it was, because it is here severed from the constitutional

peerage of his gifts and virtues; all those transcendent qualities which

placed him at the summit of Roman intellect and manhood being either

withheld from the scene or thrown so far into the background that the

proper effect of them is lost.

Yet we have ample proof that Shakespeare understood Cæsar thoroughly,

and that he regarded him as "the noblest man that ever lived in the tide

of times." For example, in _Hamlet_, he makes Horatio, who is one of his

calmest and most right-thinking characters, speak of him as "the

mightiest Julius." In _Antony and Cleopatra_, again, the heroine is made

to describe him as "broad-fronted Cæsar"; and in _King Richard the

Third_ the young Prince utters these lines:

That Julius Cæsar was a famous man:

With what his valour did enrich his wit,

His wit set down to make his valour live:

Death makes no conquest of this conqueror. [III, i, 84-87.]

In fact, we need not go beyond Shakespeare to gather that Julius Cæsar's

was the deepest, the most versatile, and the most multitudinous head

that ever figured in the political affairs of mankind.

Indeed, it is clear from this play itself that Shakespeare did not

proceed at all from ignorance or misconception of the man. For it is

remarkable that, though Cæsar delivers himself so out of character, yet

others, both foes and friends, deliver him much nearer the truth; so

that, while we see almost nothing of him directly, we nevertheless get,

upon the whole, a just reflection of him. Especially in the marvelous

speeches of Antony and in the later events of the drama, both his inward

greatness and his right of mastership over the Roman world are fully

vindicated. For in the play as in the history, Cæsar's blood hastens and

cements the empire which the conspirators thought to prevent. They soon

find that in the popular sympathies, and even in their own dumb

remorses, he has "left behind powers that will work for him." He proves,

indeed, far mightier in death than in life; as if his spirit were become

at once the guardian angel of his cause and an avenging angel to his

foes.

And so it was in fact. Nothing did so much to set the people in love

with royalty, both name and thing, as the reflection that their beloved

Cæsar, the greatest of their national heroes, the crown and consummation

of Roman genius and character, had been murdered for aspiring to it.

Thus their hereditary aversion to kingship was all subdued by the

remembrance of how and why their Cæsar fell; and they who, before, would

have plucked out his heart rather than he should wear a crown, would now

have plucked out their own, to set a crown upon his head. Such is the

natural result, when the intensities of admiration and compassion meet

together in the human breast.

From all which it may well be thought that Cæsar was too great for the

hero of a drama, since his greatness, if brought forward in full

measure, would leave no room for anything else, at least would preclude

any proper dramatic balance and equipoise. It was only as a sort of

underlying potency, or a force withdrawn into the background, that his

presence was compatible with that harmony and reciprocity of several

characters which a well-ordered drama requires. At all events, it is

pretty clear that, where he was, such figures as Brutus and Cassius

could never be very considerable, save as his assassins. They would not

have been heard of in after times, if they had not "struck the foremost

man of all this world"; in other words, the great sun of Rome had to be

shorn of his beams, else so ineffectual a fire as Brutus could nowise

catch the eye.

Be this as it may, there is no doubt that Shakespeare knew the whole

height and compass of Cæsar's vast and varied capacity. It may be

regretted that he did not render him as he evidently saw him, inasmuch

as he alone, perhaps, of all the men who ever wrote could have given an

adequate expression of that colossal man.

It is possible that the policy of the drama may have been to represent

Cæsar not as he was indeed, but as he must have appeared to the

conspirators; to make us see him as they saw him, in order that they too

might have fair and equal judgment at our hands. For Cæsar was literally

too great to be seen by them, save as children often see bugbears by

moonlight, when their inexperienced eyes are mocked with air. And

Shakespeare may well have judged that the best way to set us right

towards them was by identifying us more or less with them in mental

position, and making us share somewhat in their delusion. For there is

scarce anything wherein we are so apt to err as in reference to the

characters of men, when time has settled and cleared up the questions in

which they lost their way: we blame them for not having seen as we see;

while in truth the things that are so bathed in light to us were full of

darkness to them, and we should have understood them better, had we been

in the dark along with them.

Cæsar, indeed, was not bewildered by the political questions of his

time; but all the rest were, and therefore he seemed so to them; and

while their own heads were swimming they naturally ascribed his seeming

bewilderment to a dangerous intoxication. As for his marvelous career of

success, they attributed this mainly to his good luck, such being the

common refuge of inferior minds when they would escape the sense of

their inferiority. Hence, as generally happens with the highest order of

men, his greatness had to wait the approval of later events. He indeed,

far beyond any other man of his age, "looked into the seeds of time";

but this was not, and could not be known, till time had developed those

seeds into their fruits. Why then may not Shakespeare's idea have been

so to order things that the full strength of the man should not appear

in the play, as it did not in fact, till after his fall? This view will

both explain and justify the strange disguise--a sort of falsetto

greatness--under which Cæsar exhibits himself.

Now the seeming contradiction between Cæsar as known and Cæsar as

rendered by Shakespeare is what, more than anything else, perplexes.

But a very refined, subtile, and peculiar irony pervades this, more than

any other of Shakespeare's plays; not intended as such, indeed, by the

speakers, but a sort of historic irony,--the irony of Providence, so to

speak, or, if you please, of Fate; much the same as is implied in the

proverb, "A haughty spirit goeth before a fall." This irony crops out in

many places. Thus we have Cæsar most blown with arrogance and godding it

in the loftiest style when the daggers of the assassins are on the very

point of leaping at him. So too, all along, we find Brutus most

confident in those very things where he is most at fault, or acting like

a man "most ignorant of what he's most assured"; as when he says that

"Antony can do no more than Cæsar's arm when Cæsar's head is off." This,

to be sure, is not meant ironically by him, but it is turned into irony

by the fact that Antony soon tears the cause of the conspirators all to

pieces with his tongue. But, indeed, this sort of honest guile runs all

through the piece as a perfusive and permeating efficacy. A still better

instance of it occurs just after the murder, when the chiefs of the

conspiracy are exulting in the transcendent virtue and beneficence of

their deed, and in its future stage celebrity; and Cassius says,--

So often shall the knot of us be call'd

The men that gave their country liberty. [III, i, 118-119.]

and again, a little later, when Brutus says of Antony, "I know that we

shall have him well to friend." Not indeed that the men themselves

thought any irony in those speeches: it was natural, no doubt, that they

should utter such things in all seriousness; but what they say is

interpreted into irony by the subsequent events. And when such a

shallow idealist as Brutus is made to overtop and outshine the greatest

practical genius the world ever saw, what is it but a refined and

subtile irony at work on a much larger scale, and diffusing itself,

secretly, it may be, but not the less vitally, into the texture? It was

not the frog that thought irony, when he tried to make himself as big as

the ox; but there was a pretty decided spice of irony in the mind that

conceived the fable.

It is to be noted further that Brutus uniformly speaks of Cæsar with

respect, almost indeed with admiration. It is his ambition, not his

greatness, that Brutus resents; the thought that his own consequence is

impaired by Cæsar's elevation having no influence with him. With

Cassius, on the contrary, impatience of his superiority is the ruling

motive: he is all the while thinking of the disparagement he suffers by

Cæsar's exaltation.

This man

Is now become a god, and Cassius is

A wretched creature, and must bend his body

If Cæsar carelessly but nod on him. [I, ii, 115-118.]

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world

Like a Colossus, and we petty men

Walk under his huge legs. [I, ii, 135-137.]

Thus he overflows with mocking comparisons, and finds his pastime in

flouting at Cæsar as having managed by a sham heroism to hoodwink the

world.

And yet Shakespeare makes Cæsar characterize himself very much as

Cassius, in his splenetic temper, describes him. Cæsar gods it in his

talk, as if on purpose to approve the style in which Cassius mockingly

gods him. This, taken by itself, would look as if the dramatist sided

with Cassius; yet one can hardly help feeling that he sympathized rather

in Antony's great oration. And the sequel, as we have seen, justifies

Antony's opinion of Cæsar. The subsequent course of things has the

effect of inverting the mockery of Cassius against himself.

The final issue of the conspiracy, as represented by Shakespeare, is a

pretty conclusive argument of the blunder, not to say the crime, of its

authors. Cæsar, dead, tears them and their cause all to pieces. In

effect, they did but stab him into a mightier life; so that Brutus might

well say, as indeed he does at last,--

O Julius Cæsar, thou art mighty yet!

Thy spirit walks abroad, and turns our swords

In our own proper entrails. [V, iii, 94-96.]

The Nemesis which asserts itself so sternly in the latter part of the

play may be regarded as a reflex of irony on some of the earlier scenes.

This view infers the disguise of Cæsar to be an instance of the profound

guile with which Shakespeare sometimes plays upon his characters,

humoring their bent, and then leaving them to the discipline of events.

BRUTUS

Coleridge has a shrewd doubt as to what sort of a character Shakespeare

meant his Brutus to be. For, in his thinking aloud just after the

breaking of the conspiracy to him, Brutus avowedly grounds his purpose,

not on anything Cæsar has done, nor on what he is, but simply on what he

_may become_ when crowned. He "knows no personal cause to spurn at him";

nor has he "known when his affections sway'd more than his reason"; but

"he would be crown'd: how that might change his nature, there's the

question"; and,

Since the quarrel

Will bear no colour for the thing he is,

Fashion it thus; that what he is, augmented,

Would run to these and these extremities;

And therefore think him as a serpent's egg

Which, hatch'd, would, as his kind, grow mischievous,

And kill him in the shell. [II, i, 28-34.]

So then Brutus heads a plot to assassinate the man who, besides being

clothed with the sanctions of law as the highest representative of the

state, has been his personal friend and benefactor; all this, too, not

on any ground of fact, but on an assumed probability that the crown will

prove a sacrament of evil, and transform him into quite another man. A

strange piece of casuistry indeed! but nowise unsuited to the spirit of

a man who was to commit the gravest of crimes, purely from a misplaced

virtue.

And yet the character of Brutus is full of beauty and sweetness. In all

the relations of life he is upright, gentle, and pure; of a

sensitiveness and delicacy of principle that cannot bosom the slightest

stain; his mind enriched and fortified with the best extractions of

philosophy; a man adorned with all the virtues which, in public and

private, at home and in the circle of friends, win respect and charm the

heart.

Being such a man, of course he could only do what he did under some sort

of delusion. And so indeed it is. Yet this very delusion serves,

apparently, to ennoble and beautify him, as it takes him and works upon

him through his virtues. At heart he is a real patriot, every inch of

him. But his patriotism, besides being somewhat hidebound with

patrician pride, is of the speculative kind, and dwells, where his whole

character has been chiefly formed, in a world of poetical and

philosophic ideals. He is an enthusiastic student of books. Plato is his

favorite teacher; and he has studiously framed his life and tuned his

thoughts to the grand and pure conceptions won from that all but divine

source: Plato's genius walks with him in the Senate, sits with him at

the fireside, goes with him to the wars, and still hovers about his

tent.

His great fault, then, lies in supposing it his duty to be meddling with

things that he does not understand. Conscious of high thoughts and just

desires, but with no gift of practical insight, he is ill fitted to

"grind among the iron facts of life." In truth, he does not really see

where he is; the actual circumstances and tendencies amidst which he

lives are as a book written in a language he cannot read. The characters

of those who act with him are too far below the region of his principles

and habitual thinkings for him to take the true cast of them. Himself

incapable of such motives as govern them, he just projects and suspends

his ideals in them, and then misreckons upon them as realizing the men

of his own brain. So also he clings to the idea of the great and free

republic of his fathers, the old Rome that has ever stood to his

feelings touched with the consecrations of time and glorified with the

high virtues that have grown up under her cherishing. But, in the long

reign of tearing faction and civil butchery, that which he worships has

been substantially changed, the reality lost. Cæsar, already clothed

with the title and the power of Imperator for life, would change the

form so as to agree with the substance, the name so as to fit the thing.

But Brutus is so filled with the idea of that which has thus passed

away never to return that he thinks to save or recover the whole by

preventing such formal and nominal change.

And so his whole course is that of one acting on his own ideas, not on

the facts that are before and around him. Indeed, he does not _see_

them; he merely dreams his own meaning into them. He is swift to do that

by which he thinks his country _ought to be benefited_. As the killing

of Cæsar stands in his purpose, he and his associates are to be

"sacrificers, not butchers." But that the deed may have the effect he

hopes for, his countrymen generally must regard it in the same light as

he does. That they will do this is the very thing which he has _in fact_

no reason to conclude; notwithstanding, because it is so _in his idea_,

therefore he trusts that the conspirators will "be called purgers, not

murderers." Meanwhile, the plain truth is, that if his countrymen had

been capable of regarding the deed as a sacrifice, they would not have

made nor permitted any occasion for it. It is certain that, unless so

construed, the act must prove fruitful of evil; all Rome is full of

things proving that it cannot be so construed; but this is what Brutus

has no eye to see.

So too, in his oration "to show the _reason_ of our Cæsar's death," he

speaks, in calm and dispassionate manner, just those things which he

thinks ought to set the people right and himself right in their eyes,

forgetting all the while that the deed cannot fail to make the people

mad, and that popular madness is not a thing to be reasoned with. And

for the same cause he insists on sparing Antony, and on permitting him

to speak in Cæsar's funeral. To do otherwise would be unjust, and so

would overthrow the whole nature of the enterprise as it lives in his

mind. And because in his idea it ought so to be, he trusts that Antony

will make Cæsar's death the occasion of strengthening those who killed

him, not perceiving the strong likelihood, which soon passes into a

fact, that in cutting off Cæsar they have taken away the only check on

Antony's ambition. He ought to have foreseen that Antony, instead of

being drawn to their side, would rather make love to Cæsar's place at

their expense.

Thus the course of Brutus serves no end but to set on foot another civil

war, which naturally hastens and assures the very thing he sought to

prevent. He confides in the goodness of his cause, not considering that

the better the cause, the worse its chance with bad men. He thinks it

safe to trust others because he knows they can safely trust him; the

singleness of his own eye causing him to believe that others will see as

he sees, the purity of his own heart, that others will feel as he feels.

Here then we have a strong instance of a very good man doing a very bad

thing; and, withal, of a wise man acting most unwisely because his

wisdom knew not its place; a right noble, just, heroic spirit bearing

directly athwart the virtues he worships. On the whole, it is not

wonderful that Brutus should have exclaimed, as he is said to have done,

that he had worshiped virtue and found her at last but a shade. So

worshiped, she may well prove a shade indeed! Admiration of the man's

character, reprobation of his proceedings,--which of these is the

stronger with us? And there is much the same irony in the representation

of Brutus as in that of Cæsar; only the order of it is here reversed. As

if one should say, "O yes, yes! in the practical affairs of mankind your

charming wisdom of the closet will doubtless put to shame the workings

of mere practical insight and sagacity."

Shakespeare's exactness in the minutest details of character is well

shown in the speech already referred to; which is the utterance of a man

philosophizing most unphilosophically; as if the Academy should betake

itself to the stump, and this too without any sense of the incongruity.

Plutarch has a short passage which served as a hint, not indeed for the

matter, but for the style of that speech. "They do note," says he, "in

some of his epistles that he counterfeited that brief compendious manner

of speech of the Lacedæmonians. As, when the war was begun, he wrote

unto the Pergamenians in this sort: 'I understand you have given

Dolabella money: if you have done it willingly, you confess you have

offended me; if against your wills, show it then by giving me

willingly.'... These were Brutus' manner of letters, which were honoured

for their briefness." The speech in question is far enough indeed from

being a model of style either for oratory or anything else, but it is

finely characteristic; while its studied primness and epigrammatic

finish contrast most unfavorably with the frank-hearted yet artful

eloquence of Antony.

And what a rare significance attaches to the brief scene of Brutus and

his drowsy boy Lucius in camp a little before the catastrophe! There, in

the deep of the night, long after all the rest have lost themselves in

sleep, and when the anxieties of the issue are crowding upon him,--there

we have the earnest, thoughtful Brutus hungering intensely for the

repasts of treasured thought.

Look, Lucius, here's the book I sought for so;

I put it in the pocket of my gown. [IV, iii, 252, 253.]

What the man is, and where he ought to be, is all signified in these two

lines. And do we not taste a dash of benignant irony in the implied

repugnance between the spirit of the man and the stuff of his present

undertaking? The idea of a bookworm riding the whirlwind of war! The

thing is most like Brutus; but how out of his element, how unsphered

from his right place, it shows him! There is a touch of drollery in the

contrast, which the richest steeping of poetry does not disguise. And

the irony is all the more delectable for being so remote and

unpronounced; like one of those choice arrangements in the background of

a painting, which, without attracting conscious notice, give a zest and

relish to what stands in front. The scene, whether for charm of

sentiment or felicity of conception, is one of the finest in

Shakespeare.

BRUTUS AND CASSIUS

The characters of Brutus and Cassius are nicely discriminated, scarce a

word falling from either but what smacks of the man. Cassius is much the

better conspirator, but much the worse man; and the better in that

because the worse in this. For Brutus engages in the conspiracy on

grounds of abstract and ideal justice; while Cassius holds it both a

wrong and a blunder to go about such a thing without making success his

first care. This, accordingly, is what he works for, being reckless of

all other considerations in his choice and use of means. Withal he is

more impulsive and quick than Brutus, because less under the

self-discipline of moral principle. His motives, too, are of a much more

mixed and various quality, because his habits of thinking and acting

have grown by the measures of experience; he studies to understand men

as they are; Brutus, as he thinks they ought to be. Hence, in every case

where Brutus crosses him, Brutus is wrong, and he is right,--right, that

is, if success be their aim. Cassius judges, and surely rightly, that

the end should give law to the means; and that "the honorable men whose

daggers have stabb'd Cæsar" should not be hampered much with

conscientious scruples.

Still Brutus overawes him by his moral energy and elevation of

character, and by the open-faced rectitude and purity of his principles.

Brutus has no thoughts or aims that he is afraid or ashamed to avow;

Cassius has many which he would fain hide even from himself. And he

catches a sort of inspiration and is raised above himself by contact

with Brutus. And Cassius, moreover, acts very much from personal hatred

of Cæsar, as remembering how, not long before, he and Brutus had stood

for the chief prætorship of the city, and Brutus through Cæsar's favor

had got the election. And so Shakespeare read in Plutarch that "Cassius,

being a choleric man, and hating Cæsar privately more than he did the

tyranny openly, incensed Brutus against him." The effect of this is

finely worked out by the dramatist in the man's affected scorn of Cæsar,

and in the scoffing humor in which he loves to speak of him. For such is

the natural language of a masked revenge.

The tone of Cassius is further indicated, and with exquisite art, in his

soliloquy where, after tempering Brutus to his purpose, and finding how

his "honorable metal may be wrought," he gently slurs him for being

practicable to flatteries, and then proceeds to ruminate the scheme for

working upon his vanity, and thereby drawing him into the conspiracy;

thus spilling the significant fact, that his own honor does not stick

to practice the arts by which he thinks it is a shame to be seduced.

It is a noteworthy point also that Cassius is too practical and too much

of a politician to see any ghosts. Acting on far lower principles than

his leader, and such as that leader would spurn as both wicked and base,

he therefore does no violence to his heart in screwing it to the work he

takes in hand; his heart is even more at home in the work than his head;

whereas Brutus, from the wrenching his heart has suffered, keeps

reverting to the moral complexion of his first step. The remembrance of

this is a thorn in his side; while Cassius has no sensibilities of

nature for such compunctions to stick upon. Brutus is never thoroughly

himself after the assassination; that his heart is ill at ease is shown

in a certain dogged tenacity of honor and overstraining of rectitude, as

if he were struggling to make atonement with his conscience. The stab he

gave Cæsar planted in his own upright and gentle nature a germ of

remorse, which, gathering strength from every subsequent adversity, came

to embody itself in imaginary sights and sounds; the spirit of justice,

made an ill angel to him by his own sense of wrong, hovering in the

background of his after life, and haunting his solitary moments in the

shape of Cæsar's ghost. And so it is well done, that he is made to see

the "monstrous apparition" just after his heart has been pierced through

with many sorrows at hearing of Portia's shocking death.

PORTIA

The delineation of Portia is completed in a few brief masterly strokes.

Once seen, the portrait ever after lives an old and dear acquaintance of

the reader's inner man. Portia has strength enough to do and suffer for

others, but very little for herself. As the daughter of Cato and the

wife of Brutus, she has set in her eye a pattern of how she ought to

think and act, being "so father'd and so husbanded"; but still her head

floats merged over the ears in her heart; and it is only when affection

speaks that her spirit is hushed into the listening which she would fain

yield only to the speech of reason. She has a clear idea of the stoical

calmness and fortitude which appears so noble and so graceful in her

Brutus; it all lies faithfully reproduced in her mind; she knows well

how to honor and admire it; yet she cannot work it into the texture of

her character; she can talk it like a book, but she tries in vain to

live it.

Plutarch gives one most touching incident respecting her which

Shakespeare did not use, though he transfused the sense of it into his

work. It occurred some time after Cæsar's death, and when the civil war

was growing to a head: "Brutus, seeing the state of Rome would be

utterly overthrown, went ... unto the city of Elea standing by the sea.

There Portia, being ready to depart from her husband Brutus and to

return to Rome, did what she could to dissemble the grief and sorrow she

felt at her heart. But a certain painted table (picture) bewrayed her in

the end.... The device was taken out of the Greek stories, how

Andromache accompanied her husband Hector when he went out of the city

of Troy to go to the wars, and how Hector delivered her his little son,

and how her eyes were never off him. Portia, seeing this picture, and

likening herself to be in the same case, she fell a-weeping; and coming

thither oftentimes in a day to see it, she wept still." The force of

this incident is reproduced in the Portia of the play; we have its full

effect in the matter about her self-inflicted wound as compared with her

subsequent demeanor.

Portia gives herself that gash without flinching, and bears it without a

murmur, as an exercise and proof of fortitude; and she translates her

pains into smiles, all to comfort and support her husband. So long as

this purpose lends her strength, she is fully equal to her thought,

because here her heart keeps touch perfectly with her head. But, this

motive gone, the weakness, if it be not rather the strength, of her

woman's nature rushes full upon her; her feelings rise into an

uncontrollable flutter, and run out at every joint and motion of her

body; and nothing can arrest the inward mutiny till affection again

whispers her into composure, lest she say something that may hurt or

endanger her Brutus.

ANTONY

Shakespeare's completed characterization of Antony is in _Antony and

Cleopatra_. In the later play Antony is delineated with his native

aptitudes for vice warmed into full development by the great Egyptian

sorceress. In _Julius Cæsar_ Shakespeare emphasizes as one of Antony's

characteristic traits his unreserved adulation of Cæsar, shown in

reckless purveying to his dangerous weakness,--the desire to be called a

king. Already Cæsar had more than kingly power, and it was the obvious

part of a friend to warn him against this ambition. Here and there are

apt indications of his proneness to those vicious levities and debasing

luxuries which afterwards ripened into such a gigantic profligacy. He

has not yet attained to that rank and full-blown combination of cruelty,

perfidy, and voluptuousness, which the world associates with his name,

but he is plainly on the way to it. His profound and wily

dissimulation, while knitting up the hollow truce with the assassins on

the very spot where "great Cæsar fell," is managed with admirable skill;

his deep spasms of grief being worked out in just the right way to

quench their suspicions, and make them run into the toils, when he calls

on them to render him their bloody hands. Nor have they any right to

complain, for he is but paying them in their own coin; and we think none

the worse of him that he fairly outdoes them at their own practice.

But Antony's worst parts as here delivered are his exultant treachery in

proposing to use his colleague Lepidus as at once the pack-horse and the

scape-goat of the Triumvirate, and his remorseless savagery in arranging

for the slaughter of all that was most illustrious in Rome, bartering

away his own uncle, to glut his revenge with the blood of Cicero; though

even here his revenge was less hideous than the cold-blooded policy of

young Octavius. Yet Antony has in the play, as he had in fact, some

right noble streaks in him; for his character was a very mixed one; and

there was to the last a fierce war of good and evil within him.

Especially he had an eye to see, a heart to feel, and a soul to honor

the superb structure of manhood which Rome possessed in Julius Cæsar,

who stood to him, indeed, as a kind of superior nature, to raise him

above himself. He "fear'd Cæsar, honour'd him, and lov'd him"; and with

the murdered Cæsar for his theme, he was for once inspired and kindled

to a rapture of the truest, noblest, most overwhelming eloquence.

Noteworthy also is the grateful remembrance at last of his obligations

to Brutus for having saved him from the daggers of the conspirators.

THE PEOPLE

That many-headed, but withal big-souled creature, the multitude, is

charmingly characterized in _Julius Cæsar_. The common people, it is

true, are rather easily swayed hither and thither by the contagion of

sympathy and of persuasive speech; yet their feelings are in the main

right, and even their judgment in the long run is better than that of

the pampered Roman aristocracy, inasmuch as it proceeds more from the

instincts of manhood. Shakespeare evidently loved to play with the

natural, unsophisticated, though somewhat childish heart of the people;

but his playing is always genial and human-hearted, with a certain

angelic humor in it that seldom fails to warm us towards the subject. On

the whole, he understood the people well, and they have well repaid him

in understanding him better than the critics have often done. The

cobbler's droll humor, at the opening of this play, followed as it is by

a strain of the loftiest poetry, is aptly noted by Campbell as showing

that the dramatist, "even in dealing with classical subjects, laughed at

the classic fear of putting the ludicrous and sublime into

juxtaposition."

IX. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

As a whole, _Julius Cæsar_ is inferior to _Coriolanus_, but it abounds

in scenes and passages fraught, with the highest virtue of Shakespeare's

genius. Among these may be specially mentioned the second scene of the

first act, where Cassius sows the seed of the conspiracy in Brutus's

mind, warmed with such a wrappage of instigation as to assure its

effective germination; also the first scene of the second act,

unfolding the birth of the conspiracy, and winding up with the

interview, so charged with domestic glory, of Brutus and Portia. The

oration of Antony in Cæsar's funeral is such an interfusion of art and

passion as realizes the very perfection of its kind. Adapted at once to

the comprehension of the lowest mind and to the delectation of the

highest, and running its pathos into the very quick of them that hear

it, it tells with terrible effect on the people; and when it is done we

feel that Cæsar's bleeding wounds are mightier than ever his genius and

fortune were. The quarrel of Brutus and Cassius is deservedly

celebrated. Dr. Johnson thought it "somewhat cold and unaffecting."

Coleridge thought otherwise. See note, p. 123. But there is nothing in

the play that is more divinely touched than the brief scene, already

noticed, of Brutus and his boy Lucius--so gentle, so dutiful, so loving,

so thoughtful and careful for his master, and yet himself no more

conscious of his virtue than a flower of its fragrance. There is no more

exquisite passage in all Shakespeare than that which tells of the boy's

falling asleep in the midst of his song and exclaiming on being aroused,

"The strings, my lord, are false."

AUTHORITIES

(With the more important abbreviations used in the notes)

F1 = First Folio, 1623.

F2 = Second Folio, 1632.

F3 = Third Folio, 1664.

F4 = Fourth Folio, 1685.

Ff = all the seventeenth century Folios.

Rowe = Rowe's editions, 1709, 1714.

Pope = Pope's editions, 1723, 1728.

Theobald = Theobald's editions, 1733, 1740.

Johnson = Johnson's edition, 1765.

Capell = Capell's edition, 1768.

Malone = Malone's edition, 1790.

Steevens = Steevens's edition, 1793.

Globe = Globe edition (Clark and Wright), 1864.

Clar = Clarendon Press edition (W. A. Wright), 1869.

Dyce = Dyce's (third) edition, 1875.

Delius = Delius's (fifth) edition, 1882.

Camb = Cambridge (third) edition (W. A. Wright), 1891.

Abbott = E. A. Abbott's _A Shakespearian Grammar_.

Schmidt = Schmidt's _Shakespeare Lexicon_.

Skeat = Skeat's _An Etymological Dictionary_.

Murray = _A New English Dictionary_ (_The Oxford Dictionary_).

Century = _The Century Dictionary_.

Plutarch = North's _Plutarch_, 1579.

CHRONOLOGICAL CHART

Except in the case of Shakespeare's plays (see note) the literature

dates refer to first publication

-----+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

| SHAKESPEARE |

YEAR |--------------------+-----------------------------------------------|

| BIOGRAPHY: POEMS | PLAYS |

-----+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

1564 |Birth. Baptism, | |

| April 26, | |

| Stratford-on-Avon | |

| | |

-----+--------------------|-----------------------------------------------+

1565 |Father became | |

| alderman | |

| | |

-----+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

1566 |Brother Gilbert | |

| born | |

-----+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

1568 |Father, as bailiff | |

|of Stratford, | NOTE: The plays in the columns |

|entertained Queen's | below are arranged in the |

|and Earl of | probable, though purely |

|Worcester's actors | conjectural, order of |

| | composition. Dates appended |

-----+--------------------+ to plays are those of first +

1572 | | publication. Where no |

| | date is given, the play was |

-----+--------------------+ first published in the First +

1573 | | Folio (1623). M signifies |

| | that the play was mentioned |

-----+--------------------+ by Meres in the +

1574 |Brother Richard | Palladis Tamia (1598) |

| born | |

| | |

-----+--------------------+ +

1575 | | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

-----+--------------------+ +

1576 | | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

-----+--------------------+ +

1577 |Father in financial | |

|difficulties | |

| | |

-----+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

| BRITISH AND | HISTORY |

YEAR | FOREIGN | AND |

| LITERATURE | BIOGRAPHY |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1564 |Quart livre de |Michelangelo died. |

| Pantagruel | Calvin died. |

| | Marlowe born. |

| | Galileo born. |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1565 |Sackville and |Philip II of Spain |

| Norton's Gorboduc | gave his name to |

| printed | Philippine Islands|

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1566 |Udall's Roister |Murder of Rizzio |

|Doister printed? | |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1568 |The Bishops Bible. |Mary of Scots a |

| La Taille's Saülle | prisoner in |

| Furieux. R. | England. Ascham |

| Grafton's | died. Coverdale |

| Chronicle | died. Netherlands |

| | War of Liberation |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1572 |Camoens' Os Lusiadas |Knox died. Massacre|

| (The Lusiads) | of St. Bartholomew|

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1573 |Tasso's Aminta |Ben Jonson born? |

| | Donne born |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1574 |Mirror for |Earl of Leicester's|

| Magistrates (third | players licensed |

| edition) | |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1575 |Gammer Gurton's |Queen Elizabeth at |

| Needle. Golding's | Kenilworth. |

| Ovid (complete) | Palissy lectured |

| | on Natural History|

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1576 |The Paradise of |"The Theatre" |

| Dainty Devices. | opened in Finsbury|

| Gascoigne's Steel | Fields, London, |

| Glass | followed by "The |

| | Curtain." Hans |

| | Sachs died |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1577 |Holinshed's |Drake sailed to |

| Chronicle | circumnavigate |

| | globe |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

-----+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

| SHAKESPEARE |

YEAR |--------------------+-----------------------------------------------|

| BIOGRAPHY: POEMS | PLAYS |

-----+--------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

1579 |Sister Ann died | |

| (aged eight) | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

-----+--------------------+ +

1580 |Brother Edmund born | |

| | |

| | |

-----+--------------------+ +

1581 | | |

| | |

-----+--------------------+ +

1582 |Married Anne | |

| Hathaway | |

-----+--------------------+ +

1583 |Daughter Susanna | |

| born | |

-----+--------------------+ +

1584 | | |

| | |

| | |

-----+--------------------+ +

1585 |Twin children | |

| (Hamnet, Judith) | |

| born | |

-----+--------------------+ +

1586 |Probably went to | |

|London | |

-----+--------------------+ +

1587 | | |

| | |

| | |

-----+--------------------+ +

1588 | | |

| | |

-----+--------------------+ +

1589 | | |

| | |

| | |

| | COMEDIES | HISTORIES | TRAGEDIES |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1590 | |Love's Labour's| | |

| | Lost | | |

| | (M, 1598) | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1591 | |Comedy of |1 Henry VI | |

| | Errors (M) |2 Henry VI | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

| BRITISH AND | HISTORY |

YEAR | FOREIGN | AND |

| LITERATURE | BIOGRAPHY |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1579 |Gosson's School of |Union of Utrecht. |

| Abuse. North's | Tasso put in |

| Plutarch. Lyly's | confinement at |

| Euphues (pt. 1). | Ferrara |

| Spenser's Shepherd's| |

| Calendar | |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1580 |Montaigne's Essais |Brown founded |

| (first edition) | Separatists. |

| | Camoens died |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1581 |Tasso's Gerusalemme |Dutch Declaration |

| Liberata | of Independence |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1582 |The Rheims New |Accademia della |

| Testament | Crusca founded |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1583 |Garnier's Les Juives |Sir Humphrey |

| | Gilbert drowned |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1584 |Lyly's Campaspe. |William the Silent |

| Peele's Arraignment | assassinated. Ivan|

| of Paris | the Terrible died |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1585 |Guarini's Pastor Fido|Ronsard died |

| (1590) | |

| | |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1586 |Camden's Britannia |Sir Philip Sidney |

| | killed |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1587 |Hakluyt's Four |Execution of Mary |

| Voyages. Faustbuch | of Scots |

| (Spiess, Frankfort) | |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1588 |Martin Marprelate: |Defeat of Spanish |

| The Epistle | Armada |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1589 |Puttenham's Art of |Henry of Navarre, |

| English Poesie | King of France. |

| | Palissy died in |

| | Bastille |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1590 |Marlowe's Tamburlaine|Battle of Ivry |

| Spenser's Faerie | |

| Queene, I-III. | |

| Lodge's Rosalynde. | |

| Sidney's Arcadia | |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1591 |Sidney's Astrophel |Herrick born |

| and Stella. | |

| Harington's tr. of | |

| Orlando Furioso | |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

-----+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

| SHAKESPEARE |

YEAR |--------------------+-----------------------------------------------|

|BIOGRAPHY: POEMS | PLAYS (see note above) |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1592 |Greene's attack in | Two Gentlemen | Richard III | Romeo and |

|Groatsworth of Wit | of Verona (M) | (M, 1597). | Juliet (M, |

| | | 3 Henry VI | 1597) |

| | | | |

| | | | |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1593 |Venus and Adonis | |King John (M). |Titus |

| (seven editions, | |Richard II (M, | Andronicus |

| 1594-1616) | |1597) | (M, 1594) |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1594 |Lucrece (five |A Midsummer | | |

| editions, | Night's Dream | | |

| 1594-1616) | (M, 1600) | | |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1595 |Valuable |All's Well | | |

| contemporary | that Ends | | |

| references to | Well. Taming | | |

| Shakespeare | of the Shrew | | |

| | | | |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1596 |Son Hamnet died. | |1 Henry IV (M, | |

| Family applied for | | 1598). 2 Henry| |

| coat-of-arms | | IV (1600) | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1597 |Purchased New Place,|Merry Wives of | | |

| Stratford | Windsor. | | |

| | Merchant of | | |

| | Venice | | |

| | (M, 1600) | | |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1598 |Shakespeare acted |Much Ado About |Henry V (1600) | |

| in Jonson's Every |Nothing (1600) | | |

| Man in His Humour | | | |

| | | | |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1599 |Part proprietor of |As You Like It | | |

| Globe Theatre. | | | |

| Coat-of-arms | | | |

| granted. The | | | |

| Passionate Pilgrim | | | |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1600 |Won a London |Twelfth Night | | |

| lawsuit | | | |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

-----+---------------------+--------------------+

| BRITISH AND | HISTORY |

YEAR | FOREIGN | AND |

| LITERATURE | BIOGRAPHY |

-----+---------------------+--------------------+

1592 |Daniel's Delia. |Greene died. |

| Lyly's Gallathea | Montaigne died. |

| (Galatea) | London theatres |

| | closed through |

| | plague |

-----+---------------------+--------------------+

1593 |Peele's Edward I. |Marlowe died. |

| Barnes's Sonnets | Herbert born. |

| | |

-----+---------------------+--------------------+

1594 |Rinuccini's Dafne. |Palestrina |

|Satire Ménipée | ("Princeps |

| | Musicæ") died |

-----+---------------------+--------------------+

1595 |Peele's Old Wives' |Tasso died. Sir |

| Tale. Spenser's | Walter Raleigh's |

| Epithalamion | expedition to |

| | Guiana. Sir J. |

| | Hawkins died |

-----+---------------------+--------------------+

1596 |Drayton's |Burbage built |

| Mortimeriados. | Blackfriar's |

| Faerie Queene, | Theatre. Descartes |

| Books IV-VI | born. Sir F. Drake |

| | died |

-----+---------------------+--------------------+

1597 |Bacon's Essays |The Tyrone |

| (first edition). | rebellion |

| Hall's | |

| Virgidemiarum | |

| | |

-----+---------------------+--------------------+

1598 |Mere's Palladis |Peele died. Edict |

| Tamia. Chapman's | of Nantes |

| Homer (pt. 1). Lope | |

| de Vega's Arcadia | |

-----+---------------------+--------------------+

1599 |Aleman's Guzman de |Spenser died. Globe |

| Alfarache. Peele's | Theatre built. |

| David and Bethsabe | Oliver Cromwell |

| | born |

| | |

-----+---------------------+--------------------+

1600 |England's Helicon |Calderon born. |

| | Bruno died |

-----+---------------------+--------------------+

-----+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

| SHAKESPEARE |

YEAR |--------------------+-----------------------------------------------|

|BIOGRAPHY: POEMS | PLAYS (see note above) |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1601 |Father died. The | | |Julius Cæsar |

|Phoenix and Turtle | | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1602 |Purchased more | | |Hamlet (1603) |

| Stratford real | | | |

| estate | | | |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1603 |His company acted |Troilus and | | |

| before the Queen | Cressida | | |

| | | | |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1604 |Sued Rogers at |Measure for | |Othello |

| Stratford | Measure | | |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1605 |Godfather to | | |Macbeth |

| William D'Avenant | | | |

| | | | |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1606 |King Lear given | | |King Lear |

| before Court | | | (1608) |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1607 |Daughter Susanna | | |Timon of |

| married Dr. Hall | | | Athens |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1608 |Birth of |Pericles (1609)| |Antony and |

| granddaughter | | | Cleopatra |

| Elizabeth Hall. | | | |

| Death of mother | | | |

| (Mary Arden) | | | |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1609 |Sonnets. A Lover's | | |Coriolanus |

| Complaint | | | |

| | | | |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1610 |Purchased more real |Cymbeline | | |

| estate | | | |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1611 |Subscribed for |Winter's Tale | | |

| better highways |The Tempest | | |

| | | | |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1613 |Invested in London | |Henry VIII | |

| house property. | | | |

| Brother Richard | | | |

| died | | | |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

1616 |Made his will. | | | |

| Daughter Judith | | | |

| married Thomas | | | |

| Quiney. Died April | | | |

| 23 (May 3, New | | | |

| Style) | | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

-----+--------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

| BRITISH AND | HISTORY |

YEAR | FOREIGN | AND |

| LITERATURE | BIOGRAPHY |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1601 |Jonson's Poetaster |The Essex plot. |

| | Rivalry between |

| | London adult and |

| | boy actors |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1602 |Dekker's Satiromastix|Bodleian Library |

| | founded |

| | |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1603 |Jonson's Sejanus |Queen Elizabeth |

| | died. Millenary |

| | Petition |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1604 |Marlowe's Faustus |Hampton Court |

| (1588-1589) | Conference |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1605 |Don Quixote (pt. 1) |Gunpowder plot. |

| | Sir Thomas Browne |

| | born |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1606 |Chapman's Monsieur |Lyly died. |

| D'Olive | Corneille born |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1607 |Dekker and Webster's |Settlement of |

| Westward Ho! | Jamestown |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1608 |Captain John Smith's |Milton born. |

| A True Relation. | Quebec founded |

| Middleton's A Mad | |

| World | |

| | |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1609 |The Douai Old |Separatists |

|Testament | (Pilgrims) in |

| | Leyden |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1610 |Strachey's Wracke |Henry IV (Navarre) |

| and Redemption | assassinated |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1611 |King James Bible |Gustavus Adolphus, |

| (A.V.). Bellarmine's| King of Sweden |

| Puissance du Pape | |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1613 |Drayton's Polyolbion |Globe Theatre |

| | burned |

| | |

| | |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

1616 |Captain John Smith's |Cervantes died. |

| New England. Folio | Beaumont died. |

| edition of Jonson's | Baffin explores |

| Poems. D'Aubigné's | Baffin's Bay. |

| Les Tragiques | Harvey lectured |

| (1577) | on the circulation|

| | of the blood |

| | |

-----+---------------------+-------------------+

DISTRIBUTION OF CHARACTERS

In this analysis are shown the acts and scenes in which the characters

(see Dramatis Personæ, page 2) appear, with the number of

speeches and lines given to each.

