I& ACADeNjY SeRieS OF 
 eNGLISH CLASSICS 
 
 Shakespeare 
 Julius Caesar 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 S. THURBER 
 
 oo»»>^<««oc 
 
 ALLYN AND BACON 
 
Pl^ 
 
 
 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 ENGLISH COLLECTION 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 JAMES MORGAN HART 
 
 PROFESSOR OF KNGUSH 
 
 a^.aqsaa^ 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PR 2808.A2T53 
 
 Julius Caesar; 
 
 3 1924 013 138 924 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 92401 31 38924 
 
E\}c ^caliemg Series of lEugUsI) (Classics 
 
 SHAKESPEARE 
 
 JULIUS C/ESAR 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 SAMUEL THURBER 
 
 Boston 
 
 ALLYN AND BACON 
 
 -6 
 A 
 
Copyright, 1895, ''y 
 SAMUEL THURBER 
 
 PRESS OF 
 BOSTON, U.S.A. 
 
.PREFACE. 
 
 This edition of Julius Caesar offers itself simply as a 
 beginner's book in Shakespeare. The young student of 
 literature reads not merely for the pleasure of the hour, 
 but also, and mainly, for the purpose of forming habits 
 of self-reliance, of acquiring skill in an art, of enlarg- 
 ing his acquaintance with books, of coming into deeper 
 relation with human life. It is chiefly important for 
 the beginner that he should learn to solve his own 
 dif&culties. 
 
 The mature reader, to whom the diflBculties appear 
 trivial, is often too ready to hand over the solution of 
 them at the instant of their appearance ; and if the ob- 
 ject of the recitation is simply to move as rapidly as 
 possible through the play, or to let the class listen to 
 voluble exposition by the teacher, then such a method is 
 fitting. But this procedure deprives the learner of his 
 opportunity to learn. The process through which the 
 ripe scholar has passed to attain his ripeness is the type 
 of the course which the beginner must follow to achieve , 
 the object of his study. 
 
 To what sort of activity shall the task of getting his 
 Shakespeare lesson introduce the young pupil ? If he 
 has a body of notes that make everything plain, he will 
 have merely to con first the text and then the notes, 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 making some effort of memory to keep himself primed 
 for recitation tests. This process does him almost no 
 good at all. As new plays are taken in hand, he still 
 continues to con notes if he can get at them, and is 
 helpless if he cannot. This helple'ssness, however, is 
 better than a crammed memory, because it leaves the 
 learner free to undertake a reasonable course of work, 
 unhindered by the conceit that he knows already all 
 there is to be known. 
 
 Into this reasonable course of work I have tried to 
 initiate the pupil by giving him in the form of notes little 
 tasks of search, comparison, and inference. Wherever 
 obscurity of word or phrase could be cleared up by ref- 
 erence to other passages in the plays, I have referred to 
 those passages. Pupils should look up these references, 
 report their observations, and infer from comparison the 
 meaning that was not clear in the single instance. 
 
 The difftculties of Shakespeare's diction are to be con- 
 quered only by persistent struggle with each difficulty 
 as it arises. A conquest thus made, by exercise of the 
 judgment rather than of the memory, is a conquest made 
 for good. The resolute student soon finds his task grow- 
 ing easy. If a crucial trouble presents itself, he knows 
 how to go to work, and will soon ascertain, by profitable 
 ranging in the fields of cornmentary, how the point in 
 question has been dealt with by generations of scholars. 
 
 I have made references to the plays at large, and oc- 
 casionally to other books that are sure to be in every 
 secondary school library. No one ought to attempt 
 scholarly study of one play without having all the plays 
 at hand. Single-volume ShakespeareS, like the Globe 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 edition, are exceedingly cheap, and the class-room should 
 be liberally furnished with them. 
 
 On questions concerned with the interpretation of the 
 poet's thought and the proper understanding of his dra- 
 matic intention, I have given hints and suggestions, with 
 occasional queries that may lead to discussion, rather 
 than disquisitions of my own. Elaborate essays on liter- 
 ary topics are wholly ou.t of place in a book for young 
 people. 
 
 Shakespeare's dependence for his facts on his histori- 
 cal sources being especially clear and interesting in the 
 Roman plays, and peculiarly so in the Julius Caesar, I 
 have given frequent quotations from ^North's translation 
 of Amyot's Plutarch. The young reader will perhaps 
 from these citations get some idea of the difference there 
 is between excellent drama and excellent narrative. To 
 observe the poet's transmutation of story into play is 
 to take a lesson in literature of the utmost value. 
 
 In studying Julius Caesar, the class should have access 
 to Plutarch's lives of Brutus, Caesar, and Antony. The 
 modern translations will serve to give the historical facts, 
 but it was Sir Thomas North's that Shakespeare used, 
 and North's very language so often appears in the play 
 that it is far more instructive to read the very words 
 that the poet read himself. The lives from which he 
 drew the main events of his Eoman plots are easily 
 accessible in Hazlitt's Shakespeare's Library, and in 
 Skeat's Shakespeare's Plutarch. 
 
 Other books desirable in the study of Shakespeare 
 generally are : Bartlett's Concordance to Shakespeare, 
 — a book of untold value to the Shakespeare student ; 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 Schmidt's Shakespeare Lexicon ; Purness's Variorum 
 Shakespeare, — nine plays now edited, Caesar not among 
 them ; Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar ; Dowden's 
 Shakespere, in the series of Literature Primers. 
 
 The competent teacher of Shakespeare will have read 
 all the plays, some of them many times, and much other 
 Elizabethan literature. Nothing that can be put in a 
 book, nothing that can be conveyed in a lecture, can 
 compensate for the maturity of knowledge that each 
 reader gains for himself from long familiarity -ndth his 
 author. 
 
 S. Thuebee. 
 
JULIUS C/ESAR. 
 
 DRAilATIS PERSON--E. 
 
 OCTAVIUS CJESAB, J triumvirs 
 
 M AKCUS Antonius, J after the death of 
 M. JEmiLIUS LePIDUS, ) JuUus Cffisar. 
 
 Cicero, j 
 
 PxjBLius, [ senators. 
 
 PopiLitrs Lena, ) 
 
 Marcus Brutus, 
 
 Cassius, 
 
 Casca, 
 
 Tbebonius, . 
 
 LlGARIUa, 
 
 Decius Brutus, 
 Metellus Cimber. 
 
 CrNNA, 
 
 Flavius and Mabullus, tribunes. 
 Artemidorus of Cnidos, a teacher 
 
 of Rhetoric. 
 A Soothsayer. 
 CiNNA, a Poet. Another Poet. 
 
 conspirators 
 
 against 
 Julius Cffisar. 
 
 I friends to Brutus 
 and Cassius. 
 
 ' servants to Brutus. 
 
 LUCILIUS, 
 TiTINlUS, 
 
 Messala, 
 Young Cato, 
 volumnius, 
 Varko, 
 
 CUTUS, 
 
 Claudius, 
 
 Strato, 
 
 Lucius, 
 
 Dardanius, 
 
 Pindarus, servant to Cassius. 
 
 Calpurnia, wife to Caesar. 
 
 Portia, wife to Brutus. 
 
 Senators, Citizens, Guards, 
 
 ants, etc. 
 Scene: Rome; the neighborhood of 
 
 Sardia ; the neighborhood of 
 
 Attend- 
 
 ACT I. 
 
 Scene I. Rome. A Street. 
 
 Enter Flavius, Marullus, and certain Commoners. 
 
