Act 5 — V. 5 Scene V.[109] Another part of the field[110]

V. 5 Scene V.[109] Another part of the field[110]

Enter Brutus, Dardanius, Clitus, Strato, and Volumnius

[Whispering][112]

[Whispering][112]

[Alarum still]

[Alarum. Cry within, 'Fly, fly, fly!']

[Exeunt Clitus, Dardanius, and Volumnius][125]

[Dies]

Alarum.[130] Retreat. Enter Antony, Octavius, Messala.

[Exeunt][144]

Notes

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.

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.

3 This title-page is given in facsimile as the frontispiece of this volume.

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.

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).

6 go.

7 seized.

8 foes.

9 daggers.

10 groaned.

11 unless.

12 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.

13 In Notes and Queries, February, 1899.

14 Leonard Digges also wrote verses "To the Memorie of the deceased Authour Maister W. Shakespeare," prefixed to the First Folio.

15 In The Academy, September 18, 1875. See also The Leopold Shakspere, Introduction.

16 Julius Cæsar, The Clarendon Press, Introduction, p. viii.

17 This is strong evidence that the play had not been printed at an earlier date.

18 "... 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).

19 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."

20 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.

21 "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.

22 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.

Act I

I.1 Dramatis Personæ. Rowe was the first to give a list of Dramatis Personæ. His list was imperfect and Theobald enlarged it.

I.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.

I.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.

I.4 Marullus. Theobald's emendation for the Murellus (Murrellus, I, ii, 281) of the First Folio. Marullus is the spelling in North's Plutarch.

I.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.

I.6 Calpurnia. Occasionally in North's Plutarch (twice in Julius Cæsar) and always in the First Folio the name is given as 'Calphurnia.'

I.7 ACT I, Scene I | Actus Primus. Scœna Prima Ff.—Rome. A street Capell | Rome Rowe | Ff omit.—Commoners Ff | Plebeians Hanmer.

I.8 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.

I.9 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."

I.10 ought not walk: See Abbott, § 349.

I.11 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."

I.12 Carpenter | Car. Ff | First Com. Camb | 1 Pleb. Hanmer.

I.13 You. On 'you' as distinct from 'thou,' see Abbott, § 232.

I.14 Cobbler | Cobl. Ff | Sec. Com. Camb.

I.15 in respect of: in comparison with. So in The Psalter (Book of Common Prayer), xxxix, 6. Cf. Hamlet, V, ii, 120.

I.16 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.

I.17 in a straightforward manner, without evasion.

I.18 soles | soules F₁F₂ | soals F₄.

I.19 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."

I.20 Flavius | Fla. Ff | Mur. Capell | Mar. Globe Camb.

I.21 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.

I.22 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.'

I.23 Marullus | Mur. Ff.

I.24 withal I F₁ | withall I F₂F₃ | withawl. I (Farmer's conj.) Camb Globe | with all. I Capell.

I.25 The text of the First Folio needs no emendation. It is good prose and involves a neat pun.

I.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."

I.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."

I.28 l. 34 Two lines in Ff.

I.29 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.

I.30 Pompey? Many ... oft Have Rowe | Pompey many ... oft? Have Ff.

I.31 windows, Rowe | Windowes? Ff.

I.32 Rome: Ff | Rome? Rowe.

I.33 That: so that. For the omission of 'so' before 'that,' see Abbott, § 283.

I.34 her | his Rowe.

I.35 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.

I.36 To hear: at hearing. A gerundive use of the infinitive.

I.37 replication: echo, repetition (Lat. replicare, to roll back).

I.38 Is this a day to pick out for a holiday?

I.39 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.

I.40 "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.

I.41 Till the river rises from the extreme low-water mark to the extreme high-water mark.

I.42 [Exeunt ... ] Ff | Exeunt Citizens Capell.

I.43 where Ff | whe're Theobald | whêr Dyce | whether Camb.

I.44 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.

I.45 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.

I.46 images. These images were the busts and statues of Cæsar, ceremoniously decked with scarfs and badges in honor of his triumph.