NOTE. Parts of lines are counted as whole lines.

==============+=========+==========+========+

| | NO. OF | NO. OF |

| | SPEECHES | LINES |

--------------+---------+----------+--------+

CÆSAR | I, ii | 14 | 39 |

| II, ii | 16 | 72 |

| III, i | 10 | 39 |

| | === | === |

| | 40 | 150 |

| | | |

OCTAVIUS | IV, i | 6 | 12 |

| V, i | 9 | 25 |

| V, v | 4 | 10 |

| | === | === |

| | 19 | 47 |

| | | |

ANTONY | I, ii | 4 | 6 |

| II, ii | 1 | 1 |

| III, i | 10 | 98 |

| III, ii | 20 | 147 |

| IV, i | 5 | 38 |

| V, i | 8 | 22 |

| V, iv | 2 | 8 |

| V, v | 1 | 8 |

| | === | === |

| | 51 | 328 |

| | | |

LEPIDUS | IV, i | 3 | 4 |

| | | |

CICERO | I, iii | 4 | 9 |

| | | |

PUBLIUS | II, ii | 1 | 1 |

| III, i | 1 | 1 |

| | === | === |

| | 2 | 2 |

| | | |

POPILIUS | III, i | 2 | 2 |

| | | |

BRUTUS | I, ii | 22 | 73 |

| II, i | 35 | 182 |

| II, ii | 2 | 3 |

| III, i | 23 | 78 |

| III, ii | 5 | 49 |

| IV, ii | 10 | 34 |

| IV, iii | 69 | 204 |

| V, i | 11 | 33 |

| V, ii | 1 | 6 |

| V, iii | 4 | 18 |

| V, iv | 1 | 1 |

| V, v | 10 | 39 |

| | === | === |

| | 193 | 720 |

| | | |

CASSIUS | I, ii | 24 | 143 |

| I, iii | 15 | 119 |

| II, i | 14 | 37 |

| III, i | 18 | 44 |

| IV, ii | 4 | 7 |

| IV, iii | 46 | 98 |

| V, i | 11 | 49 |

| V, iii | 6 | 32 |

| | === | === |

| | 138 | 529 |

| | | |

CASCA | I, ii | 19 | 60 |

| I, iii | 14 | 57 |

| II, i | 4 | 10 |

| III, i | 3 | 4 |

| | === | === |

| | 40 | 131 |

| | | |

TREBONIUS | II, i | 2 | 3 |

| II, ii | 1 | 2 |

| III, i | 1 | 3 |

| | === | === |

| | 4 | 8 |

| | | |

LIGARIUS | II, i | 5 | 15 |

| | | |

DECIUS | II, i | 3 | 12 |

| II, ii | 4 | 25 |

| III, i | 5 | 7 |

| | === | === |

| | 12 | 44 |

| | | |

METELLUS | II, i | 2 | 9 |

| III, i | 3 | 8 |

| | === | === |

| | 5 | 17 |

| | | |

CINNA | I, iii | 4 | 9 |

| II, i | 3 | 4 |

| III, i | 4 | 5 |

| | === | === |

| | 11 | 18 |

| | | |

FLAVIUS | I, i | 6 | 27 |

| | | |

MARULLUS | I, i | 5 | 32 |

| | | |

ARTEMIDORUS | II, iii | 1 | 14 |

| III, i | 3 | 4 |

| | === | === |

| | 4 | 18 |

| | | |

SOOTHSAYER | I, ii | 3 | 3 |

| II, iv | 5 | 14 |

| III, i | 1 | 1 |

| | === | === |

| | 9 | 18 |

| | | |

CINNA, A POET | III, iii| 8 | 14 |

| | | |

ANOTHER POET | IV, iii | 3 | 7 |

| | | |

LUCILIUS | IV, ii | 4 | 10 |

| IV, iii | 1 | 1 |

| V, i | 1 | 1 |

| V, iv | 3 | 14 |

| V, v | 1 | 2 |

| | === | === |

| | 10 | 28 |

| | | |

TITINIUS | IV, iii | 1 | 1 |

| V, iii | 9 | 31 |

| | === | === |

| | 10 | 32 |

| | | |

MESSALA | IV, iii | 9 | 14 |

| V, i | 2 | 2 |

| V, iii | 7 | 19 |

| V, v | 3 | 4 |

| | === | === |

| | 21 | 39 |

| | | |

CATO | V, iii | 2 | 3 |

| V, iv | 1 | 5 |

| | === | === |

| | 3 | 8 |

| | | |

VOLUMNIUS | V, v | 3 | 3 |

| | | |

VARRO | IV, iii | 6 | 6 |

| | | |

CLITUS | V, v | 8 | 10 |

| | | |

CLAUDIUS | IV, iii | 4 | 4 |

| | | |

STRATO | V, v | 4 | 6 |

| | | |

LUCIUS | II, i | 10 | 17 |

| II, iv | 4 | 6 |

| IV, iii | 10 | 10 |

| | === | === |

| | 24 | 33 |

| | | |

DARDANIUS | V, v | 3 | 3 |

| | | |

PINDARUS | IV, ii | 1 | 3 |

| V, iii | 4 | 13 |

| | === | === |

| | 5 | 16 |

| | | |

CALPURNIA | I, ii | 1 | 1 |

| II, ii | 5 | 26 |

| | === | === |

| | 6 | 27 |

| | | |

PORTIA | II, i | 6 | 62 |

| II, iv | 10 | 30 |

| | === | === |

| | 16 | 92 |

| | | |

CARPENTER | I, i | 1 | 1 |

| | | |

COBBLER | I, i | 6 | 17 |

| | | |

SERVANT | II, ii | 3 | 5 |

| | | |

SERVANT | III, i | 2 | 16 |

| | | |

SERVANT | III, i | 3 | 5 |

| | | |

GHOST | IV, iii | 3 | 3 |

| | | |

CITIZENS (ALL)| III, ii | 13 | 14 |

| | | |

1 CITIZEN | III, ii | 14 | 17 |

| III, iii| 4 | 4 |

| | === | === |

| | 18 | 21 |

| | | |

2 CITIZEN | III, ii | 14 | 16 |

| III, iii| 4 | 6 |

| | === | === |

| | 18 | 22 |

| | | |

3 CITIZEN | III, ii | 12 | 16 |

| III, iii| 4 | 7 |

| | === | === |

| | 16 | 23 |

| | | |

4 CITIZEN | III, ii | 11 | 14 |

| III, iii| 5 | 7 |

| | === | === |

| | 16 | 21 |

| | | |

SERVANT | III, ii | 3 | 4 |

| | | |

1 SOLDIER | IV, ii | 1 | 1 |

| V, iv | 3 | 4 |

| | === | === |

| | 4 | 5 |

| | | |

2 SOLDIER | IV, ii | 1 | 1 |

| V, iv | 1 | 1 |

| | === | === |

| | 2 | 2 |

| | | |

3 SOLDIER | IV, ii | 1 | 1 |

| | | |

MESSENGER | V, i | 1 | 4 |

==============+=========+==========+========+

JULIUS CÆSAR

[Page 2]

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ[1]

JULIUS CÆSAR.

OCTAVIUS CÆSAR, } triumvirs after

MARCUS ANTONIUS,[2] } the death of

M. ÆMILIUS LEPIDUS, } Julius Cæsar.

CICERO, }

PUBLIUS, } senators.

POPILIUS LENA, }

MARCUS BRUTUS, }

CASSIUS, }

CASCA, } conspirators

TREBONIUS, } against

LIGARIUS, } Julius Cæsar.

DECIUS BRUTUS,[3] }

METELLUS CIMBER, }

CINNA, }

FLAVIUS and MARULLUS,[4] tribunes.

ARTEMIDORUS of Cnidos, a teacher of Rhetoric.[5]

A Soothsayer.

CINNA, a poet. Another Poet.

LUCILIUS, }

TITINIUS, }

MESSALA, } friends to Brutus

Young CATO, } and Cassius.

VOLUMNIUS, }

VARRO, }

CLITUS, }

CLAUDIUS, } servants to

STRATO, } Brutus.

LUCIUS, }

DARDANIUS, }

PINDARUS, servant to Cassius.

CALPURNIA,[6] wife to Cæsar.

PORTIA, wife to Brutus.

Senators, Commoners, Guards, Attendants, &c.

SCENE: _Rome; the neighborhood of Sardis; the neighborhood of

Philippi._

[Footnote 1: DRAMATIS PERSONÆ. Rowe was the first to give a list of

Dramatis Personæ. His list was imperfect and Theobald enlarged it.]

[Footnote 2: ANTONIUS. In I, ii, 3, 4, 6, the First Folio gives the name

in the Italian form, 'Antonio.' See note, p. 9, l. 3.]

[Footnote 3: DECIUS BRUTUS. The true classical name was Decimus Brutus.

In Amyot's _Les Vies des hommes illustres grecs et latins_ (1559) and in

North's Plutarch (1579) the name is given as in Shakespeare.]

[Footnote 4: MARULLUS. Theobald's emendation for the Murellus

(Murrellus, I, ii, 281) of the First Folio. Marullus is the spelling in

North's Plutarch.]

[Footnote 5: ARTEMIDORUS. Rowe (1709) had 'Artimedorus (Artemidorus,

1714) a Soothsayer.' This Theobald altered to 'Artemidorus, a Sophist of

Cnidos,' and made the Soothsayer a separate character].

[Footnote 6: CALPURNIA. Occasionally in North's Plutarch (twice in

_Julius Cæsar_) and always in the First Folio the name is given as

'Calphurnia.']

[Page 3]

ACT I

SCENE I. _Rome. A street_

_Enter_ FLAVIUS, MARULLUS, _and certain_ Commoners

_over the stage_

FLAVIUS. Hence! home, you idle creatures, get you home:

Is this a holiday? what! know you not,

Being mechanical, you ought not walk

Upon a labouring day without the sign

Of your profession? Speak, what trade art thou? 5

CARPENTER. Why, sir, a carpenter.

MARULLUS. Where is thy leather apron and thy rule?

What dost thou with thy best apparel on?

You, sir, what trade are you? 9

[Note: ACT I, SCENE I | Actus Primus. Scœna Prima

Ff.--_Rome. A street_ Capell | Rome Rowe | Ff omit.--Commoners

Ff | Plebeians Hanmer.]

[Note 6: CARPENTER | Car. Ff | First Com. Camb | 1 Pleb.

Hanmer.]

[Note: ACT I. In the First Folio _The Tragedie of Julius

Cæsar_ is divided into acts but not into scenes, though

'Scœna (so spelled in the Folios) Prima' is given here

after 'Actus Primus.'--_over the stage_. This, the Folio stage

direction, suggests a mob.]

[Note 3: /Being mechanical:/ being mechanics. Shakespeare

often uses adjectives with the sense of plural substantives.

Cf. 'subject' in _Hamlet_, I, i, 72. Twice in North's Plutarch

occurs "base mechanical people."--/ought not walk/. See

Abbott, § 349.]

[Note 4-5: Shakespeare transfers to ancient Rome the English

customs and usages of his own time. In Porter and Clarke's

'First Folio' _Julius Cæsar_, it is mentioned that

Shakespeare's uncle Henry, a farmer in Snitterfield, according

to a court order of October 25, 1583, was fined "viii d for

not havinge and wearinge cappes on Sondayes and hollydayes."]

[Note 9: /You./ On 'you' as distinct from 'thou,' see Abbott,

§ 232.]

[Page 4]

COBBLER. Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but,

as you would say, a cobbler. 11

MARULLUS. But what trade art thou? answer me directly.

COBBLER. A trade, sir, that I hope I may use with a safe

conscience; which is, indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles. 15

FLAVIUS. What trade, thou knave? thou naughty knave, what

trade?

COBBLER. Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me: yet,

if you be out, sir, I can mend you. 18

MARULLUS. What mean'st thou by that? mend me, thou saucy

fellow?

COBBLER. Why, sir, cobble you.

FLAVIUS. Thou art a cobbler, art thou? 22

[Note 10: COBBLER | Cobl. Ff | Sec. Com. Camb.]

[Note 15: /soles/ | soules F1 F2 | soals F4.]

[Note 16: FLAVIUS | Fla. Ff | Mur. Capell | Mar. Globe Camb.]

[Note 19: MARULLUS | Mur. Ff.]

[Note 10: /in respect of/: in comparison with. So in _The

Psalter_ (Book of Common Prayer), xxxix, 6. Cf. _Hamlet_, V,

ii, 120.]

[Note 11: /cobbler/. This word was used of a coarse workman,

or a bungler, in any mechanical trade. So the Cobbler's answer

does not give the information required, though it contains a

quibble.]

[Note 12: /directly/: in a straightforward manner, without

evasion.]

[Note 15: /soles/. The First Folio spelling, 'soules,' brings

out the pun. This 'immemorial quibble,' as Craik calls it, is

found also in _The Merchant of Venice_, IV, i, 123: "Not on

thy sole, but on thy soul."]

[Note 16: Modern editors give this speech to Marullus, but the

Folio arrangement is more natural and dramatic, the two

Tribunes alternately rating the people, as Knight puts it,

like two smiths smiting on the same anvil.]

[Note 17-18: A quibble upon two common meanings of 'out'--(1)

'at variance,' as in "Launcelot and I are out," _The Merchant

of Venice_, III, v, 34; and (2) as in 'out at heels,' or 'out

at toes.']

[Page 5]

COBBLER. Truly, sir, all that I live by is with the awl: I

meddle with no tradesman's matters, nor women's

matters, but withal I am, indeed, sir, a surgeon to old

shoes; when they are in great danger, I recover them. As

proper men as ever trod upon neat's-leather have gone upon

my handiwork. 28

FLAVIUS. But wherefore art not in thy shop to-day?

Why dost thou lead these men about the streets?

COBBLER. Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes, to get myself

into more work. But, indeed, sir, we make holiday, to see

Cæsar and to rejoice in his triumph. 33

[Note 25: withal I F1 | withall I F2 F3 | withawl. I (Farmer's

conj.) Camb Globe | with all. I Capell.]

[Note 34: Two lines in Ff.]

[Note 39-40: Pompey? Many ... oft Have Rowe | Pompey many ...

oft? Have Ff.]

[Note 25: The text of the First Folio needs no emendation. It

is good prose and involves a neat pun.]

[Note 26: /proper:/ goodly, handsome. This word has often this

meaning in Elizabethan literature, and is still so used in

provincial England. Cf. _The Tempest_, II, ii, 63; _Hebrews_

(King James version), xi, 23; Burns's _The Jolly Beggars_:

"And still my delight is in proper young men."]

[Note 27: /trod upon neat's-leather/. This expression and "as

proper a man as" are repeated in the second scene of the

second act of _The Tempest_.--/neat's-leather/: ox-hide.

'Neat' is Anglo-Saxon _neát_, 'ox,' 'cow,' 'cattle,' and is

still used in 'neat-herd,' 'neat's-foot oil.' See _The

Winter's Tale_, I, ii, 125. The form 'nowt' is still in common

use in the North of England and the South of Scotland. Cf.

Burns's _The Twa Dogs_: "To thrum guitars an' fecht wi

nowte."]

[Page 6]

MARULLUS. Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home?

What tributaries follow him to Rome, 35

To grace in captive bonds his chariot-wheels?

You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!

O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,

Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft

Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements, 40

To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops,

Your infants in your arms, and there have sat

The live-long day, with patient expectation,

To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome:

And when you saw his chariot but appear, 45

Have you not made an universal shout,

That Tiber trembled underneath her banks

To hear the replication of your sounds

Made in her concave shores?

And do you now put on your best attire? 50

And do you now cull out a holiday?

And do you now strew flowers in his way

That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood?

Be gone!

Run to your houses, fall upon your knees, 55

Pray to the gods to intermit the plague

That needs must light on this ingratitude.

[Note 39: /Many a time and oft/. This form of emphasis occurs

also in _The Merchant of Venice_, I, iii, 107. Cf. _Timon of

Athens_, III, i, 25.]

[Note 41: /windows/, Rowe | Windowes? Ff.]

[Note 44: /Rome/: Ff | Rome? Rowe.]

[Note 47, 49: /her/ | his Rowe.]

[Note 47: /That/: so that. For the omission of 'so' before

'that,' see Abbott, § 283.--/her/. In Latin usage rivers are

masculine, and 'Father' is a common appellation of 'Tiber.' In

Elizabethan literature Drayton generally makes rivers

feminine, while Spenser tends to make them masculine.]

[Note 48: /To hear/: at hearing. A gerundive use of the

infinitive.--/replication/: echo, repetition (Lat.

_replicare_, to roll back).]

[Note 51: Is this a day to pick out for a holiday?]

[Note 53: The reference is to the great battle of Munda, in

Spain, which took place in March of the preceding year, B.C.

45. Cæsar was now celebrating his fifth triumph, which was in

honor of his final victory over the Pompeian, or conservative,

faction. Cnæus and Sextus, the two sons of Pompey the Great,

were leaders in that battle, and Cnæus perished. "And because

he had plucked up his race by the roots, men did not think it

meet for him to triumph so for the calamities of his

country."--Plutarch, _Julius Cæsar_.]

[Note 57: "It is evident from the opening scene, that

Shakespeare, even in dealing with classical subjects, laughed

at the classic fear of putting the ludicrous and sublime into

juxtaposition. After the low and farcical jests of the saucy

cobbler, the eloquence of Marullus 'springs upwards like a

pyramid of fire.'"--Campbell.]

[Page 7]

FLAVIUS. Go, go, good countrymen, and, for this fault,

Assemble all the poor men of your sort;

Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears 60

Into the channel, till the lowest stream

Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.

[_Exeunt all the_ Commoners]

See, where their basest metal be not mov'd!

They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.

Go you down that way towards the Capitol; 65

This way will I: disrobe the images,

If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies.

[Note 62: [_Exeunt_ ... ] Ff | Exeunt Citizens Capell.]

[Note 63: /where/ Ff | whe're Theobald | whêr Dyce | whether

Camb.]

[Note 61-62: Till the river rises from the extreme low-water

mark to the extreme high-water mark.]

[Note 63: /where:/ whether. As in V, iv, 30, the 'where' of

the Folios represents the monosyllabic pronunciation of this

word common in the sixteenth century. In Shakespeare's verse

the 'th' between two vowels, as in 'brother,' 'other,'

'whither,' is frequently mute.--/basest metal./--The Folio

spelling is 'mettle,' and the word here may connote 'spirit,'

'temper.' If it be taken literally, the reference may be to

'lead.' Cf. 'base lead,' _The Merchant of Venice_, II, ix, 19.

In this case the meaning may be that even these men, though as

dull and heavy as lead, have yet the sense to be tongue-tied

with shame at their conduct. 'Mettle' occurs again in I, ii,

293; 'metal' (First Folio, 'mettle') in I, ii, 306.]

[Note 66: /images./ These images were the busts and statues of

Cæsar, ceremoniously decked with scarfs and badges in honor of

his triumph.]

[Note 67: /ceremonies:/ ceremonial symbols, festal ornaments.

Cf. 'trophies' in l. 71 and 'scarfs' in I, ii, 282.

Shakespeare employs the word in the same way, as an abstract

term used for the concrete thing, in _Henry V_, IV, i, 109;

and, in the singular, in _Measure for Measure_, II, ii, 59.

"After that, there were set up images of Cæsar in the city,

with diadems on their heads like kings. Those the two

tribunes, Flavius and Marullus, went and pulled

down."--Plutarch, _Julius Cæsar_.]

[Page 8]

MARULLUS. May we do so?

You know it is the feast of Lupercal.

FLAVIUS. It is no matter; let no images 70

Be hung with Cæsar's trophies. I'll about,

And drive away the vulgar from the streets:

So do you too, where you perceive them thick.

These growing feathers pluck'd from Cæsar's wing

Will make him fly an ordinary pitch, 75

Who else would soar above the view of men,

And keep us all in servile fearfulness. [_Exeunt_]

[Note 69: /Lupercal./ The _Lupercalia_, originally a shepherd

festival, were held in honor of Lupercus, the Roman Pan, on

the 15th of February, the month being named from _Februus_, a

surname of the god. Lupercus was, primarily, the god of

shepherds, said to have been so called because he protected

the flocks from wolves. His wife Luperca was the deified

she-wolf that suckled Romulus. The festival, in its original

idea, was concerned with purification and fertilization.]

[Note 71: /Cæsar's trophies./ These are the scarfs and badges

mentioned in note on l. 66, as appears from ll. 281-282 in the

next scene, where it is said that the Tribunes "for pulling

scarfs off Cæsar's images, are put to silence."]

[Note 72: /the vulgar:/ the common people. So in _Love's

Labour's Lost_, I, ii, 51; _Henry V_, IV, vii, 80.]

[Note 75: /pitch./ A technical term in falconry, denoting the

height to which a hawk or falcon flies. Cf. _I Henry VI_, II,

iv, 11: "Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch."]

[Page 9]

SCENE II. _A public place_

_Enter_ CÆSAR; ANTONY, _for the course_; CALPURNIA,

PORTIA, DECIUS, CICERO, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, _and_ CASCA; _a

great crowd following, among them a_ Soothsayer.

CÆSAR. Calpurnia!

CASCA. Peace, ho! Cæsar speaks.

CÆSAR. Calpurnia!

CALPURNIA. Here, my lord.

CÆSAR. Stand you directly in Antonius' way,

When he doth run his course. Antonius!

ANTONY. Cæsar, my lord? 5

CÆSAR. Forget not, in your speed, Antonius,

To touch Calpurnia; for our elders say,

The barren, touched in this holy chase,

Shake off their sterile curse.

ANTONY. I shall remember:

When Cæsar says 'Do this,' it is perform'd. 10

[Note: SCENE ... _place_ | Ff omit.]

[Note 3: /Antonius'/ Pope | Antonio's Ff.]

[Note 4, 6: /Antonius/ Pope | Antonio Ff (and so elsewhere).]

[Note 3: /Antonius'./ The 'Antonio's' of the Folios is the

Italian form with which both actors and audience would be more

familiar. So in IV, iii, 102, the Folios read "dearer than

Pluto's (i.e. Plutus') mine." Antonius was at this time

Consul, as Cæsar himself also was. Each Roman _gens_ had its

own priesthood, and also its peculiar religious rites. The

priests of the Julian gens (so named from Iulus the son of

Æneas) had lately been advanced to the same rank with those of

the god Lupercus; and Antony was at this time at their head.

It was probably as chief of the Julian Luperci that he

officiated on this occasion, stripped, as the old stage

direction has it, "for the course."]

[Note 8-9: It was an old custom at these festivals for the

priests, naked except for a girdle about the loins, to run

through the streets of the city, waving in the hand a thong of

goat's hide, and striking with it such women as offered

themselves for the blow, in the belief that this would prevent

or avert "the sterile curse." Cæsar was at this time

childless; his only daughter, Julia, married to Pompey the

Great, having died some years before, upon the birth of her

first child, who also died soon after.]

[Page 10]

CÆSAR. Set on; and leave no ceremony out. [_Flourish_]

SOOTHSAYER. Cæsar!

CÆSAR. Ha! who calls?

CASCA. Bid every noise be still. Peace yet again!

CÆSAR. Who is it in the press that calls on me? 15

I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music,

Cry 'Cæsar!' Speak; Cæsar is turn'd to hear.

SOOTHSAYER. Beware the Ides of March.

CÆSAR. What man is that?

BRUTUS. A soothsayer bids you beware the Ides of March.

CÆSAR. Set him before me; let me see his face. 20

CASSIUS. Fellow, come from the throng; look upon Cæsar.

CÆSAR. What say'st thou to me now? speak once again.

SOOTHSAYER. Beware the Ides of March.

CÆSAR. He is a dreamer; let us leave him. Pass.

[_Sennet. Exeunt all but_ BRUTUS _and_ CASSIUS]

CASSIUS. Will you go see the order of the course? 25

[Note 11: [Flourish] Ff omit.]

[Note 25: Scene III Pope.]

[Note 18: /the Ides of March:/ March 15th.]

[Note 19: Coleridge has a remark on this line, which, whether

true to the subject or not, is very characteristic of the

writer: "If my ear does not deceive me, the metre of this line

was meant to express that sort of mild philosophic contempt,

characterizing Brutus even in his first casual

speech."--/soothsayer./ By derivation, 'truth teller.']

[Note 24: /Sennet./ This is an expression occurring repeatedly

in old stage directions. It is of uncertain origin (but cf.

'signature' in musical notation) and denotes a peculiar

succession of notes on a trumpet, used, as here, to signal the

march of a procession.]

[Page 11]

BRUTUS. Not I.

CASSIUS. I pray you, do.

BRUTUS. I am not gamesome: I do lack some part

Of that quick spirit that is in Antony.

Let me not hinder, Cassius, your desires; 30

I'll leave you.

CASSIUS. Brutus, I do observe you now of late:

I have not from your eyes that gentleness

And show of love as I was wont to have:

You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand 35

Over your friend that loves you.

[Note 36: /friend/ F1 | Friends F2 F3.]

[Note 28: /gamesome:/ fond of games. Here as in _Cymbeline_,

I, vi, 60, the word seems to be used in a literal and

restricted sense.]

[Note 29: /quick spirit:/ lively humor. The primary meaning of

'quick' is 'alive,' as in the phrase "the quick and the dead."

See Skeat.]

[Note 34: /as./ The three forms 'that,' 'who' ('which'), and

'as' are often interchangeable in Elizabethan usage. So in

line 174. See Abbott, §§ 112, 280.]

[Note 35: You hold me too hard on the bit, like a strange

rider who is doubtful of his steed, and not like one who

confides in his faithful horse, and so rides him with an easy

rein. See note on l. 310.]

[Note 36: Caius Cassius Longinus had married Junia, a sister

of Brutus. Both had lately stood for the chief prætorship of

the city, and Brutus, through Cæsar's favor, had won it;

though Cassius was at the same time elected one of the sixteen

prætors or judges of the city. This is said to have produced a

coldness between Brutus and Cassius, so that they did not

speak to each other, till this extraordinary flight of

patriotism brought them together.]

[Page 12]

BRUTUS. Cassius,

Be not deceiv'd: if I have veil'd my look,

I turn the trouble of my countenance

Merely upon myself. Vexed I am

Of late with passions of some difference, 40

Conceptions only proper to myself,

Which give some soil, perhaps, to my behaviours;

But let not therefore my good friends be griev'd--

Among which number, Cassius, be you one--

Nor construe any further my neglect, 45

Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war,

Forgets the shows of love to other men.

CASSIUS. Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your passion;

By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried

Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations. 50

Tell me, good Brutus, can you see your face?

BRUTUS. No, Cassius; for the eye sees not itself

But by reflection, by some other things.

[Note 52-53: Three irregular lines in Ff.]

[Note 52: /itself/ | it selfe F1 | himselfe F2 | himself, F3 |

himself: F4.]

[Note 53: /by some/ Ff | from some Pope.]

[Note 39: /Merely:/ altogether, entirely. So in _The Tempest_,

I, i, 59.]

[Note 40: /passions of some difference:/ conflicting

emotions.]

[Note 41: /only proper to myself:/ belonging exclusively to

myself.]

[Note 42: /give some soil to:/ to a certain extent

tarnish.--/behaviours./ Shakespeare often uses abstract nouns

in the plural. This usage is common in Carlyle. Here, however,

and elsewhere in Shakespeare, as in _Much Ado about Nothing_,

II, iii, 100, the plural 'behaviours' may be regarded as

denoting the particular acts which make up what we call

'behavior.' See Clar.]

[Note 48: /mistook./ The _en_ of the termination of the past

participle of strong verbs is often dropped, and when the

resulting word might be mistaken for the infinitive, the form

of the past tense is frequently substituted.--/passion./

Shakespeare uses 'passion' for any feeling, sentiment, or

emotion, whether painful or pleasant. So in _Henry V_, II, ii.

132: "Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger."]

[Note 49: /By means whereof:/ and because of my mistaking it.

'Means' was sometimes used in the sense of 'cause.']

[Note 53: Except by an image or 'shadow' (l. 68; cf. _Venus

and Adonis_, 162) reflected from a mirror, or from water, or

some polished surface. Cf. _Troilus and Cressida_, III, iii,

105-111.]

[Page 13]

CASSIUS. 'Tis just:

And it is very much lamented, Brutus, 55

That you have no such mirrors as will turn

Your hidden worthiness into your eye,

That you might see your shadow. I have heard,

Where many of the best respect in Rome,

Except immortal Cæsar, speaking of Brutus, 60

And groaning underneath this age's yoke,

Have wish'd that noble Brutus had his eyes.

BRUTUS. Into what dangers would you lead me, Cassius,

That you would have me seek into myself

For that which is not in me? 65

CASSIUS. Therefore, good Brutus, be prepar'd to hear:

And, since you know you cannot see yourself

So well as by reflection, I, your glass,

Will modestly discover to yourself

That of yourself which you yet know not of. 70

And be not jealous on me, gentle Brutus:

Were I a common laughter, or did use

To stale with ordinary oaths my love

To every new protester; if you know

That I do fawn on men and hug them hard, 75

And after scandal them; or if you know

That I profess myself in banqueting

To all the rout, then hold me dangerous. [_Flourish and shout_]

[Note 58: Two lines in Ff.]

[Note 63: Two lines in Ff.--/Cassius/, Pope Camb Globe |

Cassius? Ff.]

[Note 70: /you yet/ F1 F2 | yet you F3 F4.]

[Note 72: /laughter/ | Laughter Ff | laugher Rowe Camb Globe.]

[Note 77: /myself/ | my selfe F1 | omitted in F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 54: /'Tis just:/ that's so, exactly so. Cf. _All's Well

that Ends Well_, II, iii, 21; _As You Like It_, III, ii, 281;

_2 Henry IV_, III, ii, 89.]

[Note 59: /Where./ The adverb is here used of occasion, not of

place.--/of the best respect:/ held in the highest

estimation.]

[Note 60: /Except immortal Cæsar./ Keen, double-edged irony.]

[Note 71: /jealous on:/ suspicious of. In Shakespeare we find

'on' and 'of' used indifferently, even in the same sentence,

as in _Hamlet_, IV, v, 200. Cf. _Macbeth_, I, iii, 84;

_Sonnets_, LXXXIV, 14. See Abbott, § 181.]

[Note 72: /laughter:/ laughing-stock. Although most modern

editors have adopted Rowe's emendation, 'laugher,' the reading

of the Folios is perfectly intelligible and thoroughly

Shakespearian. Cf. IV, iii, 114.]

[Note 73: /To stale:/ to make common by frequent repetition,

to cheapen. So again in IV, i, 38. Cf. _Antony and Cleopatra_,

II, ii, 240.]

[Note 74: 'To protest' is used by Shakespeare in the sense of

'to profess,' 'to declare,' 'to vow,' as in _All's Well that

Ends Well_, IV, ii, 28, and _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, I, i,

89. The best commentary on ll. 72-74 is _Hamlet_, I, iii,

64-65: "But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each

new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade."]

[Page 14]

BRUTUS. What means this shouting? I do fear, the people

Choose Cæsar for their king.

CASSIUS. Ay, do you fear it? 80

Then must I think you would not have it so.

BRUTUS. I would not, Cassius; yet I love him well.

But wherefore do you hold me here so long?

What is it that you would impart to me?

If it be aught toward the general good, 85

Set honour in one eye and death i' the other,

And I will look on both indifferently;

For let the gods so speed me as I love

The name of honour more than I fear death.

[Note 79-80: Three irregular lines in Ff.]

[Note 85: /aught/ Theobald | ought Ff.]

[Note 87: /both/ Ff | death Theobald (Warburton).]

[Note 76-78: If you know that, when banqueting, I make

professions of friendship to all the crowd.]

[Note 87: "Warburton would read 'death' for 'both'; but I

prefer the old text. There are here three things, the public

good, the individual Brutus' honour, and his death. The latter

two so balanced each other, that he could decide for the first

by equipoise; nay--the thought growing--that honour had more

weight than death."--Coleridge.--/indifferently:/ without

emotion. 'Impartially.'--Clar.]

[Note 88: /speed:/ prosper, bless. So in II, iv, 41. "The

notion of 'haste' which now belongs to the word is apparently

a derived sense. It is thus curiously parallel to the Latin

_expedio_, with which some would connect it etymologically....

The proverb 'more haste, worse speed' shows that haste and

speed are not the same."--Clar.]

[Page 15-17]

CASSIUS. I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus, 90

As well as I do know your outward favour.

Well, honour is the subject of my story.

I cannot tell what you and other men

Think of this life; but, for my single self,

I had as lief not be as live to be 95

In awe of such a thing as I myself.

I was born free as Cæsar; so were you:

We both have fed as well; and we can both

Endure the winter's cold as well as he:

For once, upon a raw and gusty day, 100

The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores,

Cæsar said to me, 'Dar'st thou, Cassius, now

Leap in with me into this angry flood,

And swim to yonder point?' Upon the word,

Accoutred as I was, I plunged in, 105

And bade him follow: so indeed he did.

The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it

With lusty sinews, throwing it aside

And stemming it with hearts of controversy;

But ere we could arrive the point propos'd, 110

Cæsar cried, 'Help me, Cassius, or I sink!'

I, as Æneas, our great ancestor,

Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder

The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber

Did I the tired Cæsar: and this man 115

Is now become a god, and Cassius is

A wretched creature, and must bend his body

If Cæsar carelessly but nod on him.

He had a fever when he was in Spain;

And, when the fit was on him, I did mark 120

How he did shake: 't is true, this god did shake:

His coward lips did from their colour fly;

And that same eye whose bend doth awe the world

Did lose his lustre. I did hear him groan:

Ay, and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans 125

Mark him and write his speeches in their books,

Alas, it cried, 'Give me some drink, Titinius,'

As a sick girl. Ye gods, it doth amaze me

A man of such a feeble temper should

So get the start of the majestic world 130

And bear the palm alone. [_Shout. Flourish_]

BRUTUS. Another general shout!

I do believe that these applauses are

For some new honours that are heap'd on Cæsar.

[Note 94: /for/ F1 | omitted in F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 101: /chafing/ F1 F4 | chasing F2 F3.]

[Note 102: /said/ | saide F1 | saies F2 F3.]

[Note 105: /Accoutred/ F1 | Accounted F2.]

[Note 124: /lose/ | loose F1.]

[Note 125: /bade/ Theobald | bad Ff.]

[Note 91: /favour:/ appearance. The word has often this

meaning in Shakespeare. Cf. 'well-favored,' 'ill-favored,' and

such a provincial expression as 'the child favors his

father.']

[Note 95: /lief:/ readily. The pronunciation of the _f_ as _v_

brings out the quibble. From the Anglo-Saxon _léof_, 'dear.'

See Murray.]

[Note 101: /chafing./ See Skeat for the interesting

development of the meanings of the verb 'chafe (Fr.

_chauffer_),' which Shakespeare uses twenty times, sometimes

transitively, sometimes intransitively.]

[Note 109: /hearts of controversy:/ controversial hearts,

emulation. In Shakespeare are many similar constructions and

expressions. Cf. 'passions of some difference,' l. 40, and

'mind of love' for 'loving mind,' _The Merchant of Venice_,

II, viii, 42.]

[Note 110: /arrive the point./ In sixteenth and early

seventeenth century literature the omission of the preposition

with verbs of motion is common. Cf. 'pass the streets' in I,

i, 44.]

[Note 119: In Elizabethan literature 'fever' is often used for

sickness in general as well as for what is now specifically

called a fever. Cæsar had three several campaigns in Spain at

different periods of his life, and the text does not show

which of these Shakespeare had in mind. One passage in

Plutarch indicates that Cæsar was first taken with the

'falling-sickness' during his third campaign, which closed

with the great battle of Munda, March 17, B.C. 45. See note,

p. 25, l. 252, and quotation from Plutarch, p. 26, l. 268.]

[Note 122: The image, very bold, somewhat forced, and not

altogether happy, is of a cowardly soldier running away from

his flag.]