 Flav. Hence ! home, you idle creatures, get you home : 
 Is this a holiday ? what ! know you not, 
 Being mechanical, you ought not walk 
 Upon a laboring day without the sign 
 Of your profession ? Speak, what trade art thou ? 5 
 
 First Com. Why, sir, a carpenter. 
 
 Mar. Where is thy leather apron and thy rule ? 
 What dost thou with thy best apparel on ? 
 You, sir, what trade are you ? 
 
4 JULIUS OjESAR. 
 
 Sec. Com. Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, 
 I am but, as you would say, a cobbler. 
 
 Mar. But -what trade art thou ? answer me directly. 
 
 See. Com. A trade, sir, that, I hope, I may use with a 
 safe conscience ; which is, indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles. 
 
 Mar. What trade, thou knave ? thou naughty knave, 
 what trade ? 
 
 Sec. Corri. Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with 
 me : yet, if you be out, sir, I can mend you. 
 
 Mar. What meanest thou by that ? mend me, thou 
 saucy fellow ! 
 
 Sec. Com. Why, sir, cobble you. 20 
 
 Flav. Thou art a cobbler, art thou '/ 
 
 Sec. Com. Truly, sir, all that 1 live by is with the 
 awl : I meddle with no tradesman's matters, nor women's 
 matters, but with awl. 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. 
 
 Flav. But wherefore art not in thy shop to-day ? 
 Why dost thou lead these men about the streets ? 
 
 Sec. Com. Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes, ^o get 
 myself into more work. But indeed, sir, we make holi- 
 day, to see Caesar and to rejoice in his triumph. 
 
 Mar. Wherefore rejoice ? What conquest brings he 
 home ? 
 What tributaries follow him to Eome, 
 To grace in captive bonds his chariot-wheels ? .33 
 
 You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things ! 
 you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome, 
 Knew you not Pompey ? Many a time and oft 
 Have you climbed up to walls and battlements, 
 
ACT I. SCENE I. 5 
 
 To towers and windo-ws, yea, to chimney-tops, 4n 
 
 Your infants in your arms, and there have sat 
 
 The live-long day, with patient expectation. 
 
 To see great Pompey pass the streets of Kome : 
 
 And when yon saw his chariot but appear, 
 
 Have you not made an iiniversal shoiit, 43 
 
 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 ? 
 
 And do you now cull out a holiday ? 50 
 
 And do you now strew flowers in his way 
 
 That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood ? 
 
 Be gone ! 
 
 Eun to your houses, fall upon your knees. 
 
 Pray to the gods to intermit the plague 55 
 
 That needs must light on this ingratitude. 
 
 Flav. 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 
 Into the channel, till the lowest stream no 
 
 Do kiss the most exalted shores of all. 
 
 • \_Exeunf all the Commoners. 
 
 See, whether their basest metal be not moved ; 
 They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness. 
 Go you down that way towards the Capitol ; 
 This way will I : disrobe the images, 65 
 
 If you do find them decked with ceremonies. 
 
 Mar. May we do so ? 
 You know it is the feast of Lupercal. 
 
 F/iir. It is no matter ; let no images 
 Be hung with Caesar's trophies. I '11 about, 70 
 
6 JULIUS CjESAR. 
 
 And drive away the vulgar from the streets : 
 
 So do you too, where you perceive them thick. 
 
 These growing feathers plucked from Caesar's wing 
 
 Will make him fly an ordinary pitch, 
 
 Wlio else would soar above the view of men 75 
 
 And keep us all in servile fearfulness. \^Exeunt. 
 
 Scene II. A public place. 
 Flourish. Enter C^sae ; Antony, for the course ; Cal- 
 
 PURNIA, Portia, Deoiu.s, Cicebo, Bkutus, Cassius, 
 
 uTud Casca ; a great crowd followiny, amonif them a 
 
 Soothsayer. 
 
 Cms. Calpurnia ! 
 
 Casca. Peace, ho ! Caesar speaks. 
 
 Cms. Calpurnia ! 
 
 Cal. Here, my lord. 
 
 Cms. Stand you directly in Antonius' way. 
 When he doth run his course. Antonius ! 
 
 Ant. Caesar, my lord ? .0 
 
 Cm^s. 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. 
 
 Ant. I shall remember : 
 
 When Caesar says " do this," it is performed. 10 
 
 Cois. Set on ; and leave no ceremony out. [Flourish. 
 
 Sooth. Caesar ! 
 
 Cms. Ha ! who calls ? 
 
 Casca. Bid every noise be still : peace yet again ! 
 
 Cms. Who is it in the press that calls on me ? m 
 
 I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music. 
 Cry " Caesar ! " Speak ; Caesar is turned to hear. 
 
 Sooth. Beware the ides of March. 
 
ACT I. SCENS II. 7 
 
 Cces. What man is that ? 
 
 Bru. A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March. 
 
 Cms. Set him before me ; let me see his face. 20 
 
 Cas. Fellow, come from the throng ; look upon Csesar. 
 
 Cms. What say'st thou to me now ? speak once again. 
 
 Sooth. Beware the ides of March. 
 
 Cms. He is a dreamer ; let us leave him : pass. 
 
 \_Sennet. JExeunt all hut Brutus and Cassius. 
 
 Cas. Will you go see the order of the course ? l'.") 
 
 Brii. Not I. 
 
 Cas. I pray you, do. 
 
 Bm. 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 '11 leave you. 
 
 Cas. 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. 
 
 Bru. Cassius, 
 
 Be not deceived : if I have veiled 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 jjerhaps to my behaviors ; 
 But let not therefore my good friends be grieved — 
 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. 
 
8 JULIUS G^SAR. 
 
 Cas. Then, Brutus, I have much mistook y»ur 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 ? 
 
 Bru. No, Cassius ; for the eye sees not itself. 
 But by reflection, by some other things. 
 
 Cas. 'T is 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 Caesar, speaking of Brutus 00 
 
 And groaning underneath this age's yoke. 
 Have wished that noble Brutus had his eyes. 
 
 Bru. Into what dangers would you lead me, Cassius, 
 That you would have me seek into myself 
 For that which is not in me ? 65 
 
 Cas. Therefore, good Brutus, be prepared 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 laugher, 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. 
 
 \_Floiii'is]i. and shout. 
 
ACT I. SCENE II. 9 
 
 Bru. What means this shouting ? I do fear, the people 
 Choose CiBsar for their king. 
 
 Cos. Ay, do you fear it ? SO 
 
 Tlien must I think you would not have it so. 
 
 Bra. 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 ought toward the general good. So 
 
 Set honor 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 honor more than I fear death. 
 
 Cas. I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,* 90 
 
 As well as I do know your outward favor. 
 Well, honor 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 Caesar ; 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, 
 Caesar said to me, " Darest 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 roared, and we did buffet it 
 With lusty sinews, throwing it aside 
 And stemming it with hearts of controversy ; 
 
10 JULIUS CJSSA1{. 
 
 But ere we could arrive the point proposed, HO 
 
 Caesar cried, " Help me, Cassius, or I sink ! " 
 I, as jEneas, our great ancestor. 
 Did from the flames of Troy upon his slioulder 
 The old Ancliises bear, so from the waves of Tiber 
 Did I the tired Caesar: and this mau • 115 
 
 Is now become a god, and Cassius is 
 A wretched creature and miist bend his body, 
 It Caesar carelessly but nod on him. 
 He had a fever when he was in Spain, 
 And w'lien 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 color 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 Eomans 1-25 
 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 1:30 
 
 And bear the palm alone. \^Shout. Flourish. 
 
 p Bru. Another general shout ! 
 I do believe that these applauses are 
 For some new honors that are heaped on Caesar. 
 