I.47 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.

I.48 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.

I.49 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."

I.50 the vulgar: the common people. So in Love's Labour's Lost, I, ii, 51; Henry V, IV, vii, 80.

I.51 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."

I.52 Scene ... place | Ff omit.

I.53 Antonius' Pope | Antonio's Ff.

I.54 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."

I.55 Antonius Pope | Antonio Ff (and so elsewhere).

I.56 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.

I.57 [Flourish] Ff omit.

I.58 the Ides of March: March 15th.

I.59 soothsayer. By derivation, 'truth teller.'

I.60 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."

I.61 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.

I.62 Scene III Pope.

I.63 gamesome: fond of games. Here as in Cymbeline, I, vi, 60, the word seems to be used in a literal and restricted sense.

I.64 quick spirit: lively humor. The primary meaning of 'quick' is 'alive,' as in the phrase "the quick and the dead." See Skeat.

I.65 as. The three forms 'that,' 'who' ('which'), and 'as' are often interchangeable in Elizabethan usage. So in line 174. See Abbott, §§ 112, 280.

I.66 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.

I.67 friend F₁ | Friends F₂F₃.

I.68 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.

I.69 Merely: altogether, entirely. So in The Tempest, I, i, 59.

I.70 passions of some difference: conflicting emotions.

I.71 only proper to myself: belonging exclusively to myself.

I.72 give some soil to: to a certain extent tarnish.

I.73 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.

I.74 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.

I.75 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."

I.76 By means whereof: and because of my mistaking it. 'Means' was sometimes used in the sense of 'cause.'

I.77 itself | it selfe F₁ | himselfe F₂ | himself, F₃ | himself: F₄.

I.78 by some Ff | from some Pope.

I.79 ll. 52–53 Three irregular lines in Ff.

I.80 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.

I.81 '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.

I.82 l. 58 Two lines in Ff.

I.83 Where. The adverb is here used of occasion, not of place.

I.84 of the best respect: held in the highest estimation.

I.85 Except immortal Cæsar. Keen, double-edged irony.

I.86 l. 63 Two lines in Ff.—Cassius, Pope Camb Globe | Cassius? Ff.

I.87 you yet F₁F₂ | yet you F₃F₄.

I.88 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.

I.89 laughter | Laughter Ff | laugher Rowe Camb Globe.

I.90 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.

I.91 To stale: to make common by frequent repetition, to cheapen. So again in IV, i, 38. Cf. Antony and Cleopatra, II, ii, 240.

I.92 '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."

I.93 myself | my selfe F₁ | omitted in F₂F₃F₄.

I.94 If you know that, when banqueting, I make professions of friendship to all the crowd.

I.95 ll. 79–80 Three irregular lines in Ff.

I.96 aught Theobald | ought Ff.

I.97 both Ff | death Theobald (Warburton).

I.98 "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.

I.99 indifferently: without emotion. 'Impartially.'—Clar.

I.100 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.

I.101 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.'

I.102 for F₁ | omitted in F₂F₃F₄.

I.103 lief: readily. The pronunciation of the f as v brings out the quibble. From the Anglo-Saxon léof, 'dear.' See Murray.

I.104 chafing F₁F₄ | chasing F₂F₃.

I.105 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.

I.106 said | saide F₁ | saies F₂F₃.

I.107 Accoutred F₁ | Accounted F₂.

I.108 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.

I.109 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.

I.110 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.

I.111 The image, very bold, somewhat forced, and not altogether happy, is of a cowardly soldier running away from his flag.

I.112 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."

I.113 lose | loose F₁.

I.114 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.

I.115 bade Theobald | bad Ff.

I.116 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."

I.117 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.

I.118 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.

I.119 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.

I.120 should be: can be. So in The Tempest, I, ii, 387: "Where should this music be? i' the air or the earth?"

I.121 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.

I.122 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.

I.123 walks F₄ | Walkes F₁F₂F₃ | walls Rowe.

I.124 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.

I.125 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.

I.126 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."

I.127 brook'd: endured, tolerated. See Murray for the history of this word.