[Note 123: /bend:/ look. So in _Antony and Cleopatra_, II, ii,

213: "tended her i' the eyes, And made their bends adornings."

In Shakespeare the verb 'bend,' when used of the eyes, has

usually the sense of 'direct,' as in _Hamlet_, II, i, 100:

"bended their light on me"; III, iv, 117: "That you do bend

your eye on vacancy."]

[Note 124: /his:/ its. 'Its' was just creeping into use at the

close of the sixteenth century. It does not occur once in the

King James version of the Bible as originally printed; it

occurs ten times in the First Folio, generally in the form

'it's'; it occurs only three times in Milton's poetry. See

Masson's _Essay on Milton's English_; Abbott, § 228; Sweet's

_New English Grammar_, § 1101.]

[Note 129: /temper:/ temperament, constitution. "The lean and

wrinkled Cassius" venting his spite at Cæsar, by ridiculing

his liability to sickness and death, is charmingly

characteristic. The mighty Cæsar, with all his electric energy

of mind and will, was of a rather fragile and delicate make;

and his countenance, as we have it in authentic busts, is of

almost feminine beauty. Cicero, who did not love him at all,

in one of his _Letters_ applies to him the Greek word that is

used for 'miracle' or 'wonder' in the New Testament; the

English of the passage being, "This miracle (monster?) is a

thing of terrible energy, swiftness, diligence."]

[Page 18-19]

CASSIUS. Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world

Like a Colossus, and we petty men 136

Walk under his huge legs, and peep about

To find ourselves dishonourable graves.

Men at some time are masters of their fates:

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, 140

But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

Brutus and Cæsar: what should be in that 'Cæsar?'

Why should that name be sounded more than yours?

Write them together, yours is as fair a name;

Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well; 145

Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with 'em,

'Brutus' will start a spirit as soon as 'Cæsar.'

Now, in the names of all the gods at once,

Upon what meat doth this our Cæsar feed,

That he is grown so great? Age, thou art sham'd! 150

Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!

When went there by an age, since the great flood,

But it was fam'd with more than with one man?

When could they say, till now, that talk'd of Rome,

That her wide walks encompass'd but one man? 155

Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough,

When there is in it but one only man.

O, you and I have heard our fathers say

There was a Brutus once that would have brook'd

That he is grown so great? Age, thou art sham'd! 150

Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!

When went there by an age, since the great flood,

But it was fam'd with more than with one man?

When could they say, till now, that talk'd of Rome,

That her wide walks encompass'd but one man? 155

Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough,

When there is in it but one only man.

O, you and I have heard our fathers say

There was a Brutus once that would have brook'd

Th' eternal devil to keep his state in Rome 160

As easily as a king.

[Note 155: /walks/ F4 | Walkes F1 F2 F3 | walls Rowe.]

[Note 135: Observe the force of 'narrow' here; as if Cæsar

were grown so enormously big that even the world seemed a

little thing under him. Some while before this, the Senate had

erected a bronze statue of Cæsar, standing on a globe, and

inscribed to "Cæsar the Demigod," but this inscription Cæsar

erased.]

[Note 136: It is only a legend that the bronze Colossus of

Rhodes bestrode the entrance to the famous harbor. The story

probably arose from the statement that the figure, which

represented Helios, the national deity of the Rhodians, was so

high that a ship might sail between its legs.]

[Note 140: In Shakespeare are many such allusions to the

tenets of the old astrology and the belief in planetary

influence upon the fortunes and characters of men which Scott

describes in the Introduction to _Guy Mannering_ and makes the

atmosphere of the story.]

[Note 142: /should be:/ can be. So in _The Tempest_, I, ii,

387: "Where should this music be? i' the air or the earth?"]

[Note 146-147: The allusion is to the old custom of muttering

certain names, supposed to have in them "the might of magic

spells," in raising or conjuring up spirits.]

[Note 152: /the great flood./ By this an ancient Roman would

understand the universal deluge of classical mythology, from

which only Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha escaped alive. The

story is told in Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, I. Shakespeare

mentions Deucalion twice.]

[Note 155: /walks./ The reasons why Rowe's emendation,

'walls,' is almost universally accepted, are that 'walls'

would be easily corrupted into 'walks' from the nearness of

'talk'd,' and that there is a disagreeable assonance in

'talk'd' and 'walks' in successive lines. But 'walks' is

picturesque and poetical; compared with it, 'walls' is

commonplace and obvious. Cf. _Paradise Lost_, IV, 586.]

[Note 156: A play upon 'Rome' and 'room,' which appear to have

been sounded more alike in Shakespeare's time than they are

now. So again in III, i, 289-290: "A dangerous Rome, No Rome

of safety for Octavius yet." Cf. also _King John_, III, i,

180.]

[Note 159: The allusion is to Lucius Junius Brutus, who bore a

leading part in driving out the Tarquins and in turning the

kingdom into a republic. Afterwards, as consul, he condemned

his own sons to death for attempting to restore the kingdom.

The Marcus Junius Brutus of the play, according to Plutarch,

supposed himself to be descended from him. His mother,

Servilia, also derived her lineage from Servilius Ahala, who

slew Spurius Mælius for aspiring to royalty. Merivale remarks

that "the name of Brutus forced its possessor into prominence

as soon as royalty began to be discussed."--/brook'd:/

endured, tolerated. See Murray for the history of this word.]

[Note 160: /eternal./ Johnson suggested 'infernal.' Dr. Wright

(Clar.) points out that in three plays printed in 1600

Shakespeare uses 'infernal,' but substitutes 'eternal' in

_Julius Cæsar_, _Hamlet_, and _Othello_, in obedience probably

to the popular Puritan agitation against profanity on the

stage. This has been used as evidence to determine dates of

composition. See Introduction, page xx. Cf. with this use of

'eternal' the old Yankee term 'tarnal' in such expressions as

'tarnal scamp,' 'tarnal shame,' etc.]

[Page 20]

BRUTUS. That you do love me, I am nothing jealous;

What you would work me to, I have some aim:

How I have thought of this and of these times,

I shall recount hereafter; for this present, 165

I would not, so with love I might entreat you,

Be any further mov'd. What you have said

I will consider; what you have to say

I will with patience hear, and find a time

Both meet to hear and answer such high things. 170

Till then, my noble friend, chew upon this:

Brutus had rather be a villager

Than to repute himself a son of Rome

Under these hard conditions as this time

Is like to lay upon us. 175

[Note 166: /not, so with ... you/ | not so (with ... you) Ff.]

[Note 162: /am nothing jealous:/ do not doubt. Cf. l. 71.

'Jealous' and 'zealous' are etymologically the same word. See

Skeat.]

[Note 163: /work me to:/ prevail upon me to do. Cf. _Hamlet_,

IV, vii, 64.--/aim:/ guess. Cf. _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_,

III, i, 28. Similarly with the verb in _Romeo and Juliet_, I,

i, 211; _Othello_, III, iii, 223.]

[Note 171: 'To chew' is, literally, in the Latin equivalent,

'to ruminate.' Cf. _As You Like It_, IV, iii, 102: "Chewing

the food of sweet and bitter fancy." In Bacon's Essays, _Of

Studies_, we have, with reference to books: "Some few are to

be chewed and digested." So in Lyly's _Euphues_: "Philantus

went into the fields to walk there, either to digest his

choler, or chew upon his melancholy."]

[Note 174: /these ... as./ See note, l. 34; Abbott, §§ 112,

280.]

[Page 21]

CASSIUS. I am glad that my weak words

Have struck but thus much show of fire from Brutus.

_Enter_ CÆSAR _and his train_

BRUTUS. The games are done, and Cæsar is returning.

CASSIUS. As they pass by, pluck Casca by the sleeve;

And he will, after his sour fashion, tell you 180

What hath proceeded worthy note to-day.

BRUTUS. I will do so. But, look you, Cassius,

The angry spot doth glow on Cæsar's brow,

And all the rest look like a chidden train:

Calpurnia's cheek is pale; and Cicero 185

Looks with such ferret and such fiery eyes

As we have seen him in the Capitol,

Being cross'd in conference by some senators.

[Note 178: Scene IV Pope.]

[Note 178-179: Four lines in Ff.]

[Note 177: In _Troilus and Cressida_, III, iii, 256, Thersites

says of the wit of Ajax: "It lies as coldly in him as fire in

a flint, which will not show without knocking." The same

figure is found in the description which Brutus gives of his

unimpassioned nature, IV, iii, 112-114.]

[Note 181: /proceeded:/ happened, come to pass. So in _All's

Well that Ends Well_, IV, ii, 62.--/worthy note./ Cf. _All's

Well that Ends Well_, III, v, 104. For the ellipsis of the

preposition, see Abbott, § 198 a.]

[Note 186: One of the marked physical characteristics of the

albinotic ferret is the red or pink eye. Shakespeare turns the

noun 'ferret' into an adjective. The description of Cicero is

purely imaginary; but the angry spot on Cæsar's brow,

Calpurnia's pale cheek, and Cicero with fire in his eyes when

kindled by opposition in the Senate, make an exceedingly vivid

picture.]

[Page 22]

CASSIUS. Casca will tell us what the matter is.

CÆSAR. Antonius! 190

ANTONY. Cæsar?

CÆSAR. Let me have men about me that are fat,

Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights:

Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;

He thinks too much: such men are dangerous. 195

ANTONY. Fear him not, Cæsar; he's not dangerous;

He is a noble Roman, and well given.

[Note 191: /Cæsar/? Theobald | Cæsar. Ff.]

[Note 193: /o' nights/ Capeli | a-nights F1 F2.]

[Note 192-195: "Another time when Cæsar's friends complained

unto him of Antonius and Dolabella, that they pretended some

mischief towards him, he answered them again, As for those fat

men, and smooth-combed heads, quoth he, I never reckon of

them; but these pale visaged and carrion lean people, I fear

them most; meaning Brutus and Cassius."--Plutarch, _Julius

Cæsar_. There are similar passages in Plutarch's _Life of

Brutus_ and in the _Life of Marcus Antonius_. Cf. _Antony and

Cleopatra_, III, xi, 37. Falstaff's famous cry was for 'spare

men.' See _2 Henry IV_, III, ii, 288. 'Sleek-headed' recalls

Lamb's wish that the baby son of the tempestuous Hazlitt

should be "like his father, with something of a better temper

and a smoother head of hair."]

[Note 197: /well given:/ well disposed. So in _2 Henry VI_,

III, i, 72.]

[Page 23]

CÆSAR. Would he were fatter! but I fear him not:

Yet if my name were liable to fear,

I do not know the man I should avoid 200

So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much;

He is a great observer, and he looks

Quite through the deeds of men: he loves no plays,

As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music:

Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort 205

As if he mock'd himself, and scorn'd his spirit

That could be mov'd to smile at any thing.

Such men as he be never at heart's ease

Whiles they behold a greater than themselves,

And therefore are they very dangerous. 210

I rather tell thee what is to be fear'd

Than what I fear, for always I am Cæsar.

Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf,

And tell me truly what thou think'st of him.

[_Sennet. Exeunt_ CÆSAR _and all his train but_ CASCA]

CASCA. You pull'd me by the cloak; would you speak with me? 215

BRUTUS. Ay, Casca; tell us what hath chanc'd to-day,

That Cæsar looks so sad.

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

BRUTUS. I should not then ask Casca what had chanc'd.

[Note 215: Scene V Pope.]

[Note 203: /he loves no plays./ "In his house they did nothing

but feast, dance, and masque; and himself passed away the time

in hearing of foolish plays, and in marrying these players,

tumblers, jesters, and such sort of people."--Plutarch,

_Marcus Antonius_.]

[Note 204: The power of music is repeatedly celebrated by

Shakespeare, and sometimes in strains that approximate the

classical hyperboles about Orpheus, Amphion, and Arion. What

is here said of Cassius has an apt commentary in _The Merchant

of Venice_, V, 1, 83-85:

The man that hath no music in himself,

Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds,

Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils.]

[Note 213: This is one of the little touches of invention that

so often impart a fact-like vividness to Shakespeare's

scenes.]

[Note 217: /sad./ The word is used here probably in its early

sense of 'weary' (as in Middle English) or 'resolute' (as in

Chaucer and old Ballads). In _2 Henry IV_, V, i, 92, is the

expression "a jest with a sad brow," where 'sad' evidently

means 'wise,' 'sage.']

[Page 24]

CASCA. Why, there was a crown offer'd him; and being offer'd

him, he put it by with the back of his hand, thus; and then

the people fell a-shouting. 222

BRUTUS. What was the second noise for?

CASCA. Why, for that too.

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

CASCA. Why, for that too. 226

BRUTUS. Was the crown offer'd 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. 230

CASSIUS. Who offer'd him the crown?

CASCA. Why, Antony.

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

CASCA. I can as well be hang'd 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 offer'd it to him again; then he put it by again:

but, to my thinking, he was very loth to lay his fingers off it.

And then he offer'd it the third time; he put it the third

time by: and, still, as he refus'd it, the rabblement hooted

and clapp'd their chopp'd hands, and threw up their sweaty

nightcaps and utter'd such a deal of stinking breath because

Cæsar refus'd the crown, that it had almost chok'd 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. 248

[Note 222: /a-shouting/ Dyce | a shouting Ff | a' shouting

Capell.]

[Note 235: /it was/ F1 | it were F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 242: /hooted/ Johnson | howted F1 F2 F3 | houted F4.]

[Note 243: /chopp'd/ | chopt Ff.]

[Note 246: /swounded/ | swoonded Ff | swooned Rowe.]

[Note 220: /there was a crown offer'd him./ In the _Life of

Marcus Antonius_ Plutarch gives a detailed and vivid

description of this scene.]

[Page 25]

CASSIUS. But, soft! I pray you: what, did Cæsar swound?

CASCA. He fell down in the market-place, and foam'd at

mouth, and was speechless.

BRUTUS. 'Tis very like; he hath the falling-sickness.

CASSIUS. No, Cæsar hath it not; but you, and I,

And honest Casca, we have the falling-sickness. 254

CASCA. I know not what you mean by that, but I am sure Cæsar

fell down. If the tag-rag people did not clap him and hiss

him, according as he pleas'd and displeas'd them, as they

use to do the players in the theatre, I am no true man.

BRUTUS. What said he when he came unto himself? 260

[Note 249: /swound/ Ff | swoon Rowe.]

[Note 252: /like; he/ Theobald | like he Ff.]

[Note 249: /soft!/ This is an elliptical use of the adverb

'soft' and was much used as an exclamation for arresting or

retarding the speed of a person or thing; meaning about the

same as 'hold!' 'stay!' or 'not too fast!' So in _Othello_, V,

ii, 338: "Soft you; a word or two before you go"; and _The

Merchant of Venice_, IV, i, 320: "Soft! The Jew shall have all

justice; soft! no haste."]

[Note 252: /falling-sickness./ An old English name for

epilepsy (Lat. _morbus caducus_, German _fallende Sucht_) used

by North in translating Plutarch. Another form of the word is

'falling-evil,' also used by North (see quotation, p. 26, l.

268). It is an interesting fact that the best authorities

allow that Napoleon suffered from epileptic seizures towards

the close of his life.]

[Note 256: /tag-rag people:/ Cf. 'the tag' in _Coriolanus_,

III, i, 248.]

[Note 259: /true:/ honest. Shakespeare frequently uses 'true'

in this sense, especially as opposed to 'thief.' Cf.

_Cymbeline_, II, iii, 76; _Venus and Adonis_, 724: "Rich preys

make true men thieves."]

[Page 26]

CASCA. Marry, before he fell down, when he perceiv'd the

common herd was glad he refus'd the crown, he pluck'd me ope

his doublet and offer'd them his throat to cut. And 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 desir'd 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

Cæsar had stabb'd their mothers, they would have done no

less. 272

[Note 263: /And/ Ff | an (an') Theobald.]

[Note 270: /no/ omitted in F2.]

[Note 261: /Marry./ The common Elizabethan exclamation of

surprise, or asseveration, corrupted from the name of the

Virgin Mary.]

[Note 263: /me./ The ethical dative. Cf. III, iii, 18; _The

Merchant of Venice_, I, iii, 85; _Romeo and Juliet_, III, i,

6. See Abbott, § 220.--/doublet./ This was the common English

name of a man's outer body-garment. Shakespeare dresses his

Romans like Elizabethan Englishmen (cf. II, i, 73-74), but the

expression 'doublet-collar' occurs in North's Plutarch (see

quotation in note on ll. 268-270).--/And:/ if. For 'and' in

this sense, see Murray, and Abbott, § 101.]

[Note 264: /a man of any occupation./ This probably means not

only a mechanic or user of cutting-tools, but also a man of

business and of action, as distinguished from a gentleman of

leisure, or an idler.]

[Note 265-266: /to hell among the rogues./ The early English

drama abounds in examples of such historical confusion. For

example, in the Towneley Miracle Plays Noah's wife swears by

the Virgin Mary.]

[Note 268-270: "Thereupon Cæsar rising departed home to his

house; and, tearing open his doublet-collar, making his neck

bare, he cried out aloud to his friends, that his throat was

ready to offer to any man that would come and cut it....

Afterwards, to excuse his folly, he imputed it to his disease,

saying that their wits are not perfect which have this disease

of the falling-evil."--Plutarch, _Julius Cæsar_.]

[Page 27]

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

CASCA. Ay.

CASSIUS. Did Cicero say any thing? 275

CASCA. Ay, he spoke Greek.

CASSIUS. To what effect?

CASCA. Nay, and I tell you that, I'll ne'er look you i' the

face again: but those that understood him smil'd 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 Cæsar's images, are put

to silence. Fare you well. There was more foolery yet, if I

could remember it.

CASSIUS. Will you sup with me to-night, Casca? 285

CASCA. No, I am promis'd forth.

CASSIUS. Will you dine with me to-morrow?

CASCA. Ay, if I be alive, and your mind hold, and your

dinner worth the eating.

CASSIUS. Good; I will expect you. 290

CASCA. Do so: farewell, both. [_Exit_]

[Note 273: /away?/ Theobald | away F1.]

[Note 278: /and/ Ff | an (an') Theobald.]

[Note 275-281: A charming invention, though in his _Life of

Cicero_ Plutarch refers to the orator's nicknames, 'Grecian'

and 'scholer,' due to his ability to "declaim in Greek."

Cicero had a sharp, agile tongue, and was fond of using it;

and nothing was more natural than that he should snap off some

keen, sententious sayings, prudently veiling them, however, in

a foreign language from all but those who might safely

understand them.--/Greek to me./ 'Greek,' often 'heathen

Greek,' was a common Elizabethan expression for unintelligible

speech. In Dekker's _Grissil_ (1600) occurs "It's Greek to

him." So in Dickens's _Barnaby Rudge_: "this is Greek to me."]

[Note 286: /I am promis'd forth:/ I have promised to go out.

'Forth' is often used in this way in Elizabethan literature

without any verb of motion. Cf. _The Merchant of Venice_, II,

v, 11. See Abbott, § 41.]

[Page 28]

BRUTUS. What a blunt fellow is this grown to be!

He was quick mettle when he went to school.

CASSIUS. So is he now, in execution

Of any bold or noble enterprise, 295

However he puts on this tardy form.

This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit,

Which gives men stomach to digest his words

With better appetite.

BRUTUS. And so it is. For this time I will leave you: 300

To-morrow, if you please to speak with me,

I will come home to you; or, if you will,

Come home to me, and I will wait for you.

[Note 298: /digest/ F3 F4 | disgest F1 F2.]

[Note 299: /appetite/ F1 | appetites F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 300: Ff print as two lines.]

[Note 292: /blunt:/ dull, slow. Or there may be a quibble

involved in connection with 'mettle' in the next line. Brutus

alludes to the 'tardy form' (l. 296) Casca has just 'put on'

in winding so long about the matter before coming to the

point.]

[Note 293: /quick mettle:/ lively spirit. Collier conjectured

'quick-mettl'd.' 'Mettlesome' is still used of spirited

horses. Cf. I, i, 63.]

[Note 296: /However:/ notwithstanding. Cf. _Troilus and

Cressida_, I, iii, 322.--/tardy form:/ appearance of

tardiness. The construction in this expression is common in

Shakespeare, as 'shady stealth' for 'stealing shadow,' in

_Sonnets_, LXXVII, 7; 'negligent danger' for 'danger from

negligence,' in _Antony and Cleopatra_, III, v, 81.]

[Page 29]

CASSIUS. I will do so: till then, think of the world.

[_Exit_ BRUTUS]

Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see, 305

Thy honourable metal may be wrought

From that it is dispos'd: therefore it is meet

That noble minds keep ever with their likes;

For who so firm that cannot be seduc'd?

Cæsar doth bear me hard, but he loves Brutus: 310

If I were Brutus now and he were Cassius,

He should not humour me. I will this night,

In several hands, in at his windows throw,

As if they came from several citizens,

Writings, all tending to the great opinion 315

That Rome holds of his name; wherein obscurely

Cæsar's ambition shall be glanced at:

And after this let Cæsar seat him sure;

For we will shake him, or worse days endure. [_Exit_]

[Note 306: /metal/ F3 F4 | mettle F1 | mettall F2.]

[Note 307: /that it is dispos'd:/ that which it is disposed

to. For the omission of prepositions in Shakespeare, see

Abbott, §§ 198-202. Cassius in this speech is chuckling over

the effect his talk has had upon Brutus.]

[Note 310: /bear me hard:/ has a grudge against me. This

remarkable expression occurs three times in this play, but

nowhere else in Shakespeare. Professor Hales quotes an example

of it from Ben Jonson's _Catiline_, IV, v. It seems to have

been borrowed from horsemanship, and to mean 'carries tight

rein,' or 'reins hard,' like one who distrusts his horse. So

before, ll. 35, 36:

You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand

Over your friend that loves you.]

[Note 312: /humour./ To 'humor' a man, as the word is here

used, is to turn and wind and manage him by watching his moods

and crotchets, and to touch him accordingly. It is somewhat in

doubt whether the 'he' in the preceding line refers to Brutus

or to Cæsar. If to Brutus, the meaning of course is: he should

not play upon my humors and fancies as I do upon his. And this

sense is fairly required by the context, for the whole speech

is occupied with the speaker's success in cajoling Brutus, and

with plans for cajoling and shaping him still further. Johnson

refers 'he' to Cæsar.]

[Note 313: /hands:/ handwritings. So the word is used

colloquially to-day.]

[Note 319: We will either shake him, or endure worse days in

suffering the consequences of our attempt.--Shakespeare makes

Cassius overflow with intense personal spite against Cæsar.

This is in accordance with what he read in North's Plutarch.]

[Page 30]

SCENE III. _The same. A street_

_Thunder and lightning. Enter, from opposite sides_, CASCA,

_with his sword drawn, and_ CICERO

CICERO. Good even, Casca: brought you Cæsar home?

Why are you breathless? and why stare you so?

CASCA. Are you not mov'd, when all the sway of earth

Shakes like a thing unfirm? O Cicero,

I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds 5

Have riv'd the knotty oaks, and I have seen

Th' 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. 10

Either there is a civil strife in heaven,

Or else the world, too saucy with the gods,

Incenses them to send destruction.

[Note: SCENE III Capell | Scene VI Pope.]

[Note: _Enter, from ..._ | Enter Caska, and Cicero Ff.]

[Note 10: /tempest dropping fire/ Rowe | tempest-dropping-fire

Ff.]

[Note: SCENE III. Rowe added "with his sword drawn" to the

Folio stage direction, basing the note on l. 19.

A month has passed since the machinery of the conspiracy was

set in motion. The action in the preceding scene took place on

the day of the Lupercalia; the action in this is on the eve of

the Ides of March.]

[Note 1: /brought:/ accompanied. Cf. _Richard II_, I, iv, 2.]

[Note 3-4: /sway of earth:/ established order. "The balanced

swing of earth."--Craik. "The whole weight or momentum of this

globe."--Johnson. In such a raging of the elements, it seems

as if the whole world were going to pieces, or as if the

earth's steadfastness were growing 'unfirm.' "'Unfirm' is not

firm; while 'infirm' is weak."--Clar.]

[Note 11-13: Either the gods are fighting among themselves, or

else they are making war on the world for being overbearing in

its attitude towards them. For Shakespeare's use of 'saucy,'

see Century.]

[Note 13: /destruction./ Must be pronounced as a

quadrisyllable.]

[Page 31]

CICERO. Why, saw you any thing more wonderful?

[Note 14: /any thing more wonderful./ This may be interpreted

as 'anything that was more wonderful,' or 'anything more that

was wonderful.' The former seems the true interpretation. For

the 'wonderful' things that Casca describes, Shakespeare was

indebted to the following passage from Plutarch's _Julius

Cæsar_, which North in the margin entitles "Predictions and

foreshews of Cæsar's death": "Certainly destiny may easier be

foreseen than avoided, considering the strange and wonderful

signs that were said to be seen before Cæsar's death. For,

touching the fires in the element, and spirits running up and

down in the night, and also the solitary birds to be seen at

noondays sitting in the great market-place, are not all these

signs perhaps worth the noting, in such a wonderful chance as

happened? But Strabo the philosopher writeth, that divers men

were seen going up and down in fire, and furthermore, that

there was a slave of the soldiers that did cast a marvellous

burning flame out of his hand, insomuch as they that saw it

thought he had been burnt; but when the fire was out, it was

found he had no hurt. Cæsar self also, doing sacrifice unto

the gods, found that one of the beasts which was sacrificed

had no heart: and that was a strange thing in nature, how a

beast could live without a heart." This passage is worth

special attention, as Shakespeare uses many of the details

again in II, ii, 17-24, 39-40. Cf. _Hamlet_, I, i, 113-125.]

[Page 32]

CASCA. A common slave--you know him well by sight-- 15

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, 20

Who glaz'd 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. 25

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;' 30

For, I believe, they are portentous things

Unto the climate that they point upon.

[Note 21: /glaz'd/ Ff | glar'd Rowe.--/surly/ F1 F4 | surely

F2 F3.]

[Note 28: /Hooting/ Johnson | Howting F1 F2 F3 | Houting F4.]

[Note: 15. /you know./ Dyce suggested 'you'd know'; Craik,

'you knew.' But the text as it stands is dramatically vivid

and realistic.]

[Note 21: /Who./ See Abbott, § 264.--/glaz'd./ Rowe's change

to 'glar'd' is usually adopted as the reading here, but

'glaze' is used intransitively in Middle English in the sense

of 'shine brilliantly,' and Dr. Wright (Clar) says: "I am

informed by a correspondent that the word 'glaze' in the sense

of 'stare' is common in some parts of Devonshire, and that

'glazing like a conger' is a familiar expression in Cornwall."

See Murray for additional examples.]

[Note 23: /Upon a heap:/ together in a crowd. 'Heap' is often

used in this sense in Middle English as it is colloquially

to-day. The Anglo-Saxon _héap_ almost always refers to

persons. In _Richard III_, II, i, 53, occurs "princely heap."

So "Let us on heaps go offer up our lives" in _Henry V_, IV,

v, 18.]

[Note 26: /the bird of night./ The old Roman horror of the owl

is well shown in this passage (spelling modernized) of

Holland's Pliny, quoted by Dr. Wright (Clar): "The screech-owl

betokeneth always some heavy news, and is most execrable ...

in the presages of public affairs.... In sum, he is the very

monster of the night.... There fortuned one of them to enter

the very sanctuary of the Capitol, in that year when Sextus

Papellio Ister and Lucius Pedanius were Consuls; whereupon, at

the Nones of March, the city of Rome that year made general

processions, to appease the wrath of the gods, and was

solemnly purged by sacrifices."]

[Note 30: /These:/ such and such. Cf. "these and these" in II,

i, 31. Casca refers to the doctrine of the Epicureans, who

were slow to believe that such pranks of the elements had any

moral significance in them, or that moral causes had anything

to do with them, and held that the explanation of them was to

be sought for in the simple working of natural laws and

forces. Shakespeare deals humorously with these views in

_All's Well that Ends Well_, II, iii, 1-6.]

[Note 32: /climate:/ region, country. So _Richard II_, IV, i,

130. Cf. _Hamlet_, I, i, 125: "Unto our climatures and

countrymen."]

[Page 33]

CICERO. Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time:

But men may construe things after their fashion,

Clean from the purpose of the things themselves. 35

Comes Cæsar to the Capitol to-morrow?

CASCA. He doth; for he did bid Antonius

Send word to you he would be there to-morrow.

CICERO. Good night then, Casca: this disturbed sky 39

Is not to walk in.

CASCA. Farewell, Cicero. [_Exit_ CICERO]

_Enter_ CASSIUS

CASSIUS. Who's there?

CASCA. A Roman.

CASSIUS. Casca, by your voice.

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

[Note 36: /to/ F1 F2 | up F3 F4.]

[Note 41: Scene VII Pope.]

[Note 42: Two lines in Ff.--/this!/ Dyce this? Ff.]

[Note 35: /Clean:/ quite, completely. From the fourteenth

century to the seventeenth 'clean' was often used in this

sense, usually with verbs of removal and the like, and so it

is still used colloquially. For 'from' without a verb of

motion, see Abbott, § 158.]

[Note 42: /what:/ what a. For the omission of the indefinite

article, common in Shakespeare, see Abbott, § 86. In the

Folios the interrogation mark and the exclamation mark are

often interchanged.]

[Page 34]

CASSIUS. A very pleasing night to honest men.

CASCA. Who ever knew the heavens menace so?

CASSIUS. Those that have known the earth so full of faults.

For my part, I have walk'd about the streets, 46

Submitting me unto the perilous night,

And thus unbraced, Casca, as you see,

Have bar'd my bosom to the thunder-stone:

And when the cross blue lightning seem'd to open 50

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 55

Such dreadful heralds to astonish us.

[Note 50: /blue/ | blew F1.]

[Note 48: /unbraced:/ unbuttoned, with open doublet. For such

anachronisms see note, p. 26, l. 263; also p. 48, l. 73.]

[Note 49: /thunder-stone:/ thunder-bolt. It is still a common

belief in Scotland and Ireland that a stone or bolt falls with

lightning. Cf. _Cymbeline_, IV, ii, 271: "Nor the all-dreaded

thunder-stone."]

[Note 50: /cross:/ zigzag. So in _King Lear_, IV, vii, 33-35:

To stand against the deep, dread-bolted thunder?

In the most terrible and nimble stroke

Of quick, cross lightning?]

[Page 35]

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, 60

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, fools, and children calculate; 65

Why all these things change from their ordinance,

Their natures and preformed 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 70

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, 75

A man no mightier than thyself or me

In personal action, yet prodigious grown,

And fearful, as these strange eruptions are.

[Note 57-60: Five lines in Ff.]

[Note 65: /old men, fools, and/ | Old men, Fooles, and F1 F2 |

Old men, Fools, and F3 F4 | old men fools, and Steevens | old

men fool and White.]

[Note 74: /roars/ | roares F1 | teares F2.]

[Note 60: /cast yourself in:/ throw yourself into a state of.

In previous editions of Hudson's Shakespeare Jervis's

conjecture 'case' for 'cast' was adopted. The change is

unnecessary. Cf. _Cymbeline_, III, ii, 38: "Though forfeiters

you cast in prison."]

[Note 63-68: The construction here is involved, and the

grammar confused, but the meaning is clear enough. The general

idea is that of elements and animals, and even human beings,

acting in a manner out of or against their nature, or changing

their natures and original faculties from the course in which

they were ordained to move, to monstrous or unnatural modes of

action.]

[Note 64: /from quality and kind:/ turn from their disposition

and nature. Emerson and Browning use 'quality' (cf. l. 68) in

this old sense of 'disposition.' 'Kind,' meaning 'nature,' is

common in Shakespeare.]

[Note 65: There seems no necessity for changing the reading of

the Folios. This conjunction of old men, fools, and children

is found in country sayings in England to-day. So in a

Scottish proverb: "Auld fowks, fules, and bairns should never

see wark half dune," White's reading was first suggested by

Mitford.]

[Note 67: /preformed:/ originally created for some special

purpose.]

[Note 71: /monstrous state:/ abnormal condition of things.

'Enormous state' occurs with probably the same general meaning

in _King Lear_, II, ii, 176. As Cassius is an avowed

Epicurean, it may seem out of character to make him speak

thus. But he is here talking for effect, his aim being to

kindle and instigate Casca into the conspiracy; and to this

end he does not hesitate to say what he does not himself

believe.]

[Note 75: This reads as if a lion were kept in the Capitol.

But the meaning probably is that Cæsar roars in the Capitol,

like a lion. Perhaps Cassius has the idea of Cæsar's claiming

or aspiring to be among men what the lion is among beasts. Dr.

Wright suggests that Shakespeare had in mind the lions kept in

the Tower of London, "which there is reason to believe from

indications in the play represented the Capitol to

Shakespeare's mind." It is possible, too, that we have here a

reference to the lion described by Casca in ll. 20-22.]

[Note 77: /prodigious:/ portentous. As in _A Midsummer Night's

Dream_, V, i, 419: "Never mole, hare lip, nor scar, Nor mark

prodigious."]

[Page 36]

CASCA. 'Tis Cæsar that you mean, is it not, Cassius?

CASSIUS. Let it be who it is; for Romans now 80

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 to-morrow 85

Mean to establish Cæsar as a king;

And he shall wear his crown by sea and land,

In every place save here in Italy.

[Note 79: Two lines in Ff.]

[Note 81: /thews/ | Thewes F1 F2 | Sinews F3 F4.]

[Note 80: /Let it be who it is:/ "no matter who it

is."--Clar.]

[Note 81: /thews:/ muscles. So in _Hamlet_, I, iii, 12, and _2

Henry IV_, III, ii, 276. In Chaucer and Middle English the

word means 'manners,' though in Layamon's _Brut_ (l. 6361), in

the singular, it seems to mean 'sinew' or 'strength.' See

Skeat for a suggestive discussion.]

[Note 83: /with:/ by. So in III, ii, 196. See Abbott, § 193.]

[Page 37]

CASSIUS. I know where I will wear this dagger then;

Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius. 90

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

Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat:

Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,

Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,

Can be retentive to the strength of spirit; 95

But life, being weary of these worldly bars,

Never lacks power to dismiss itself.

If I know this, know all the world besides,

That part of tyranny that I do bear

I can shake off at pleasure. [_Thunder still_]

CASCA. So can I: 100

So every bondman in his own hand bears

The power to cancel his captivity.

CASSIUS. And why should Cæsar be a tyrant then?

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

But that he sees the Romans are but sheep: 105

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 110

So vile a thing as Cæsar! 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. 115

[Note 95: Can repress by force man's energy of soul.]

[Note 101: /bondman./ The word 'cancel' in the next line shows

that Casca plays on the two senses of 'bond.' Cf. _Cymbeline_,

V, iv, 28.]

[Note 107-108: The idea seems to be that, as men start a huge

fire with worthless straws or shavings, so Cæsar is using the

degenerate Romans of the time to set the whole world a-blaze

with his own glory. Cassius's enthusiastic hatred of "the

mightiest Julius" is irresistibly delightful. For a good hater

is the next best thing to a true friend; and Cassius's honest

gushing malice is surely better than Brutus's stabbing

sentimentalism.]

[Note 112-115: The meaning is, Perhaps you will go and tell

Cæsar all I have said about him, and then he will call me to

account for it. Very well; go tell him; and let him do his

worst. I care not.]

[Page 38]

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.

CASSIUS. There's a bargain made. 120

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;

And I do know, by this they stay for me 125

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. 130

[Note 129: /In favour's like/ Camb | In favour's, like Johnson

| Is Favors, like F1 F2 | Is Favours, like F3 F4 | Is favour'd

like Capell | Is feav'rous, like Rowe.]

[Note 130: /bloody, fiery/ | bloodie, fierie Ff | bloody-fiery

Dyce.]

[Note 117: /Fleering./ This word of Scandinavian origin seems

to unite the senses of 'grinning,' 'flattering' (see _Love's

Labour's Lost_, V, ii, 109, and Ben Jonson's "fawn and fleer"

in _Volpone_, III, i, 20), and 'sneering,' and so is just the

right epithet for a telltale, who flatters you into saying

that of another which you ought not to say, and then mocks you

by going to that other and telling what you have said.--/Hold,

my hand:/ stay! here is my hand. As men clasp hands in sealing

a bargain. In Rowe's text the comma is omitted.]

[Note 118: /Be factious:/ be active. Or it may mean, 'form a

party,' 'join a conspiracy.'--/griefs:/ grievances. The effect

put for the cause. A common Shakespearian metonymy. Cf. III,

ii, 211; IV, ii, 42, 46.]

[Note 123: /undergo:/ undertake. So in _2 Henry IV_, I, iii,

54; _The Winter's Tale_, II, iii, 164; IV, iv, 554.]

[Note 125: /by this:/ by this time. So in _King Lear_, IV, vi,

45.]

[Note 126: /Pompey's porch./ This was a spacious adjunct to

the huge theater that Pompey had built in the Campus Martius,

outside of the city proper; and there, as Plutarch says in

_Marcus Brutus_, "was set up the image of Pompey, which the

city had made and consecrated in honour of him, when he did

beautify that part of the city with the theatre he built, with

divers porches about it." Here it was that Cæsar was stabbed

to death; and though Shakespeare transfers the assassination

to the Capitol, he makes Cæsar's blood stain the statue of

Pompey. See III, ii, 187, 188.]

[Note 128: /element:/ sky. Twice Shakespeare seems to poke fun

at the way in which the Elizabethans overdid the use of

'element' in this sense, in _Twelfth Night_, III, i, 65, and

in _2 Henry IV_, IV, iii, 58.]

[Note 129: /favour:/ appearance. So in I, ii, 91. Johnson's

emendation, though pleonastic, makes least change upon the

text of the Folios.]

[Page 39]

_Enter_ CINNA.

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

CASSIUS. 'Tis Cinna; I do know him by his gait;

He is a friend. Cinna, where haste you so?

CINNA. To find out you. Who's that? Metellus Cimber?

CASSIUS. No, it is Casca; one incorporate 135

To our attempts. Am I not stay'd for, Cinna?

[Note 132: /gait/ Johnson | gate Ff.]

[Note 131: /close:/ hidden. So in _1 Chronicles_, xii, 1: "He

yet kept himself close because of Saul the son of Kish."]

[Note 135: /incorporate:/ closely united. Shakespeare uses

this word nine times,--four times as an adjective and five

times as a verb. With regard to the omission of _-ed_ in

participial forms, see Abbott, § 342.]