 Cos. Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world 1:3.5 
 Like a Colossus, and we petty men 
 Walk under his huge legs and peep about 
 To find ourselves dishonorable 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. ^ 
 
ACT I. SCENE 11. 11 
 
 Brutus and Caesar: what should be in that ''Caesar" ? 
 
 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 ; 140 
 
 Weigh them, it is as heavy ; conjure with 'em, 
 
 Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Caesar. 
 
 ZSTow, in the names of all the gods at once, 
 
 Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, 
 
 That he is grown so great ? Age, thou art shamed ! 150 
 
 Rome, tliou hast lost the breed of noble bloods ! 
 
 When went there by an age, since the great flood, 
 
 But it was famed with more than with one man ? 
 
 When could they say till now, that talked of Rome, — 
 
 That her wide walls encompassed but one man ? . 155 
 
 Now is it Rome indeed and room enough. 
 
 When there is in it but one only man. 
 
 0, you and I have heard our fathers say. 
 
 There was a Brutus once that would have brooked 
 
 The eternal devil to keep his state in Rome 160 
 
 As easily as a king. 
 
 Bru,. 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, ItiO 
 
 I would not, so with love I might entreat you. 
 Be any further moved. 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 
 
12 JULIUS CJESAR. 
 
 Under tliese liard conditions as this time 
 
 Is like to lay upon us. 175 
 
 Cas. I am glad that my weak words 
 Have struck but thus much show of fire from Brutus. 
 
 Bru. The games are done and Caesar is returning. 
 
 Cas. 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. 
 
 Re-enter Caesar and his Tram. 
 
 Bru. I will do so. But, look you, Gassius, 
 The angry spot doth glow on Caesar'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 crossed in conference by some senators. 
 
 Cas. Casca will tell us what the matter is. 
 
 Cms. Antonius ! 190 
 
 Ant. Caesar ? 
 
 Cces. 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 
 
 Ant. Fear him not, Caesar ; he 's not dangerous ; 
 He is a noble Eoman and well given. 
 
 Cms. 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 ; 
 
ACT I. SCENE II. 13 
 
 Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort 205 
 
 As if he mocked himself and scorned his spirit 
 
 That could be moved to smile at any thing. 
 
 Such men as he be never at lieart's ease 
 
 Whiles they behold a greater than themselves, 
 
 And therefore are they very dangerous. 210 
 
 I rather tell thee wliat is to be feared 
 
 Than what I fear ; for always I am Caesar. 
 
 Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf, 
 
 And tell me truly what thou think' st of him. 
 
 \_S6n7i&t. Exeunt Ccesar and all his Train hut Casca. 
 
 Casca. You pulled me by the cloak ; would you speak 
 with me ? 
 
 £ru. Ay, Casca ; tell us what hath chanced to-day, 
 That Caesar looks so sad. 
 
 Casca. Why, you were with him, were you not ? 218 
 
 Bru. I should not then ask Casca what had chanced. 
 
 Casca. Why, there was a crown offered him : and be- 
 ing offered him, he put it by with the back of his hand, 
 thus ; and then the people fell a-shouting. 
 
 JBru. What was the second noise for ? 
 
 Casca. Why, for that too. 
 
 Cas. They shouted thrice : what was the last cry for ? 
 
 Casca. Why, for that too. 
 
 Bru. Was the crown offered him thrice ? 
 
 Casca. Ay, marry, -fas 't, and he put it by thrice, 
 every time gentler than other ; and at every putting-by 
 mine honest neighbors shouted. . 2.30 
 
 Cas. Who offered him the crown ? 
 
 Casca. Why, Antony. 
 
 Bru. Tell us the manner of it, gentle Casca. 
 
 Casca. I can as well be hanged as tell the manner of 
 
14 JULIUS C^SAR. 
 
 it : it was mere foolery ; I did not mark it. I saw Mark 
 Antony offer liim a crown ; — yet 't was not a crown 
 neither, 't was 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 offered it to him again ; 
 then hq put it by again : but, to my thinking, he was 
 very loath to lay his fingers off it. And then he offered 
 it the third time ; he put it the third time by : and still 
 as he refused it, the rabblement shouted and clapped their 
 chopt hands and threw up their sweaty nightcaps, and 
 uttered such a deal of stinking breath because Caesar re- 
 fused the crown, that it had almost choked Caesar ; for 
 he swounded and fell down at it : and for mine own part, 
 I durst not laugh, for fear of opening my lips and receiv- 
 ing the bad air. 249 
 
 Cas. But, soft, I pray you : what, did Caesar swound ? 
 
 Casca. He fell down in the market-place, and foamed 
 at mouth, and was speechless. 
 
 Bru. 'T is very like : he hath the falling-sickness. 
 
 Cas. Xo, Caesar hath it not ; but you, and I, 
 And honest Casca, we have the falling-sickness. 255 
 
 Casca. I know not what you mean by that ; but, I 
 am sure Caesar fell down. If the tag-rag people did not 
 clap him and hiss him, according as he pleased and dis- 
 pleased them, as they use to do the players in the theatre, 
 I am no true man. ♦ 260 
 
 Bru. Wliat said he when he came unto himself ? 
 
 Casca. Marry, before he fell down, when he perceived 
 the common herd was glad he refused the crown, he 
 plucked me ope his doublet and offered them his throat to 
 cut. An I had been a man of any occupation, if I would 
 not have taken him at a word, I would I might go to hell 
 
ACT I. SCENE II. 15 
 
 among the rogues. And so lie fell. When he came to 
 himself again, he said, If he had done or said any thing 
 amiss, he desired their worships to think it was his in- 
 firmity. 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 Caesar had 
 stabbed their mothers, they would have done no less. 273 
 
 Bru. And after that, he came, thus sad, away ? 
 
 Casca. Ay. 
 
 Cos. Did Cicero say any thing ? 
 
 Casca. Ay, he spoke Greek. 
 
 Cas. To what effect ? 278 
 
 Casca. Nay, an I tell you that, I '11 ne'er look you i' 
 the face again : but those that understood him smiled at 
 one another and shook their heads; but, for mine own 
 part, it was Greek to me. I could tell you more news 
 too : MaruUus and Flavins, for pulling scarfs off Caesar's 
 images, are put to silence. Fare you well. There was 
 more foolery yet, if I could remember it. 285 
 
 Cas. Will you sup with me to-night, Casca ? 
 
 Casca. No, I am promised forth. 
 
 Cas. Will you dine with me to-morrow ? 
 
 Casca. Ay, if I be alive, and your mind hold, and 
 your dinner worth the eating. 290 
 
 Cas. Good : T will expect you. 
 
 Casca. Do so. Farewell, both. [Uxit 
 
 Bru. What a blunt fellow is this grown to be ! 
 He was quick mettle when he went to school. 
 
 Cas. So is he now in execution 295 
 
 Of any bold or noble enterprise, 
 However he puts on this tardy form. 
 This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit, 
 
16 JULIUS CJESAR. 
 
 Which gives men stomach to digest his words 
 
 With better appetite. 300 
 
 Bru. And so it is. For this time I will leave you : 
 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. 
 
 Cos. I will do so : till then, think of the world. .30-5 
 
 \_Exit Brutus. 
 Well, Brutus, thou art noble ; yet, I see. 
 Thy honorable metal may be wrought 
 From that it is disposed : therefore it is meet 
 That noble minds keep ever with their likes ; 
 For who so firm that cannot be seduced ? 310 
 
 Csesar doth bear me hard; but he loves Brutus : 
 If I were Brutus now and he were Cassius, 
 He should not humor me. I will this night. 
 In several hands, in at his windows throw. 
 As if they came from several citizens, 315 
 
 Writings all tending to the great opinion 
 That Rome holds of his name ; wherein obscurely 
 Caesar's ambition shall be glanced at : 
 And after this let Caesar seat him sure ; 319 
 
 For we will shake him, or worse days endure. \_Exit. 
 