I.128 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.

I.129 am nothing jealous: do not doubt. Cf. l. 71. 'Jealous' and 'zealous' are etymologically the same word. See Skeat.

I.130 work me to: prevail upon me to do. Cf. Hamlet, IV, vii, 64.

I.131 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.

I.132 not, so with ... you | not so (with ... you) Ff.

I.133 '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."

I.134 these ... as. See note, l. 34; Abbott, §§ 112, 280.

I.135 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.

I.136 Scene IV Pope.

I.137 ll. 178–179 Four lines in Ff.

I.138 proceeded: happened, come to pass. So in All's Well that Ends Well, IV, ii, 62.

I.139 worthy note. Cf. All's Well that Ends Well, III, v, 104. For the ellipsis of the preposition, see Abbott, § 198 a.

I.140 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.

I.141 Cæsar? Theobald | Cæsar. Ff.

I.142 o' nights Capeli | a-nights F₁F₂.

I.143 "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."

I.144 well given: well disposed. So in 2 Henry VI, III, i, 72.

I.145 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.

I.146 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:

I.147 This is one of the little touches of invention that so often impart a fact-like vividness to Shakespeare's scenes.

I.148 Scene V Pope.

I.149 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.'

I.150 there was a crown offer'd him. In the Life of Marcus Antonius Plutarch gives a detailed and vivid description of this scene.

I.151 a-shouting Dyce | a shouting Ff | a' shouting Capell.

I.152 it was F₁ | it were F₂F₃F₄.

I.153 hooted Johnson | howted F₁F₂F₃ | houted F₄.

I.154 chopp'd | chopt Ff.

I.155 swounded | swoonded Ff | swooned Rowe.

I.156 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."

I.157 swound Ff | swoon Rowe.

I.158 like; he Theobald | like he Ff.

I.159 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.

I.160 tag-rag people: Cf. 'the tag' in Coriolanus, III, i, 248.

I.161 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."

I.162 Marry. The common Elizabethan exclamation of surprise, or asseveration, corrupted from the name of the Virgin Mary.

I.163 me. The ethical dative. Cf. III, iii, 18; The Merchant of Venice, I, iii, 85; Romeo and Juliet, III, i, 6. See Abbott, § 220.

I.164 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).

I.165 And Ff | an (an') Theobald.

I.166 And: if. For 'and' in this sense, see Murray, and Abbott, § 101.

I.167 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.

I.168 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.

I.169 "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.

I.170 no omitted in F₂.

I.171 away? Theobald | away F₁.

I.172 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.

I.173 and Ff | an (an') Theobald.

I.174 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."

I.175 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.

I.176 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.

I.177 quick mettle: lively spirit. Collier conjectured 'quick-mettl'd.' 'Mettlesome' is still used of spirited horses. Cf. I, i, 63.

I.178 However: notwithstanding. Cf. Troilus and Cressida, I, iii, 322.

I.179 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.

I.180 digest F₃F₄ | disgest F₁F₂.

I.181 appetite F₁ | appetites F₂F₃ F₄.

I.182 l. 300 Ff print as two lines.

I.183 metal F₃F₄ | mettle F₁ | mettall F₂.

I.184 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.

I.185 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:

I.186 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.

I.187 hands: handwritings. So the word is used colloquially to-day.

I.188 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.

I.189 Scene III Capell | Scene VI Pope.

I.190 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.

I.191 Enter, from ... | Enter Caska, and Cicero Ff.

I.192 brought: accompanied. Cf. Richard II, I, iv, 2.

I.193 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.

I.194 tempest dropping fire Rowe | tempest-dropping-fire Ff.

I.195 destruction. Must be pronounced as a quadrisyllable.

I.196 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.

I.197 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.

I.198 you know. Dyce suggested 'you'd know'; Craik, 'you knew.' But the text as it stands is dramatically vivid and realistic.

I.199 Who. See Abbott, § 264.

I.200 glaz'd Ff | glar'd Rowe.

I.201 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.

I.202 surly F₁F₄ | surely F₂F₃.

I.203 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.