[Page 40]

CINNA. I'm glad on't. What a fearful night is this!

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

CASSIUS. Am I not stay'd for? tell me.

CINNA. Yes, you are.

O, Cassius, if you could 140

But win the noble Brutus to our party--

CASSIUS. Be you content. Good Cinna, take this paper,

And look you lay it in the prætor's chair,

Where Brutus may but find it; and throw this

In at his window; set this up with wax 145

Upon old Brutus' statue: all this done,

Repair to Pompey's porch, where you shall find us.

Is Decius Brutus and Trebonius there?

[Note 137: Two lines in Ff.]

[Note 140: /O, Cassius/ | Ff print in line 139.]

[Note 141: /the noble Brutus/ | Ff print in line 140.]

[Note 143: /in the prætor's chair./ "But for Brutus, his

friends and countrymen, both by divers procurements and sundry

rumours of the city, and by many bills[A] also, did openly

call and procure him to do that he did. For under the image of

his ancestor Junius Brutus, (that drave the kings out of Rome)

they wrote: 'O, that it pleased the gods thou wert now alive,

Brutus!' and again, 'that thou wert here among us now!' His

tribunal or chair, where he gave audience during the time he

was Prætor, was full of such bills: 'Brutus, thou art asleep,

and art not Brutus indeed.'"--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Note A: i.e. /scrolls/.]

[Note 144: /Brutus may but find it:/ only Brutus may find it.]

[Note 148: For a discussion of singular verbs with plural

subjects, see Abbott, § 333. Cf. l. 138, l. 155; III, ii,

26.--/Decius Brutus/. As indicated in the notes to the

Dramatis Personæ, this should be 'Decimus Brutus.'

Shakespeare found the form 'Decius' in North's Plutarch, who

translated from Amyot, in whose French version the blunder was

originally made. Decimus Brutus is said to have been cousin to

the other Brutus of the play. He had been one of Cæsar's

ablest, most favored, and most trusted lieutenants, and had

particularly distinguished himself in his naval service at

Venetia and Massilia. After the murder of Cæsar, he was found

to be written down in his will as second heir.]

[Page 41]

CINNA. All but Metellus Cimber; and he's gone

To seek you at your house. Well, I will hie, 150

And so bestow these papers as you bade me.

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 155

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. 160

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

You have right well conceited. Let us go,

For it is after midnight, and ere day 163

We will awake him and be sure of him. [_Exeunt_]

[Note 151: /bade/ Rowe | bad Ff.]

[Note 159: /countenance/: support.--/alchemy/: the old ideal

art of turning base metals into gold. So in _Sonnets_, XXXIII,

4: "Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy." Cf. _King

John_, III, i, 78.]

[Note 162: /conceited/: formed an idea of, conceived, judged.

'Conceit' as a verb occurs again in III, i, 193, and in

_Othello_, III, iii, 149.]

[Page 42]

ACT II

SCENE I. _Rome._ BRUTUS'S _orchard_

_Enter_ BRUTUS

BRUTUS. What, Lucius, ho!

I cannot, by the progress of the stars,

Give guess how near to day. Lucius, I say!

I would it were my fault to sleep so soundly.

When, Lucius, when? awake, I say! what, Lucius!

_Enter_ LUCIUS

LUCIUS. Call'd you, my lord?

BRUTUS. Get me a taper in my study, Lucius:

When it is lighted, come and call me here.

LUCIUS. I will, my lord. [_Exit_]

[Note: _Rome ... Enter_ BRUTUS Malone | Enter Brutus in his

Orchard Ff.]

[Note 5: /when?/ Ff | when! Delius.--/what, Lucius!/ | what

Lucius? Ff.]

[Note: _orchard._ Shakespeare generally uses 'orchard' in its

original sense of 'garden' (literally 'herb-garden,'

Anglo-Saxon _ort-geard_).]

[Note 1: /What./ A common exclamation frequent in Shakespeare.

So in V, iii, 72. The 'when' of l. 5 shows increasing

impatience.]

[Page 43]

BRUTUS. It must be by his death: and, for my part, 10

I know no personal cause to spurn at him,

But for the general. He would be crown'd:

How that might change his nature, there's the question.

It is the bright day that brings forth the adder,

And that craves wary walking. Crown him?--that;-- 15

And then, I grant, we put a sting in him,

That at his will he may do danger with.

Th' abuse of greatness is when it disjoins

Remorse from power; and, to speak truth of Cæsar,

I have not known when his affections sway'd 20

More than his reason. But 'tis a common proof,

That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,

Whereto the climber upward turns his face;

But when he once attains the upmost round,

He then unto the ladder turns his back, 25

Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees

By which he did ascend. So Cæsar may;

Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since the quarrel

Will bear no colour for the thing he is,

Fashion it thus; that what he is, augmented, 30

Would run to these and these extremities;

And therefore think him as a serpent's egg

Which, hatch'd, would, as his kind, grow mischievous,

And kill him in the shell.

[Note 15: /him?--that;/--Camb Globe | him that, Ff |

him--that--Rowe.]

[Note 23: /climber upward/ Ff | climber-upward Warburton.]

[Note 28: /lest/ F2 F3 F4 | least F1.]

[Note 10: Brutus has been casting about on all sides to find

some means to prevent Cæsar's being king, and here admits that

it can be done only by killing him. Thus the soliloquy opens

in just the right way to throw us back upon his antecedent

meditations. In expression and in feeling it anticipates

_Hamlet_, III, i, 56-88. From now onwards the speeches of

Brutus strangely adumbrate those of Hamlet.]

[Note 12: /the general/: the general public, the community at

large. Cf. _Hamlet_, II, ii, 457, "pleas'd not the million; 't

was caviare to the general." See III, ii, 89, and V, v,

71-72.]

[Note 14: The sunshine of royalty will kindle the serpent in

Cæsar. The figure in 32-34 suggests that 'bring forth' may

here mean 'hatch.']

[Note 17: /do danger with/: do mischief with, prove dangerous.

Cf. _Romeo and Juliet_, V, ii, 20: "neglecting it May do much

danger."]

[Note 19: /Remorse./ Constantly in Shakespeare 'remorse' is

used for 'pity' or 'compassion.' Here it seems to mean

something more, 'conscience,' 'conscientiousness.' So in

_Othello_, III, iii, 468:

Let him command,

And to obey shall be in me remorse,

What bloody business ever.

The possession of dictatorial power is apt to stifle or sear

the conscience, so as to make a man literally remorseless.]

[Note 20: /affections sway'd/ passions (inclinations)

governed.]

[Note 21: /proof:/ experience. So in _Twelfth Night_, III, i,

135.]

[Note 23: Warburton put a hyphen between 'climber' and

'upward.' Delius, however, would connect 'upward' with

'whereto' and 'turns.']

[Note 26: /base degrees/: lower steps. 'Degrees' is here used

in its original, literal sense for the rounds, or steps, of

the ladder.]

[Note 28: /prevent/: anticipate.--/quarrel/: cause of

complaint.]

[Note 29-34: /colour/: pretext, plausible appearance. The

general meaning of this somewhat obscure passage is, Since we

have no show or pretext of a cause, no assignable ground or

apparent ground of complaint, against Cæsar, in what he is, or

in anything he has yet done, let us assume that the further

addition of a crown will quite upset his nature, and

metamorphose him into a serpent. The strain of casuistry used

in this speech is very remarkable. Coleridge found it

perplexing. On the supposition that Shakespeare meant Brutus

for a wise and good man, the speech seems unintelligible. But

Shakespeare must have regarded him simply as a well-meaning

but conceited and shallow idealist; and such men are always

cheating and puffing themselves with the thinnest of sophisms,

feeding on air and conceiving themselves inspired, or

"mistaking the giddiness of the head for the illumination of

the Spirit."]

[Page 44-45]

_Re-enter_ LUCIUS

LUCIUS. The taper burneth in your closet, sir. 35

Searching the window for a flint, I found

This paper, thus seal'd up; and I am sure

It did not lie there when I went to bed.

[_Gives him the letter_]

BRUTUS. Get you to bed again; it is not day.

Is not to-morrow, boy, the first of March? 40

LUCIUS. I know not, sir.

BRUTUS. Look in the calendar, and bring me word.

LUCIUS. I will, sir. [_Exit_]

BRUTUS. The exhalations whizzing in the air

Give so much light that I may read by them. 45

[_Opens the letter and reads_]

Brutus, thou sleep'st: awake, and see thyself.

Shall Rome, etc. Speak, strike, redress!

Brutus, thou sleep'st: awake!

Such instigations have been often dropp'd

Where I have took them up. 50

'Shall Rome, etc.' Thus must I piece it out:

Shall Rome stand under one man's awe? What, Rome?

My ancestors did from the streets of Rome

The Tarquin drive, when he was call'd a king.

'Speak, strike, redress!' Am I entreated 55

To speak and strike? O Rome, I make thee promise,

If the redress will follow, thou receivest

Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus!

[Note 35, 59, 70: _Re-enter_ | Enter Ff.]

[Note 40: /first/ Ff | Ides Theobald.]

[Note 49: /dropp'd/ | dropt, F1 F2.]

[Note 52: /What, Rome?/ Rowe | What Rome Ff.]

[Note 53: /ancestors/ Ff | ancestor Dyce.]

[Note 56: /thee/ F1 F4 | the F2 F3.]

[Note 40: The Folio reading 'first of March' cannot be right

chronologically, though it is undoubtedly what Shakespeare

wrote, for in Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_, he read: "Cassius

asked him if he were determined to be in the Senate-house the

first day of the month of March, because he heard say that

Cæsar's friends should move the Council that day that Cæsar

should be called king by the Senate." This inconsistency is

not without parallels in Shakespeare. Cf. the "four strangers"

in _The Merchant of Venice_, I, ii, 135, when six have been

mentioned. In Scott, too, are many such inconsistencies.]

[Note 44: /exhalations/: meteors. In Plutarch's _Opinions of

Philosophers_, Holland's translation, is this passage

(spelling modernized): "Aristotle supposeth that all these

meteors come of a dry exhalation, which, being gotten enclosed

within a moist cloud, seeketh means, and striveth forcibly to

get forth." Shakespeare uses 'meteor' repeatedly in the same

way. So in _Romeo and Juliet_, III, v, 13.]

[Note 48: The Folios give this line as it is here. Some

editors arrange it as the beginning of the letter repeated

ponderingly by Brutus.]

[Note 49-50: See quotation from Plutarch in note, p. 40, l.

143.]

[Page 46-47]

_Re-enter_ LUCIUS

LUCIUS. Sir, March is wasted fifteen days.

[_Knocking within_]

BRUTUS. 'T is good. Go to the gate; somebody knocks.

[_Exit_ LUCIUS]

Since Cassius first did whet me against Cæsar, 61

I have not slept.

Between the acting of a dreadful thing

And the first motion, all the interim is

Like a phantasma or a hideous dream: 65

The Genius and the mortal instruments

Are then in council; and the state of a man,

Like to a little kingdom, suffers then

The nature of an insurrection.

[Note 59: /fifteen/ Ff | fourteen Theobald.]

[Note 60, 76: [_Exit_ LUCIUS] Ff omit.]

[Note 67: /a man/ F1 | man F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 59: /fifteen./ This, the Folio reading, is undoubtedly

correct. Lines 103-104 and 192-193 show that it is past

midnight, and Lucius is including in his computation the dawn

of the fifteenth day, a natural thing for any one to do,

especially a Roman.]

[Note 64: /motion/: prompting of impulse. Cf. _King John_, IV,

ii, 255.]

[Note 65: /phantasma/: a vision of things that are not.

"Shakespeare seems to use it ('phantasma') in this passage in

the sense of nightmare, which it bears in Italian."--Clar.

What Brutus says here is in the very spirit of Hamlet's

speeches. Cf. also the King's speech to Laertes, _Hamlet_, IV,

vii, 115-124, and _Macbeth_, I, vii, 1-28.]

[Note 66: Commentators differ about 'Genius' here; some taking

it for the 'conscience,' others for the 'anti-conscience.'

Shakespeare uses 'genius,' 'spirit,' and 'demon,' as

synonymous, and all three, apparently, both in a good sense

and in a bad, as every man was supposed to have a good and a

bad angel. So, in this play, IV, iii, 282, we have "thy evil

spirit"; in _The Tempest_, IV, i, 27, "our worser genius"; in

_Troilus and Cressida_, IV, iv, 52, "some say the Genius so

Cries 'come' to him that instantly must die"; in _Antony and

Cleopatra_, II, iii, 19, "Thy demon, that's thy spirit which

keeps thee"; where, as often, 'keeps' is 'guards.' In these

and some other cases the words have some epithet or context

that determines their meaning, but not so with 'Genius' in the

text. But, in all such cases, the words indicate the directive

power of the mind. And so we often speak of a man's 'better

self,' or a man's 'worser self,' according as one is in fact

directed or drawn to good or to evil.--The sense of 'mortal'

here is also somewhat in question. Shakespeare sometimes uses

it for 'perishable,' or that which dies; but oftener for

'deadly,' or that which kills. 'Mortal instruments' may well

be held to mean what Macbeth refers to when he says, "I'm

settled, and bend up Each corporal agent to this terrible

feat."--As Brutus is speaking with reference to his own case,

he probably intends 'Genius' in a good sense, for the

spiritual or immortal part of himself. If so, then he would

naturally mean by 'mortal' his perishable part, or his

ministerial faculties, which shrink from executing what the

directing power is urging them to. The late Professor Ferrier

of St. Andrews seems to take a somewhat different view of the

passage. He says, "In this speech of Brutus, Shakespeare gives

a fine description of the unsettled state of the mind when the

will is hesitating about the perpetration of a great crime,

and when the passions are threatening to overpower, and

eventually do overpower, the reason and the conscience."]

[Note 67-69: Cf. I, ii, 39-47; _Macbeth_, I, iii, 137-142.]

[Page 48]

_Re-enter_ LUCIUS

LUCIUS. Sir, 't is your brother Cassius at the door, 70

Who doth desire to see you.

BRUTUS. Is he alone?

LUCIUS. No, sir, there are moe with him.

BRUTUS. Do you know them?

LUCIUS. No, sir; their hats are pluck'd about their ears,

And half their faces buried in their cloaks,

That by no means I may discover them 75

By any mark of favour.

BRUTUS. Let 'em enter. [_Exit_ LUCIUS]

They are the faction. O conspiracy,

Sham'st thou to show thy dangerous brow by night,

When evils are most free? O, then, by day

Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough 80

To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, conspiracy;

Hide it in smiles and affability:

For if thou path, thy native semblance on,

Not Erebus itself were dim enough

To hide thee from prevention. 85

[Note 72: /moe/ Ff | more Rowe.]

[Note 74: /cloaks/ | Cloakes F1 | cloathes F2 | cloaths F3

F4.]

[Note 76: /'em/ F1 F2 F3 | them F4.]

[Note 83: /path, thy/ F2 | path thy F1 F3 F4 | hath thy Quarto

(1691) | march, thy Pope | put thy Dyce (Coleridge conj.).]

[Note 70: /brother./ Cassius was married to Junia, the sister

of Brutus.]

[Note 72: /moe/: more. The old comparative of 'many.' In

Middle English 'moe,' or 'mo,' was used of number and with

collective nouns; 'more' had reference specifically to size.

See Skeat.]

[Note 73: Pope was evidently so disgusted with Shakespeare's

tendency to dress his Romans like Elizabethans, that in his

two editions he omits 'hats' altogether, indicating the

omission by a dash!]

[Note 76: /favour/: countenance. So in I, ii, 91; I, iii,

129.]

[Note 79: /evils/: evil things. So in _Lucrece_, l. 1250, we

have 'cave-keeping evils.' The line in the text means, When

crimes and mischiefs, and evil and mischievous men, are most

free from the restraints of law or of shame. So Hamlet speaks

of night as the time "when hell itself breathes out Contagion

to this world." Cf. l. 265.]

[Note 83: /path:/ take thy way. Drayton employs 'path' as a

verb, both transitively and intransitively, literally and

figuratively, in _England's Heroicall Epistles_ (1597-1598).

The verb seems to have been in use from the fourteenth century

to the close of the seventeenth.]

[Note 84: /Erebus:/ the region of nether darkness between

Earth and Hades. Cf. _The Merchant of Venice_, V, i, 87: "dark

as Erebus."]

[Note 85: /prevention:/ discovery, anticipation. This, the

original sense, would lead to 'prevention,' as the term is

used to-day.]

[Page 49]

_Enter the conspirators_, CASSIUS, CASCA, DECIUS, CINNA,

METELLUS CIMBER, _and_ TREBONIUS.

CASSIUS. I think we are too bold upon your rest:

Good morrow, Brutus; do we trouble you?

BRUTUS. I have been up this hour, awake all night.

Know I these men that come along with you?

CASSIUS. Yes, every man of them; and no man here 90

But honours you; and every one doth wish

You had but that opinion of yourself

Which every noble Roman bears of you.

This is Trebonius.

BRUTUS. He is welcome hither.

CASSIUS. This, Decius Brutus.

BRUTUS. He is welcome too. 95

CASSIUS. This, Casca; this, Cinna; and this, Metellus Cimber.

[Note 86: Scene II Pope.]

[Note 95: /Decius Brutus./ See notes, Dramatis Personæ, 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, countrymen,

What need we any spur but our own cause

To prick us to redress? what other bond

Than secret Romans, that have spoke the word, 125

And will not palter? and what other oath

Than honesty to honesty engag'd,

That this shall be, or we will fall for it?

Swear priests and cowards and men cautelous,

Old feeble carrions and such suffering souls 130

That welcome wrongs; unto bad causes swear

Such creatures as men doubt; but do not stain

The even virtue of our enterprise,

Nor th' insuppressive mettle of our spirits,

To think that or our cause or our performance 135

Did need an oath; when every drop of blood

That every Roman bears, and nobly bears,

Is guilty of a several bastardy,

If he do break the smallest particle

Of any promise that hath pass'd from him. 140

CASSIUS. But what of Cicero? shall we sound him?

I think he will stand very strong with us.

[Note 114: /No, not an oath./ This is based on Plutarch's

statement in _Marcus Brutus:_ "Furthermore, the only name and

great calling of Brutus did bring on the most of them to give

consent to this conspiracy: who having never taken oaths

together, nor taken or given any caution or assurance, nor

binding themselves one to another by any religious oaths, they

all kept the matter so secret to themselves, and could so

cunningly handle it, that notwithstanding the gods did reveal

it by manifest signs and tokens from above, and by predictions

of sacrifices, yet all this would not be believed."--/if not

the face of men./ This means, probably, the shame and

self-reproach with which Romans must now look each other in

the face under the consciousness of having fallen away from

the republican spirit of their forefathers. The change in the

construction of the sentence gives it a more colloquial cast,

without causing any real obscurity. Modern editors have

offered strange substitutes for 'face' here,--'faith,'

'faiths,' 'fate,' 'fears,' 'yoke,' etc.]

[Note 115: /sufferance:/ suffering. So in _Measure for

Measure_, III, i, 80; _Coriolanus_, I, i, 22. In I, iii, 84,

'sufferance' is used in its ordinary modern sense.--/the

time's abuse:/ the miserable condition of things in the

present. Such 'time's abuse' in his own day Shakespeare

describes in detail in _Sonnets_, LXVI.]

[Note 118-119: Brutus seems to have in mind the capriciousness

of a high-looking and heaven-daring Oriental tyranny, where

men's lives hung upon the nod and whim of the tyrant, as on

the hazards of a lottery.]

[Note 123: /What need we:/ why need we. So in _Antony and

Cleopatra_, V, ii, 317; _Titus Andronicus_, I, i, 189. Cf.

_Mark_, xiv, 63.]

[Note 125: /secret Romans:/ Romans who had promised secrecy.]

[Note 126: /palter:/ equivocate, quibble. The idea is of

shuffling as in making a promise with what is called a "mental

reservation." "Palter with us in a double sense" is the famous

expression in _Macbeth_, V, viii, 20, and it brings out

clearly the meaning implicit in the term.]

[Note 129: /cautelous:/ deceitful. The original meaning is

'wary,' 'circumspect.' It is the older English adjective for

'cautious.' "The transition from caution to suspicion, and

from suspicion to craft and deceit, is not very

abrupt."--Clar. Cf. 'cautel' in _Hamlet_, I, iii, 5.]

[Note 130: /carrions:/ carcasses, men as good as dead.]

[Note 133: /The even virtue:/ the virtue that holds an equable

and uniform tenor, always keeping the same high level. Cf.

_Henry VIII_, III, i, 37.]

[Note 134: /insuppressive:/ not to be suppressed. The active

form with the passive sense. Cf. 'unexpressive,' in _As You

Like It_, III, ii, 10.]

[Note 135: /To think:/ by thinking. The infinitive used

gerundively.]

[Page 53]

CASCA. Let us not leave him out.

CINNA. No, by no means.

METELLUS. O, let us have him, for his silver hairs

Will purchase us a good opinion, 145

And buy men's voices to commend our deeds:

It shall be said, his judgment rul'd our hands;

Our youths and wildness shall no whit appear,

But all be buried in his gravity.

BRUTUS. O, name him not; let us not break with him,

For he will never follow any thing 151

That other men begin.

CASSIUS. Then leave him out.

CASCA. Indeed he is not fit.

DECIUS. Shall no man else be touch'd but only Cæsar?

[Note 145: /opinion:/ reputation. So in _The Merchant of

Venice_, I, i, 91.]

[Note 150: /break with him:/ broach the matter to him. This

bit of dialogue is very charming. Brutus knows full well that

Cicero is not the man to take a subordinate position; that if

he have anything to do with the enterprise it must be as the

leader of it; and that is just what Brutus wants to be

himself. Merivale thinks it a great honor to Cicero that the

conspirators did not venture to propose the matter to him. In

Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_, the attitude of the conspirators to

Cicero is described thus: "For this cause they durst not

acquaint Cicero with their conspiracy, although he was a man

whom they loved dearly and trusted best; for they were afraid

that he, being a coward by nature, and age also having

increased his fear, he would quite turn and alter all their

purpose, and quench the heat of their enterprise (the which

specially required hot and earnest execution), seeking by

persuasion to bring all things to such safety, as there should

be no peril."]

[Page 54]

CASSIUS. Decius, well urg'd: I think it is not meet, 155

Mark Antony, so well belov'd of Cæsar,

Should outlive Cæsar: we shall find of him

A shrewd contriver; and, you know, his means,

If he improve them, may well stretch so far

As to annoy us all; which to prevent, 160

Let Antony and Cæsar fall together.

BRUTUS. Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius,

To cut the head off and then hack the limbs,

Like wrath in death and envy afterwards;

For Antony is but a limb of Cæsar. 165

Let's be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius.

We all stand up against the spirit of Cæsar,

And in the spirit of men there is no blood:

O, that we then could come by Cæsar's spirit,

And not dismember Cæsar! But, alas, 170

Cæsar must bleed for it! And, gentle friends,

Let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully;

Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods,

Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds:

And let our hearts, as subtle masters do, 175

Stir up their servants to an act of rage,

And after seem to chide 'em. This shall make

Our purpose necessary and not envious;

Which so appearing to the common eyes,

We shall be call'd purgers, not murderers. 180

[Note 166: /Let's/ Ff | Let us Theobald.]

[Note 168: /men/ Ff | man Pope.]

[Note 169: /spirit/ F1 | spirits F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 177: /'em/ F1 F2 F3 | them F4.]

[Note 157: /of him:/ in him. The "appositional genitive." See

Abbott, § 172.]

[Note 164: /envy:/ malice. Commonly so in Shakespeare, as in

_The Merchant of Venice_, IV, i, 10. So 'envious' in the sense

of 'malicious' in l. 178.]

[Note 175-177: So the king proceeds with Hubert in _King

John_. And so men often proceed when they wish to have a thing

done, and to shirk the responsibility; setting it on by dark

hints and allusions, and then, after it is done, affecting to

blame or to scold the doers of it.]

[Note 180: /purgers:/ healers, cleansers of the land from

tyranny.]

[Page 55]

And for Mark Antony, think not of him;

For he can do no more than Cæsar's arm

When Cæsar's head is off.

CASSIUS. Yet I fear him,

For in the ingrafted love he bears to Cæsar--

BRUTUS. Alas, good Cassius, do not think of him: 185

If he love Cæsar, all that he can do

Is to himself, take thought and die for Cæsar:

And that were much he should, for he is given

To sports, to wildness, and much company. 189

TREBONIUS. There is no fear in him; let him not die;

For he will live, and laugh at this hereafter. [_Clock strikes_]

BRUTUS. Peace! count the clock.

CASSIUS. The clock hath stricken three.

TREBONIUS. 'Tis time to part.

[Note 187: 'Think and die,' as in _Antony and Cleopatra_, III,

xiii, 1, seems to have been a proverbial expression meaning

'grieve oneself to death'; and it would be much indeed, a very

wonderful thing, if Antony should fall into any killing

sorrow, such a light-hearted, jolly companion as he is. Cf.

_Hamlet_, III, i, 85. 'Thoughtful' (sometimes in the form

'thoughtish') is a common provincial expression for

'melancholy' in Cumberland and Roxburghshire to-day.]

[Note 188-189: Here is Plutarch's account in _Marcus

Antonius_, of contemporary criticism of Antony's habits: "And

on the other side, the noblemen (as Cicero saith), did not

only mislike him, but also hate him for his naughty life: for

they did abhor his banquets and drunken feasts he made at

unseasonable times, and his extreme wasteful expenses upon

vain light huswives; and then in the daytime he would sleep or

walk out his drunkenness, thinking to wear away the fume of

the abundance of wine which he had taken over night."]

[Note 190: /no fear:/ no cause of fear. Cf. _The Merchant of

Venice_, II, i, 9.]

[Note 192: /stricken./ In II, ii, 114, we have the form

'strucken.' An interesting anachronism is this matter of a

striking clock in old Rome.]

[Page 56]

CASSIUS. But it is doubtful yet

Whether Cæsar will come forth to-day or no;

For he is superstitious grown of late, 195

Quite from the main opinion he held once

Of fantasy, of dreams, and ceremonies:

It may be these apparent prodigies,

The unaccustom'd terror of this night,

And the persuasion of his augurers, 200

May hold him from the Capitol to-day.

[Note 194: /Whether./ So in the Folios. Cf. the form 'where'

in I, i, 63.]

[Note 196: For 'from' without a verb of motion see Abbott, §

158. 'Main' is often found in sixteenth century literature in

the sense of 'great,' 'strong,' 'mighty.' Cæsar was, in his

philosophy, an Epicurean, like most of the educated Romans of

the time. Hence he was, in opinion, strongly skeptical about

dreams and ceremonial auguries. But his conduct, especially in

his later years, was characterized by many gross instances of

superstitious practice.]

[Note 198: /apparent prodigies:/ evident portents. 'Apparent'

in this sense of 'plainly manifest,' and so 'undeniable,' is

found more than once in Shakespeare. Cf. _King John_, IV, ii,

93; _Richard II_, I, i, 13.]

[Page 57]

DECIUS. Never fear that: if he be so resolv'd,

I can o'ersway him; for he loves to hear

That unicorns may be betray'd with trees,

And bears with glasses, elephants with holes, 205

Lions with toils, and men with flatterers:

But when I tell him he hates flatterers,

He says he does, being then most flattered.

Let me work;

For I can give his humour the true bent, 210

And I will bring him to the Capitol.

CASSIUS. Nay, we will all of us be there to fetch him.

BRUTUS. By the eighth hour; is that the uttermost?

CINNA. Be that the uttermost, and fail not then.

METELLUS. Caius Ligarius doth bear Cæsar hard, 215

Who rated him for speaking well of Pompey:

I wonder none of you have thought of him.

[Note 213: /eighth/ F4 | eight F1 F2 F3.]

[Note 215: /hard/ F1 | hatred F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 204: So in Spenser, _The Faerie Queene_, II, v, 10:

Like as a Lyon, whose imperiall powre

A prowd rebellious Unicorn defyes,

T' avoide the rash assault and wrathful stowre

Of his fiers foe, him to a tree applyes,

And when him ronning in full course he spyes,

He slips aside; the whiles that furious beast

His precious home sought of his enimyes,

Strikes in the stocke ne thence can be releast,

But to the mighty victor yields a bounteous feast.]

[Note 205: Bears are said to have been caught by putting

looking-glasses in their way; they being so taken with the

images of themselves that the hunters could easily master

them. Elephants were beguiled into pitfalls, lightly covered

over with hurdles and turf.]

[Note 206: /toils:/ nets, snares. The root idea of the word is

a 'thing woven' (Cf. Spenser's 'welwoven toyles' in

_Astrophel_, xvii, 1), and while it seems to have primary

reference to a web or cord spread for taking prey, the old Fr.

_toile_ sometimes means a 'stalking-horse of painted canvas.'

Shakespeare uses the word several times. Cf. _Antony and

Cleopatra_, V, ii, 351; _Hamlet_, III, ii, 362.]

[Note 215: /doth bear Cæsar hard./ For a discussion of this

interesting expression see note, p. 29, l. 310. "Now amongst

Pompey's friends there was one called Caius Ligarius, who had

been accused unto Cæsar for taking part with Pompey, and Cæsar

discharged him. But Ligarius thanked not Cæsar so much for his

discharge, as he was offended with him for that he was brought

in danger by his tyrannical power: and therefore in his heart

he was always his mortal enemy, and was besides very familiar

with Brutus, who went to see him being sick in his bed, and

said unto him: 'Ligarius, in what a time art thou sick?'

Ligarius, rising up in his bed, and taking him by the right

hand, said unto him: 'Brutus,' said he, 'if thou hast any

great enterprise in hand, worthy of thyself, I am

whole.'"--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Page 58]

BRUTUS. Now, good Metellus, go along by him:

He loves me well, and I have given him reasons;

Send him but hither, and I'll fashion him. 220

CASSIUS. The morning comes upon 's: we'll leave you, Brutus:

And, friends, disperse yourselves; but all remember

What you have said, and show yourselves true Romans.

BRUTUS. Good gentlemen, look fresh and merrily;

Let not our looks put on our purposes; 225

But bear it as our Roman actors do,

With untir'd spirits and formal constancy:

And so, good morrow to you every one.

[_Exeunt all but_ BRUTUS]

Boy! Lucius! Fast asleep? It is no matter;

Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber: 230

Thou hast no figures nor no fantasies,

Which busy care draws in the brains of men;

Therefore thou sleep'st so sound.

[Note 221: Two lines in Ff.]

[Note 228: [_Exeunt_ ...] | Exeunt. Manet Brutus Ff.]

[Note 230: /honey-heavy dew/ | hony-heavy-Dew Ff | honey heavy

dew Johnson | heavy honey-dew Collier.]

[Note 218: /by him:/ by his house. Make your way home that

way.]

[Note 225: Let not our looks betray our purposes by wearing,

or being attired with, any indication of them. Cf. _Macbeth_,

I, vii, 81.]

[Note 230: The compound epithet, 'honey-heavy,' is very

expressive and apt. The 'dew of slumber' is called 'heavy'

because it makes the subject feel heavy, and 'honey-heavy,'

because the heaviness it induces is sweet. But there may be a

reference to the old belief that the bee gathered its honey

from falling dew. So in Vergil's _Georgics_, IV, i, we have

"the heavenly gifts of honey born in air." Brutus is naturally

led to contrast the free and easy state of the boy's mind with

that of his own, which the excitement of his present

undertaking is drawing full of visions and images of trouble.]

[Page 59]

_Enter_ PORTIA

PORTIA. Brutus, my lord!

BRUTUS. Portia, what mean you? wherefore rise you now?

It is not for your health thus to commit 235

Your weak condition to the raw cold morning.

PORTIA. Nor for yours neither. You've ungently, Brutus,

Stole from my bed: and yesternight at supper

You suddenly arose, and walk'd about,

Musing and sighing, with your arms across; 240

And when I ask'd you what the matter was,

You star'd upon me with ungentle looks:

I urg'd you further; then you scratch'd your head,

And too impatiently stamp'd with your foot:

Yet I insisted, yet you answer'd not, 245

But with an angry wafture of your hand

Gave sign for me to leave you. So I did,

Fearing to strengthen that impatience

Which seem'd too much enkindled, and withal

Hoping it was but an effect of humour, 250

Which sometime hath his hour with every man.

It will not let you eat, nor talk, nor sleep,

And, could it work so much upon your shape

As it hath much prevail'd on your condition,

I should not know you, Brutus. Dear my lord, 255

Make me acquainted with your cause of grief.

[Note 233: Scene III Pope.]

[Note 237: /You've/ Rowe | Y' have Ff.]

[Note 239: /suddenly/ | sodainly Ff.]

[Note 246: /wafture/ Rowe | wafter Ff.]

[Note 255: /you, Brutus/ F4 | you Brutus F1 F2 F3.]

[Note 233: Similarities and differences between this scene

with Brutus and Portia and that between Hotspur and his wife

in _1 King Henry IV_, II, iii, will prove a suggestive study.

The description of the development of Portia's suspicion here

is taken directly from Plutarch. "Out of his house he (Brutus)

did so frame and fashion his countenance and looks that no man

could discern he had anything to trouble his mind. But when

night came that he was in his own house, then he was clean

changed: for either care did wake him against his will when he

would have slept, or else oftentimes of himself he fell into

such deep thoughts of this enterprise, casting in his mind all

the dangers that might happen: that his wife, lying by him,

found that there was some marvellous great matter that

troubled his mind, not being wont to be in that taking, and

that he could not well determine with himself."--Plutarch,

_Marcus Brutus_.]

[Note 237: Double negatives abound in Shakespeare. See Abbott,

§ 406.]

[Note 250: /humour:/ moody caprice. The word comes to have

this meaning from the theory of the old physiologists that

four cardinal humors--blood, choler or yellow bile, phlegm,

and melancholy or black bile--determine, by their conditions

and proportions, a person's physical and mental qualities. The

influence of this theory survives in the application of the

terms 'sanguine,' 'choleric,' 'phlegmatic,' and 'melancholy'

to disposition and temperament.]

[Note 254: /condition:/ disposition, temper. So in _The

Merchant of Venice_, I, ii, 143: "If he have the condition of

a saint and the complexion of a devil, I had rather he should

shrive me than wive me." Cf. the term 'ill-conditioned,' still

in use to describe an irascible or quarrelsome disposition. In

l. 236 'condition' refers to bodily health.]

[Note 255: /Dear my lord./ This transposition, common in

earnest address, is due to close association of possessive

adjective and noun.]

[Page 60]

BRUTUS. I am not well in health, and that is all.

PORTIA. Brutus is wise, and, were he not in health,

He would embrace the means to come by it.

BRUTUS. Why, so I do. Good Portia, go to bed. 260

[Page 61]

PORTIA. Is Brutus sick? and is it physical

To walk unbraced and suck up the humours

Of the dank morning? What, is Brutus sick,

And will he steal out of his wholesome bed,

To dare the vile contagion of the night, 265

And tempt the rheumy and unpurged air

To add unto his sickness? No, my Brutus;

You have some sick offence within your mind,

Which by the right and virtue of my place

I ought to know of: and, upon my knees, 270

I charm you, by my once-commended beauty,

By all your vows of love and that great vow

Which did incorporate and make us one,

That you unfold to me, yourself, your half,

Why you are heavy, and what men to-night 275

Have had resort to you; for here have been

Some six or seven, who did hide their faces

Even from darkness.

[Note 263: /dank/ | danke F1 | darke F2 | dark F3 F4.]

[Note 267: /his/ | hit F1]

[Note 271: /charm/ F3 F4 | charme F1 F2 | charge Pope.]

[Note 261: /physical:/ wholesome, salutary. Cf. _Coriolanus_,

I, v, 19.]

[Note 266: 'Rheumy' here means that state of the air which

causes the unhealthy issue of 'rheum,' a word which was

specially used of the fluids that issue from the eyes or

mouth. So in _Hamlet_, II, ii, 529, we have 'bisson rheum' for

'blinding tears.' So in _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, II, i,

105, Titania speaks of the moon as washing "all the air, That

rheumatic diseases do abound."]

[Note 271: /charm:/ conjure, appeal by charms. So in

_Lucrece_, l. 1681.]

[Page 62]

BRUTUS. Kneel not, gentle Portia.

PORTIA. I should not need, if you were gentle Brutus.

Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus, 280

Is it excepted I should know no secrets

That appertain to you? Am I yourself

But, as it were, in sort or limitation,

To keep with you at meals, comfort your bed,

And talk to you sometimes? Dwell I but in the suburbs 285

Of your good pleasure? If it be no more,

Portia is Brutus' harlot, not his wife.

[Note 280: /the/ | tho F1.]

[Note 279: This speech, and that beginning with l. 291, follow

Plutarch very closely: "His wife Porcia[A] ... was the

daughter of Cato, whom Brutus married being his cousin, not a

maiden, but a young widow after the death of her first husband

Bibulus, by whom she had also a young son called Bibulus, who

afterwards wrote a book of the acts and gests of Brutus ....

This young lady, being excellently well seen[B] in philosophy,

loving her husband well, and being of a noble courage, as she

was also wise: because she would not ask her husband what he

ailed before she had made some proof by her self: she took a

little razor, such as barbers occupy to pare men's nails, and,

causing her maids and women to go out of her chamber, gave

herself a great gash withal in her thigh, that she was

straight all of a gore blood: and incontinently after a

vehement fever took her, by reason of the pain of her wound.

Then perceiving her husband was marvellously out of quiet, and

that he could take no rest, even in her greatest pain of all

she spake in this sort unto him: 'I being, O Brutus,' said

she, 'the daughter of Cato, was married unto thee; not to be

thy bed-fellow and companion in bed and at board only, like a

harlot, but to be partaker also with thee of thy good and evil

fortune. Now for thyself, I can find no cause of fault in thee

touching our match: but for my part, how may I shew my duty

towards thee and how much I would do for thy sake; if I cannot

constantly bear a secret mischance or grief with thee, which

requireth secrecy and fidelity? I confess that a woman's wit

commonly is too weak to keep a secret safely: but yet, Brutus,

good education, and the company of virtuous men, have some

power to reform the defect of nature. And for my self, I have

this benefit moreover, that I am the daughter of Cato, and

wife of Brutus. This notwithstanding, I did not trust to any

of these things before, until that now I have found by

experience, that no pain or grief whatsoever can overcome me.'