 Scene III. The same. A street. 
 
 Thunder and lightning. Enter, from opposite sides, Casca, 
 ivith his sword drawn, and Cicero. 
 
 Cic. Good even, Casca : brought you Csesar home ? 
 Why are you breathless ? and why stare you so ? 
 
 Casca. Are not you moved, when all the sway of earth 
 Shakes like a thing unfirm ? Cicero, 
 I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds 5 
 
ACT I. SCENE III. 17 
 
 Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen 
 
 The 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. 
 
 Cic. Why, saw you anything more wonderful ? 
 
 Casca. A common slave — you know him well by sight — 
 Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn 
 Like twenty torches joined, and yet his hand. 
 Not sensible of fire, remained unscorched. 
 Besides — T ha' not since put up my sword — 
 Against the Capitol I met a lion, 20 
 
 Who glared 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 those 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. 
 
 Cic. 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 Caesar to the Capitol to-morrow ? 
 
 Casca. He doth ; for he did bid Antonius 
 Send word to you he would be there to-morrow. 
 
18 JULIUS C^SAR. 
 
 Cic. Good night, then, Casca : this disturbed sky 
 Is not to walk in. 
 
 Casca. Farewell, Cicero. \_Exit Cicero. 40 
 
 Enter Cassius. 
 
 Cas. Who 's there ? 
 
 Casca. A Roman. 
 
 Cas. Casca, by your voice. 
 
 Casca. Your ear is good. Cassius, what night is this ! 
 
 Cas. A very pleasing night to honest men. 
 
 Casca. Who ever knew the heavens menace so ? 
 
 Cas. Those that have known the earth so full of faults. 
 For my part, I have walked about the streets, 
 Subiflitting me unto the perilous night, 
 And thus unbraced, Casca, as you see, 
 IJave bared my bosom to the thunder-stone ; 
 And when the cross blue lightning seemed to open .50 
 The breast of heaven, I did present myself 
 Even in the aim and very flash of it. [heavens ? 
 
 Casca. But wherefore did you so much tempt the 
 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. 
 
 Cas. 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, 7o 
 
 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 fool and children calculate, 65 
 
 Why all these things change from their ordinance 
 
ACT I. SCENF. III. 19 
 
 Their natures and preformed faculties, 
 
 To monstrous quality, why, you shall find 
 
 That heaven hath infused 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 
 
 Arid fearful, as these strange eruptions are. 
 
 Casca. 'T is Caesar that you mean ; is it not, Cassius ? 
 
 Cas. Let it be who it is : for Eomans now 80 
 
 Have thews and limbs like to their ancestors ; 
 But, woe the while ! our fathers' minds are dead. 
 And we are governed with our mothers' spirits ; 
 Our yoke and sufferance show us womanish. 
 
 Casca. Indeed, they say the senators to-morrow 8.5 
 Mean to establish Csesar as a king ; 
 And he shall wear his crown by sea and land, 
 In every place save here in Italy. 
 
 Cas. \ 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 : 
 No stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass. 
 Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron. 
 Can be retentive to the strength of spirit ; 9.5 
 
 But life, being weary of these worldly bars. 
 Never lacks power to dismiss itself. 
 If I know this, know all the world besides, 
 
20 JULIUS CjESAR. 
 
 That part of tyranny that I do bear 
 
 I can shake off at pleasure. [Thunder still. 
 
 Casca. So can I : lOo 
 
 So every bondman in his own hand bears 
 The power to cancel his captivity. 
 
 Cos. And why should Caesar be a tyrant then ? 
 Poor man ! T know he would not be a wolf, 
 But that he sees the Eomans 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 Caesar ! But, 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 armed, 
 And dangers are to me indifferent. 115 
 
 Casca. You speak to Casea, 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. 
 
 Cas. There 's a bargain made. vii\ 
 
 Now know you, Casca, I have moved already 
 Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans 
 To undergo with me an enterprise 
 Of honorable-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 
 
ACT I. SCENE in. ' 21 
 
 In favor 's like the work we have in hand, 
 Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible. 130 
 
 Enter Cinna. 
 
 Casea. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste. 
 
 Cos. 'T is Cinna; I do know him by his gait; 
 He is a friend. Cinna, where haste you so ? 
 
 Cln. To find out you. Who's that? Metellus Cimber ? 
 
 Cas. No, it is Casca; one incorporate i:j.j 
 
 To our attempts. Am I not stayed for, Cinna ? 
 
 Cin. I am glad on 't. What a fearful night is this ! 
 There 's two or three of us have seen strange sights. 
 
 Cos. Am I not stayed for ? tell me. 
 
 Cin. Yes, you are. 
 
 Cassius, if you could 140 
 
 But win the noble Brutus to our party — 
 
 Cas. Be you content : good Cinna, take this paper. 
 And look you lay it in the praetor'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 ? 
 
 Cin. 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. 
 
 Cas. That done, repair to Pompey's theatre. [Hxit 
 Come, Casca, you and I will yet ere day Cin7ia. 
 
 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. 0, he sits high in all the people's hearts : 
 And that which would appear offence in us 
 
22 • JULIUS C^SAR. 
 
 His countenance, like richest alchemy, 
 
 Will change to virtue and to worthiness. 160 
 
 Cas. 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 
 We will awake him and be sure of him. \_Exeunt. 
 
 ACT II. 
 
 Scene I. Rome. Brutus' orchard. 
 
 Enter Brutus. 
 
 Bru. 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 ! 5 
 Enter Lucius. 
 
 Luc. Called you, my lord ? 
 
 Bru. G-et me a taper in my study, Luciiis : 
 When it is lighted, come and call me here. 
 
 Luo. I will, my lord. \^Exit. 
 
 Bru. 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 crowned : 
 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. 
 The abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins 
 Eemorse from power : and, to speak truth of Caesar, 
 I have not known when his affections swayed 20 
 
ACT II. SCENE /. 23 
 
 More than his reason. But 't is a common proof, 
 
 That lowliness is young ambition's ladder, 
 
 Whereto the climber-upward turns his face ; 
 
 But when he once attains the utmost round, 
 
 He then unto the ladder turns his back, 25 
 
 Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees 
 
 By which he did ascend : so Caesar may ; 
 
 Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since the quarrel 
 
 Will bear no color 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, hatched, would, as his kind, grow mischievous. 
 
 And kill him in the shell. 
 
 Re-enter Lucius. 
 
 Luc. The taper burneth in your closet, sir. ' 3.5 
 
 Searching the window for a flint, I found 
 This paper thus sealed up, and I am sure 
 It did not lie there when I went to bed. ) 
 
 \_Gives hiTnThe letter. 
 
 Bru. Get you to bed again ; it is not day. 
 Is not to-Biorrow, boy, the ides of March ? 40 
 
 Luc. I know not, sir. 
 
 Brii. Look in the calendar, and bring me word. 
 
 Luc. I will, sir. \_Exit. 
 
 Bill. The exhalations whizzing in the air 
 Give so much light that I may read by them. 4.5 
 
 [ Opens the letter and reads. 
 " Brutus, thou sleep'st : awake, and see thyself. 
 Shall Rome, etc. Speak, strike, redress ! 
 Brutus, thou sleep'st : awake ! " 
 
24 JULIUS CJHSAR. 
 
 Such instigations have been.often. dropped 
 
 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 called a king. 
 