I.204 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."

I.205 Hooting Johnson | Howting F₁F₂F₃ | Houting F₄.

I.206 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.

I.207 climate: region, country. So Richard II, IV, i, 130. Cf. Hamlet, I, i, 125: "Unto our climatures and countrymen."

I.208 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.

I.209 to F₁F₂ | up F₃F₄.

I.210 Scene VII Pope.

I.211 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.

I.212 this! Dyce this? Ff.

I.213 l. 42 Two lines in Ff.

I.214 unbraced: unbuttoned, with open doublet. For such anachronisms see note, p. 26, l. 263; also p. 48, l. 73.

I.215 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."

I.216 cross: zigzag. So in King Lear, IV, vii, 33–35:

I.217 blue | blew F₁.

I.218 ll. 57–60 Five lines in Ff.

I.219 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."

I.220 ll. 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.

I.221 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.

I.222 old men, fools, and | Old men, Fooles, and F₁F₂ | Old men, Fools, and F₃F₄ | old men fools, and Steevens | old men fool and White.

I.223 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.

I.224 preformed: originally created for some special purpose.

I.225 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.

I.226 roars | roares F₁ | teares F₂.

I.227 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.

I.228 prodigious: portentous. As in A Midsummer Night's Dream, V, i, 419: "Never mole, hare lip, nor scar, Nor mark prodigious."

I.229 l. 79 Two lines in Ff.

I.230 Let it be who it is: "no matter who it is."—Clar.

I.231 thews | Thewes F₁F₂ | Sinews F₃F₄.

I.232 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.

I.233 with: by. So in III, ii, 196. See Abbott, § 193.

I.234 Can repress by force man's energy of soul.

I.235 bondman. The word 'cancel' in the next line shows that Casca plays on the two senses of 'bond.' Cf. Cymbeline, V, iv, 28.

I.236 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.

I.237 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.

I.238 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.

I.239 Hold, my hand: stay! here is my hand. As men clasp hands in sealing a bargain. In Rowe's text the comma is omitted.

I.240 Be factious: be active. Or it may mean, 'form a party,' 'join a conspiracy.'

I.241 griefs: grievances. The effect put for the cause. A common Shakespearian metonymy. Cf. III, ii, 211; IV, ii, 42, 46.

I.242 undergo: undertake. So in 2 Henry IV, I, iii, 54; The Winter's Tale, II, iii, 164; IV, iv, 554.

I.243 by this: by this time. So in King Lear, IV, vi, 45.

I.244 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.

I.245 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.

I.246 favour: appearance. So in I, ii, 91. Johnson's emendation, though pleonastic, makes least change upon the text of the Folios.

I.247 In favour's like Camb | In favour's, like Johnson | Is Favors, like F₁F₂ | Is Favours, like F₃F₄ | Is favour'd like Capell | Is feav'rous, like Rowe.

I.248 bloody, fiery | bloodie, fierie Ff | bloody-fiery Dyce.

I.249 close: hidden. So in 1 Chronicles, xii, 1: "He yet kept himself close because of Saul the son of Kish."

I.250 gait Johnson | gate Ff.

I.251 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.

I.252 l. 137 Two lines in Ff.

I.253 O, Cassius | Ff print in line 139.

I.254 the noble Brutus | Ff print in line 140.

I.255 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[1] 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.

I.255[1] i.e. scrolls.

I.256 Brutus may but find it: only Brutus may find it.

I.257 For a discussion of singular verbs with plural subjects, see Abbott, § 333. Cf. l. 138, l. 155; III, ii, 26.

I.258 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.

I.259 bade Rowe | bad Ff.

I.260 countenance: support.

I.261 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.

I.262 conceited: formed an idea of, conceived, judged. 'Conceit' as a verb occurs again in III, i, 193, and in Othello, III, iii, 149.

Act II

II.1 orchard. Shakespeare generally uses 'orchard' in its original sense of 'garden' (literally 'herb-garden,' Anglo-Saxon ort-geard).

II.2 Rome ... Enter Brutus Malone | Enter Brutus in his Orchard Ff.