With those words she shewed him her wound on her thigh, and

told him what she had done to prove herself. Brutus was amazed

to hear what she said unto him, and lifting up his hands to

heaven, he besought the gods to give him the grace he might

bring his enterprise to so good pass, that he might be found a

husband, worthy of so noble a wife as Porcia: so he then did

comfort her the best he could."--_Marcus Brutus._]

[Note A: the correct classical spelling.]

[Note B: i.e. versed.]

[Note 285-286: In the outskirts or borders, and not at the

center or near the heart. The image is exceedingly apposite

and expressive.]

[Page 63]

BRUTUS. You are my true and honourable wife,

As dear to me as are the ruddy drops

That visit my sad heart. 290

PORTIA. If this were true, then should I know this secret.

I grant I am a woman; but withal

A woman that Lord Brutus took to wife:

I grant I am a woman; but withal

A woman well-reputed, Cato's daughter. 295

Think you I am no stronger than my sex,

Being so father'd and so husbanded?

Tell me your counsels; I will not disclose 'em.

I have made strong proof of my constancy,

Giving myself a voluntary wound 300

Here, in the thigh: can I bear that with patience,

And not my husband's secrets?

BRUTUS. O ye gods,

Render me worthy of this noble wife! [_Knocking within_]

Hark, hark! one knocks. Portia, go in a while;

And by and by thy bosom shall partake 305

The secrets of my heart:

All my engagements I will construe to thee,

All the charactery of my sad brows.

Leave me with haste. [_Exit_ PORTIA] Lucius, who's that knocks?

[Note 303: [_Knocking within_] Malone | Knocke F1 F2.]

[Note 289-290: This embodies what was known about the

circulation of the blood at the close of the sixteenth

century. In 1616, the year of Shakespeare's death, William

Harvey, born in 1578, lectured on his great discovery, but his

celebrated treatise was not published until 1628. The general

fact of the circulation was known in ancient times, and

Harvey's discovery lay in ascertaining the _modus operandi_ of

it, and in reducing it to matter of strict science.]

[Note 295: Cf. _The Merchant of Venice_, I, 1, 166:

Her name is Portia, nothing undervalued

To Cato's daughter, Brutus' Portia.]

[Note 308: /charactery:/ "writing by characters or strange

marks." Brutus therefore means that he will divulge to her the

secret cause of the sadness marked on his countenance.

'Charactery' seems to mean simply 'writing' in the well-known

passage in _The Merry Wives of Windsor_, V, v, 77: "Fairies

use flowers for their charactery." So in Keats: "Before

high-piled books in charactery Hold like rich garners the

full-ripen'd grain."]

[Note 309: Editors from Pope down have been busy trying to

mend the grammar and the rhythm of this line. But in

Shakespeare the full pause has often the value of a syllable,

and the omission of the relative is common in Elizabethan

literature. See Abbott, § 244.]

[Page 64]

_Re-enter_ LUCIUS _with_ LIGARIUS

LUCIUS. Here is a sick man that would speak with you. 310

BRUTUS. Caius Ligarius, that Metellus spake of.

Boy, stand aside. Caius Ligarius! how?

LIGARIUS. Vouchsafe good morrow from a feeble tongue.

BRUTUS. O, what a time have you chose out, brave Caius,

To wear a kerchief! Would you were not sick! 315

LIGARIUS. I am not sick, if Brutus have in hand

Any exploit worthy the name of honour.

[Note 310: _Re-enter ... with_ Dyce | Enter ... and Ff after

[Exit Portia].]

[Note 313 (and elsewhere): LIGARIUS | Cai. Ff.]

[Note 315: /To wear a kerchief./ It was a common practice in

England for those who were sick to wear a kerchief on their

heads. So in Fuller's _Worthies, Cheshire_, 1662, quoted by

Malone: "If any there be sick, they make him a posset and tye

a kerchief on his head: and if that will not mend him, then

God be merciful to him."]

[Page 65]

BRUTUS. Such an exploit have I in hand, Ligarius,

Had you a healthful ear to hear of it.

LIGARIUS. By all the gods that Romans bow before, 320

I here discard my sickness! Soul of Rome!

Brave son, deriv'd from honourable loins!

Thou, like an exorcist, hast conjur'd up

My mortified spirit. Now bid me run,

And I will strive with things impossible; 325

Yea, get the better of them. What's to do?

BRUTUS. A piece of work that will make sick men whole.

LIGARIUS. But are not some whole that we must make sick?

BRUTUS. That must we also. What it is, my Caius,

I shall unfold to thee, as we are going 330

To whom it must be done.

LIGARIUS. Set on your foot,

And with a heart new-fir'd I follow you,

To do I know not what; but it sufficeth

That Brutus leads me on.

BRUTUS. Follow me, then. [_Exeunt_]

[Note 327: Two lines in Ff.]

[Note 334: _Thunder_ Ff.]

[Note 321: /I here discard my sickness./ Ligarius here pulls

off the kerchief. Cf. Northumberland's speech, _2 Henry IV_,

I, i, 147, "hence, thou sickly quoif! Thou art a guard too

wanton for the head."]

[Note 323: In Shakespeare's time, 'exorcist' and 'conjurer'

were used indifferently. The former has since come to mean

only 'one who drives away spirits'; the latter, 'one who calls

them up.']

[Note 324: /My mortified spirit:/ my spirit that was dead in

me. So 'mortifying groans' in _The Merchant of Venice_, I, i,

82, and 'mortified man' in _Macbeth_, V, ii, 5. Words directly

derived from Latin are often used, by Shakespeare and

sixteenth century writers, in a signification peculiarly close

to the root notion of the word.]

[Page 66]

SCENE II. CÆSAR'S _house_

_Thunder and lightning._ _Enter_ CÆSAR, _in his night-gown_

CÆSAR. Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace to-night:

Thrice hath Calpurnia in her sleep cried out,

'Help, ho! they murder Cæsar!' Who's within?

[Note: SCENE II Rowe | Scene IV Pope.] [Note: --CÆSAR'S

_house_ | Ff omit.] [Note: _Enter_ CÆSAR ... | Enter Julius

Cæsar ... Ff.--_in his night-gown_ Pope omits.]

[Note 1: Two lines in Ff.]

[Note: This scene, taken with the preceding, affords an

interesting study in contrasts: Cæsar and Brutus; Calpurnia

the yielding wife, and Portia the heroic.]

[Note: _Enter_ CÆSAR _in his night-gown_.' Night-gown' here,

as in _Macbeth_, II, ii, 70, V, 1, 5, means 'dressing-robe' or

'dressing-gown.' This is the usual meaning of the word in

English from the fifteenth century to the eighteenth. So

Addison and Steele use it in _The Spectator_.]

[Note 2: In Plutarch the scene is thus graphically described:

"Then going to bed the same night, as his manner was, and

lying with his wife Calpurnia, all the windows and doors of

his chamber flying open, the noise awoke him, and made him

afraid when he saw such light; but more, when he heard his

wife Calpurnia, being fast asleep, weep and sigh, and put

forth many fumbling lamentable speeches: for she dreamed that

Cæsar was slain.... Cæsar rising in the morning, she prayed

him, if it were possible, not to go out of the doors that day,

but to adjourn the session of the Senate until another day.

And if that he made no reckoning of her dream, yet that he

would search further of the soothsayers by their sacrifices,

to know what should happen him that day. Thereby it seemed

that Cæsar did likewise fear or suspect somewhat, because his

wife Calpurnia until that time was never given to any fear and

superstition; and that then he saw her so troubled in mind

with this dream she had. But much more afterwards, when the

soothsayers having sacrificed many beasts one after another,

told him that none did like[A] them: then he determined to

send Antonius to adjourn the session of the Senate."--_Julius

Cæsar._]

[Note A: i.e. satisfy.]

[Page 67]

_Enter a_ Servant

SERVANT. My lord?

CÆSAR. Go bid the priests do present sacrifice, 5

And bring me their opinions of success.

SERVANT. I will, my lord. [_Exit_]

_Enter_ CALPURNIA

CALPURNIA. What mean you, Cæsar? think you to walk forth?

You shall not stir out of your house to-day. 9

CÆSAR. Cæsar shall forth: the things that threaten'd me

Ne'er look'd but on my back; when they shall see

The face of Cæsar, they are vanished.

CALPURNIA. Cæsar, I never stood on ceremonies,

Yet now they fright me. There is one within,

Besides the things that we have heard and seen, 15

Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch.

A lioness hath whelped in the streets;

And graves have yawn'd, and yielded up their dead;

Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds,

In ranks and squadrons and right form of war, 20

Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol;

The noise of battle hurtled in the air,

Horses did neigh, and dying men did groan;

And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets.

O Cæsar, these things are beyond all use, 25

And I do fear them!

[Note 22: /hurtled/ F1 | hurried F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 23: /did neigh/ F2 F3 F4 | do neigh F1.]

[Note 6: /success:/ the result. The root notion of the word.

See note, p. 65, l. 324. But in V, iii, 65, the word is used

in its modern sense.]

[Note 13: 'Ceremonies' is here put for the ceremonial or

sacerdotal interpretation of prodigies and omens, as in II, i,

197.]

[Note 16-24: Cf. _Hamlet_, I, i, 113-125; Vergil, _Georgics_,

I, 465-488.]

[Note 22: /hurtled:/ clashed. The onomatopoetic 'hurtling' is

used in _As You Like It_, IV, iii, 132, to describe the

clashing encounter between Orlando and the lioness. Chaucer,

in _The Knightes Tale_ l. 1758, uses the verb transitively,

suggesting a diminutive of 'hurt':

And he him hurtleth with his horse adown.]

[Page 68]

CÆSAR. What can be avoided

Whose end is purpos'd by the mighty gods?

Yet Cæsar shall go forth; for these predictions

Are to the world in general as to Cæsar.

CALPURNIA. When beggars die, there are no comets seen; 30

The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.

CÆSAR. Cowards die many times before their deaths;

The valiant never taste of death but once.

Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,

It seems to me most strange that men should fear; 35

Seeing that death, a necessary end,

Will come when it will come.

[Note 33: /taste of death./ This expression occurs thrice in

the New Testament (King James version). Plutarch relates that,

a short time before Cæsar fell, some of his friends urged him

to have a guard about him, and he replied that it was better

to die at once than live in the continual fear of death. He is

also said to have given as his reason for refusing a guard,

that he thought Rome had more need of him than he of Rome.

"And the very day before, Cæsar, supping with Marcus Lepidus,

sealed certain letters, as he was wont to do, at the board:

so, talk falling out amongst them, reasoning what death was

best, he, preventing their opinions, cried out aloud, 'Death

unlooked for.'"--Plutarch, _Julius Cæsar_.]

[Page 69]

_Re-enter_ Servant

What say the augurers?

SERVANT. They would not have you to stir forth to-day.

Plucking the entrails of an offering forth,

They could not find a heart within the beast. 40

CÆSAR. The gods do this in shame of cowardice:

Cæsar should be a beast without a heart,

If he should stay at home to-day for fear.

No, Cæsar shall not: danger knows full well

That Cæsar is more dangerous than he: 45

We are two lions litter'd in one day,

And I the elder and more terrible;

And Cæsar shall go forth.

CALPURNIA. Alas, my lord,

Your wisdom is consum'd in confidence!

Do not go forth to-day: call it my fear 50

That keeps you in the house, and not your own.

We'll send Mark Antony to the senate-house,

And he shall say you are not well to-day:

Let me, upon my knee, prevail in this.

CÆSAR. Mark Antony shall say I am not well; 55

And, for thy humour, I will stay at home.

_Enter_ DECIUS

Here's Decius Brutus, he shall tell them so.

DECIUS. Cæsar, all hail! good morrow, worthy Cæsar:

I come to fetch you to the senate-house.

[Note 37: _Re-enter_ ... | Enter a ... Ff.]

[Note 46: /are/ Capell | heare F1 F2 | hear F3 F4 | heard

Rowe.]

[Note 57: Scene V Pope.]

[Note 42: /should:/ would. The present-day usage is

post-Elizabethan.]

[Page 70]

CÆSAR. And you are come in very happy time, 60

To bear my greeting to the senators

And tell them that I will not come to-day.

Cannot, is false, and that I dare not, falser;

I will not come to-day. Tell them so, Decius.

CALPURNIA. Say he is sick.

CÆSAR. Shall Cæsar send a lie? 65

Have I in conquest stretch'd mine arm so far,

To be afeard to tell graybeards the truth?

Decius, go tell them Cæsar will not come.

DECIUS. Most mighty Cæsar, let me know some cause,

Lest I be laugh'd at when I tell them so. 70

CÆSAR. The cause is in my will; I will not come;

That is enough to satisfy the senate.

But, for your private satisfaction,

Because I love you, I will let you know:

Calpurnia here, my wife, stays me at home. 75

She dreamt to-night she saw my statue,

Which, like a fountain with an hundred spouts,

Did run pure blood; and many lusty Romans

Came smiling and did bathe their hands in it:

And these does she apply for warnings and portents 80

And evils imminent, and on her knee

Hath begg'd that I will stay at home to-day.

[Note 67: /afeard/ F1 F2 F3 | afraid F4--/truth?/ | truth:

Ff.]

[Note 76: /statue/ Ff | statua Steevens | statuë Camb.]

[Note 76: /to-night:/ last night. So in _The Merchant of

Venice_, II, v, 18.--/statue./ In Shakespeare's time 'statue'

was pronounced indifferently as a word of two syllables or

three. Bacon uses it repeatedly as a trisyllable, and spells

it 'statua,' as in his _Advancement of Learning_: "It is not

possible to have the true pictures or statuaes of Cyrus,

Alexander, Cæsar, no, nor of the kings or great personages."]

[Page 71]

DECIUS. This dream is all amiss interpreted:

It was a vision fair and fortunate.

Your statue spouting blood in many pipes, 85

In which so many smiling Romans bath'd,

Signifies that from you great Rome shall suck

Reviving blood, and that great men shall press

For tinctures, stains, relics, and cognizance.

This by Calpurnia's dream is signified. 90

CÆSAR. And this way have you well expounded it.

DECIUS. I have, when you have heard what I can say;

And know it now: the senate have concluded

To give this day a crown to mighty Cæsar.

If you shall send them word you will not come, 95

Their minds may change. Besides, it were a mock

Apt to be render'd, for some one to say

'Break up the senate till another time,

When Cæsar's wife shall meet with better dreams.'

If Cæsar hide himself, shall they not whisper, 100

'Lo, Cæsar is afraid'?

Pardon me, Cæsar; for my dear dear love

To your proceeding bids me tell you this;

And reason to my love is liable. 104

[Note 88-89: In ancient times, when martyrs or other

distinguished men were executed, their friends often pressed

to stain handkerchiefs with their blood, or to get some other

relic, which they might keep, either as precious memorials of

them, or as having a kind of sacramental virtue. 'Cognizance'

is here used in a heraldic sense, meaning any badge to show

whose friends the wearers were.]

[Note 94: The Roman people were specially yearning to avenge

the slaughter of Marcus Crassus and his army by the Parthians,

and Cæsar was at this time preparing an expedition against

them. But a Sibylline oracle was alleged, that Parthia could

only be conquered by a king; and it was proposed to invest

Cæsar with the royal title and authority over the foreign

subjects of the state. It is agreed on all hands that, if his

enemies did not originate this proposal, they at least

craftily urged it on, in order to make him odious, and

exasperate the people against him. To the same end, they had

for some time been plying the arts of extreme sycophancy,

heaping upon him all possible honors, human and divine, hoping

thereby to kindle such a fire of envy as would consume him.]

[Note 96-97: /it were a mock Apt to be render'd:/ it were a

sarcastic reply likely to be made. Cf. the expression, 'make a

mock of.']

[Note 104: /liable:/ subject. Cf. _King John_, II, i, 490. The

thought here is that love stands as principal, reason as

second or subordinate. "The deference which reason holds due

from me to you is in this instance subject and amenable to the

calls of personal affection."]

[Page 72]

CÆSAR. How foolish do your fears seem now, Calpurnia!

I am ashamed I did yield to them.

Give me my robe, for I will go.

[Note 107: Plutarch thus describes the scene: "But in the mean

time Decius Brutus, surnamed Albinus, in whom Cæsar put such

confidence, that in his last will and testament he had

appointed him to be his next heir, and yet was of the

conspiracy with Cassius and Brutus: he, fearing that if Cæsar

did adjourn the session that day, the conspiracy would be

betrayed, laughed at the soothsayers, and reproved Cæsar,

saying, 'that he gave the Senate occasion to mislike with him,

and that they might think he mocked them, considering that by

his commandment they were assembled, and that they were ready

willingly to grant him all things, and to proclaim him king of

all his provinces of the Empire of Rome out of Italy, and that

he should wear his diadem in all other places both by sea and

land. And furthermore, that if any man should tell them from

him they should depart for that present time, and return again

when Calpurnia should have better dreams, what would his

enemies and ill-willers say, and how could they like of his

friends' words? And who could persuade them otherwise, but

that they should think his dominion a slavery unto them and

tyrannical in himself? And yet if it be so,' said he, 'that

you utterly mislike of this day, it is better that you go

yourself in person, and, saluting the Senate, to dismiss them

till another time.' Therewithal he took Cæsar by the hand, and

brought him out of his house."--_Julius Cæsar._]

[Page 73]

_Enter_ PUBLIUS, BRUTUS, LIGARIUS, METELLUS, CASCA,

TREBONIUS, _and_ CINNA

And look where Publius is come to fetch me.

PUBLIUS. Good morrow, Cæsar.

CÆSAR. Welcome, Publius.

What, Brutus, are you stirr'd so early too? 110

Good morrow, Casca. Caius Ligarius,

Cæsar was ne'er so much your enemy

As that same ague which hath made you lean.

What is 't o'clock?

BRUTUS. Cæsar, 't is strucken eight.

CÆSAR. I thank you for your pains and courtesy. 115

_Enter_ ANTONY

See! Antony, that revels long o' nights,

Is notwithstanding up. Good morrow, Antony.

ANTONY. So to most noble Cæsar.

CÆSAR. Bid them prepare within:

I am to blame to be thus waited for.

Now, Cinna; now, Metellus: what, Trebonius! 120

I have an hour's talk in store for you;

Remember that you call on me to-day.

Be near me, that I may remember you.

[Note 108: Scene VI Pope.--_Enter_ PUBLIUS ... | Ff have

Publius after Cinna.]

[Note 114: /o'clock/ Theobald | a Clocke Ff.]

[Note 116: /o' nights/ Theobald | a-nights Ff.]

[Note 108: This was probably Publius Silicius, not a

conspirator. See III, i, 87, where he is described as "quite

confounded with this mutiny."]

[Note 113: This is a graphic and charming touch. Here, for the

first time, we have Cæsar speaking fairly in character; for he

was probably the most finished gentleman of his time, one of

the sweetest of men, and as full of kindness as of wisdom and

courage. Merivale aptly styles him "Cæsar the politic and the

merciful."]

[Page 74]

TREBONIUS. Cæsar, I will. [_Aside_] And so near will I be,

That your best friends shall wish I had been further. 125

CÆSAR. Good friends, go in and taste some wine with me;

And we, like friends, will straightway go together.

BRUTUS. [_Aside_] That every like is not the same, O Cæsar,

The heart of Brutus yearns to think upon! [_Exeunt_]

[Note 124: [_Aside_] Rowe | Ff omit.]

[Note 128: [_Aside_] Pope | Ff omit.]

[Note 129: /yearns/ Capell | earnes F1 F2.]

[Note 129: /yearns:/ grieves. The Folios read 'earnes.' Skeat

considers _earn_ (_yearn_) 'to grieve' of distinct origin from

_earn_ (_yearn_) 'to desire.' Shakespeare uses the verb both

transitively and intransitively. The winning and honest

suavity of Cæsar here starts a pang of remorse in Brutus.

Drinking wine together was regarded as a sacred pledge of

truth and honor. Brutus knows that Cæsar is doing it in good

faith; and it hurts him to think that the others seem to be

doing the like, and yet are doing a very different thing.]

[Page 75]

SCENE III. _A street near the Capitol_

_Enter_ ARTEMIDORUS, _reading a paper_

ARTEMIDORUS. Cæsar, beware of Brutus; take heed of Cassius;

come not near Casca; have an eye to Cinna; trust not

Trebonius; mark well Metellus Cimber; Decius Brutus loves

thee not; thou hast wrong'd Caius Ligarius. There is but one

mind in all these men, and it is bent against Cæsar. If thou

beest not immortal, look about you: security gives way to

conspiracy. The mighty gods defend thee!

Thy lover, ARTEMIDORUS.

Here will I stand till Cæsar pass along,

And as a suitor will I give him this. 10

My heart laments that virtue cannot live

Out of the teeth of emulation.

If thou read this, O Cæsar, thou mayest live;

If not, the Fates with traitors do contrive. [_Exit_]

SCENE IV. _Another part of the same street, before the house

of_ BRUTUS

_Enter_ PORTIA _and_ LUCIUS

PORTIA. I prithee, boy, run to the senate-house;

Stay not to answer me, but get thee gone.

Why dost thou stay?

[Note: SCENE III Rowe | Scene VII Pope.--_A street_ ... Ff

omit.]

[Note: _reading a paper_ Rowe | Ff omit.]

[Note: SCENE IV Capell.--_Another part_ ... Capell | Ff omit.]

[Note: _Enter_ ARTEMIDORUS ... In Plutarch, _Julius Cæsar_,

Artemidorus is thus introduced: "And one Artemidorus also,

born in the isle of Gnidos, a doctor of rhetoric in the Greek

tongue, who by means of his profession was very familiar with

certain of Brutus' confederates, and therefore knew the most

part of all their practices against Cæsar, came and brought

him a little bill, written with his own hand, of all that he

meant to tell him. He, marking how Cæsar received all the

supplications that were offered him, and that he gave them

straight to his men that were about him, pressed nearer to

him, and said: 'Cæsar, read this memorial to yourself, and

that quickly, for they be matters of great weight, and touch

you nearly.'"]

[Note 6-7: /security gives way to:/ false confidence opens a

way for.]

[Note 8: /lover:/ friend. See note, p. 100, l. 13.]

[Note 12: /emulation:/ envious rivalry. So in _Troilus and

Cressida_, I, iii, 134: "an envious fever Of pale and

bloodless emulation."]

[Note 14: /contrive:/ plot, conspire. Cf. _The Merchant of

Venice_, IV, i, 360.]

[Note 1: The anxiety of Portia is thus described by Plutarch,

_Marcus Brutus_: "For Porcia, being very careful and pensive

for that which was to come, and being too weak to away with so

great and inward grief of mind, she could hardly keep within,

but was frighted with every little noise and cry she heard, as

those that are taken and possessed with the fury of the

Bacchantes; asking every man that came from the market-place

what Brutus did, and still sent messenger after messenger, to

know what news."]

[Page 76]

LUCIUS. To know my errand, madam.

PORTIA. I would have had thee there, and here again,

Ere I can tell thee what thou shouldst do there. 5

O constancy, be strong upon my side!

Set a huge mountain 'tween my heart and tongue!

I have a man's mind, but a woman's might.

How hard it is for women to keep counsel!

Art thou here yet?

LUCIUS. Madam, what should I do? 10

Run to the Capitol, and nothing else?

And so return to you, and nothing else?

PORTIA. Yes, bring me word, boy, if thy lord look well,

For he went sickly forth: and take good note

What Cæsar doth, what suitors press to him. 15

Hark, boy! what noise is that?

LUCIUS. I hear none, madam.

PORTIA. Prithee, listen well:

I heard a bustling rumour, like a fray,

And the wind brings it from the Capitol.

LUCIUS. Sooth, madam, I hear nothing. 20

[Note 18: /bustling/ Rowe | bussling Ff.]

[Note 6: /constancy:/ firmness. Cf. II, i, 299. So in

_Macbeth_, II, ii, 68.]

[Note 18: A loud noise, or murmur, as of stir and tumult, is

one of the old meanings of 'rumor.' So in _King John_, V, iv,

45: "the noise and rumour of the field." Since the interview

of Brutus and Portia, he has unbosomed all his secrets to her;

and now she is in such a fever of anxiety that she mistakes

her fancies for facts.]

[Note 20: /Sooth:/ in truth. Cf. _The Merchant of Venice_, I,

i, 1. See Skeat, and cf. note on 'soothsayer,' p. 10, l. 19.]

[Page 77]

_Enter the_ SOOTHSAYER

PORTIA. Come hither, fellow: which way hast thou been?

SOOTHSAYER. At mine own house, good lady.

PORTIA. What is 't o'clock?

SOOTHSAYER. About the ninth hour, lady.

PORTIA. Is Cæsar yet gone to the Capitol?

SOOTHSAYER. Madam, not yet: I go to take my stand, 25

To see him pass on to the Capitol.

PORTIA. Thou hast some suit to Cæsar, hast thou not?

SOOTHSAYER. That I have, lady: if it will please Cæsar

To be so good to Cæsar as to hear me,

I shall beseech him to befriend himself. 30

PORTIA. Why, know'st thou any harm's intended towards him?

SOOTHSAYER. None that I know will be, much that I fear may chance.

Good morrow to you. Here the street is narrow:

The throng that follows Cæsar at the heels,

Of senators, of prætors, common suitors, 35

Will crowd a feeble man almost to death:

I'll get me to a place more void, and there

Speak to great Cæsar as he comes along. [_Exit_]

[Note 21: _Enter the_ SOOTHSAYER Ff | Enter Artemidorus Rowe.]

[Note 23: /o'clock/ Theobald | a clocke F1.]

[Note 32: Two lines in Ff.]

[Note 39: Two lines in Ff.]

[Note 21: _Enter the_ SOOTHSAYER. Rowe substituted

'Artemidorus' for 'the Soothsayer' here, and many modern

editors have adopted this change. But North's Plutarch

furnishes a source for the Soothsayer as distinct from

Artemidorus, and the reading of the Folios has a dramatic edge

and effectiveness which Rowe's change destroys.]

[Page 78]

PORTIA. I must go in. Ay me, how weak a thing

The heart of woman is! O Brutus, 40

The heavens speed thee in thine enterprise!

Sure, the boy heard me. Brutus hath a suit

That Cæsar will not grant. O, I grow faint.

Run, Lucius, and commend me to my lord;

Say I am merry: come to me again, 45

And bring me word what he doth say to thee. [_Exeunt severally_]

[Note 39: /Ay/ | Aye Ff | ah Johnson.]

[Note 46: [_Exeunt severally_] Theobald | Exeunt F1.]

[Note 42-43: /Brutus hath a suit That Cæsar will not grant./

These words Portia speaks aloud to the boy, Lucius, evidently

to conceal the true cause of her uncontrollable flutter of

spirits.]

[Page 79]

ACT III

SCENE I. _Rome. Before the Capitol; the_ Senate _sitting_

_A crowd of people; among them_ ARTEMIDORUS _and the_

Soothsayer. _Flourish._ _Enter_ CÆSAR, BRUTUS, CASSIUS,

CASCA, DECIUS, METELLUS, TREBONIUS, CINNA, ANTONY,

LEPIDUS, POPILIUS, PUBLIUS, _and others_

CÆSAR. The Ides of March are come.

SOOTHSAYER. Ay, Cæsar; but not gone.

ARTEMIDORUS. Hail, Cæsar! read this schedule.

DECIUS. Trebonius doth desire you to o'er-read,

At your best leisure, this his humble suit. 5

ARTEMIDORUS. O Cæsar, read mine first; for mine's a suit

That touches Cæsar nearer: read it, great Cæsar.

CÆSAR. What touches us ourself shall be last serv'd.

[Note: _Rome. Before_ ... PUBLIUS, _and others_ Capell

(substantially) | Flourish. Enter Cæsar ... Artimedorus,

Publius, and the Soothsayer Ff | Ff omit Popilius.]

[Note 3: /schedule/ F3 F4 | Scedule F1 F2.]

[Note 1-2: Cf. Plutarch, _Julius Cæsar_: "There was a certain

soothsayer, that had given Cæsar warning long time afore, to

take heed of the day of the Ides of March, which is the

fifteenth of the month; for on that day he should be in great

danger. That day being come, Cæsar, going unto the

Senate-house, and speaking merrily unto the soothsayer, told

him 'the Ides of March be come.'--'So they be,' softly

answered the soothsayer, 'but yet are they not past.'" Note

Shakespeare's development of his material.]

[Note 8: /us ourself./ The plural of modern English royalty

transferred to ancient Rome. Another of the famous

anachronisms.]

[Page 80]

ARTEMIDORUS. Delay not, Cæsar; read it instantly.

CÆSAR. What, is the fellow mad?

PUBLIUS. Sirrah, give place. 10

CASSIUS. What, urge you your petitions in the street?

Come to the Capitol.

CÆSAR _goes up to the Senate-house, the rest following_

POPILIUS. I wish your enterprise to-day may thrive.

CASSIUS. What enterprise, Popilius?

POPILIUS. Fare you well.

[_Advances to_ CÆSAR]

BRUTUS. What said Popilius Lena? 15

CASSIUS. He wish'd to-day our enterprise might thrive.

I fear our purpose is discovered.

BRUTUS. Look, how he makes to Cæsar: mark him.

CASSIUS. Casca, be sudden, for we fear prevention.

Brutus, what shall be done? If this be known, 20

Cassius or Cæsar never shall turn back,

For I will slay myself.

[Note 13: CÆSAR _goes_ ... | Ff omit.]

[Note 14: _Advances_ ... | Ff omit.]

[Note 9: See quotation from Plutarch, _Julius Cæsar_, above,

p. 74.]

[Note 12: As already indicated (see note, p. 39, l. 126), the

murder of Cæsar did not take place in the Capitol, but

Shakespeare, departing from Plutarch, followed a famous

literary tradition. So in Chaucer, _The Monkes Tale_, ll.

713-720. Cf. the speech of Polonius, _Hamlet_, III, ii,

108-109: "I did enact Julius Cæsar; I was kill'd i' the

Capitol; Brutus kill'd me." See Introduction, Sources, p. xv.]

[Note 13: This is mainly Steevens's (1773) stage direction.

Capell's (1768) is interesting: "Artemidorus is push'd back.

Cæsar, and the rest, enter the Senate: The Senate rises.

Popilius presses forward to speak to Cæsar; and passing

Cassius, says, ..."]

[Note 18: /makes to:/ advances to, presses towards.--/mark./

No necessity to pronounce this as dissyllabic. The pause has

the effect of a syllable.]

[Page 81]

BRUTUS. Cassius, be constant:

Popilius Lena speaks not of our purposes;

For, look, he smiles, and Cæsar doth not change.

CASSIUS. Trebonius knows his time; for, look you, Brutus, 25

He draws Mark Antony out of the way.

[_Exeunt_ ANTONY _and_ TREBONIUS]

[Note 26: [_Exeunt_ ANTONY ...] Ff omit.]

[Note 22: /constant:/ firm. So in ll. 60, 72, 73. Cf. II, i,

227, 299; iv, 6.]

[Note 23-26: So in Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_: "Another senator

called Popilius Læna after he had saluted Brutus and Cassius

more friendly than he was wont to do, he rounded[A] softly in

their ears, and told them, 'I pray the gods you may go through

with that you have taken in hand; but, withal, dispatch, I

read[B] you, for your enterprise is bewrayed.' When he had

said, he presently departed from them, and left them both

afraid that their conspiracy would out.... When Cæsar came out

of his litter, Popilius Læna went ... and kept him a long time

with a talk. Cæsar gave good ear unto him; wherefore the

conspirators ... conjecturing ... that his talk was none other

but the very discovery of their conspiracy, they were afraid

every man of them; and one looking in another's face, it was

easy to see that they all were of a mind, that it was no

tarrying for them till they were apprehended, but rather that

they should kill themselves with their own hands. And when

Cassius and certain other clapped their hands on their swords

under their gowns, to draw them, Brutus marking the

countenance and gesture of Læna, and considering that he did

use himself rather like an humble and earnest suitor than like

an accuser, he said nothing to his companion (because there

were many amongst them that were not of the conspiracy), but

with a pleasant countenance encouraged Cassius; and

immediately after, Læna went from Cæsar, and kissed his

hand.... Trebonius on the other side drew Antonius aside, as

he came into the house where the Senate sat, and held him with

a long talk without." In the _Julius Cæsar_ Plutarch makes

Decius detain Antony in talk.]

[Note A: i.e. whispered.]

[Note B: i.e. advise.]

[Page 82]

DECIUS. Where is Metellus Cimber? Let him go,

And presently prefer his suit to Cæsar.

BRUTUS. He is address'd: press near and second him.

CINNA. Casca, you are the first that rears your hand. 30

CÆSAR. Are we all ready? What is now amiss

That Cæsar and his senate must redress?

METELLUS. Most high, most mighty, and most puissant Cæsar,

Metellus Cimber throws before thy seat

An humble heart,-- [_Kneeling_]

[Note 31: /Are ... ready?/ | Dyce gives to Casca; Ritson

(conj.) to Cinna.]

[Note 35: [_Kneeling_] Rowe | Ff omit.]

[Note 28: /presently:/ immediately, at once. So Shakespeare

and other Elizabethan writers always use the word. See l. 143;

IV, i, 45.]

[Note 29: /address'd:/ prepared. Often so in sixteenth century

literature. Cf. _As You Like It_, V, iv, 162; _Henry V_, III,

iii, 58; _2 Henry IV_, IV, iv, 5. This old meaning survives in

a well-known golf term.]

[Page 83]

CÆSAR. I must prevent thee, Cimber. 35

These couchings and these lowly courtesies

Might fire the blood of ordinary men,

And turn pre-ordinance and first decree

Into the law of children. Be not fond,

To think that Cæsar bears such rebel blood 40

That will be thaw'd from the true quality

With that which melteth fools, I mean, sweet words,

Low-crooked curtsies, and base spaniel-fawning.

Thy brother by decree is banished:

If thou dost bend and pray and fawn for him, 45

I spurn thee like a cur out of my way.

Know, Cæsar doth not wrong, nor without cause

Will he be satisfied.

[Note 36: /courtesies/ F1 | curtsies F4.]

[Note 39: /law/ | lane Ff.]

[Note 43: /Low-crooked curtsies/ | Low-crooked-curtsies

Ff.--/spaniel-fawning/ Johnson | Spaniell fawning F1.]

[Note 36: /couchings:/ stoopings. 'Couch' is used in the sense

of 'bend' or 'stoop' as under a burden, in Spenser, _The

Faerie Queene_, III, i, 4:

An aged Squire there rode,

That seemd to couch under his shield three-square.

So in _Genesis_, xlix, 14: "Issachar is a strong ass couching

down between two burdens." The verb occurs six times in the

Bible (King James version). In _Roister Doister_, I, iv, 90,

we have "Couche! On your marybones ... Down to the ground!"]

[Note 38: /pre-ordinance and first decree:/ the ruling and

enactment of the highest authority in the state. "What has

been pre-ordained and decreed from the beginning."--Clar.]

[Note 39: /law./ This is one of the textual _cruces_ of the

play. 'Law' is Johnson's conjecture for the 'lane' of the

Folios. It was adopted by Malone. In previous editions of

Hudson's Shakespeare, Mason's conjecture, 'play,' was adopted.

'Line,' 'bane,' 'vane' have each been proposed. Fleay defends

the Folio reading and interprets 'lane' in the sense of

'narrow conceits.' 'Law of children' would mean 'law at the

mercy of whim or caprice.']

[Note 39-40: /Be not fond, To think:/ be not so foolish as to

think.]

[Note 47-48: In previous editions of Hudson's Shakespeare was

adopted, with a slight change, Tyrwhitt's suggested

restoration of these lines to the form indicated by Ben Jonson

in the famous passage in his _Discoveries_, when, speaking of

Shakespeare, he says: "Many times he fell into those things

could not escape laughter: as when he said in the person of

Cæsar, one speaking to him, 'Cæsar, thou dost me wrong,' he

replied, 'Cæsar did never wrong but with just cause,' and such

like; which were ridiculous." Based upon this note the

Tyrwhitt restoration of the text was:

METELLUS. Cæsar, thou dost me wrong.

CÆSAR. Know, Cæsar doth not wrong, but with just cause,

Nor without cause will he be satisfied.

In the old Hudson Shakespeare text the first line of Cæsar's

reply was: "Cæsar did never wrong but with just cause." Jonson

has another gird at what he deemed Shakespeare's blunder, for

in the Induction to _The Staple of News_ is, "_Prologue_. Cry

you mercy, you never did wrong, but with just cause." Either

Jonson must have misquoted what he heard at the theater, or

the passage was altered to the form in the text of the Folios

on his remonstrance. This way of conveying meanings by

suggestion rather than direct expression was intolerable to

Jonson. Jonson must have known that 'wrong' could mean

'injury' and 'punishment' as well as 'wrong-doing.' 'Wrong'

meaning 'harm' occurs below, l. 243. See note, p. 105, l.

110.]

[Page 84]

METELLUS. Is there no voice more worthy than my own,

To sound more sweetly in great Cæsar's ear 50

For the repealing of my banish'd brother?

BRUTUS. I kiss thy hand, but not in flattery, Cæsar,

Desiring thee that Publius Cimber may

Have an immediate freedom of repeal.

CÆSAR. What, Brutus!

CASSIUS. Pardon, Cæsar; Cæsar, pardon:

As low as to thy foot doth Cassius fall, 56

To beg enfranchisement for Publius Cimber.

CÆSAR. I could be well mov'd, if I were as you;

If I could pray to move, prayers would move me:

But I am constant as the northern star, 60

Of whose true-fix'd and resting quality

There is no fellow in the firmament.

The skies are painted with unnumber'd sparks;

They are all fire and every one doth shine;

But there's but one in all doth hold his place: 65

So in the world; 'tis furnish'd well with men,

And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive;

Yet in the number I do know but one

That unassailable holds on his rank,

Unshak'd of motion: and that I am he, 70

Let me a little show it, even in this;

That I was constant Cimber should be banish'd,

And constant do remain to keep him so. 73

[Note 61: /true-fix'd/ | true fixt Ff.]

[Note 51: /repealing:/ recall. So 'repeal' in l. 54. Often so

in Shakespeare.]

[Note 59: If I could seek to move, or change, others by

prayers, then I were capable of being myself moved by the

prayers of others.]