 " Speak, strike, redress ! " Am I entreated 55 
 
 To speak and strike ? Rome, I make thee promise ; 
 
 If the redress will follow, thou receivest 
 
 Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus ! 
 
 Re-enter Lucius. 
 Luc. Sir, March is wasted fifteen days. 
 
 [^Knocking within. 
 Bru. 'T is good. Go to the gate ; somebody knocks. 60 
 
 \_Exit Lucius. 
 Since Cassius iirst did whet me against Csesar, 
 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 man, 
 Like to a little kingdom, suffers then 
 The nature of an insurrection. 
 
 Re-enter Lucius. 
 Lug. Sir, 't is your brother Cassius at the door, 70 
 Who doth desire to see you. 
 
 Bru. Is he alone ? 
 
 Luc. No, sir, there are moe with him. 
 
 Bru. Do you know them ? 
 
 Lue. No, sir ; their hats are plucked about their ears, 
 
ACT II. SCENE I. 25 
 
 Ajid half their faces buried in their cloaks, 
 
 That by no means I may discover them 75 
 
 By any mark of favor. 
 
 Bru. Let 'em enter. \_Exii Lucius. 
 
 They are the faction. conspiracy, 
 Shamest thou to show thy dangerous brow by night. 
 When evils are most free ? 0, 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 
 
 Enter the Conspirators, Cassius, Casca, Decius, Cinna, 
 
 Metellus Cimber, and Tbebonius. 
 
 Cas. I think we are too bold upon your rest : 
 Good morrow, Brutus ; do we trouble you ? 
 
 Bru. I have been up this hour, awake all night. 
 Know I these men that come along with you ? 
 
 Cas. Yes, every man of them : and no man here 90 
 But honors you ; and every one doth wish 
 You had but that opinion of yourself 
 Which every noble Roman bears of you. 
 This is Trebonius. 
 
 Bru. He is welcome hither. \ 
 
 Cas. This, Decius Brutus. 
 
 Bru. He is welcome too. 05 
 
 Cas. This, Casca ; this, Cinna ; and this, Metellus 
 Cimber. 
 
 Bru. They are all welcome. 
 What watchful cares do interpose themselves 
 Betwixt your eyes and night ? 
 
26 JULIUS CjESAR. 
 
 Cos. Shall I entreat a word ? 100 
 
 \_Brutus and Cassius whisper. 
 
 Dec. Here lies the east : doth not the day break here ? 
 
 Casoa. No. 
 
 Cin. 0, pardon, sir, it doth ; and yon gray lines 
 That fret the clouds are messengers of day. 
 
 Casea. You shall confess that you are both deceived. 
 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. 
 
 Bru. Give me your hands all over, one by one. 
 
 Cos. And let us swear our resolution. 
 _ Bru. 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 valor 
 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, 12.o 
 
 And will not palter ? and what other oath 
 Than honesty to honesty engaged, 
 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 
 
ACT II. SCENE I. 27 
 
 That welcome wrongs ; unto bad causes swear 
 
 Such creatures as men doubt ; but do not stain 
 
 The even virtue of our enterprise, ^ -" 
 
 Nor the 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 passed from him. 140 
 
 Cos. But what of Cicero ? shall we sound him ? 
 I think he will stand very strong with us. 
 
 Casca. Let us not leave him out. 
 
 Cin. No, by no means. 
 
 Met. 0, 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 ruled our hands ; 
 Our youths and wildness shall no whit appear. 
 But all be buried in his gravity. 
 
 Bru. 0, name him not : let us not break with him. 
 For he will never follow any thing 151 
 
 That other men begin. 
 
 Cas.- Then leave him out. 
 
 Casca. Indeed he is not fit. 
 
 Dec. Shall no man else be touched but only Caesar ? 
 
 Cas. Decius, well urged : I think it is not meet, 155 
 Mark Antony, so well beloved of Csesar, 
 Should outlive Ceesar : 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 Caesar fall together. 
 
28/ JULIUS GMSAR. 
 
 Bru. 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 Caesar ; ltj5 
 
 Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius. 
 We all stand up against the spirit of Caesar ; 
 And in the spirit of men there is no blood : 
 ^0, that we then could come by Caesar's spirit, 
 And not dismember Caesar ! But, alas, 170 
 
 Caesar must bleed for it ! And, gentle friends. 
 Let 's kill him boldly, but not wrathfuUy ; 
 Let 's carve him as a dish fit for the gods, 
 !N^ot 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 called purgers, not murderers. ' ' 180 
 
 And for Mark Antony, think not of him ; 
 For he can do no more than Caesar's arm 
 When Caesar's head is off. 
 
 Cas. Yet I fear him ; 
 
 For in the ingrafted love lie bears to Caesar — 
 
 Bru. Alas, good Cassius, do not think of him : 185 
 If he love Caesar, all that he can do 
 Is to himself, take thought and die for Caesar : 
 And that were much he should ; for he is given 
 To sports, to wildness and much company. 
 
 Treb. There is no fear in him ; let him not die ; 190 
 For he will live, and laugh at this hereafter. \_Clock st?-ikes. 
 
 Bru. Peace ! count the clock. 
 
ACT II. SCENE I. 29 
 
 Cas. The clock hath stricken three. 
 
 Treb. 'T is time to part. 
 
 Cus. But it is doubtful yet, 
 
 Whether Csesar 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 unaccustomed terror of this night. 
 And the persuasion of his augurers, 200 
 
 ]Miy hold him from the Capitol to-day. 
 
 D&c. Never fear that ; if he be so resolved, 
 I can o'ersway him ; for he loves to hear 
 That unicorns may be betrayed 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 humor the true bent, 210 
 
 And I will bring him to the Capitol. 
 
 Cas. Nay, we will all of us be there to fetch him. 
 
 Bni,. By the eighth hour : is that the uttermost ? 
 
 Cin. Be that the uttermost, and fail not then. 
 
 Met. Caius Ligarius doth bear Cassar hard, 215 
 
 Who rated him for speaking well of Pompey : 
 I wonder none of you have thought of him. 
 
 Bi-u. Now, good Metellus, go along by him : 
 He loves me well, and I have given him reasons ; 
 Send him but hither, and I '11 fashion him. [Brutus. 
 
 Cas. The morning comes upon 's : we '11 leave you, 
 And, friends, disperse yourselves ; but all remember 
 What you have said, and show yourselves true Romans. 
 
30 JULIUS C^SAR. 
 
 Bru. Good gentlemen, look fresh and merrily ; 
 Let not our looks put on our purposes, 225 
 
 But bear it as our Eoman actors do, 
 With untired spirits and formal constancy : 
 And so good morrow to you every one. 
 
 \^Ex6unt 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. 
 
 Enter Poktia. 
 
 Por. Brutus, my lord ! 
 
 Bru. 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. 
 
 Por. Nor for yours neither. You 've ungently, Brutus, 
 Stole from my bed : and yesternight, at supper, 
 You suddenly arose, and walked about. 
 Musing and sighing, with your arms across ; 240 
 
 And when I asked you what the matter was, 
 You stared upon me with ungentle looks ; 
 I urged you further ; then you scratched your head, 
 And too impatiently stamped with your foot ; 
 Yet I insisted, yet you answered not, 245 
 
 But, with an angry wafture of your hand, 
 Grave sign for me to leave you : so I did, 
 Eearing to strengthen that impatience 
 Which seemed too much enkindled, and withal 
 Hoping it was but an effect of humor, 250 
 
 Which sometime hath his hour with every man. 
 