II.3 What. A common exclamation frequent in Shakespeare. So in V, iii, 72. The 'when' of l. 5 shows increasing impatience.

II.4 when? Ff | when! Delius.

II.4 what, Lucius! | what Lucius? Ff.

II.6 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.

II.7 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.

II.8 The sunshine of royalty will kindle the serpent in Cæsar. The figure in 32–34 suggests that 'bring forth' may here mean 'hatch.'

II.9 him?—that;—Camb Globe | him that, Ff | him—that—Rowe.

II.10 do danger with: do mischief with, prove dangerous. Cf. Romeo and Juliet, V, ii, 20: "neglecting it May do much danger."

II.11 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:

The possession of dictatorial power is apt to stifle or sear the conscience, so as to make a man literally remorseless.

II.12 affections sway'd passions (inclinations) governed.

II.13 proof: experience. So in Twelfth Night, III, i, 135.

II.14 climber upward Ff | climber-upward Warburton.

II.15 Warburton put a hyphen between 'climber' and 'upward.' Delius, however, would connect 'upward' with 'whereto' and 'turns.'

II.16 base degrees: lower steps. 'Degrees' is here used in its original, literal sense for the rounds, or steps, of the ladder.

II.17 lest F₂F₃F₄ | least F₁.

II.18 prevent: anticipate.

II.19 quarrel: cause of complaint.

II.20 colour: pretext, plausible appearance.

II.21 ll. 29–34 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."

II.22 ll. 35, 59, 70 Re-enter | Enter Ff.

II.23 first Ff | Ides Theobald.

II.24 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.

II.25 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.

II.26 The Folios give this line as it is here. Some editors arrange it as the beginning of the letter repeated ponderingly by Brutus.

II.27 dropp'd | dropt, F₁F₂.

II.28 See quotation from Plutarch in note, p. 40, l. 143.

II.29 What, Rome? Rowe | What Rome Ff.

II.30 ancestors Ff | ancestor Dyce.

II.31 thee F₁F₄ | the F₂F₃.

II.32 fifteen Ff | fourteen Theobald.

II.33 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.

II.34 ll. 60, 76: [Exit Lucius] Ff omit.

II.35 motion: prompting of impulse. Cf. King John, IV, ii, 255.

II.36 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.

II.37 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."

II.38 a man F₁ | man F₂F₃F₄.

II.39 ll. 67–69: Cf. I, ii, 39–47; Macbeth, I, iii, 137–142.

II.40 brother. Cassius was married to Junia, the sister of Brutus.

II.41 moe Ff | more Rowe.

II.42 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.

II.43 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!

II.44 cloaks | Cloakes F₁ | cloathes F₂ | cloaths F₃F₄.

II.45 favour: countenance. So in I, ii, 91; I, iii, 129.

II.46 'em F₁F₂F₃ | them F₄.

II.47 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.

II.48 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.

II.49 path, thy F₂ | path thy F₁F₃F₄ | hath thy Quarto (1691) | march, thy Pope | put thy Dyce (Coleridge conj.).

II.50 Erebus: the region of nether darkness between Earth and Hades. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, V, i, 87: "dark as Erebus."

II.51 prevention: discovery, anticipation. This, the original sense, would lead to 'prevention,' as the term is used to-day.

II.52 Scene II Pope.

II.53 Decius Brutus. See notes, Dramatis Personæ, and p. 40, l. 148.

II.54 ll. 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.

II.55 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."

II.56 growing on: encroaching upon, tending towards.

II.57 Weighing: if you take into consideration.

II.58 high: full, perfect. Cf. 'high day,' 'high noon,' etc.

II.59 all over: one after the other until all have been included.

II.60 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."

II.61 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.

II.62 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.

II.63 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.

II.64 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.

II.65 What need we: why need we. So in Antony and Cleopatra, V, ii, 317; Titus Andronicus, I, i, 189. Cf. Mark, xiv, 63.

II.66 secret Romans: Romans who had promised secrecy.

II.67 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.

II.68 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.