[Note 67: /apprehensive:/ capable of apprehending,

intelligent.]

[Note 72-73: All through this scene, Cæsar is made to speak

quite out of character, and in a strain of hateful arrogance,

in order, apparently, to soften the enormity of his murder,

and to grind the daggers of the assassins to a sharper point.

Perhaps, also, it is a part of the irony which so marks this

play, to put the haughtiest words in Cæsar's mouth just before

his fall.]

[Page 85]

CINNA. O Cæsar,--

CÆSAR. Hence! wilt thou lift up Olympus?

DECIUS. Great Cæsar,--

CÆSAR. Doth not Brutus bootless kneel?

CASCA. Speak, hands, for me! [_They stab Cæsar_]

CÆSAR. Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Cæsar! [_Dies_]

[Note 75: /Doth not/ F1 | Do not F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 77: [_Dies_] _Dyes_ F1 | F2 F3 F4 omit.]

[Note 75: The 'Do not' of the three later Folios was adopted

by Johnson because Marcus Brutus would not have knelt.]

[Note 76: The simple stage direction of the Folios is

retained. That of the Cambridge and the Globe editions is,

"Casca first, then the other Conspirators and Marcus Brutus

stab Cæsar."]

[Note 77: /Et tu, Brute?/ There is no classical authority for

putting this phrase into the mouth of Cæsar. It seems to have

been an Elizabethan proverb or 'gag,' and it is found in at

least three works published earlier than _Julius Cæsar_. (See

Introduction, Sources, p. xvi.) Cæsar had been as a father to

Brutus, who was fifteen years his junior; and the Greek, καὶ

σὺ, τέκνον "and thou, my son!" which Dion and Suetonius put

into his mouth, though probably unauthentic, is good enough to

be true. In Plutarch are two detailed accounts of the

assassination, that in _Marcus Brutus_ differing somewhat from

that in _Julius Cæsar_ with regard to the nomenclature of the

persons involved. The following is from _Marcus Brutus_:

"Trebonius on the other side drew Antonius aside, as he came

into the house where the Senate sat, and held him with a long

talk without. When Cæsar was come into the house, all the

Senate rose to honour him at his coming in. So when he was

set, the conspirators flocked about him, and amongst them they

presented one Tullius Cimber, who made humble suit for the

calling home again of his brother that was banished. They all

made as though they were intercessors for him, and took Cæsar

by the hands, and kissed his head and breast. Cæsar at the

first simply refused their kindness and entreaties; but

afterwards, perceiving they still pressed on him, he violently

thrust them from him. Then Cimber with both his hands plucked

Cæsar's gown over his shoulders, and Casca, that stood behind

him, drew his dagger first and strake Cæsar upon the shoulder,

but gave him no great wound. Cæsar, feeling himself hurt, took

him straight by the hand he held his dagger in, and cried out

in Latin: 'O traitor Casca, what dost thou?' Casca on the

other side cried in Greek, and called his brother to help him.

So divers running on a heap together to fly upon Cæsar, he,

looking about him to have fled, saw Brutus with a sword drawn

in his hand ready to strike at him: then he let Casca's hand

go, and casting his gown over his face, suffered every man to

strike at him that would. Then the conspirators thronging one

upon another, because every man was desirous to have a cut at

him, so many swords and daggers lighting upon one body, one of

them hurt another, and among them Brutus caught a blow on his

hand, because he would make one in murthering of him, and all

the rest also were every man of them bloodied."]

[Page 86]

CINNA. Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!

Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets.

CASSIUS. Some to the common pulpits, and cry out, 80

'Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement!'

[Note 80: /common pulpits:/ rostra, the public platforms in

the Forum.]

[Note 81: This is somewhat in the style of Caliban, when he

gets glorious with "celestial liquor," _The Tempest_, II, ii,

190, 191: "Freedom, hey-day! hey-day, freedom! freedom,

hey-day, freedom!"]

[Page 87]

BRUTUS. People, and senators, be not affrighted;

Fly not; stand still: ambition's debt is paid.

CASCA. Go to the pulpit, Brutus.

DECIUS. And Cassius too. 85

BRUTUS. Where's Publius?

CINNA. Here, quite confounded with this mutiny.

METELLUS. Stand fast together, lest some friend of Cæsar's

Should chance--

BRUTUS. Talk not of standing. Publius, good cheer; 90

There is no harm intended to your person,

Nor to no Roman else: so tell them, Publius.

CASSIUS. And leave us, Publius; lest that the people,

Rushing on us, should do your age some mischief.

BRUTUS. Do so; and let no man abide this deed 95

But we the doers.

_Re-enter_ TREBONIUS

CASSIUS. Where is Antony?

TREBONIUS. Fled to his house amaz'd.

Men, wives, and children stare, cry out, and run

As it were doomsday.

[Note 97: Scene II Pope.--_Re-enter_ ... Capell | Enter ...

Ff.]

[Note 82-83: "Cæsar being slain in this manner, Brutus,

standing in the middest of the house, would have spoken, and

stayed the other Senators that were not of the conspiracy, to

have told them the reason why they had done this fact. But

they, as men both afraid and amazed, fled one upon another's

neck in haste to get out at the door, and no man followed

them."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Note 95: /abide:/ pay for, suffer for. So in III, ii, 114.

"Through confusion of form with 'abye,' when that verb was

becoming archaic, and through association of sense between

_abye_ (pay for) _a deed_, and _abide the consequences of a

deed_, 'abide' has been erroneously used for 'abye' = pay for,

atone for, suffer for."--Murray.]

[Note 97: "But Antonius and Lepidus, which were two of Cæsar's

chiefest friends, secretly conveying themselves away, fled

into other men's houses and forsook their own."--Plutarch,

_Julius Cæsar_.]

[Note 98: "When the murder was newly done, there were sudden

outcries of people that ran up and down."--Plutarch, _Marcus

Brutus_.]

[Page 88]

BRUTUS. Fates, we will know your pleasures:

That we shall die, we know; 'tis but the time, 100

And drawing days out, that men stand upon.

CASCA. Why, he that cuts off twenty years of life

Cuts off so many years of fearing death.

BRUTUS. Grant that, and then is death a benefit:

So we are Cæsar's friends, that have abridg'd 105

His time of fearing death. Stoop, Romans, stoop,

And let us bathe our hands in Cæsar's blood

Up to the elbows, and besmear our swords:

Then walk we forth, even to the market-place,

And, waving our red weapons o'er our heads, 110

Let's all cry 'Peace, freedom, and liberty!'

CASSIUS. Stoop, then, and wash. How many ages hence

Shall this our lofty scene be acted over

In states unborn and accents yet unknown!

[Note 102: CASCA | Cask. Ff | Cas. Pope Camb Globe.]

[Note 114: /states/ F2 F3 F4 | State F1.]

[Note 101: /stand upon/: concern themselves with. Cf. II, ii,

13. What men are chiefly concerned about is how long they can

draw out their little period of mortal life. Cf. Sophocles,

_Ajax_, 475-476: "What joy is there in day following day, as

each but draws us on towards or keeps us back from death?"--J.

Churton Collins.]

[Note 102-103: Many modern editors have followed Pope and

given this speech to Cassius. But there is no valid reason for

this change from the text of the Folios. In the light of

Casca's sentiments expressed in I, iii, 100-102, this speech

is more characteristic of him than of Cassius. Pope also gave

Casca ll. 106-111.]

[Page 89]

BRUTUS. How many times shall Cæsar bleed in sport, 115

That now on Pompey's basis lies along

No worthier than the dust!

CASSIUS. So oft as that shall be,

So often shall the knot of us be call'd

The men that gave their country liberty.

DECIUS. What, shall we forth?

CASSIUS. Ay, every man away: 120

Brutus shall lead; and we will grace his heels

With the most boldest and best hearts of Rome.

_Enter a_ Servant

BRUTUS. Soft! who comes here? A friend of Antony's.

[Note 115: BRUTUS | Casc. Pope.]

[Note 116: /lies/ F3 F4 | lye F1.]

[Note 117: /CASSIUS/ | Bru. Pope.]

[Note 116: "Cæsar ... was driven ... by the counsel of the

conspirators, against the base whereupon Pompey's image stood,

which ran all of a gore-blood till he was slain."--Plutarch,

_Julius Cæsar_.]

[Note 117-119: This speech and the two preceding,

vaingloriously anticipating the stage celebrity of the deed,

are very strange; and, unless there be a shrewd irony lurking

in them, it is hard to understand the purpose of them. Their

effect is to give a very ambitious air to the work of these

professional patriots, and to cast a highly theatrical color

on their alleged virtue, as if they had sought to immortalize

themselves by "striking the foremost man of all this world."]

[Note 122: /most boldest./ See Abbott, § 11. So in III, ii,

182.]

[Note 123: /_Enter a_ Servant./ "This simple stage direction

is the ... turning-round of the whole action; the arch has

reached its apex and the Re-action has begun."--Moulton.]

[Page 90]

SERVANT. Thus, Brutus, did my master bid me kneel;

Thus did Mark Antony bid me fall down; 125

And, being prostrate, thus he bade me say:

Brutus is noble, wise, valiant, and honest;

Cæsar was mighty, bold, royal, and loving:

Say I love Brutus and I honour him;

Say I fear'd Cæsar, honour'd him, and lov'd him. 130

If Brutus will vouchsafe that Antony

May safely come to him, and be resolv'd

How Cæsar hath deserv'd to lie in death,

Mark Antony shall not love Cæsar dead

So well as Brutus living; but will follow 135

The fortunes and affairs of noble Brutus

Thorough the hazards of this untrod state

With all true faith. So says my master Antony.

BRUTUS. Thy master is a wise and valiant Roman;

I never thought him worse. 140

Tell him, so please him come unto this place,

He shall be satisfied, and, by my honour,

Depart untouch'd.

SERVANT. I'll fetch him presently. [_Exit_]

BRUTUS. I know that we shall have him well to friend.

CASSIUS. I wish we may: but yet have I a mind 145

That fears him much, and my misgiving still

Falls shrewdly to the purpose.

[Note 132: /resolv'd/: informed. This meaning is probably

connected with the primary one of 'loosen,' 'set free,'

through the idea of setting free from perplexity. 'Resolve'

continued to be used in the sense of 'inform' and 'answer'

until the beginning of the nineteenth century. Shakespeare

uses the word in the three main senses of (1) 'relax,'

'dissolve,' _Hamlet_, I, ii, 130; (2) 'inform,' as here; and

(3) 'determine,' _3 Henry VI_, III, iii, 219.]

[Note 137: /Thorough/. Shakespeare uses 'through' or

'thorough' indifferently, as suits his verse. The two are but

different forms of the same word. 'Thorough,' the adjective,

is later than the preposition.]

[Note 141: /so please him come/: provided that it please him

to come. 'So' is used with the future and subjunctive to

denote 'provided that.']

[Note 146-147: /still Falls shrewdly to the purpose/: always

comes cleverly near the mark. See Skeat under 'shrewd' and

'shrew.']

[Page 91]

_Re-enter_ ANTONY

BRUTUS. But here comes Antony. Welcome, Mark Antony.

ANTONY. O mighty Cæsar! dost thou lie so low?

Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, 150

Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well!

I know not, gentlemen, what you intend,

Who else must be let blood, who else is rank:

If I myself, there is no hour so fit

As Cæsar's death's hour, nor no instrument 155

Of half that worth as those your swords, made rich

With the most noble blood of all this world.

I do beseech ye, if you bear me hard,

Now, whilst your purpled hands do reek and smoke,

Fulfil your pleasure. Live a thousand years, 160

I shall not find myself so apt to die:

No place will please me so, no mean of death,

As here by Cæsar, and by you cut off,

The choice and master spirits of this age.

[Note 148: Scene III Pope.--Two lines in Ff.]

[Note 153: /be let blood:/ be put to death. So in _Richard

III_, III, i, 183.--/is rank:/ has grown grossly full-blooded.

The idea is of one who has overtopped his equals, and grown

too high for the public safety. So in the speech of Oliver in

_As You Like It_, I, i, 90, when incensed at the high bearing

of Orlando: "Is it even so? begin you to grow upon me? I will

physic your rankness."]

[Note 160: /Live:/ if I live. Cf. _The Merchant of Venice_,

III, ii, 61.]

[Note 163: In this line /'by'/ is used (1) in the sense of

'near,' 'beside,' and (2) in its ordinary sense to denote

agency.]

[Page 92]

BRUTUS. O Antony, beg not your death of us. 165

Though now we must appear bloody and cruel,

As, by our hands and this our present act,

You see we do; yet see you but our hands

And this the bleeding business they have done:

Our hearts you see not; they are pitiful; 170

And pity to the general wrong of Rome--

As fire drives out fire, so pity pity--

Hath done this deed on Cæsar. For your part,

To you our swords have leaden points, Mark Antony:

Our arms in strength of malice, and our hearts 175

Of brothers' temper, do receive you in

With all kind love, good thoughts, and reverence.

CASSIUS. Your voice shall be as strong as any man's

In the disposing of new dignities.

[Note 172: The first 'fire' is dissyllabic. The allusion is to

the old notion that if a burn be held to the fire the pain

will be drawn or driven out. Shakespeare has four other very

similar allusions to this belief--_Romeo and Juliet_, I, ii,

46; _Coriolanus_, IV, vii, 54; _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_,

II, iv, 192; _King John_, III, i, 277.]

[Note 175: /in strength of malice:/ strong as they have shown

themselves to be in malice towards tyranny. Though the Folio

text may be corrupt, and at least twelve emendations have been

suggested, the figure as it stands is intelligible, though

elliptically obscure. Grant White has indicated how thoroughly

the expression is in the spirit of what Brutus has just said.

In previous editions of Hudson's Shakespeare, Singer's

conjecture of 'amity' for 'malice' was adopted. What makes

this conjecture plausible is Shakespeare's frequent use of

'amity,' and "strength of their amity" occurs in _Antony and

Cleopatra_, II, vi, 137.]

[Note 178-179: Brutus has been talking about "our hearts," and

"kind love, good thoughts, and reverence." To Cassius, all

that is mere rose-water humbug, and he knows it is so to

Antony too. He hastens to put in such motives as he knows will

have weight with Antony, as they also have with himself. And

it is remarkable that several of these patriots, especially

Cassius, the two Brutuses, and Trebonius, afterwards accepted

the governorship of fat provinces for which they had been

prospectively named by Cæsar.]

[Page 93]

BRUTUS. Only be patient till we have appeas'd 180

The multitude, beside themselves with fear,

And then we will deliver you the cause

Why I, that did love Cæsar when I struck him,

Have thus proceeded.

ANTONY. I doubt not of your wisdom.

Let each man render me his bloody hand: 185

First, Marcus Brutus, will I shake with you;

Next, Caius Cassius, do I take your hand;

Now, Decius Brutus, yours; now yours, Metellus;

Yours, Cinna; and, my valiant Casca, yours;

Though last, not least in love, yours, good Trebonius. 190

Gentlemen all,--alas, what shall I say?

My credit now stands on such slippery ground,

That one of two bad ways you must conceit me,

Either a coward or a flatterer.

That I did love thee, Cæsar, O, 'tis true: 195

If, then, thy spirit look upon us now,

Shall it not grieve thee dearer than thy death,

To see thy Antony making his peace,

Shaking the bloody fingers of thy foes,

Most noble! in the presence of thy corse? 200

Had I as many eyes as thou hast wounds,

Weeping as fast as they stream forth thy blood,

It would become me better than to close

In terms of friendship with thine enemies.

Pardon me, Julius! Here wast thou bay'd, brave hart; 205

Here didst thou fall, and here thy hunters stand,

Sign'd in thy spoil and crimson'd in thy lethe.

O world, thou wast the forest to this hart;

And this, indeed, O world, the heart of thee.

How like a deer, strucken by many princes, 210

Dost thou here lie!

[Note 183: /struck/ | strooke F1 F2 | strook F3 F4.]

[Note 184: /wisdom/ F3 F4 | Wisedome F1 F2.]

[Note 205: /hart/ F1 | Heart F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 207: /lethe/ | Lethe F2 F3 F4 | Lethee F1 | death Pope.]

[Note 209: /heart/ Theobald | hart Ff.]

[Note 210: /strucken/ Steevens | stroken F1 | stricken F2 F3

F4.]

[Note 181: "When Cæsar was slain, the Senate--though Brutus

stood in the middest amongst them, as though he would have

said something touching this fact--presently ran out of the

house, and, flying, filled all the city with marvellous fear

and tumult. Insomuch as some did shut to the

doors."--Plutarch, _Julius Cæsar_.]

[Note 193: /conceit:/ conceive of, think of. So in I, iii,

162.]

[Note 197: /dearer:/ more intensely. This emphatic or

intensive use of 'dear' is very common in Shakespeare, and is

used in the expression of strong emotion, either of pleasure

or of pain.]

[Note 205: /bay'd:/ brought to bay. The expression connotes

being barked at and worried as a deer by hounds. Cf. _A

Midsummer Nights Dream_, IV, i, 118. "Cæsar turned him no

where but he was stricken at by some ... and was hackled and

mangled among them, as a wild beast taken of

hunters."--Plutarch, _Julius Cæsar_.]

[Note 207: /Sign'd in thy spoil./ This may have reference to

the custom still prevalent in England and Europe of hunters

smearing their hands and faces with the blood of the slain

deer.--/lethe./ This puzzling term is certainly the reading of

the Folios, and may mean either 'violent death' (Lat.

_letum_), as 'lethal' means 'deadly,' or, as White interprets

the passage, 'the stream which bears to oblivion.']

[Page 94]

CASSIUS. Mark Antony,--

ANTONY. Pardon me, Caius Cassius:

The enemies of Cæsar shall say this;

Then, in a friend, it is cold modesty.

CASSIUS. I blame you not for praising Cæsar so; 215

But what compact mean you to have with us?

[Note 214: /modesty:/ moderation. So in _Henry VIII_, V, iii,

64. This is the original meaning of the word. See illustrative

quotation from Sir T. Elyot's _The Governour_, 1531, in

Century.]

[Page 95]

Will you be prick'd in number of our friends,

Or shall we on, and not depend on you?

ANTONY. Therefore I took your hands, but was indeed

Sway'd from the point by looking down on Cæsar. 220

Friends am I with you all, and love you all,

Upon this hope that you shall give me reasons

Why and wherein Cæsar was dangerous.

BRUTUS. Or else were this a savage spectacle:

Our reasons are so full of good regard 225

That, were you, Antony, the son of Cæsar,

You should be satisfied.

ANTONY. That's all I seek:

And am moreover suitor that I may

Produce his body to the market-place;

And in the pulpit, as becomes a friend, 230

Speak in the order of his funeral.

[Note 226: /you, Antony/ Theobald | you Antony Ff.]

[Note 217. /prick'd/: marked on the list. The image is of a

list of names written out, and some of them having holes

pricked in the paper against them. Cf. IV, i, 1. See Century

under 'pricking for sheriffs.']

[Note 225: /full of good regard/: the result of noble

considerations.]

[Note 229: 'Produce' here implies 'motion towards'--the

original Latin sense. Hence the preposition

'to.'--/market-place/. Here, and elsewhere in the play, 'the

market-place' is the Forum, and the _rostra_ provided there

for the purposes of public speaking Shakespeare calls

'pulpits.' In this, as in so much else, he followed North.]

[Note 231: /the order of his funeral:/ the course of the

funeral ceremonies. "Then Antonius, thinking good ... that his

body should be honourably buried, and not in hugger-mugger,[A]

lest the people might thereby take occasion to be worse

offended if they did otherwise: Cassius stoutly spake against

it. But Brutus went with the motion, and agreed unto

it."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Note A: i.e. in secrecy. Ascham has the form 'huddermother'

and Skelton 'hoder-moder.' Cf. "In hugger-mugger to inter

him," _Hamlet_, IV, v, 84.]

[Page 96]

BRUTUS. You shall, Mark Antony.

CASSIUS. Brutus, a word with you.

[_Aside to_ BRUTUS] You know not what you do; do not consent

That Antony speak in his funeral:

Know you how much the people may be mov'd 235

By that which he will utter?

BRUTUS. By your pardon:

I will myself into the pulpit first,

And show the reason of our Cæsar's death:

What Antony shall speak, I will protest

He speaks by leave and by permission, 240

And that we are contented Cæsar shall

Have all true rites and lawful ceremonies.

It shall advantage more than do us wrong.

CASSIUS. I know not what may fall; I like it not.

BRUTUS. Mark Antony, here, take you Cæsar's body. 245

You shall not in your funeral speech blame us,

But speak all good you can devise of Cæsar,

And say you do 't by our permission;

Else shall you not have any hand at all

About his funeral: and you shall speak 250

In the same pulpit whereto I am going,

After my speech is ended.

[Note 233: [_Aside to_ BRUTUS] Ff omit.]

[Note 243: /wrong:/ harm. Cf. l. 47. Note the high

self-appreciation of Brutus here, in supposing that if he can

but have a chance to speak to the people, and to air his

wisdom before them, all will go right. Here, again, he

overbears Cassius, who now begins to find the effects of

having stuffed him with flatteries, and served as a mirror to

"turn his hidden worthiness into his eye" (I, ii, 57-58).]

[Page 97]

ANTONY. Be it so;

I do desire no more.

BRUTUS. Prepare the body, then, and follow us.

[_Exeunt all but_ ANTONY]

ANTONY. O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, 255

That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!

Thou art the ruins of the noblest man

That ever lived in the tide of times.

Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood!

Over thy wounds now do I prophesy, 260

Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips,

To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue,

A curse shall light upon the limbs of men;

Domestic fury and fierce civil strife

Shall cumber all the parts of Italy; 265

Blood and destruction shall be so in use,

And dreadful objects so familiar,

That mothers shall but smile when they behold

Their infants quartered with the hands of war;

All pity chok'd with custom of fell deeds: 270

And Cæsar's spirit, ranging for revenge,

With Ate by his side come hot from hell,

Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice

Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war;

That this foul deed shall smell above the earth 275

With carrion men, groaning for burial.

[Note 254: [_Exeunt_ ...] Capell | Exeunt. Manet Antony Ff.]

[Note 255: Scene IV Pope.]

[Note 263: /limbs/ F3 F4 | limbes F1 F2.]

[Note 257-258: Cf. Antony's eulogy of Brutus, V, v, 68-75.]

[Note 263: /limbs/. Thirteen different words ('kind,' 'line,'

'lives,' 'loins,' 'tombs,' 'sons,' 'times,' etc.) have been

offered by editors as substitutes for the plain, direct

'limbs' of the Folios. One of Johnson's suggestions was "these

lymmes," taking 'lymmes' in the sense of 'lime-hounds,' i.e.

'leash-hounds.' 'Lym' is on the list of dogs in _King Lear_,

III, vi, 72. In defence of the Folio text Dr. Wright quotes

Timon's curse on the senators of Athens and says, "Lear's

curses were certainly levelled at his daughter's limbs."]

[Note 269: /with/: by. So in III, ii, 196. See Abbott, § 193.]

[Note 272: Ate was the Greek goddess of vengeance, discord,

and mischief. Shakespeare refers to her in _King John_, II, i,

63, as "stirring to blood and strife." In _Love's Labour's

Lost_, V, ii, 694, and _Much Ado about Nothing_, II, i, 263,

the references to her are humorous.]

[Note 274: 'Havoc' was anciently the word of signal for giving

no quarter in a battle. It was a high crime for any one to

give the signal without authority from the general in chief;

hence the peculiar force of 'monarch's voice.'--To 'let slip'

a dog was a term of the chase, for releasing the hounds from

the 'slip' or leash of leather whereby they were held in hand

till it was time to let them pursue the animal.--The 'dogs of

war' are fire, sword, and famine. So in _King Henry V_, First

Chorus, 6-8:

at his heels,

Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire,

Crouch for employment.]

[Page 98]

_Enter a_ Servant

You serve Octavius Cæsar, do you not?

SERVANT. I do, Mark Antony.

ANTONY. Cæsar did write for him to come to Rome.

SERVANT. He did receive his letters, and is coming; 280

And bid me say to you by word of mouth--

O Cæsar! [_Seeing the body_]

ANTONY. Thy heart is big; get thee apart and weep.

Passion, I see, is catching; for mine eyes,

[Note 277: _Enter_ ... | Enter Octavio's Servant Ff.]

[Note 282: [_Seeing the body_] Rowe | Ff omit.]

[Note 284: /catching/; for F2 F3 F4 | catching from F1.]

[Page 99]

Seeing those beads of sorrow stand in thine, 285

Began to water. Is thy master coming?

SERVANT. He lies to-night within seven leagues of Rome.

ANTONY. Post back with speed, and tell him what hath chanc'd.

Here is a mourning Rome, a dangerous Rome,

No Rome of safety for Octavius yet; 290

Hie hence, and tell him so. Yet stay awhile;

Thou shalt not back till I have borne this corse

Into the market-place: there shall I try,

In my oration, how the people take

The cruel issue of these bloody men; 295

According to the which, thou shalt discourse

To young Octavius of the state of things.

Lend me your hand. [_Exeunt with_ CÆSAR'S _body_]

SCENE II. _The Forum_

_Enter_ BRUTUS _and_ CASSIUS, _and a throng of_ Citizens

CITIZENS. We will be satisfied; let us be satisfied.

BRUTUS. Then follow me, and give me audience, friends.

Cassius, go you into the other street,

And part the numbers.

Those that will hear me speak, let 'em stay here; 5

Those that will follow Cassius, go with him;

And public reasons shall be rendered

Of Cæsar's death.

[Note 291: /awhile/ F4 | a-while F1 F2.]

[Note 292: /corse/ Pope | course F1 F2 | coarse F3 F4.]

[Note 298: [_Exeunt_ ...] _Exeunt._ Ff.]

[Note: SCENE II Rowe | Scene V Pope.--_The Forum_ Rowe | Ff

omit.]

[Note: _Enter_ BRUTUS ... Citizens Malone | Enter Brutus and

goes into the Pulpit, and Cassius, with the Plebeians Ff.]

[Note 1: CITIZENS Capell | Ple. (Plebeians) Ff.]

[Note 7, 10: /rendered/ Pope | rendred Ff.]

[Note 290: A pun may lurk in this 'Rome.' See note, p. 19, l.

156.]

[Page 100]

1 CITIZEN. I will hear Brutus speak.

2 CITIZEN. I will hear Cassius; and compare their reasons,

When severally we hear them rendered. 10

[_Exit_ CASSIUS, _with some of the_ Citizens. BRUTUS _goes

into the pulpit_]

3 CITIZEN. The noble Brutus is ascended: silence!

[Note 10: [_Exit ... pulpit_] Ff omit.]

[Note 11: "The rest followed in troupe, but Brutus went

foremost, very honourably compassed in round about with the

noblest men of the city, which brought him from the Capitol,

through the market-place, to the pulpit for orations. When the

people saw him in the pulpit, although they were a multitude

of rakehels of all sorts, and had a good will to make some

stir; yet, being ashamed to do it, for the reverence they bare

unto Brutus, they kept silence to hear what he would say. When

Brutus began to speak, they gave him quiet audience: howbeit,

immediately after, they shewed that they were not all

contented with the murther."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Page 101]

BRUTUS. Be patient till the last.

Romans, countrymen, and lovers! hear me for my cause,

and be silent, that you may hear: believe me for mine

honour, and have respect to mine honour, that you may

believe: censure me in your wisdom, and awake your

senses, that you may the better judge. If there be any in

this assembly, any dear friend of Cæsar's, to him I say that

Brutus' love to Cæsar was no less than his. If then that

friend demand why Brutus rose against Cæsar, this is my

answer: Not that I lov'd Cæsar less, but that I lov'd Rome

more. Had you rather Cæsar were living, and die all slaves,

than that Cæsar were dead, to live all free-men? As Cæsar

lov'd me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at

it; as he was valiant, I honour him: but as he was ambitious,

I slew him. There is tears for his love; joy for his

fortune; honour for his valour; and death for his ambition.

Who is here so base that would be a bondman? If

any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so rude

that would not be a Roman? If any, speak; for him have

I offended. Who is here so vile that will not love his

country? If any, speak; for him have I offended.

I pause for a reply. 33

ALL. None, Brutus, none.

BRUTUS. Then none have I offended. I have done no more to

Cæsar than you shall do to Brutus. The question of his death

is enroll'd in the Capitol; his glory not extenuated,

wherein he was worthy, nor his offences enforc'd, for which

he suffer'd death. 39

[Note 26: /is/ Ff | are Pope.]

[Note 13: /lovers/. Pope changed this to 'friends.' But in the

sixteenth century 'lover' and 'friend' were synonymous. In l.

44 Brutus speaks of Cæsar as 'my best lover.' So 'Thy lover'

in II, iii, 8.]

[Note 16: /censure/: judge. The word may have been chosen for

the euphuistic jingle it makes here with 'senses.']

[Note 26: /There is tears/. So in I, iii, 138. See Abbott, §

335.]

[Note 36-39: The reason of his death is made a matter of

solemn official record in the books of the Senate, as showing

that the act of killing him was done for public ends, and not

from private hate. His fame is not lessened or whittled down

in those points wherein he was worthy. 'Enforc'd' is in

antithesis to 'extenuated.' Exactly the same antithesis is

found in _Antony and Cleopatra_, V, ii, 125.]

[Page 102]

_Enter_ ANTONY _and others, with_ CÆSAR'S _body_

Here comes his body, mourn'd by Mark Antony; who, though he

had no hand in his death, shall receive the

benefit of his dying, a place in the commonwealth; as which

of you shall not? With this I depart,--that, as I slew my

best lover for the good of Rome, I have the same dagger for

myself, when it shall please my country to need my death. 46

ALL. Live, Brutus! live, live!

1 CITIZEN. Bring him with triumph home unto his house.

2 CITIZEN. Give him a statue with his ancestors.

3 CITIZEN. Let him be Cæsar.

4 CITIZEN. Cæsar's better parts 50

Shall be crown'd in Brutus.

1 CITIZEN. We'll bring him to his house with shouts and

clamours.

BRUTUS. My countrymen,--

2 CITIZEN. Peace! silence! Brutus speaks.

1 CITIZEN. Peace, ho!

[Note 40: _Enter_ ANTONY ... _body_ Malone | Enter Mark Antony

with Cæsar's body Ff.]

[Note 47, 72, etc.: ALL Ff | Cit. (Citizens) Capell.]

[Note 48, 49, etc.: CITIZEN | Ff omit.]

[Note 52: Two lines in Ff.]

[Note 43-46: In this speech Shakespeare seems to have aimed at

imitating the manner actually ascribed to Brutus. "In some of

his Epistles, he counterfeited that brief compendious manner

of speech of the Lacedæmonians."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.

Shakespeare's idea is sustained by the _Dialogus de

Oratoribus_, ascribed to Tacitus, wherein it is said that

Brutus's style of eloquence was censured as _otiosum et

disjunctum_. Verplanck remarks, "the _disjunctum_, the

broken-up style, without oratorical continuity, is precisely

that assumed by the dramatist." Gollancz finds a probable

original of this speech in Belleforest's _Histoires Tragiques_

(_Hamlet_); Dowden thinks Shakespeare received hints from the

English version (1578) of Appian's _Roman Wars_.]

[Page 103]

BRUTUS. Good countrymen, let me depart alone, 55

And, for my sake, stay here with Antony:

Do grace to Cæsar's corpse, and grace his speech

Tending to Cæsar's glories; which Mark Antony,

By our permission, is allow'd to make.

I do entreat you, not a man depart, 60

Save I alone, till Antony have spoke. [_Exit_]

1 CITIZEN. Stay, ho! and let us hear Mark Antony.

3 CITIZEN. Let him go up into the public chair;

We'll hear him. Noble Antony, go up.

ANTONY. For Brutus' sake, I am beholding to you. 65

4 CITIZEN. What does he say of Brutus?

3 CITIZEN. He says, for Brutus' sake,

He finds himself beholding to us all.

4 CITIZEN. 'Twere best he speak no harm of Brutus here.

1 CITIZEN. This Cæsar was a tyrant.

3 CITIZEN. Nay, that's certain:

We are blest that Rome is rid of him. 70

2 CITIZEN. Peace! let us hear what Antony can say.

ANTONY. You gentle Romans,--

ALL. Peace, ho! Let us hear him.

[Note 62: Scene VI Pope.]

[Note 70: /blest/ F1 | glad F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 65: /beholding./ This Elizabethan corruption of

'beholden' occurs constantly in the Folios of 1623, 1632, and

1664. The Fourth Folio usually has 'beholden.' Here Camb has

'Goes into the pulpit.']

[Note 72: "Afterwards when Cæsar's body was brought into the

market-place, Antonius making his funeral oration in praise of

the dead, according to the ancient custom of Rome, and

perceiving that his words moved the common people to

compassion, he framed his eloquence to make their hearts yearn

the more; and taking Cæsar's gown all bloody in his hand, he

laid it open to the sight of them all, shewing what a number

of cuts and holes it had upon it. Therewithal the people fell

presently into such a rage and mutiny, that there was no more

order kept amongst the common people."--Plutarch, _Marcus

Brutus_.[A] How Shakespeare elaborates this!]

[Note A: There is a similar passage in Plutarch, _Marcus

Antonius_.]

[Page 104]

ANTONY. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears:

I come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him.

The evil that men do lives after them: 75

The good is oft interred with their bones;

So let it be with Cæsar. The noble Brutus

Hath told you Cæsar was ambitious:

If it were so, it was a grievous fault,

And grievously hath Cæsar answer'd it. 80

Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest,--

For Brutus is an honourable man;

So are they all, all honourable men,--

Come I to speak in Cæsar's funeral.

He was my friend, faithful and just to me: 85

But Brutus says he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honourable man.

He hath brought many captives home to Rome,

Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:

Did this in Cæsar seem ambitious? 90

When that the poor have cried, Cæsar hath wept:

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honourable man.

You all did see that on the Lupercal 95

I thrice presented him a kingly crown,

Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;

And, sure, he is an honourable man.

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, 100

But here I am to speak what I do know.

You all did love him once, not without cause:

What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?

O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,

And men have lost their reason. Bear with me; 105

My heart is in the coffin there with Cæsar,

And I must pause till it come back to me.

[Note 74: /bury./ A characteristic anachronism. Cf. 'coffin'

in l. 106.]

[Note 104: /art/ F2 F3 F4 | are F1.]

[Note 75-76: So in _Henry VIII_, IV, ii, 45: "Men's evil

manners live in brass; their virtues We write in water."]

[Note 89: Cæsar's campaigns in Gaul put vast sums of money

into his hands, a large part of which he kept to his own use,

as he might have kept it all; but he did also, in fact, make

over much of it to the public treasury. This was a very

popular act, as it lightened the taxation of the city.]

[Note 95: /on the Lupercal:/ at the festival of the Lupercal.]

[Note 99: These repetitions of 'honourable man' are intensely

ironical; and for that very reason the irony should be

studiously kept out of the voice in pronouncing them. Speakers

and readers utterly spoil the effect of the speech by

specially emphasizing the irony. For, from the extreme

delicacy of his position, Antony is obliged to proceed with

the utmost caution, until he gets the audience thoroughly in

his power. The consummate adroitness which he uses to this end

is one of the greatest charms of this oration.]

[Note 103: /to mourn:/ from mourning. The gerundive use of the

infinitive.]

[Note 104: 'Brutish' is by no means tautological here, the

antithetic sense of human brutes being most artfully implied.]

[Page 105]

1 CITIZEN. Methinks there is much reason in his sayings.

2 CITIZEN. If thou consider rightly of the matter,

Cæsar has had great wrong.

3 CITIZEN. Has he, masters? 110

I fear there will a worse come in his place.

[Note 110: /Has he/, | Ha's hee F1.]

[Note 110: It was here, as the first words of the reply of the

Third Citizen, that Pope would have inserted the quotation

preserved in Jonson's _Discoveries_, discussed in note, p. 83,

ll. 47-48. Pope's note is:

"Cæsar has had great wrong.

3 PLEB. Cæsar had never wrong, but with just cause.

If ever there was such a line written by Shakespeare, I should

fancy it might have its place here, and very humorously in the

character of a Plebeian." Craik inserted 'not' after 'Has

he.']

[Page 106]

4 CITIZEN. Mark'd ye his words? He would not take the crown;

Therefore 'tis certain he was not ambitious.

1 CITIZEN. If it be found so, some will dear abide it.

2 CITIZEN. Poor soul! his eyes are red as fire with weeping.

3 CITIZEN. There's not a nobler man in Rome than Antony. 116

4 CITIZEN. Now mark him; he begins again to speak.

ANTONY. But yesterday the word of Cæsar might

Have stood against the world: now lies he there,

And none so poor to do him reverence. 120

O masters, if I were dispos'd to stir

Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage,

I should do Brutus wrong and Cassius wrong,

Who, you all know, are honourable men:

I will not do them wrong; I rather choose 125

To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you,

Than I will wrong such honourable men.

But here's a parchment with the seal of Cæsar;

I found it in his closet; 'tis his will:

Let but the commons hear this testament-- 130

Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read--

And they would go and kiss dead Cæsar's wounds,

And dip their napkins in his sacred blood,

Yea, beg a hair of him for memory,

And, dying, mention it within their wills, 135

Bequeathing it as a rich legacy

Unto their issue.

[Note 114: /abide it:/ suffer for it, pay for it. See note, p.

87, l. 95.]

[Note 120: And there are none so humble but that the great

Cæsar is now beneath their reverence, or too low for their

regard.]

[Note 133: /napkins:/ handkerchiefs. In the third scene of the

third act of _Othello_ the two words are used

interchangeably.]

[Page 107]

4 CITIZEN. We'll hear the will: read it, Mark Antony.

ALL. The will, the will! we will hear Cæsar's will.

ANTONY. Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it;

It is not meet you know how Cæsar lov'd you. 141

You are not wood, you are not stones, but men;

And, being men, hearing the will of Cæsar,

It will inflame you, it will make you mad.

'T is good you know not that you are his heirs; 145

For if you should, O, what would come of it!

4 CITIZEN. Read the will; we'll hear it, Antony;

You shall read us the will, Cæsar's will.

ANTONY. Will you be patient? will you stay awhile?

I have o'ershot myself to tell you of it: 150

I fear I wrong the honourable men

Whose daggers have stabb'd Cæsar; I do fear it.

4 CITIZEN. They were traitors: honourable men!

ALL. The will! the testament!