ACT II. SCENE I. 31 
 
 It will not let you eat, nor talk, nor sleep. 
 
 And could it work so much upon your shape 
 
 As it hath much prevailed on your condition, 
 
 I should not know you, Brutus. Dear my lord, 255 
 
 Make me acquainted with your cause of grief. 
 
 Bru. I am not well in health, and that is all. 
 
 For. Brutus is wise, and, were he not in health. 
 He would embrace the means to come by it. 
 
 Bru. Why, so I do. Good Portia, go to bed. 260 
 
 For. Is Brutus sick ? and is it physical 
 To walk unbraced and suck up the humors 
 Of the dank morning ? What, is Brutus sick, 
 And will he steal out of his wholesome bed, 
 To dare the wild contagion of the night 266 
 
 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. 
 
 Bru. Kneel not, gentle Portia. 
 
 For. 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 
 
32 JULIUS C^SAR. 
 
 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 
 
 Of your good pleasure ? If it be no more, 285 
 
 Portia is Brutus' harlot, not his wife. 
 
 Bru. You are my true and honorable wife. 
 As dear to me as are the ruddy drops 
 That visit my sad heart. 290 
 
 For. 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 fathered 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 ? 
 
 Bru. ye gods. 
 
 Render me worthy of this noble wife ! [^Knocking within. 
 Hark, hark ! one knocks : Portia, go in awhile ; 
 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 : [knocks ? 
 
 Leave me with haste. \_Exit Portia.] Lucius, who 's that 
 Be-emter Lucius with Ligaeius. 
 
 Luc. Here is a sick man that would speak with you. 
 
 Bru. Caius Ligarius, that Metellus spake of. 311 
 
 Boy, stand aside. Caius Ligarius ! how ? 
 
ACT II. SCENE 11. 33 
 
 Lig. Vouchsafe good morrow from .a feeble tongue. 
 
 Bru. 0, what a time have you cliose out, brave Caius, 
 To wear a kerchief ! Would you were not sick ! ?,lo 
 
 Lig. I am not sick, if Brutus have in hand 
 Any exploit worthy the name of honor. 
 
 Bru. Such an exploit have I in hand, Ligarius, 
 Had you a healthful ear to hear of it. 
 
 TCig?) By all the gods that Eomans bow before, 320 
 I here discard my sickness ! Soul of Eome ! 
 Brave son, derived from honorable loins ! 
 Thou, like an exorcist, has conjured up 
 My mortified spirit. Now bid me run. 
 And I will strive with things impossible ; 32.5 
 
 Yea, get the better of them. What 's to do ? 
 
 Bru. A xDiece of work that would make sick men whole. 
 
 I/ig. But are not some whole that we must make sick ? 
 
 Bru. That must we also. What it is, my Caius, 
 I shall unfold to thee, as we are going .3.30 
 
 To whom it must be done. 
 
 Lig. Set on your foot. 
 
 And with a heart new-fired I follow you. 
 To do I know not what : but it sufficeth 
 That Brutus leads me on. 
 
 Bru. ToUow me, then. [_Exeunt. 
 
 Scene II. Ccesar's House. 
 Thunder and lightning. Enter C^sak, in his night-gown. 
 Cms. Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace to- 
 night : 
 Thrice hath Calpurnia in her sleep cried out, 
 "Help, ho ! they murder Caesar ! '' Who 's within ? 
 Enter a Servant. 
 Serv. My lord ? 
 
34 JULIUS CJBSAR. 
 
 Cms. Go bid the priests do present sacrifice, 5 
 
 And bring me their opinions of success. 
 
 Serv. I will, my lord. \_Uxit. 
 
 Enter Calpurnia. 
 
 Cal. What mean you, Caesar ? think you to walk forth ? 
 You shall not stir out of your house to-day. 
 
 Cms. Csesar shall forth : the things that threatened me 
 Ne'er looked but on my back ; when they shall see 11 
 The face of Caesar, they are vanished. 
 
 Cal. Caesar, 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 yawned, and yielded up their dead ; 
 Fierce fiery warriors fought 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. 
 Caesar ! these things are beyond all use, 25 
 
 And I do fear them. 
 
 Cms. What can be avoided 
 
 Whose end is purposed by the mighty gods ? 
 Yet Caesar shall go forth; for these predictions 
 Are to the world in general as to Caesar. 
 
 Cal. When beggars die, there are no comets seen ; 30 
 The heavens themselves blaze forth the de^-th of princes. 
 
 Cms. Cowards die many times before their deaths ; 
 The valiant never taste of death but once. 
 Of all the wonders that I yet have heard. 
 
ACT II. SCENE II. 35 
 
 It seems to me most strange that men should fear ; 85 
 Seeing that death, a necessary end, 
 Will come when it will come. 
 
 Re-enter Servant. 
 
 What say the augurers ? 
 
 Serv. 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 
 
 Cces. The gods do this in shame of cowardice : 
 ■ Csesar should be a beast without a heart, 
 If he should stay at home to-day for fear. 
 No, Caesar shall not : danger knows full well 
 That Caesar is more dangerous than he : 45 
 
 We are two lions littered in one day, 
 And I the elder and more terrible : 
 And Cassar shall go forth. 
 
 Cal. Alas, my lord, 
 
 Your wisdom is consumed in confidence. 
 Do not go forth to-day : call it my fear 50 
 
 That keeps you in the house, and not your own. 
 We '11 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. 
 
 Cms. Mark Antony shall say I am not well, 55 
 
 And, for thy humor, I will stay at home. 
 
 Enter Decius. 
 Here 's Decius Brutus, he shall tell them so. 
 
 Dec. Caesar, all hail ! good morrow, worthy Caesar : 
 I come to fetch you to the senate-house. 
 
 Cces. And you are come in very happy time, 60 
 
 To bear my greeting to the senators 
 
36 JULIUS C^SAR. 
 
 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. 
 
 Cal. Say he is sick. 
 
 Cces. Shall Caesar send a lie ? 65 
 
 Have I in conquest stretched mine arm so far, 
 To be af eared to tell graybeards the truth ? 
 Decius, go tell them Csesar will not come. 
 
 Dec. Most mighty Csesar, let me know some cause, 
 Lest I be laughed at when I tell them so. 70 
 
 CcBS. 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 : 7.5 
 
 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 begged that I will stay at home to-day. 
 
 Deo. This dream is all amiss interpreted ; 
 It was a vision fair and fortunate : 
 
 Your statue spouting blood in many pipes, a5 
 
 In which so many smiling Eomans bathed, 
 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 
 
 Cobs. And this way have you well expounded it. 
 
 Dec. I have, when you have heard what I can say : 
 
ACT II. SCENE n. 37 
 
 And know it now : the senate have concluded 
 
 To give this day a crown to mighty Csesar. 
 
 If you shall send them word you will not come, 95 
 
 Their minds may change. Besides, it were a mock 
 
 Apt to be rendered, for some one to say, 
 
 " Break up the senate till another time, 
 
 When CoBsar's wife shall meet with better dreams." 
 
 If Caesar hide himself, shall they not whisper, 100 
 
 " Lo, Caesar is afraid ! " 
 
 Pardon me, Caesar ; for my dear dear love 
 
 To your proceeding bids me tell you this. 
 
 And reason to my love is liable. 
 
 Cces. How foolish do your fears seem now, Calpurnia ! 
 I am ashamed I did yield to them. 
 Give me my robe, for I will go. 
 
 Enter Publius, Brutus, Ligaeius, Metellus, Casca, 
 
 Tkebonius, and Cinxa. 
 And look where Publius is come to fetch me. 
 