II.69 carrions: carcasses, men as good as dead.

II.70 The even virtue: the virtue that holds an equable and uniform tenor, always keeping the same high level. Cf. Henry VIII, III, i, 37.

II.71 insuppressive: not to be suppressed. The active form with the passive sense. Cf. 'unexpressive,' in As You Like It, III, ii, 10.

II.72 To think: by thinking. The infinitive used gerundively.

II.73 opinion: reputation. So in The Merchant of Venice, I, i, 91.

II.74 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."

II.75 of him: in him. The "appositional genitive." See Abbott, § 172.

II.76 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.

II.77 Let's Ff | Let us Theobald.

II.78 men Ff | man Pope.

II.79 spirit F₁ | spirits F₂F₃F₄.

II.80 'em F₁F₂F₃ | them F₄.

II.81 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.

II.82 purgers: healers, cleansers of the land from tyranny.

II.83 '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.

II.84 ll. 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."

II.85 no fear: no cause of fear. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, II, i, 9.

II.86 stricken. In II, ii, 114, we have the form 'strucken.' An interesting anachronism is this matter of a striking clock in old Rome.

II.87 Whether. So in the Folios. Cf. the form 'where' in I, i, 63.

II.88 For 'from' without a verb of motion see Abbott, § 158.

II.89 '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.

II.90 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.

II.91 So in Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II, v, 10:

II.92 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.

II.93 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.

II.94 eighth F₄ | eight F₁F₂F₃.

II.95 hard F₁ | hatred F₂F₃F₄.

II.96 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.

II.97 by him: by his house. Make your way home that way.

II.98 l. 221 Two lines in Ff.

II.99 Let not our looks betray our purposes by wearing, or being attired with, any indication of them. Cf. Macbeth, I, vii, 81.

II.100 [Exeunt ...] | Exeunt. Manet Brutus Ff.

II.101 honey-heavy dew | hony-heavy-Dew Ff | honey heavy dew Johnson | heavy honey-dew Collier.

II.102 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.

II.103 Scene III Pope.

II.104 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.

II.105 Double negatives abound in Shakespeare. See Abbott, § 406.

II.106 You've Rowe | Y' have Ff.

II.107 suddenly | sodainly Ff.

II.108 wafture Rowe | wafter Ff.

II.109 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.

II.110 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.

II.111 you, Brutus F₄ | you Brutus F₁F₂F₃.

II.112 Dear my lord. This transposition, common in earnest address, is due to close association of possessive adjective and noun.

II.113 physical: wholesome, salutary. Cf. Coriolanus, I, v, 19.

II.114 dank | danke F₁ | darke F₂ | dark F₃F₄.

II.115 '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."

II.116 his | hit F₁

II.117 charm F₃F₄ | charme F₁F₂ | charge Pope.

II.118 charm: conjure, appeal by charms. So in Lucrece, l. 1681.

II.119 This speech, and that beginning with l. 291, follow Plutarch very closely: "His wife Porcia[1] ... 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[2] 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.

II.119[1] the correct classical spelling.

II.119[2] i.e. versed.

II.120 the | tho F₁.

II.121 ll. 285–286: In the outskirts or borders, and not at the center or near the heart. The image is exceedingly apposite and expressive.

II.122 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.

II.123 Cf. The Merchant of Venice, I, 1, 166:

II.124 [Knocking within] Malone | Knocke F₁F₂.

II.125 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."

II.126 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.

II.127 Re-enter ... with Dyce | Enter ... and Ff after [Exit Portia].

II.128 l. 313 (and elsewhere): Ligarius | Cai. Ff.

II.129 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."

II.130 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."

II.131 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.'

II.132 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.

II.133 l. 327 Two lines in Ff.

II.134 Thunder Ff.

II.135 Scene II Rowe | Scene IV Pope.

II.136 This scene, taken with the preceding, affords an interesting study in contrasts: Cæsar and Brutus; Calpurnia the yielding wife, and Portia the heroic.

II.137 Cæsar's house | Ff omit.