2 CITIZEN. They were villains, murderers: the will! read the

will. 155

ANTONY. You will compel me, then, to read the will?

Then make a ring about the corpse of Cæsar,

And let me show you him that made the will.

Shall I descend? and will you give me leave?

[Note 150: /o'ershot myself to tell:/ gone too far in telling.

Another example of the infinitive used as a gerund. Cf. l. 103

and II, i, 135.]

[Note 152: Antony now sees that he has the people wholly with

him, so that he is perfectly safe in stabbing the stabbers

with these words.]

[Page 108]

ALL. Come down. 160

2 CITIZEN. Descend.

3 CITIZEN. You shall have leave.

[ANTONY _comes down from the pulpit_]

4 CITIZEN. A ring, stand round.

1 CITIZEN. Stand from the hearse, stand from the body.

2 CITIZEN. Room for Antony, most noble Antony. 165

ANTONY. Nay, press not so upon me: stand far off.

ALL. Stand back; room; bear back!

[Note 162: [ANTONY _comes_ ...] Ff omit.]

[Note 166: /far:/ farther. The old comparative of 'far' is

'farrer' (sometimes 'ferrar') still heard in dialect, and the

final _-er_ will naturally tend to be slurred. So _The

Winter's Tale_, IV, iv, 441, "Far than Deucalion off." So

'near' for 'nearer' in _Richard II_, III, ii, 64.]

[Page 109]

ANTONY. If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.

You all do know this mantle: I remember

The first time ever Cæsar put it on; 170

'Twas on a summer's evening, in his tent,

That day he overcame the Nervii.

Look, in this place ran Cassius' dagger through:

See what a rent the envious Casca made:

Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabb'd; 175

And, as he pluck'd his cursed steel away,

Mark how the blood of Cæsar follow'd it,

As rushing out of doors, to be resolv'd

If Brutus so unkindly knock'd, or no;

For Brutus, as you know, was Cæsar's angel: 180

Judge, O you gods, how dearly Cæsar lov'd him!

This was the most unkindest cut of all;

For when the noble Cæsar saw him stab,

Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms,

Quite vanquish'd him: then burst his mighty heart; 185

And, in his mantle muffling up his face,

Even at the base of Pompey's statue,

Which all the while ran blood, great Cæsar fell.

O, what a fall was there, my countrymen!

Then I, and you, and all of us fell down, 190

Whilst bloody treason flourish'd over us.

O, now you weep; and I perceive you feel

The dint of pity: these are gracious drops.

Kind souls, what, weep you when you but behold

Our Cæsar's vesture wounded? Look you here, 195

Here is himself, marr'd, as you see, with traitors.

[Note 187: /statue/ Ff | statua Steevens Globe | statuë Camb.]

[Note 174: /envious:/ malicious. See note on 'envy,' p. 54, l.

164.]

[Note 178: /resolv'd:/ informed, assured. See note, p. 90, l.

132.]

[Note 172: This is the artfullest and most telling stroke in

Antony's speech. The Romans prided themselves most of all upon

their military virtue and renown: Cæsar was their greatest

military hero; and his victory over the Nervii was his most

noted military exploit. It occurred during his second campaign

in Gaul, in the summer of the year B.C. 57, and is narrated

with surpassing vividness in the second book of his _Gallic

War_. Plutarch, in his _Julius Cæsar_, gives graphic details

of this famous victory and the effect upon the Roman people of

the news of Cæsar's personal prowess, when "flying in amongst

the barbarous people," he "made a lane through them that

fought before him." Of course the matter about the 'mantle' is

purely fictitious: Cæsar had on the civic gown, not the

military cloak, when killed; and it was, in fact, the mangled

toga that Antony displayed on this occasion; but the fiction

has the effect of making the allusion to the victory seem

perfectly artless and incidental.]

[Note 180: 'Angel' here seems to mean his counterpart, his

good genius, or a kind of better and dearer self. See note, p.

47, l. 66.]

[Note 193: 'Dint' (Anglo-Saxon _dynt_; cf. provincial 'dunt')

originally means 'blow'; the text has it in the secondary

meaning of 'impression' made by a blow. Shakespeare uses the

word in both senses.]

[Page 110]

1 CITIZEN. O piteous spectacle!

2 CITIZEN. O noble Cæsar!

3 CITIZEN. O woful day!

4 CITIZEN. O traitors, villains! 200

1 CITIZEN. O most bloody sight!

2 CITIZEN. We will be reveng'd.

ALL. Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire! Kill! Slay!

Let not a traitor live!

ANTONY. Stay, countrymen. 205

1 CITIZEN. Peace there! Hear the noble Antony.

2 CITIZEN. We'll hear him, we'll follow him, we'll die with him.

ANTONY. Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up

To such a sudden flood of mutiny.

They that have done this deed are honourable; 210

What private griefs they have, alas, I know not,

That made them do it; they are wise and honourable,

And will, no doubt, with reasons answer you.

I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts:

I am no orator, as Brutus is; 215

But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man,

That love my friend; and that they know full well

That gave me public leave to speak of him:

For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,

Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech, 220

To stir men's blood: I only speak right on;

I tell you that which you yourselves do know;

Show you sweet Cæsar's wounds, poor poor dumb mouths,

And bid them speak for me: but were I Brutus,

And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony 225

Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue

In every wound of Cæsar, that should move

The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.

[Note 203-204: ALL Globe Camb (White Delius conj.) | Ff

continue to 2 Citizen and print as verse.]

[Note 218: /gave/ F1 | give F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 219: /wit/ F2 F3 F4 | writ F2.]

[Note 207: The Folios give this speech like that in 203-204 to

'Second Citizen,' but it should surely be given to 'All.']

[Note 219: Johnson suggests that the 'writ' of the First Folio

may not be a printer's slip but used in the sense of a 'penned

or premeditated oration.' Malone adopted and defended the

First Folio reading.]

[Page 111]

ALL. We'll mutiny.

1 CITIZEN. We'll burn the house of Brutus. 230

3 CITIZEN. Away, then! come, seek the conspirators.

ANTONY. Yet hear me, countrymen; yet hear me speak.

ALL. Peace, ho! hear Antony, most noble Antony!

ANTONY. Why, friends, you go to do you know not what.

Wherein hath Cæsar thus deserv'd your loves? 235

Alas, you know not; I must tell you then:

You have forgot the will I told you of.

ALL. Most true. The will! Let's stay and hear the will.

ANTONY. Here is the will, and under Cæsar's seal.

To every Roman citizen he gives, 240

To every several man, seventy-five drachmas.

[Note 239: "For first of all, when Cæsar's testament was

openly read among them, whereby it appeared that he bequeathed

unto every citizen of Rome seventy-five drachmas a man; and

that he left his gardens and arbors unto the people, which he

had on this side of the river Tiber, in the place where now

the temple of Fortune is built: the people then loved him, and

were marvellous sorry for him."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Note 241: The drachma (lit. 'what can be grasped in the

hand') was the principal silver coin of the ancient Greeks,

and while the nominal value of it was about that of the

modern drachma (by law of the same value as the French franc)

its purchasing power was much greater. Cæsar left to each

citizen three hundred sesterces; Plutarch gives seventy-five

drachmas as the Greek equivalent.]

[Page 112]

2 CITIZEN. Most noble Cæsar! We'll revenge his death.

3 CITIZEN. O royal Cæsar!

ANTONY. Hear me with patience.

ALL. Peace, ho! 245

ANTONY. Moreover, he hath left you all his walks,

His private arbours and new-planted orchards,

On this side Tiber; he hath left them you,

And to your heirs for ever; common pleasures,

To walk abroad and recreate yourselves. 250

Here was a Cæsar! when comes such another?

1 CITIZEN. Never, never. Come, away, away!

We'll burn his body in the holy place,

And with the brands fire the traitors' houses.

Take up the body. 255

[Note 254: /the/ F1 | all the F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 248: As this scene lies in the Forum, near the Capitol,

Cæsar's gardens are, in fact, on the other side of the Tiber.

But Shakespeare wrote as he read in Plutarch. See quotation,

p. 111, l. 239.]

[Note 252: "Therewithal the people fell presently into such a

rage and mutiny, that there was no more order kept amongst the

common people. For some of them cried out 'Kill the

murderers'; others plucked up forms, tables, and stalls about

the market-place, as they had done before at the funerals of

Clodius, and having laid them all on a heap together, they set

them on fire, and thereupon did put the body of Cæsar, and

burnt it in the midst of the most holy places. When the fire

was throughly kindled, some took burning firebrands, and ran

with them to the murderers' houses that killed him, to set

them on fire."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Note 254: /fire./ Cf. III, i, 172. Monosyllables ending in

'r' or 're,' preceded by a long vowel or diphthong, are often

pronounced as dissyllabic.]

[Page 113]

2 CITIZEN. Go fetch fire.

3 CITIZEN. Pluck down benches.

4 CITIZEN. Pluck down forms, windows, any thing.

[_Exeunt_ CITIZENS _with the body_]

ANTONY. Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot,

Take thou what course thou wilt!

_Enter a_ Servant

How now, fellow! 260

SERVANT. Sir, Octavius is already come to Rome.

ANTONY. Where is he?

SERVANT. He and Lepidus are at Cæsar's house.

ANTONY. And thither will I straight to visit him:

He comes upon a wish. Fortune is merry, 265

And in this mood will give us any thing.

SERVANT. I heard him say, Brutus and Cassius

Are rid like madmen through the gates of Rome.

ANTONY. Belike they had some notice of the people 269

How I had mov'd them. Bring me to Octavius. [_Exeunt_]

[Note 258: [_Exeunt_ Citizens...] | Exit Plebeians Ff.]

[Note 258: /forms:/ benches. The word used in preceding

quotation from Plutarch. The Old Fr. _forme_, mediæval Lat.

_forma_, was sometimes applied to choir-stalls, with back, and

book-rest. "For the origin of this use of the word, cf. Old

French _s'asseoir en forme_, to sit in a row or in fixed

order."--Murray. Nowhere in literature is there a more

realistic study and interpretation of the temper of a mob (a

word that has come into use since Shakespeare's time) than in

this scene and the short one which follows. Here is the true

mob-spirit, fickle, inflammable, to be worked on by any

demagogue with promises in his mouth.]

[Note 265: /upon a wish:/ as soon as wished for. Cf. I, ii,

104.]

[Note 268: /rid:/ ridden. So 'writ' for 'written,' IV, iii,

183.]

[Page 114]

SCENE III. _A street_

_Enter_ CINNA _the poet_

CINNA. I dreamt to-night that I did feast with Cæsar,

And things unluckily charge my fantasy:

I have no will to wander forth of doors,

Yet something leads me forth.

_Enter_ CITIZENS

1 CITIZEN. What is your name?

2 CITIZEN. Whither are you going?

3 CITIZEN. Where do you dwell?

4 CITIZEN. Are you a married man or a bachelor?

2 CITIZEN. Answer every man directly.

[Note: SCENE III | Scene VII Pope.]

[Note: _Enter_ ... | Ff add _and after him the Plebeians_.]

[Note 5: _Enter_ CITIZENS | Ff omit.]

[Note 6, 13: Whither F3 F4 | Whether F1 F2.]

[Note 1: "There was one of Cæsar's friends called Cinna, that

had a marvellous strange and terrible dream the night before.

He dreamed that Cæsar bad him to supper, and that he refused

and would not go: then that Cæsar took him by the hand, and

led him against his will. Now Cinna, hearing at that time that

they burnt Cæsar's body in the market-place, notwithstanding

that he feared his dream, and had an ague on him besides, he

went into the market-place to honour his funerals. When he

came thither, one of the mean sort asked him what his name

was? He was straight called by his name. The first man told it

to another, and that other unto another, so that it ran

straight through them all, that he was one of them that

murthered Cæsar: (for indeed one of the traitors to Cæsar was

also called Cinna as himself) wherefore taking him for Cinna

the murtherer, they fell upon him with such fury that they

presently dispatched him in the market-place."--Plutarch,

_Julius Cæsar_.--/to-night:/ last night. So in II, ii, 76, and

_The Merchant of Venice_, II, v, 18.]

[Note 2: Things that forbode evil fortune burden my

imagination.]

[Page 115]

1 CITIZEN. Ay, and briefly. 10

4 CITIZEN. Ay, and wisely.

3 CITIZEN. Ay, and truly, you were best.

CINNA. What is my name? Whither am I going? Where do I

dwell? Am I a married man or a bachelor? Then, to answer

every man directly and briefly, wisely and truly: wisely I

say, I am a bachelor. 16

2 CITIZEN. That's as much as to say, they are fools that

marry: you'll bear me a bang for that, I fear. Proceed;

directly.

CINNA. Directly, I am going to Cæsar's funeral. 20

1 CITIZEN. As a friend or an enemy?

CINNA. As a friend.

2 CITIZEN. That matter is answered directly.

4 CITIZEN. For your dwelling, briefly.

CINNA. Briefly, I dwell by the Capitol. 25

3 CITIZEN. Your name, sir, truly.

CINNA. Truly, my name is Cinna.

1 CITIZEN. Tear him to pieces; he's a conspirator.

CINNA. I am Cinna the poet, I am Cinna the poet. 29

4 CITIZEN. Tear him for his bad verses, tear him for his bad

verses.

CINNA. I am not Cinna the conspirator.

4 CITIZEN. It is no matter, his name's Cinna; pluck but his

name out of his heart, and turn him going. 34

3 CITIZEN. Tear him, tear him! Come, brands, ho! firebrands!

to Brutus', to Cassius'; burn all: some to Decius' house,

and some to Casca's; some to Ligarius': away, go! [_Exeunt_]

[Note 12: /you were best/: it were best for you. See Abbott, §

230.]

[Note 18: /you'll bear me/: I'll give you. For 'me' see note,

p. 26, l. 263.]

[Page 116]

ACT IV

SCENE I. _Rome._ _A room in_ ANTONY'S _house_

ANTONY, OCTAVIUS, _and_ LEPIDUS, _seated at a table_

ANTONY. These many then shall die; their names are prick'd.

OCTAVIUS. Your brother too must die; consent you, Lepidus?

[Note: _Rome._ _A room ... house_ Ff omit.--ANTONY, OCTAVIUS

... _table_ Malone | Enter Antony, Octawius, and Lepidus. Ff.]

[Note: SCENE I. The Folios give no indication of place, but that

Shakespeare intended the scene to be in Rome is clear from ll.

10, 11, where Lepidus is sent to Cæsar's house and told that

he will find his confederates "or here, or at the Capitol." In

fact, however, the triumvirs, Octavius, Antonius, and Lepidus,

met in November, B.C. 43, some nineteen months after the

assassination of Cæsar, on a small island in the river Rhenus

(now the Reno), near Bononia (Bologna). "All three met

together in an island environed round about with a little

river, and there remained three days together. Now, as

touching all other matters they were easily agreed, and did

divide all the empire of Rome between them, as if it had been

their own inheritance. But yet they could hardly agree whom

they would put to death: for every one of them would kill

their enemies, and save their kinsmen and friends. Yet, at

length, giving place to their greedy desire to be revenged of

their enemies, they spurned all reverence of blood and

holiness of friendship at their feet. For Cæsar left Cicero to

Antonius's will; Antonius also forsook Lucius Cæsar, who was

his uncle by his mother; and both of them together suffered

Lepidus to kill his own brother Paulus. Yet some writers

affirm that Cæsar and Antonius requested Paulus might be

slain, and that Lepidus was contented with it."--Plutarch,

_Marcus Antonius_.]

[Note 1: /prick'd./ So in III, i. 217. See note, p. 95, l.

217.]

[Page 117]

LEPIDUS. I do consent--

OCTAVIUS. Prick him down, Antony.

LEPIDUS. Upon condition Publius shall not live,

Who is your sister's son, Mark Antony. 5

ANTONY. He shall not live; look, with a spot I damn him.

But, Lepidus, go you to Cæsar's house;

Fetch the will hither, and we shall determine

How to cut off some charge in legacies.

LEPIDUS. What, shall I find you here? 10

OCTAVIUS. Or here, or at the Capitol. [_Exit_ LEPIDUS]

ANTONY. This is a slight unmeritable man,

Meet to be sent on errands: is it fit,

The three-fold world divided, he should stand

One of the three to share it?

OCTAVIUS. So you thought him; 15

And took his voice who should be prick'd to die,

In our black sentence and proscription.

ANTONY. Octavius, I have seen more days than you:

And though we lay these honours on this man,

To ease ourselves of divers slanderous loads, 20

He shall but bear them as the ass bears gold,

To groan and sweat under the business,

Either led or driven, as we point the way;

And having brought our treasure where we will,

Then take we down his load and turn him off, 25

Like to the empty ass, to shake his ears

And graze in commons.

[Note 10: /What/, Johnson | What? Ff.]

[Note 23: /point/ F1 | print F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 4-5: According to Plutarch, as quoted above, this was

Lucius Cæsar, not Publius; nor was he Antony's nephew, but his

uncle by the mother's side. His name in full was Antonius

Lucius Cæsar.]

[Note 6: /with a spot I damn him:/ with a mark I condemn him.]

[Note 12: /slight unmeritable:/ insignificant, undeserving. In

Shakespeare many adjectives, especially those ending in

_-ful_, _-less_, _-ble_, and _-ive_, have both an active and a

passive meaning. See Abbott, § 3.]

[Note 27: /commons./ This is a thoroughly English allusion to

such pasture-lands as are not owned by individuals, but

occupied by a given neighborhood in common. In 1614

Shakespeare protested against the inclosure of such 'common

fields' at Stratford-on-Avon.]

[Page 118]

OCTAVIUS. You may do your will;

But he's a tried and valiant soldier.

ANTONY. So is my horse, Octavius; and for that

I do appoint him store of provender: 30

It is a creature that I teach to fight,

To wind, to stop, to run directly on,

His corporal motion govern'd by my spirit.

And, in some taste, is Lepidus but so;

He must be taught, and train'd, and bid go forth: 35

A barren-spirited fellow; one that feeds

On objects, arts, and imitations,

Which, out of use and stal'd by other men,

Begin his fashion: do not talk of him

But as a property. And now, Octavius, 40

Listen great things: Brutus and Cassius

Are levying powers: we must straight make head:

Therefore let our alliance be combin'd,

Our best friends made, and our best means stretch'd out;

And let us presently go sit in council, 45

How covert matters may be best disclos'd,

And open perils surest answered.

[Note 37: /objects, arts/ | Objects, Arts Ff | abject orts

Theobald | abjects, orts Staunton Camb Globe.--/imitations/,

Rowe | Imitations. Ff.]

[Note 38: /stal'd/ F3 | stal'de F1 F2 | stall'd F4.]

[Note 44: /and our best means (meanes) stretch'd out/ F2 F3 F4

| our meanes stretch't F1 | our best means strecht Johnson.]

[Note 32: /wind:/ wheel, turn. We have 'wind' as an active

verb in _1 Henry IV_, IV, i, 109: "To turn and wind a fiery

Pegasus."]

[Note 34: /in some taste:/ to some small extent. This meaning

comes from 'taste' in the sense of 'a small portion given as a

sample.']

[Note 37-39: As the textual notes show, modern editors have

not been content with the reading of the Folios. The serious

trouble with the old text is the period at the close of l. 37.

If a comma be substituted the meaning becomes obvious: Lepidus

is one who is always interested in, and talking about, such

things--books, works of art, etc.--as everybody else has got

tired of and thrown aside. Cf. Falstaff's account of Shallow,

_2 Henry IV_, III, ii, 340: "'a came ever in the rearward of

the fashion; and sung those tunes to the over-scutch'd

huswives that he heard the carmen whistle, and sware they were

his fancies or his good-nights." 'Stal'd' is 'outworn,' or

'grown stale'; and the reference is not to objects, etc.,

generally, but only to those which have lost the interest of

freshness. 'Abjects' in the Staunton-Cambridge reading, is

'things thrown away'; 'orts,' 'broken fragments.']

[Note 40: /a property:/ a tool, an accessory. The reference is

to a 'stage property.' Cf. Fletcher and Massinger, _The False

One_, V, iii:

this devil Photinus

Employs me as a property, and, grown useless,

Will shake me off again.

Shakespeare uses 'property' as a verb in this sense in

_Twelfth Night_, IV, ii, 99: "They have here propertied me."]

[Note 41: /Listen./ The transitive use is older than the

intransitive.]

[Note 42: /make head:/ raise an armed force. 'Head' has often

the meaning of 'armed force' in Shakespeare. So in sixteenth

century literature and old ballads. It usually connotes

insurrection.]

[Note 44: The reading adopted is that of the later Folios. It

makes a normal blank verse line. Cf. II, i, 158-159.]

[Page 119]

OCTAVIUS. Let us do so: for we are at the stake,

And bay'd about with many enemies;

And some that smile have in their hearts, I fear, 50

Millions of mischiefs. [_Exeunt_]

[Note 48-49: The metaphor is from bear-baiting. Cf. _Macbeth_,

V, vii, 1.]

[Page 120]

SCENE II. _Before_ BRUTUS'S _tent, in the camp near Sardis_

_Drum._ _Enter_ BRUTUS, TITINIUS, LUCIUS, _and_ Soldiers;

LUCILIUS _and_ PINDARUS _meet them_

BRUTUS. Stand, ho!

LUCILIUS. Give the word, ho! and stand.

BRUTUS. What now, Lucilius! is Cassius near?

LUCILIUS. He is at hand; and Pindarus is come

To do you salutation from his master. 5

[PINDARUS _gives a letter to_ BRUTUS]

BRUTUS. He greets me well. Your master, Pindarus,

In his own change, or by ill officers,

Hath given me some worthy cause to wish

Things done undone: but, if he be at hand,

I shall be satisfied.

PINDARUS. I do not doubt 10

But that my noble master will appear

Such as he is, full of regard and honour.

[Note: SCENE II. _Before ... Sardis_ Rowe | Ff omit.]

[Note: _Enter_ BRUTUS ... _meet them_ | Enter Brutus, Lucillius, and

the Army. Titinius and Pindarus meet them Ff.]

[Note 5: [PINDARUS _gives_ ...] | Ff omit.]

[Note 7: /change/ Ff | charge Hanmer.]

[Note: SCENE II. This scene is separated from the foregoing by

about a year. The remaining events take place in the autumn,

B.C. 42.]

[Note 6: /He greets me well./ A dignified return of the

salutation.]

[Note 7: If the Folio reading be retained, 'change' will mean

'altered disposition,' 'change in his own feelings towards

me.' Warburton's suggestion 'charge,' adopted by Hanmer and in

previous editions of Hudson's Shakespeare, would give as the

meaning of the line, Either by his own command, or by

officers, subordinates, who have abused their trust,

prostituting it to the ends of private gain.]

[Page 121]

BRUTUS. He is not doubted. A word, Lucilius,

How he receiv'd you: let me be resolv'd.

LUCILIUS. With courtesy and with respect enough; 15

But not with such familiar instances,

Nor with such free and friendly conference,

As he hath us'd of old.

BRUTUS. Thou hast describ'd

A hot friend cooling: ever note, Lucilius,

When love begins to sicken and decay, 20

It useth an enforced ceremony.

There are no tricks in plain and simple faith:

But hollow men, like horses hot at hand,

Make gallant show and promise of their mettle;

But when they should endure the bloody spur, 25

They fall their crests, and, like deceitful jades,

Sink in the trial. Comes his army on?

LUCILIUS. They mean this night in Sardis to be quarter'd;

The greater part, the horse in general,

Are come with Cassius. [_Low march within_]

BRUTUS. Hark! he is arriv'd. 30

March gently on to meet him.

[Note 13-14: /word, Lucilius/ ... you: F3 F4 | word Lucillius

... you: F1 F2 | word, Lucilius,-- ... you, Rowe.]

[Note 30: [_Low_ ...] in Ff after l. 24.]

[Note 13-14: Mainly the Folio punctuation. A colon after

'Lucilius,' and a comma after 'you,' would give a

characteristic inversion.]

[Note 14: /How:/ as to how.--/resolv'd./ See note, p. 90, l.

132.]

[Note 16: /familiar instances:/ marks of familiarity. In

Schmidt is a list of the various senses in which Shakespeare

uses 'instances.']

[Note 23: /hot at hand:/ spirited or mettlesome when held

back.]

[Note 26: /fall:/ let fall.--/deceitful jades:/ horses that

promise well in appearance but "sink in the trial." 'Jade' is

'a worthless horse.']

[Page 122]

_Enter_ CASSIUS _and his Powers_

CASSIUS. Stand, ho!

BRUTUS. Stand, ho! Speak the word along.

1 SOLDIER. Stand!

2 SOLDIER. Stand! 35

3 SOLDIER. Stand!

CASSIUS. Most noble brother, you have done me wrong.

BRUTUS. Judge me, you gods! wrong I mine enemies?

And, if not so, how should I wrong a brother?

CASSIUS. Brutus, this sober form of yours hides wrongs;

And when you do them--

BRUTUS. Cassius, be content; 41

Speak your griefs softly: I do know you well.

Before the eyes of both our armies here,

Which should perceive nothing but love from us,

Let us not wrangle: bid them move away; 45

Then in my tent, Cassius, enlarge your griefs,

And I will give you audience.

CASSIUS. Pindarus,

Bid our commanders lead their charges off

A little from this ground.

BRUTUS. Lucilius, do you the like; and let no man 50

Come to our tent till we have done our conference.

Let Lucius and Titinius guard our door. [_Exeunt_]

[Note 34, 35, 36: SOLDIER |Ff omit.]

[Note 50: /Lucilius/ Ff | Lucius Craik.]

[Note 52: /Let Lucius/ Ff |Lucilius Craik.--/our/ Ff | the

Rowe.]

[Note 46: /enlarge your griefs:/ enlarge upon your grievances.

This use of 'grief' is not unusual in sixteenth century

English.]

[Note 50, 52: In previous editions of Hudson's Shakespeare was

adopted Craik's suggestion that in these lines, as they stand

in the Folios, the names Lucius and Lucilius got shuffled each

into the other's place; and then, to cure the metrical defect

in the third line, that line was made to begin with 'Let.'

Craik speaks of "the absurdity of such an association as

Lucius and Titinius for the guarding of the door." In Porter

and Clarke's 'First Folio,' _Julius Cæsar_, the answer to this

criticism is: "But a greater absurdity is involved in sending

the page with an order to the lieutenant commander of the

army, and the extra length of l. 50 pairs with a like extra

length in l. 51. Lucilius, having been relieved by Lucius,

after giving the order returns and guards the door again."]

[Page 123]

SCENE III. BRUTUS'S _tent_

_Enter_ BRUTUS _and_ CASSIUS

CASSIUS. That you have wrong'd me doth appear in this:

You have condemn'd and noted Lucius Pella

For taking bribes here of the Sardians;

Wherein my letters, praying on his side,

Because I knew the man, was slighted off. 5

[Note: SCENE III Pope | Rowe omits.--BRUTUS'S _tent_ Hanmer |

Ff omit.]

[Note: _Enter_ BRUTUS ... Capell | Manet Brutus ... F1 |

Manent ... F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 4-5: /letters ... man, was/ | Letters ... man was F1 |

letter ... man, was, F2 F3 F4 | letters ... man, were Malone.]

[Note: SCENE III. Dowden points out that this scene was

already celebrated in Shakespeare's own day, Leonard Digges

recording its popularity, and Beaumont and Fletcher imitating

it in _The Maid's Tragedy_. "I know no part of Shakespeare

that more impresses on me the belief of his genius being

superhuman than this scene between Brutus and

Cassius."--Coleridge.]

[Note 1: "Now as it commonly happened in great affairs between

two persons, both of them having many friends and so many

captains under them, there ran tales and complaints between

them. Therefore, before they fell in hand with any other

matter they went into a little chamber together, and bade

every man avoid, and did shut the doors to them. Then they

began to pour out their complaints one to the other, and grew

hot and loud, earnestly accusing one another, and at length

both fell a-weeping. Their friends that were without the

chamber, hearing them loud within, and angry between

themselves, they were both amazed and afraid also, lest it

would grow to further matter: but yet they were commanded that

no man should come to them."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Note 2: /noted:/ marked with a stigma. North thus uses the

word. See quotation from _Marcus Brutus_ on following page, l.

3.]

[Note 3: "The next day after, Brutus, upon complaint of the

Sardians, did condemn and note Lucius Pella.... This judgment

much misliked Cassius, because himself had secretly ... warned

two of his friends, attainted and convicted of the like

offences, and openly had cleared them."--Plutarch, _Marcus

Brutus_.]

[Note 5: /was./ The verb is attracted into the singular by the

nearest substantive.--/slighted off/: contemptuously set

aside.]

[Page 124]

BRUTUS. You wrong'd yourself to write in such a case.

CASSIUS. In such a time as this it is not meet

That every nice offence should bear his comment.

BRUTUS. Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself

Are much condemn'd to have an itching palm, 10

To sell and mart your offices for gold

To undeservers.

CASSIUS. I an itching palm!

You know that you are Brutus that speaks this,

Or, by the gods, this speech were else your last.

BRUTUS. The name of Cassius honours this corruption,

And chastisement doth therefore hide his head. 16

[Note 6: /to write:/ by writing. This gerundive use of the

infinitive is very common in this play. Cf. 'to have' in l.

10; 'To sell and mart' in l. 11; 'To hedge me in' in l. 30,

and so on. See Abbott, §356.]

[Note 8: /nice:/ foolish, trifling.--/his:/ its. The meaning

of the line is, Every petty or trifling offense should not be

rigidly scrutinized and censured. Cassius naturally thinks

that "the honorable men whose daggers have stabb'd Cæsar"

should not peril their cause by moral squeamishness. "He

reproved Brutus, for that he should show himself so straight

and severe, in such a time as was meeter to bear a little than

to take things at the worst."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Page 125]

CASSIUS. Chastisement!

BRUTUS. Remember March, the Ides of March remember:

Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake?

What villain touch'd his body, that did stab, 20

And not for justice? What! shall one of us,

That struck the foremost man of all this world

But for supporting robbers, shall we now

Contaminate our fingers with base bribes,

And sell the mighty space of our large honours 25

For so much trash as may be grasped thus?

I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon,

Than such a Roman.

CASSIUS. Brutus, bait not me;

I'll not endure it. You forget yourself,

To hedge me in; I am a soldier, I, 30

Older in practice, abler than yourself

To make conditions.

[Note 27: /bay/ F1 | baite F2 | bait F3 F4.]

[Note 28: /bait/ F3 F4 | baite F1 F2 | bay Theobald Delius

Staunton.]

[Note 30: /I/, Ff | ay, Steevens.]

[Note 18: "Brutus in contrary manner answered that he should

remember the Ides of March, at which time they slew Julius

Cæsar, who neither pilled[A] nor polled[B] the country, but

only was a favourer and suborner of all them that did rob and

spoil, by his countenance and authority. And if there were any

occasion whereby they might honestly set aside justice and

equity, they should have had more reason to have suffered

Cæsar's friends to have robbed and done what wrong and injury

they had would[C] than to bear with their own men."--Plutarch,

_Marcus Brutus_.]

[Note A: i.e. robbed, pillaged.]

[Note B: i.e. taxed, spoiled.]

[Note C: i.e. wished (to do).]

[Note 20-21: "Who was such a villain of those who touched his

body that he stabbed from any other motive than

justice?"--Clar.]

[Note 28-32: "Now Cassius would have done Brutus much honour,

as Brutus did unto him, but Brutus most commonly prevented

him, and went first unto him, both because he was the elder

man as also for that he was sickly of body. And men reputed

him commonly to be very skilful in wars, but otherwise

marvellous choleric and cruel, who sought to rule men by fear

rather than with lenity: and on the other side, he was too

familiar with his friends and would jest too broadly with

them."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Page 126]

BRUTUS. Go to; you are not, Cassius.

CASSIUS. I am.

BRUTUS. I say you are not.

CASSIUS. Urge me no more, I shall forget myself; 35

Have mind upon your health, tempt me no farther.

BRUTUS. Away, slight man!

CASSIUS. Is't possible?

BRUTUS. Hear me, for I will speak.

Must I give way and room to your rash choler?

Shall I be frighted when a madman stares? 40

CASSIUS. O ye gods, ye gods! must I endure all this?

BRUTUS. All this! ay, more: fret till your proud heart break;

Go show your slaves how choleric you are,

And make your bondmen tremble. Must I budge?

Must I observe you? must I stand and crouch 45

Under your testy humour? By the gods,

You shall digest the venom of your spleen,

Though it do split you; for, from this day forth,

I'll use you for my mirth, yea, for my laughter,

When you are waspish.

[Note 32: /Go to/ | Go too F1.--/not, Cassius/ Hanmer | not

Cassius Ff.]

[Note 44: /budge/ F4 | bouge F1 | boudge F2 F3.]

[Note 48: /Though/ F1 | Thought F2.]

[Note 32: 'Go to' is a phrase of varying import, sometimes of

reproof, sometimes of encouragement. 'Go till' is its earliest

form.]

[Note 45: /observe:/ treat with ceremonious respect or

reverence.]

[Note 47: The spleen was held to be the special seat of the

sudden and explosive emotions and passions, whether of mirth

or anger. Cf. _Troilus and Cressida_, I, iii, 178; _1 Henry

IV_, V, ii, 19.]

[Page 127]

CASSIUS. Is it come to this? 50

BRUTUS. You say you are a better soldier:

Let it appear so; make your vaunting true,

And it shall please me well: for mine own part,

I shall be glad to learn of noble men.

CASSIUS. You wrong me every way; you wrong me, Brutus; 55

I said an elder soldier, not a better:

Did I say 'better'?

BRUTUS. If you did, I care not.

CASSIUS. When Cæsar liv'd, he durst not thus have mov'd me.

BRUTUS. Peace, peace! you durst not so have tempted him.

CASSIUS. I durst not! 60

BRUTUS. No.

CASSIUS. What, durst not tempt him!

BRUTUS. For your life you durst not.

CASSIUS. Do not presume too much upon my love;

I may do that I shall be sorry for.

[Note 54: /noble/ Ff | abler Collier.]

[Note 55: Two lines in Ff.]

[Note 51-54: This mistake of Brutus is well conceived. Cassius

was much the abler soldier, and Brutus knew it; and the

mistake grew from his consciousness of the truth of what he

thought he heard. Cassius had served as quæstor under Marcus

Crassus in his expedition against the Parthians; and, when the

army was torn all to pieces, both Crassus and his son being

killed, Cassius displayed great ability in bringing off a

remnant. He showed remarkable military power, too, in Syria.]

[Page 128]

BRUTUS. You have done that you should be sorry for. 65

There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats;

For I am arm'd so strong in honesty,

That they pass by me as the idle wind,

Which I respect not. I did send to you

For certain sums of gold, which you denied me: 70

For I can raise no money by vile means:

By heaven, I had rather coin my heart,

And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring

From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash

By any indirection. I did send 75

To you for gold to pay my legions,

Which you denied me. Was that done like Cassius?

Should I have answer'd Caius Cassius so?

When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous,

To lock such rascal counters from his friends, 80

Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts,

Dash him to pieces!

[Note 75: /indirection:/ crookedness, malpractice. In _King

John_, III, i, 275-278, is an interesting passage illustrating

this use of 'indirection.' Cf. _2 Henry IV_, IV, v, 185.]

[Note 80: The omission of the conjunction 'as' before

expressions denoting result is a common usage in

Shakespeare.--/rascal counters:/ worthless money. 'Rascal' is

properly a technical term for a deer out of condition. So used

literally in _As You Like It_, III, iii, 58. 'Counters' were

disks of metal, of very small intrinsic value, much used for

reckoning. Cf. _As You Like It_, II, vii, 63; _The Winter's

Tale_, IV, iii, 38. Professor Dowden comments aptly on what we

have here: "Brutus loves virtue and despises gold; but in the

logic of facts there is an irony cruel or pathetic. Brutus

maintains a lofty position of immaculate honour above Cassius;

but ideals, and a heroic contempt for gold, will not fill the

military coffer, or pay the legions, and the poetry of noble

sentiment suddenly drops down to the prosaic complaint that

Cassius had denied the demands made by Brutus for certain sums

of money. Nor is Brutus, though he worships an ideal of

Justice, quite just in matters of practical detail."]

[Page 129]

CASSIUS. I denied you not.

BRUTUS. You did.

CASSIUS. I did not: he was but a fool that brought

My answer back. Brutus hath riv'd my heart: 85

A friend should bear his friend's infirmities,

But Brutus makes mine greater than they are.

BRUTUS. I do not, till you practise them on me.

CASSIUS. You love me not.

BRUTUS. I do not like your faults.

CASSIUS. A friendly eye could never see such faults. 90

BRUTUS. A flatterer's would not, though they do appear

As huge as high Olympus.

[Note 84: /that brought/ | Ff give to l. 85.]

[Note 82-83: "Whilst Brutus and Cassius were together in the

city of Smyrna, Brutus prayed Cassius to let him have part of

his money whereof he had great store.... Cassius's friends

hindered this request, and earnestly dissuaded him from it;

persuading him, that it was no reason that Brutus should have

the money which Cassius had gotten together by sparing, and

levied with great evil will of the people their subjects, for

him to bestow liberally upon his soldiers, and by this means

to win their good wills, by Cassius's charge. This

notwithstanding, Cassius gave him the third part of this total

sum."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Page 130]

CASSIUS. Come, Antony, and young Octavius, come,

Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius,

For Cassius is a-weary of the world; 95

Hated by one he loves; brav'd by his brother;

Check'd like a bondman; all his faults observ'd,

Set in a note-book, learn'd, and conn'd by rote,

To cast into my teeth. O, I could weep

My spirit from mine eyes! There is my dagger, 100

And here my naked breast; within, a heart

Dearer than Plutus' mine, richer than gold:

If that thou be'st a Roman, take it forth;

I, that denied thee gold, will give my heart:

Strike, as thou didst at Cæsar; for I know, 105

When thou didst hate him worst, thou lov'dst him better

Than ever thou lov'dst Cassius.

BRUTUS. Sheathe your dagger:

Be angry when you will, it shall have scope;

Do what you will, dishonour shall be humour.

O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb 110

That carries anger as the flint bears fire;

Who, much enforced, shows a hasty spark,

And straight is cold again.

CASSIUS. Hath Cassius liv'd

To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus,

When grief and blood ill-temper'd vexeth him? 115

BRUTUS. When I spoke that, I was ill-temper'd too.