 Pub. Good morrow, Caesar. 
 
 Cces. Welcome, Publius. 
 
 What, Brutus, are you stirred so early too ? 110 
 
 Good morrow, Casca. Caius Ligarius, 
 Caesar was ne'er so much your enemy 
 As that same ague which hath made you lean. 
 What is 't o'clock ? 
 
 Bru. Caesar, 't is strucken eight. 
 
 Cces. I thank you for your pains and coiirtesy. 115 
 
 Enter- AisrTONY. 
 See ! Antony, that revels long o' nights, 
 Is notwithstanding up. Good morrow, Antony. 
 • Ant. So to most noble Csesar. 
 
38 JULIUS G^SAR. 
 
 Cms. 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. 
 
 Treh. Caesar, I will : \_Aside\ and so near will I be, 
 That your best friends shall wish I had been further. 125 
 
 Cces. Good friends, go in, and taste some wine with 
 me; 
 And we, like friends, will straightway go together. 
 
 Bru. [^Aside] That every like is not the same, 
 
 Caesar, ^ 
 
 The heart of Brutus yearns to think upon ! \_Exeunt. 
 
 ScEN^E III. A street near the Capitol. 
 
 Enter Aktemidoeus, reading a paper. 
 
 Art. " Caesar, beware of Brutus ; taike heed of Cas- 
 sius ; come not near Casca ; have an eye to Cinna ; trust 
 not Trebonius ; mark well Metellus Cimber : Decius 
 Brutus loves thee not : thou hast wronged Cains Ligarius. 
 There is but one mind in all these men, and it is bent 
 against Caesar. If thou beest not immortal, look about 
 you : security gives way to conspiracy. The mighty gods 
 defend thee ! Thy lover Aktemidoeus." 
 Here will I stand till Caesar 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, Caesar, thou mayst live ; 
 If not, the Fates with traitors do contrive. \_Exlt. 
 
ACT IT. SCENE IV. 39 
 
 Scene IY. Another part of the same street, before the 
 house of Brutus. 
 Enter Poetia and Lucius. 
 For. I prithee, boy, run to the senate-house ; 
 Stay not to answer me, but get thee gone : 
 Why dost thovi stay ? 
 
 Lhc. To know my errand, madam. 
 
 For. I would have had thee there, and here again, 
 Ere I can tell thee what thou shouldst do there. -5 
 
 constancy, be strong upon my side. 
 
 Set a huge mountain 'tween my heart and tongue ! 
 
 1 have a man's mind, but a woman's might. 
 How hard it is for women to keep counsel ! 
 Art thou here yet ? 
 
 Ltic. Madam, what should I do ? 10 
 
 Eun to the Capitol, and nothing else ? 
 And so return to you, and nothing else ? 
 
 For. Yes, bring me word, boy, if thy lord look well, 
 For he went sickly forth : and take good note 
 What Caesar doth, what suitors press to him. 15 
 
 Hark, boy ! what noise is that ? 
 
 Luc. I hear none, madam. 
 
 Por. Prithee, listen well ; 
 
 I heard a bustling rumor, like a fray. 
 And the wind brings it from the Capitol. 
 
 Luc. Sooth, madam, I hear nothing. 
 
 Enter the Soothsayer. 
 Po^_ Come hither, fellow : 20 
 
 Which way hast thou been ? 
 
 Sooth. At mine own house, good lady. 
 
 Por. What is 't o'clock ? 
 
40 JULIUS C^SAR. 
 
 Sooth. About tlie ninth hour, lady. 
 
 For. Is Caesar yet gone to the Capitol ? 
 
 Sooth. Madam, not yet : I go to take my stand, 
 To see him pass on to the Capitol. 2.5 
 
 Par. Thou hast some suit to Caesar, hast thou not ? 
 
 Sooth. That I have, lady : if it will please Caesar 
 To be so good to Caesar as to hear me, 
 I shall beseech him to befriend himself. 
 
 For. Why, know'st thou any harm 's intended towards 
 him ? .30 
 
 Sooth. None that I know will be, much that I fear may 
 chance. 
 Good morrow to you. Here the street is narrow : 
 The throng that follow Caesar at the heels, 
 Of senators, of praetors, common suitors, 
 Will crowd a feeble man almost to death : 35 
 
 I '11 get me to a place more void, and there 
 Speak to great Caesar as he comes along. [^Exit. 
 
 Por. I must go in. Ay me, how weak a thing 
 The heart of woman is ! Brutus, 
 The heavens speed thee in thine enterprise ! 40 
 
 Sure, the boy heard me : Brutus hath a suit 
 That Caesar will not grant. 0, I grow faint. 
 Run, Lucius, and commend me to my lord ; 
 Say I am merry : come to me again, 
 And bring me word what he doth say to thee. 45 
 
 \_Exeunt severally. 
 
ACT 111. SCENE I. 41 
 
 ACT III. 
 
 Scene I. Rome. Before the Capitol j the Senate sitting 
 
 above. 
 A crowd of people ; among them Artemidoeus and the 
 
 Soothsayer. Flourish. Enter C^sae, Beutus, Cas- 
 
 sius, Casca, Decius, Metellus, Teeboxius, Cinna, 
 
 Antoxy, Lepidus, Popilius, Publius, and others. 
 
 Cces. \_To the Soothsayer'] The ides of March are 
 come. 
 
 Sooth. Ay, Caesar ; but not gone. 
 
 Art. Hail, Csesar ! read this schedule. 
 
 Dec. Trebonius doth desire you to o'er-read, 
 At your best leisure, this his humble suit. 5 
 
 Art. Csesar, read mine first ; for mine 's a suit 
 That touches Csesar nearer : read it, great Caesar. 
 
 Cws. What touches us ourself shall be last served. 
 
 Art. Delay not, Caesar ; read it instantly. 
 
 Cces. Wlaat, is the fellow mad ? 
 
 Puh. Sirrah, give place. 10 
 
 Cas. What, urge you your petitions in the street ? 
 Come to the Capitol. 
 
 C^sae goes up to the Senate-House, the rest following. 
 
 Pop. I wish your enterprise to-day may thrive. 
 
 Cas. What enterprise, Popilius ? 
 
 Pop. ■ Pare you well. 
 
 \Advances to Co'sar. 
 
 Bru. What said Popilius Lena ? 15 
 
 Cas. He wished to-day our enterprise might thrive. 
 I fear our purpose is discovered 
 
 Bru. Look, how he makes to Caesar : mark him. 
 
 Cas. Casca, 
 
 Be sudden, for we fear prevention. 
 
42 JULIUS CJESAR. 
 
 Brutus, what shall be done ? If this be known, 20 
 
 Cassius or Caesar never shall turn back. 
 For I will slay myself. 
 
 Bru. Cassius, be constant: 
 
 Popilius Lena speaks not of our purposes ; 
 For, look, he smiles, and Caesar doth not change. 
 
 Cas. Trebonius knows his time ; for, look you, Bru- 
 tus, 25 
 He draws Mark Antony out of the way. 
 
 \_Exeunt Antony and Trebonius. 
 
 Dec. Where is Metellus Cimber ? Let him go, 
 And presently prefer his suit to Caesar. 
 
 Bru. He is addressed : press near and second him. 
 
 Cin. Casca, you are the first that rears your hand. 30 
 
 Cms. Are we all ready ? What is now amiss 
 That Caesar and his senate must redress ? 
 
 Met. Most high, most mighty, and most puissant 
 Caesar, 
 Metellus Cimber throws before thy seat 
 An humble heart : — \_Kneeling. 
 