II.138 Enter Cæsar ... | Enter Julius Cæsar ... Ff.—in his night-gown Pope omits.

II.139 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.

II.140 l. 1 Two lines in Ff.

II.141 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[1] them: then he determined to send Antonius to adjourn the session of the Senate."—Julius Cæsar.

II.141[1] i.e. satisfy.

II.142 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.

II.143 'Ceremonies' is here put for the ceremonial or sacerdotal interpretation of prodigies and omens, as in II, i, 197.

II.144 ll. 16–24: Cf. Hamlet, I, i, 113–125; Vergil, Georgics, I, 465–488.

II.145 hurtled F₁ | hurried F₂F₃F₄.

II.146 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':

II.147 did neigh F₂F₃F₄ | do neigh F₁.

II.148 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.

II.149 Re-enter ... | Enter a ... Ff.

II.150 should: would. The present-day usage is post-Elizabethan.

II.151 are Capell | heare F₁F₂ | hear F₃F₄ | heard Rowe.

II.152 Scene V Pope.

II.153 afeard F₁F₂F₃ | afraid F₄

II.154 truth? | truth: Ff.

II.155 to-night: last night. So in The Merchant of Venice, II, v, 18.

II.156 statue Ff | statua Steevens | statuë Camb.

II.157 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."

II.158 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.

II.159 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.

II.160 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.'

II.161 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."

II.162 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.

II.163 Scene VI Pope.

II.164 Enter Publius ... | Ff have Publius after Cinna.

II.165 This was probably Publius Silicius, not a conspirator. See III, i, 87, where he is described as "quite confounded with this mutiny."

II.166 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."

II.167 o'clock Theobald | a Clocke Ff.

II.168 o' nights Theobald | a-nights Ff.

II.169 [Aside] Rowe | Ff omit.

II.170 [Aside] Pope | Ff omit.

II.171 yearns Capell | earnes F₁F₂.

II.172 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.

II.173 Scene III Rowe | Scene VII Pope.—A street ... Ff omit.

II.174 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.'"

II.175 reading a paper Rowe | Ff omit.

II.176 security gives way to: false confidence opens a way for.

II.177 lover: friend. See note, p. 100, l. 13.

II.178 emulation: envious rivalry. So in Troilus and Cressida, I, iii, 134: "an envious fever Of pale and bloodless emulation."

II.179 contrive: plot, conspire. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, IV, i, 360.

II.180 Scene IV Capell.—Another part ... Capell | Ff omit.

II.181 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."

II.182 constancy: firmness. Cf. II, i, 299. So in Macbeth, II, ii, 68.

II.183 bustling Rowe | bussling Ff.

II.184 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.

II.185 Sooth: in truth. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, I, i, 1. See Skeat, and cf. note on 'soothsayer,' p. 10, l. 19.

II.186 Enter the Soothsayer Ff | Enter Artemidorus Rowe.

II.187 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.

II.188 o'clock Theobald | a clocke F₁.

II.189 l. 32 Two lines in Ff.

II.190 l. 39 Two lines in Ff.

II.191 Ay | Aye Ff | ah Johnson.

II.192 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.

II.193 [Exeunt severally] Theobald | Exeunt F₁.

Act III

III.1 Rome. Before ... Publius, and others Capell (substantially) | Flourish. Enter Cæsar ... Artimedorus, Publius, and the Soothsayer Ff | Ff omit Popilius.

III.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.

III.3 schedule F₃F₄ | Scedule F₁F₂.

III.4 us ourself. The plural of modern English royalty transferred to ancient Rome. Another of the famous anachronisms.

III.5 See quotation from Plutarch, Julius Cæsar, above, p. 74.

III.6 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.

III.7 Cæsar goes ... | Ff omit.

III.8 Advances ... | Ff omit.

III.9 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,..."

III.10 makes to: advances to, presses towards.

III.11 mark. No necessity to pronounce this as dissyllabic. The pause has the effect of a syllable.

III.12 constant: firm. So in ll. 60, 72, 73. Cf. II, i, 227, 299; iv, 6.

III.13 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[1] 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[2] 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.