CASSIUS. Do you confess so much? Give me your hand.

BRUTUS. And my heart too.

CASSIUS. O Brutus!

BRUTUS. What's the matter?

[Note 102: /Plutus'/ Pope | Pluto's Ff.]

[Note 96: /brav'd:/ defied. The verb connotes bluster and

bravado.]

[Note 102: Plutus (for the Folio reading see note on 'Antonio'

for Antonius, I, ii, 5) is the old god of riches, who had all

the world's gold in his keeping and disposal. Pluto was the

lord of Hades.]

[Note 109: Whatever dishonorable thing you may do, I will set

it down to the caprice of the moment.--/humour./ See note, p.

60, l. 250.]

[Note 111-113: Cf. the words of Cassius, I, ii, 176-177. See

also _Troilus and Cressida_, III, iii, 257. It was long a

popular notion that fire slept in the flint and was awaked by

the stroke of the steel. "It is not sufficient to carry

religion in our hearts, as fire is carried in flintstones, but

we are outwardly, visibly, apparently, to serve and honour the

living God."--Hooker, _Ecclesiastical Polity_, VII, xxii, 3.]

[Page 131]

CASSIUS. Have not you love enough to bear with me,

When that rash humour which my mother gave me 120

Makes me forgetful?

BRUTUS. Yes, Cassius; and from henceforth,

When you are over-earnest with your Brutus,

He'll think your mother chides, and leave you so.

POET. [_Within_] Let me go in to see the generals;

There is some grudge between 'em; 'tis not meet 125

They be alone.

LUCILIUS. [_Within_] You shall not come to them.

POET. [_Within_] Nothing but death shall stay me.

_Enter_ Poet, _followed by_ LUCILIUS, TITINIUS, _and_ LUCIUS

CASSIUS. How now! what's the matter?

POET. For shame, you generals! what do you mean? 130

Love, and be friends, as two such men should be;

For I have seen more years, I'm sure, than ye.

CASSIUS. Ha, ha! how vilely doth this cynic rhyme!

[Note 123: _Enter a Poet_ Ff.]

[Note 124, 127, 128: [_Within_] Ff omit.]

[Note 129: _Enter_ Poet ... LUCIUS Camb Globe | Enter Poet,

followed by Lucilius and Titinius Dyce | Enter Poet Theobald |

Ff omit.]

[Note 133: /vilely/ F4 | vildely F1 F2 | vildly F3.--doth Ff |

does Capell.]

[Note 129-133: "One Marcus Phaonius, that ... took upon him to

counterfeit a philosopher, not with wisdom and discretion, but

with a certain bedlam and frantic motion; he would needs come

into the chamber, though the men offered to keep him out. But

it was no boot to let Phaonius, when a mad mood or toy took

him in the head: for he was an hot hasty man, and sudden in

all his doings, and cared for never a senator of them all.

Now, though he used this bold manner of speech after the

profession of the Cynic philosophers, (as who would say,

_Dogs_,) yet his boldness did no hurt many times, because they

did but laugh at him to see him so mad. This Phaonius at that

time, in spite of the door-keepers, came into the chamber, and

with a certain scoffing and mocking gesture, which he

counterfeited of purpose, he rehearsed the verses which old

Nestor said in Homer:

My lords, I pray you hearken both to me,

For I have seen mo years than suchie three.

Cassius fell a-laughing at him; but Brutus thrust him out of

the chamber, and called him dog, and counterfeit Cynic.

Howbeit his coming in brake their strife at that time, and so

they left each other."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Page 132]

BRUTUS. Get you hence, sirrah; saucy fellow, hence!

CASSIUS. Bear with him, Brutus; 'tis his fashion. 135

BRUTUS. I'll know his humour, when he knows his time:

What should the wars do with these jigging fools?

Companion, hence!

CASSIUS. Away, away, be gone! [_Exit_ Poet]

BRUTUS. Lucilius and Titinius, bid the commanders

Prepare to lodge their companies to-night. 140

CASSIUS. And come yourselves, and bring Messala with you

Immediately to us. [_Exeunt_ LUCILIUS _and_ TITINIUS]

BRUTUS. Lucius, a bowl of wine! [_Exit_ LUCIUS]

CASSIUS. I did not think you could have been so angry.

BRUTUS. O Cassius, I am sick of many griefs.

CASSIUS. Of your philosophy you make no use, 145

If you give place to accidental evils.

[Note 139: Scene IV Pope.--Enter Lucil. and Titin. Rowe.]

[Note 142: [_Exeunt_ ...] Rowe | Ff omit.--[_Exit_ Lucius]

Capell | Ff omit.]

[Note 137: /jigging:/ moving rhythmically, rhyming. So in the

Prologue to Marlowe's _Tamburlaine the Great_:

From jigging veins of rhyming mother wits,

And such conceits as clownage keeps in pay.]

[Note 138: 'Companion' was often used contemptuously. Cf.

_Coriolanus_, IV, v, 14; V, ii, 65. Cf. the way 'fellow' is

often used to-day.]

[Note 145: In his philosophy, Brutus was a mixture of the

Stoic and the Platonist. What he says of Portia's death is

among the best things in the play, and is in Shakespeare's

noblest style. Profound emotion expresses itself with reserve.

Deep grief loves not many words.]

[Page 133]

BRUTUS. No man bears sorrow better. Portia is dead.

CASSIUS. Ha! Portia!

BRUTUS. She is dead.

CASSIUS. How 'scaped I killing when I cross'd you so? 150

O insupportable and touching loss!

Upon what sickness?

BRUTUS. Impatient of my absence,

And grief that young Octavius with Mark Antony

Have made themselves so strong,--for with her death

That tidings came,--with this she fell distract, 155

And, her attendants absent, swallow'd fire.

CASSIUS. And died so?

BRUTUS. Even so.

CASSIUS. O ye immortal gods!

[Note 152: Strict harmony of construction would require

'impatience' for 'impatient' here, or 'griev'd' for 'grief' in

the next line. Shakespeare is not very particular in such

niceties. Besides, the broken construction expresses

dramatically the deep emotion of the speaker.]

[Note 155: /distract:/ distracted. So in _Hamlet_, IV, v, 2.

'Distraught' is the form in _Romeo and Juliet_, IV, iii, 49.

For the dropping of the terminal _-ed_ of the participle in

verbs ending in _t_ or _te_, see Abbott, §342.]

[Note 156: It appears something uncertain whether Portia's

death was before or after her husband's. Plutarch represents

it as occurring before; but Merivale follows those who place

it after. "For Portia, Brutus's wife, Nicolaus the philosopher

and Valerius Maximus do write, that she determining to kill

herself (her parents and friends carefully looking to her to

keep her from it) took hot burning coals, and cast them into

her mouth, and kept her mouth so close that she choked

herself. There was a letter of Brutus found, written to his

friends, complaining of their negligence, that, his wife being

sick, they would not help her, but suffered her to kill

herself, choosing to die rather than to languish in

pain."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Page 134]

_Re-enter_ LUCIUS, _with wine and taper_

BRUTUS. Speak no more of her. Give me a bowl of wine.

In this I bury all unkindness, Cassius. [_Drinks_]

CASSIUS. My heart is thirsty for that noble pledge. 160

Fill Lucius, till the wine o'erswell the cup;

I cannot drink too much of Brutus' love. [_Drinks_]

BRUTUS. Come in, Titinius! [_Exit_ LUCIUS]

_Re-enter_ TITINIUS, _with_ MESSALA

Welcome, good Messala.

Now sit we close about this taper here,

And call in question our necessities. 165

CASSIUS. Portia, art thou gone?

BRUTUS. No more, I pray you.

Messala, I have here received letters,

That young Octavius and Mark Antony

Come down upon us with a mighty power,

Bending their expedition toward Philippi. 170

MESSALA. Myself have letters of the selfsame tenour.

BRUTUS. With what addition?

[Note 158: _Re-enter_ LUCIUS, ... _taper_ Camb | Enter Boy ...

Tapers Ff.]

[Note 162: [_Drinks_] Capell | Ff omit.]

[Note 163: [_Exit_ LUCIUS] Camb | Ff omit.--Scene V

Pope.--_Re-enter_ TITINIUS, _with_ ... Dyce | Enter Titinius

and ... Ff (after l. 162)]

[Note 171: /tenour/ Theobald | tenure Ff.]

[Note 173: /outlawry/ F4 | Outlarie F1 | Outlary F2 F3.]

[Note 165: /call in question:/ bring up for discussion.

'Question,' both noun and verb, is constantly found in

Shakespeare in the sense of 'talk.' So "in question more" in

_Romeo and Juliet_, I, i, 235.]

[Note 170: /Bending their expedition:/ directing their march.

Cf. 'expedition' in this sense in _Richard III_, IV, iv, 136.]

[Page 135]

MESSALA. That by proscription and bills of outlawry,

Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus,

Have put to death an hundred senators. 175

BRUTUS. Therein our letters do not well agree;

Mine speak of seventy senators that died

By their proscriptions, Cicero being one.

CASSIUS. Cicero one!

MESSALA. Cicero is dead,

And by that order of proscription 180

Had you your letters from your wife, my lord?

BRUTUS. No, Messala.

MESSALA. Nor nothing in your letters writ of her?

BRUTUS. Nothing, Messala.

MESSALA. That, methinks, is strange.

BRUTUS. Why ask you? hear you aught of her in yours?

MESSALA. No, my lord. 186

BRUTUS. Now, as you are a Roman, tell me true.

MESSALA. Then like a Roman bear the truth I tell:

For certain she is dead, and by strange manner.

[Note 179-180: Cicero is ... proscription | One line in Ff.]

[Note 185: Two lines in Ff.--/aught/ Theobald | ought Ff.]

[Note 179: "These three, Octavius Cæsar, Antonius, and

Lepidus, made an agreement between themselves, and by those

articles divided the provinces belonging to the empire of Rome

among themselves, and did set up bills of proscription and

outlawry, condemning two hundred of the noblest men of Rome to

suffer death, and among that number Cicero was

one."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Note 183: Both 'nor nothing' and 'writ' survive to-day as

vulgarisms.]

[Note 184: /Nothing, Messala./ This may seem inconsistent with

what has gone before (see more particularly ll. 154-155), but

we are to suppose that Brutus's friends at Rome did not write

to him directly of Portia's death, as they feared the news

might unnerve him, but wrote to some common friends in the

army, directing them to break the news to him, as they should

deem it safe and prudent to do so.]

[Page 136]

BRUTUS. Why, farewell, Portia. We must die, Messala:

With meditating that she must die once, 191

I have the patience to endure it now.

MESSALA. Even so great men great losses should endure.

CASSIUS. I have as much of this in art as you,

But yet my nature could not bear it so. 195

BRUTUS. Well, to our work alive. What do you think

Of marching to Philippi presently?

CASSIUS. I do not think it good.

BRUTUS. Your reason?

CASSIUS. This it is:

'Tis better that the enemy seek us:

So shall he waste his means, weary his soldiers, 200

Doing himself offence; whilst we, lying still,

Are full of rest, defence, and nimbleness.

[Note 191: /once/: at some time or other. So in _The Merry

Wives of Windsor_, III, iv, 103:

I thank thee; and I pray thee, once to-night

Give my sweet Nan this ring.]

[Note 194: /art:/ theory. This speech may be paraphrased, I am

as much a Stoic by profession and theory as you are, but my

natural strength is weak when it comes to putting the

doctrines into practice.]

[Note 196: /work alive:/ work in which we have to do with the

living.]

[Note 197: /presently:/ at once. See note, p. 82, l. 28.]

[Page 137]

BRUTUS. Good reasons must of force give place to better.

The people 'twixt Philippi and this ground

Do stand but in a forc'd affection, 205

For they have grudg'd us contribution:

The enemy, marching along by them,

By them shall make a fuller number up,

Come on refresh'd, new-added, and encourag'd;

From which advantage shall we cut him off 210

If at Philippi we do face him there,

These people at our back.

CASSIUS. Hear me, good brother.

BRUTUS. Under your pardon. You must note beside,

That we have tried the utmost of our friends,

Our legions are brim-full, our cause is ripe: 215

The enemy increaseth every day;

We, at the height, are ready to decline.

There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life 220

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

On such a full sea are we now afloat;

And we must take the current when it serves,

Or lose our ventures.

[Note 209: /new-added/ | new added Ff.]

[Note 224: /lose/ Rowe | loose Ff.]

[Note 203: /of force:/ of necessity, necessarily. Plutarch

represents this talk as occurring at Philippi just before the

battle: "Cassius was of opinion not to try this war at one

battle, but rather to delay time, and to draw it out in

length, considering that they were the stronger in money, and

the weaker in men and armour. But Brutus, in contrary manner,

did alway before, and at that time also, desire nothing more

than to put all to the hazard of battle, as soon as might be

possible; to the end he might either quickly restore his

country to her former liberty, or rid him forthwith of this

miserable world."--_Marcus Brutus._]

[Note 209: /new-added:/ reënforced. Singer suggested 'new

aided.']

[Note 218-221: Cf. _Troilus and Cressida_, V, i, 90; _The

Tempest_, I, ii, 181-184. Dr. Wright (Clar) quotes from Bacon

a parallel passage: "In the third place I set down reputation,

because of the peremptory tides and currents it hath; which,

if they be not taken in their due time, are seldom recovered,

it being extreme hard to play an after game of

reputation."--_The Advancement of Learning_, II, xxiii, 38.]

[Note 224: /ventures:/ what is risked, adventured. The figure

of a ship is kept up, and 'venture' denotes whatever is put on

board in hope of profit, and exposed to "the perils of waters,

winds, and rocks." Cf. _The Merchant of Venice_, I, i, 15, 42;

III, ii, 270.]

[Page 138]

CASSIUS. Then, with your will, go on;

We'll along ourselves, and meet them at Philippi. 225

BRUTUS. The deep of night is crept upon our talk,

And nature must obey necessity;

Which we will niggard with a little rest.

There is no more to say?

CASSIUS. No more. Good night:

Early to-morrow will we rise, and hence. 230

BRUTUS. Lucius! [_Re-enter_ LUCIUS] My gown.

[_Exit_ LUCIUS]. Farewell, good Messala:

Good night, Titinius: noble, noble Cassius,

Good night, and good repose.

CASSIUS. O my dear brother!

This was an ill beginning of the night:

Never come such division 'tween our souls! 235

Let it not, Brutus.

BRUTUS. Every thing is well.

CASSIUS. Good night, my lord.

BRUTUS. Good night, good brother.

TITINIUS.} Good night, Lord Brutus.

MESSALA. }

BRUTUS. Farewell, every one.

[_Exeunt_ CASSIUS, TITINIUS, _and_ MESSALA]

[Note 231: BRUTUS. /Lucius!/ [_Re-enter_ LUCIUS] My Camb |

_Enter Lucius_ Bru. Lucius my Ff.]

[Note 231: [_Exit_ LUCIUS] Ff omit.]

[Note 238: [_Exeunt_ CASSIUS ...] Capell | Exeunt Ff.]

[Note 228: /niggard:/ supply sparingly. In _Sonnets_, I, 12,

occurs 'niggarding'. In Elizabethan English "almost any part

of speech can be used as any other part of speech. Any noun,

adjective, or neuter verb can be used as an active

verb."--Abbott.]

[Page 139]

_Re-enter_ LUCIUS, _with the gown_

Give me the gown. Where is thy instrument?

LUCIUS. Here in the tent.

BRUTUS. What, thou speak'st drowsily?

Poor knave, I blame thee not; thou art o'er-watch'd. 241

Call Claudius and some other of my men;

I'll have them sleep on cushions in my tent.

LUCIUS. Varro and Claudius!

_Enter_ VARRO _and_ CLAUDIUS

VARRO. Calls my lord? 245

BRUTUS. I pray you, sirs, lie in my tent and sleep;

It may be I shall raise you by-and-by

On business to my brother Cassius.

VARRO. So please you, we will stand and watch your pleasure.

BRUTUS. I will not have it so: lie down, good sirs; 250

It may be I shall otherwise bethink me.

Look, Lucius, here's the book I sought for so;

I put it in the pocket of my gown.

[VARRO _and_ CLAUDIUS _lie down_]

[Note: _Re-enter_ LUCIUS, ... Capell | Enter Lucius ... Ff

(after Brutus, l. 236).]

[Note 242, 244, etc.: /Claudius/ Rowe | Claudio Ff.]

[Note 244, 289: /Varro/ Rowe | Varrus Ff.]

[Note 245: Scene VI Pope.--_Enter_ VARRO _and_ CLAUDIUS Rowe |

Enter Varrus and Claudio Ff.]

[Note 253: [VARRO _and_ ...] Ff omit.]

[Note 241: /Poor knave./ Cf. 'Gentle knave,' l. 269. The word

'knave' is here used in the literal sense of 'boy.' It was

used as a term of endearment, or of loving familiarity with

those of lower rank. So in _King Lear_, I, iv,

107.--/o'er-watch'd:/ worn out with keeping awake. So in _King

Lear_, II, ii, 177. Cf. 'o'ershot' in III, ii, 150.]

[Note 252-253: These two simple lines, with the answer of

Lucius, "I was sure your lordship did not give it me," are

among the best things in the play. Consider how much is

implied in them, and what a picture they give of the earnest,

thoughtful, book-loving Brutus. And indeed all his noblest

traits of character come out, "in simple and pure soul," in

this exquisite scene with Lucius, which is hardly surpassed by

anything in Shakespeare. Who could be troubled by the

anachronism in the book being of modern shape? "Brutus was a

careful man, and slept very little, both for that his diet was

moderate, as also because he was continually occupied. He

never slept in the day-time, and in the night no longer than

the time he was driven to be alone, and when everybody else

took their rest. But now whilst he was in war, and his head

ever busily occupied to think of his affairs and what would

happen, after he had slumbered a little after supper, he spent

all the rest of the night in dispatching of his weightiest

causes, and after he had taken order for them, if he had any

leisure left him, he would read some book till the third watch

of the night, at what time the captains, petty captains, and

colonels, did use to come to him."--Plutarch, _Marcus

Brutus_.]

[Page 140]

LUCIUS. I was sure your lordship did not give it me.

BRUTUS. Bear with me, good boy, I am much forgetful.

Canst thou hold up thy heavy eyes awhile, 256

And touch thy instrument a strain or two?

LUCIUS. Ay, my lord, an 't please you.

BRUTUS. It does, my boy:

I trouble thee too much, but thou art willing.

LUCIUS. It is my duty, sir. 260

BRUTUS. I should not urge thy duty past thy might;

I know young bloods look for a time of rest.

LUCIUS. I have slept, my lord, already.

[Note 262: /bloods./ So in _Much Ado about Nothing_, III, iii,

141: "How giddily a' turns about all the hot bloods between

fourteen and five-and-thirty?" Cf. I, ii, 151: "the breed of

noble bloods."]

[Page 141]

BRUTUS. It was well done; and thou shalt sleep again;

I will not hold thee long: if I do live, 265

I will be good to thee. [_Music, and a song_]

This is a sleepy tune. O murderous slumber,

Lay'st thou thy leaden mace upon my boy,

That plays thee music? Gentle knave, good night;

I will not do thee so much wrong to wake thee: 270

If thou dost nod, thou break'st thy instrument;

I'll take it from thee; and, good boy, good night.

Let me see, let me see; is not the leaf turn'd down

Where I left reading? Here it is, I think.

_Enter the_ Ghost _of_ CÆSAR

How ill this taper burns! Ha! who comes here? 275

I think it is the weakness of mine eyes

That shapes this monstrous apparition.

It comes upon me. Art thou any thing?

Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil,

That mak'st my blood cold, and my hair to stare? 280

Speak to me what thou art.

[Note 267: /murderous slumber/ | Murd'rous slumbler F1.]

[Note 274: [Sits down] Camb.]

[Note 275: Scene VII Pope.]

[Note 267: /murderous slumber./ The epithet probably has

reference to sleep being regarded as the image of death; or,

as Shelley put it, "Death and his brother Sleep." Cf.

_Cymbeline_, II, ii, 31.]

[Note 268: /thy leaden mace./ Upton quotes from Spenser, _The

Faerie Queene_, I, iv, 44:

But whenas Morpheus had with leaden mace

Arrested all that courtly company.

Shakespeare uses 'mace' both as 'scepter,' _Henry V_, IV, i,

278, and as 'a staff of office,' _2 Henry VI_, IV, vii, 144.]

[Note 269: The boy is spoken of as playing music to slumber

because he plays to soothe the agitations of his master's

mind, and put him to sleep. Bacon held that music "hindereth

sleep."]

[Note 275: The presence of a ghost was believed to make lights

burn blue or dimly. So in _Richard III_, V, iii, 180, when the

ghosts appear to Richard, he says: "The lights burn blue. It

is now dead midnight. Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling

flesh."]

[Note 277: /this monstrous apparition./ "Above all, the ghost

that appeared unto Brutus shewed plainly that the gods were

offended with the murder of Cæsar. The vision was thus: Brutus

... thought he heard a noise at his tent-door, and, looking

towards the light of the lamp that waxed very dim, he saw a

horrible vision of a man, of a wonderful greatness and

dreadful look, which at the first made him marvellously

afraid. But when he saw that it did no hurt, but stood at his

bedside and said nothing; at length he asked him what he was.

The image answered him: 'I am thy ill angel, Brutus, and thou

shalt see me by the city of Philippes.' Then Brutus replied

again, and said, 'Well, I shall see thee then.' Therewithal

the spirit presently vanished from him."--Plutarch, _Julius

Cæsar_.]

[Note 280: /stare:/ stand on end. 'To be stiff, rigid, fixed'

is the primary idea. Cf. _The Tempest_, I, ii, 213; _Hamlet_,

I, v, 16-20.]

[Page 142]

GHOST. Thy evil spirit, Brutus.

BRUTUS. Why com'st thou?

GHOST. To tell thee thou shalt see me at Philippi.

BRUTUS. Well; then I shall see thee again?

GHOST. Ay, at Philippi. 285

BRUTUS. Why, I will see thee at Philippi then.

[_Exit_ Ghost]

Now I have taken heart thou vanishest:

Ill spirit, I would hold more talk with thee.

Boy, Lucius! Varro! Claudius! Sirs, awake!

Claudius! 290

[Note 286: [_Exit_ Ghost] Ff omit.]

[Note 287: This strongly, though quietly, marks the Ghost as

subjective; as soon as Brutus recovers his firmness, the

illusion is broken. The order of things is highly judicious

here, in bringing the "horrible vision" upon Brutus just after

he has heard of Portia's shocking death. With that great

sorrow weighing upon him, he might well see ghosts. The

thickening of calamities upon him, growing out of the

assassination of Cæsar, naturally awakens remorse.]

[Page 143]

LUCIUS. The strings, my lord, are false.

BRUTUS. He thinks he still is at his instrument.

Lucius, awake!

LUCIUS. My lord?

BRUTUS. Didst thou dream, Lucius, that thou so criedst out? 295

LUCIUS. My lord, I do not know that I did cry.

BRUTUS. Yes, that thou didst: didst thou see any thing?

LUCIUS. Nothing, my lord.

BRUTUS. Sleep again, Lucius. Sirrah Claudius!

[_To_ VARRO] Fellow thou, awake! 300

VARRO. My lord?

CLAUDIUS. My lord?

BRUTUS. Why did you so cry out, sirs, in your sleep?

VARRO. }

CLAUDIUS.} Did we, my lord?

BRUTUS. Ay: saw you any thing?

VARRO. No, my lord, I saw nothing.

CLAUDIUS. Nor I, my lord. 305

BRUTUS. Go and commend me to my brother Cassius;

Bid him set on his powers betimes before, 307

And we will follow.

VARRO. }

CLAUDIUS.} It shall be done, my lord. [_Exeunt_]

[Note 300: [_To_ VARRO] Globe Camb | Ff omit.]

[Note 304, 308: VARRO, CLAUDIUS | Both Ff.]

[Note 291: /false:/ out of tune. A charming touch in this boy

study.]

[Note 306: /commend me to:/ greet from me, remember me kindly

to.]

[Note 307: /set on:/ cause to advance.--/betimes:/ early.

Formerly 'betime'; "the final 's' is due to the habit of

adding '-s' or '-es' to form adverbs; cf. 'whiles' (afterwards

'whilst') from 'while.'"--Skeat.]

[Page 144]

ACT V

SCENE I. _The plains of Philippi_

_Enter_ OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, _and their_ Army

OCTAVIUS. Now, Antony, our hopes are answered:

You said the enemy would not come down,

But keep the hills and upper regions.

It proves not so: their battles are at hand;

They mean to warn us at Philippi here, 5

Answering before we do demand of them.

ANTONY. Tut, I am in their bosoms, and I know

Wherefore they do it: they could be content

To visit other places, and come down

With fearful bravery, thinking by this face 10

To fasten in our thoughts that they have courage;

But 'tis not so.

[Note _The plains of Philippi_: Capell | The Fields of

Philippi, with the two Camps Rowe | Ff omit.]

[Note 4: /battles:/ troops, battalions. 'Battle' was used for

an 'army,' especially an army embattled, or ordered in battle

array. The plural is here used with historical correctness, as

Brutus and Cassius had each an army; the two armies of course

coöperating, and acting together as one. Cf. 'battle' in l. 16

and 'battles' in V, iii, 108.]

[Note 5: /warn:/ summon to fight. Cf. _King John_, II, i, 201.

In _Richard III_, I, iii, 39, we have "warn them to his royal

presence."]

[Note 7: /am in their bosoms:/ am familiar with their

intention.]

[Note 10: /bravery:/ bravado, defiance. The epithet 'fearful'

probably means that fear is behind the attempt to intimidate

by display and brag. Dr. Wright interprets 'bravery' as

'ostentation,' 'display.']

[Page 145]

_Enter a_ Messenger

MESSENGER. Prepare you, generals:

The enemy comes on in gallant show;

Their bloody sign of battle is hung out,

And something to be done immediately. 15

ANTONY. Octavius, lead your battle softly on,

Upon the left hand of the even field.

OCTAVIUS. Upon the right hand I; keep thou the left.

ANTONY. Why do you cross me in this exigent? 19

OCTAVIUS. I do not cross you; but I will do so. [_March_]

[Note 14: /bloody sign./ "The next morning, by break of day,

the signal of battle was set out in Brutus' and Cassius' camp,

which was an arming scarlet coat."--Plutarch, _Marcus

Brutus_.]

[Note 17: Plutarch tells that Cassius, though the more

experienced soldier, allowed Brutus to lead the right wing.

"Shakespeare made use of this incident, but transferred to the

opposite camp, in order to bring out the character of Octavius

which made Antony yield. Octavius really commanded the left

wing."--Clar.]

[Note 19: /exigent:/ exigency. So in _Antony and Cleopatra_,

IV, xiv, 63.]

[Note 20: /I will do so:/ I will do as I have said. Not 'I

will cross you.' At this time Octavius was but twenty-one

years old, and Antony was old enough to be his father. At the

time of Cæsar's death, when Octavius was in his nineteenth

year, Antony thought he was going to manage him easily and

have it all his own way with him; but he found the youngster

as stiff as a crowbar, and could do nothing with him. Cæsar's

youngest sister, Julia, was married to Marcus Atius Balbus,

and their daughter Atia, again, was married to Caius Octavius,

a nobleman of the plebeian order. From this marriage sprang

the present Octavius, who afterwards became the Emperor

Augustus. He was mainly educated by his great-uncle, was

advanced to the patrician order, and was adopted as his son

and heir; so that his full and proper designation at this time

was Caius Julius Cæsar Octavianus. The text gives a right

taste of the man, who always stood firm as a post against

Antony, till the latter finally knocked himself to pieces

against him.]

[Page 146]

_Drum._ _Enter_ BRUTUS, CASSIUS, _and their_ Army;

LUCILIUS, TITINIUS, MESSALA, _and others_

BRUTUS. They stand, and would have parley.

CASSIUS. Stand fast, Titinius: we must out and talk.

OCTAVIUS. Mark Antony, shall we give sign of battle?

ANTONY. No, Cæsar, we will answer on their charge.

Make forth; the generals would have some words. 25

OCTAVIUS. Stir not until the signal.

BRUTUS. Words before blows: is it so, countrymen?

OCTAVIUS. Not that we love words better, as you do. 28

BRUTUS. Good words are better than bad strokes, Octavius.

ANTONY. In your bad strokes, Brutus, you give good words.

Witness the hole you made in Cæsar's heart,

Crying, 'Long live! hail, Cæsar!'

CASSIUS. Antony,

The posture of your blows are yet unknown;

But, for your words, they rob the Hybla bees,

And leave them honeyless.

ANTONY. Not stingless too. 35

BRUTUS. O, yes, and soundless too;

For you have stol'n their buzzing, Antony,

And very wisely threat before you sting.

[Note 21: Scene II Pope.--LUCILIUS, TITINIUS ... | Ff omit.]

[Note 33: /The posture of your blows:/ where your blows are to

fall.--/are./ The verb is attracted into the plural by the

nearest substantive. Cf. 'was,' IV, iii, 5. Abbott calls this

idiom 'confusion of proximity.']

[Note 34: Hybla, a hill in Sicily, was noted for its thyme and

its honey. So Vergil, _Eclogues_, I, 54-55: "the hedge whose

willow bloom is quaffed by Hybla's bees." Cf. _1 Henry IV_, I,

ii, 47: "As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle."

Antony could not be so 'honey-tongued' unless he had quite

exhausted thyme-flavored Hybla.]

[Page 147]

ANTONY. Villains, you did not so, when your vile daggers

Hack'd one another in the sides of Cæsar: 40

You show'd your teeth like apes, and fawn'd like hounds,

And bow'd like bondmen, kissing Cæsar's feet;

Whilst damned Casca, like a cur, behind

Struck Cæsar on the neck. O you flatterers!

CASSIUS. Flatterers! Now, Brutus, thank yourself: 45

This tongue had not offended so to-day,

If Cassius might have rul'd.

OCTAVIUS. Come, come, the cause: if arguing make us sweat,

The proof of it will turn to redder drops.

Look; 50

I draw a sword against conspirators;

When think you that the sword goes up again?

Never, till Cæsar's three and thirty wounds

Be well aveng'd; or till another Cæsar

Have added slaughter to the sword of traitors. 55

[Note 41: Two lines in Ff.--/teeth/ F3 F4 | teethes F1 F2.]

[Note 44: /Struck/ F3 F4 | Strooke F1 F2.]

[Note 50-51: One line in Ff.]

[Note 39-44: These graphic details are from Plutarch's two

accounts (in _Julius Cæsar_ and _Marcus Brutus_) of the

assassination of Cæsar.]

[Note 48: Octavius has been a standing puzzle and enigma to

the historians, from the seeming contradictions of his

character. Merivale declares that the one principle that gave

unity to his life and reconciled those contradictions, was a

steadfast, inflexible purpose to avenge the murder of his

illustrious uncle and adoptive father.]

[Note 52: /goes up:/ is put into its sheath. Cf. _John_,

XVIII, 11.]

[Note 53: The number of Cæsar's wounds, according to Plutarch,

was three and twenty, and to 'three and twenty' Theobald,

craving historical accuracy, changed the 'three and thirty' of

the text.]

[Note 55: Till you, traitors as you are, have added the

slaughtering of me, another Cæsar, to that of Julius. See

note, p. 145, l. 20.]

[Page 148]

BRUTUS. Cæsar, thou canst not die by traitors' hands,

Unless thou bring'st them with thee.

OCTAVIUS. So I hope;

I was not born to die on Brutus' sword.

BRUTUS. O, if thou wert the noblest of thy strain,

Young man, thou couldst not die more honourable. 60

CASSIUS. A peevish schoolboy, worthless of such honour,

Join'd with a masker and a reveller!

ANTONY. Old Cassius still!

OCTAVIUS. Come, Antony; away!

Defiance, traitors, hurl we in your teeth;

If you dare fight to-day, come to the field; 65

If not, when you have stomachs.

[_Exeunt_ OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, _and their_ Army]

CASSIUS. Why, now, blow wind, swell billow, and swim bark!

The storm is up, and all is on the hazard.

BRUTUS. Ho, Lucilius! hark, a word with you.

LUCILIUS. [_Standing forth_] My lord? 70

[BRUTUS _and_ LUCILIUS _converse apart_]

[Note 66: [_Exeunt ... their_ Army] | Exit ... Army Ff.]

[Note 67: Scene III Pope.]

[Note 70: [_Standing forth_] Camb | Lucillius and Messala

stand forth Ff.--[BRUTUS _and_ ...] Ff omit.]

[Note 59. /strain:/ stock, lineage, race. So in _Henry V_, II,

iv, 51:

And he is bred out of that bloody strain

That haunted us in our familiar paths.]

[Note 61: Shakespeare often uses 'peevish' in the sense of

'silly,' 'foolish.' So in _The Comedy of Errors_, IV, i, 93. A

foolish schoolboy, joined with a masker and reveler (for

Antony's reputation, see I, ii, 204; II, i, 188, 189; II, ii,

116), and unworthy even of that honor.]

[Note 66: /stomachs:/ appetite, inclination, courage. So in

_Henry V_, IV, iii, 35: "He which hath no stomach to this

fight."]

[Page 149]

CASSIUS. Messala!

MESSALA. What says my general?

CASSIUS. Messala,

This is my birth-day; as this very day

Was Cassius born. Give me thy hand, Messala:

Be thou my witness that, against my will,

As Pompey was, am I compell'd to set 75

Upon one battle all our liberties.

You know that I held Epicurus strong,

And his opinion: now I change my mind,

And partly credit things that do presage.

Coming from Sardis, on our former ensign 80

Two mighty eagles fell, and there they perch'd,

Gorging and feeding from our soldiers' hands;

Who to Philippi here consorted us:

This morning are they fled away and gone;

And in their steads do ravens, crows, and kites, 85

Fly o'er our heads and downward look on us,

As we were sickly prey: their shadows seem

A canopy most fatal, under which

Our army lies, ready to give up the ghost.

[Note 71: /Messala/, | Ff add to l. 72.]

[Note 80: /former/ Ff | foremost Rowe.]

[Note 85: /steads/ F3 F4 | steeds F1 F2.]

[Note 72: 'As' is often used redundantly with definitions of

time. This is still a provincialism. See Abbott, § 114.

"Messala writeth, that Cassius having spoken these last words

unto him, he bade him farewell, and willed him to come to

supper to him the next night following, because it was his

birthday."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Note 75: Alluding to the battle of Pharsalia, which took

place in the year B.C. 48. Pompey was forced into that battle,

against his better judgment, by the inexperienced and

impatient men about him, who, inasmuch as they had more than

twice Cæsar's number of troops, fancied they could easily

defeat him if they could but meet him. So they tried it, and

he quickly defeated them.]

[Note 77: I was strongly attached to the doctrines of

Epicurus. "Cassius being in opinion an Epicurean, and

reasoning thereon with Brutus, spake to him touching the

vision thus: 'In our sect, Brutus, we have an opinion, that we

do not always feel or see that which we suppose we do both see

and feel, but that our senses, being credulous and therefore

easily abused ... imagine they see and conjecture that which

in truth they do not.'"--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Note 80: /former:/ first. Cf. "former things passed away."

"When they raised their camp there came two eagles, that,

flying with a marvellous force, lighted upon two of the

foremost ensigns, and always followed the soldiers, which gave

them meat and fed them, until they came near to the city of

Philippes; and there, one day only before the battle, they

both flew away."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Page 150]

MESSALA. Believe not so.

CASSIUS. I but believe it partly; 90

For I am fresh of spirit, and resolv'd

To meet all perils very constantly.

BRUTUS. Even so, Lucilius.

CASSIUS. Now, most noble Brutus,

The gods to-day stand friendly, that we may,

Lovers in peace, lead on our days to age! 95

But, since the affairs of men rests still incertain,

Let's reason with the worst that may befall.

If we do lose this battle, then is this

The very last time we shall speak together:

What are you then determined to do? 100

[Note 92: /perils/ F1 | peril F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 96: /rests/ Ff | rest Rowe.]

[Page 151]

BRUTUS. Even by the rule of that philosophy

By which I did blame Cato for the death

Which he did give himself: I know not how,

But I do find it cowardly and vile,

For fear of what might fall, so to prevent 105

The time of life: arming myself with patience

To stay the providence of some high powers

That govern us below.

CASSIUS. Then, if we lose this battle,

You are contented to be led in triumph

Thorough the streets of Rome? 110

[Note 102: /By/ F1 | Be F2.]

[Note 110: /Thorough/ | Thorow F1 F2 | Through F3 F4 | Along

Pope.--/Rome?/ Theobald | Rome Ff.]

[Note 111: Two lines in Ff.]

[Note 105-106: /prevent The time:/ anticipate the full,

natural period. To the understanding of this speech, it must

be observed that the sense of the words, 'arming myself,'

etc., follows next after the words, 'which he did give

himself.' In this passage, as Dr. Wright (Clar.) has pointed

out, Shakespeare was misled by an error in North's version of

Amyot's Plutarch, where we have _feis_ (= _fis_) translated as

if it were from _fier_: "Brutus answered him, being yet but a

young man, and not over greatly experienced in the world; 'I

trust (I know not how) a certain rule of philosophy, by the

which I did greatly blame ... Cato for killing himself, as

being no lawful nor godly act, touching the gods; nor,

concerning men, valiant: but, being now in the midst of the

danger, I am of a contrary mind.'"--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.

Wright, in his note on this passage, shows how the true

meaning is obscured by bad printing and punctuation. Brutus's

answer begins really with, 'Being yet but a young man'; and 'I

trust' is evidently a past tense (Old English 'truste') which

must have been read by Shakespeare as the present.]

[Page 152]

BRUTUS. No, Cassius, no: think not, thou noble Roman,

That ever Brutus will go bound to Rome;

He bears too great a mind. But this same day

Must end that work the Ides of March begun;

And whether we shall meet again I know not. 115

Therefore our everlasting farewell take.

For ever, and for ever, farewell, Cassius!

If we do meet again, why, we shall smile;

If not, why then this parting was well made.

CASSIUS. For ever, and for ever, farewell, Brutus! 120

If we do meet again, we'll smile indeed;

If not, 'tis true this parting was well made.

BRUTUS. Why, then, lead on. O, that a man might know

The end of this day's business ere it come!

But it sufficeth that the day will end, 125

And then the end is known. Come, ho! away! [_Exeunt_]