 Cms. ' I must prevent thee, Cimber. 3f 
 
 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 Caesar bears such rebel blood 40 
 
 That will be thaweji from the true quality 
 With that which melteth fools ; I mean, sweet words. 
 Low-crooked court'sies 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. 
 
ACT III. SCENE 1. 43 
 
 Know, CiBsar doth not wrong, nor without cause 
 Will he be satisfied. 
 
 Met. Is there no voice more worthy than my own. 
 To sound more sweetly in great Caesar's ear 50 
 
 For the repealing of my banished brother ? 
 
 Bru. I kiss thy hand, but not in flattery, Csesar ; 
 Desiring thee that Publius Cimber may 
 Have an immediate freedom of repeal. 
 
 Cms. What, Brutus ! 
 
 Cas. Pardon, Cassar; Caesar, pardon: 55 
 
 As low as to thy foot doth Cassius fall, 
 To beg enfranchisement for Publius Cimber. 
 
 Cces. I could be well moved, 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-fixed and resting quality 
 There is no fellow in the firmament. 
 The skies are painted with unnumbered 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 ; 't is furnished well with men, 
 And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive ; 
 Yet in the number I do know but one 
 That irnassailable holds on his rank, 
 Unshaked of motion : and that I am he, 70 
 
 Let me a little show it, even in this ; 
 That I was constant Cimber should be banished, 
 And constant do remain to keep him so. 
 
 Cin. Caesar, ^ — ■ 
 
 Cces. Hence ! wilt thou lift up Olympus ? 
 
 Dec. Great Caesar, — 
 
 C(Bs. Doth not Brutus bootless kneel ? 75 
 
44 JULIUS C.'ESAR. 
 
 Casca. Speak, hands, for me ! 
 
 \_Casca first, then the other conspirators and Marcus 
 Brutus stab Ccesar. 
 
 Cois. Et tu. Brute ! Then fall, Caesar ! \_Dies. 
 
 Gin. Liberty ! Freedom ! Tyranny is dead ! 
 Eun hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets. 
 
 Cus. Some to the common pulpits, and cry out 80 
 
 " Liberty, freedom and enfranchisement ! " 
 
 Bru. People and senators, be not affrighted ; 
 Fly not ; stand still : ambition's debt is paid. 
 
 Casoa. Go to the pulpit, Brutus. 
 
 Dec. And Cassius too. 85 
 
 Bru. Where 's Publius ? 
 
 Cin. Here, quite confounded with this mutiny. 
 
 Met. Stand fast together, lest some friend of Caesar's 
 Should chance — 
 
 Bru. Talk not of standing. Publius, good cheer ; 00 
 There is no harm intended to your person. 
 Nor to no Roman else : so tell them, Publius. 
 
 Cas. And leave us, Publius ; lest that the people, 
 Eushing on us, should do your age some mischief. 
 
 Bru. Do so : and let no man abide this deed, 95 
 
 But we the doers. 
 
 Be-enter Teeboxius. 
 
 Cas. Where is Antony ? 
 
 Tre. Pled to his house amazed : 
 
 Men, wives and children stare, cry out and run 
 As it were doomsday. 
 
 Bru. Pates, we will ki^ow your pleasures : 
 
 That we shall die, we know ; 't is but the time 100 
 
 And drawing days out, that men stand upon. 
 
 Cas. Why, he that cuts off twenty years of life 
 Cuts off so many years of fearing death. 
 
ACT III. SCENE I. 45 
 
 Brii. Grant that, and then is death a benefit : 
 So are we C8esar's friends, that have abridged 105 
 
 His time of fearing death. Stoop, Eomans, stoop, 
 And let us bathe our hands in Ceesar'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 ! " 
 
 Cus. Stoop then, and wash. How many ages hence 
 Shall this our lofty scene be acted over 
 In states unborn and accents yet unknown ! 
 
 Bru. How many times shall Caesar bleed in sport, 115 
 That now on Pompey's basis lies along '^i 
 
 No worthier than the dust ! 
 
 Cos. So oft as that shall be. 
 
 So often shall the knot of us be called 
 The men that gave their country liberty. 
 
 Dec. What, shall we forth ? 
 
 Cas. 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. 
 
 Bru. Soft ! who comes here ? A friend of Antony's. 
 
 Serv. 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 ; 
 Caesar was mighty, bold, royal and loving : 
 Say I love Brutus, ind I honor him ; 
 Say I feared Caesar, honored him and loved him. 130 
 
 If Bruttis will vouchsafe that Antony 
 May safely come to him, and be resolved 
 
46 JULIUS C^SAR. 
 
 How Caesar hath deserved to lie in death, 
 
 Mark Antony shall not love Caesar 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. 
 
 Bru. Thy master is a wise and valiant Roman ; 
 T never thought him worse. 140 
 
 Tell him, so please him come unto this place, 
 He shall be satisfied, and, by my honor. 
 Depart untouched. 
 
 Serv. I '11 fetch him presently. \_Exit. 
 
 Bru. I know that we shall have him well to friend. 
 
 Cas. I wish we may : but yet have I a mind 145 
 
 That fears him much ; and my misgiving still 
 Falls shrewdly to the purpose. 
 
 Bru. But here comes Antony. 
 
 Re-enter Antony. 
 
 Welcome, Mark Antony. 
 
 Ant. mighty Caesar ! 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 Caesar'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 : 
 
ACT III SCENE I. 47 
 
 No place will please me so, no mean of death, 
 As here by Caesar, and by yovi cut off, 
 The choice and master spirits of this age. 
 
 Bru. 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 C^sar. 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. 
 
 Cas. Your voice shall be as strong^as any man's 
 In the disposing of new dignities. 
 
 Bru. Only be patient till we have appeased 180 
 
 The multitude, beside themselves with fear. 
 And then we will deliver you the cause, 
 Why I, that did love Caesar when I struck him. 
 Have thus proceeded. 
 
 Ant. 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 1 say ? 
 My credit now stands on such slippery ground, 
 
) ) 
 
 48 JULIUS C^SAR. 
 
 That one of two bad ways you must conceit me, 
 
 Either a coward or a flatterer. 
 
 That I did love thee, Caesar, 0, 't is true : 195 
 
 If then thy spirit look upon xis 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 bayed, brave hart ; 205 
 
 Here didst thou fall, and here thy hunters stand. 
 
 Signed in thy spoil, and crimsoned in thy lethe. 
 
 world, thou wast the forest to this hart ; 
 
 And this, indeed, world, the heart of thee. 
 
 How like a deer strucken by many princes, 210 
 
 Dost thou here lie ! 
 
 Cas. Mark Antony, — 
 
 Ant. Pardon me, Caius Cassius ; 
 
 The enemies of Csesar shall say this ; 
 Then, in a friend, it is cold modesty. 
 
 Cas. I blame you not for praising Csesar so ; 215 
 
 But what compact mean you to have with us ? 
 Will you be pricked in number of our friends. 
 Or shall we on, and not depend on you ? 
 
 Ant. Therefore I took your hands, but was, indeed, 
 Swayed from the point, by looking down on Caesar. 220 
 Friends am I with you all and love you all. 
 Upon this hope, that you shall give me reasons 
 Why and wherein Caesar was dangerous. 
 
ACT in. SCENE I. 49 
 
 Bru. Or else were this a savage spectacle : 
 Our reasons are so full of good regard 225 
 
 That were you, Antony, the son of Caesar, 
 You should be satisfied. 
 
 Ant. 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. 
 
 Bru. You shall, Mark Antony. 
 
 Cos. 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 moved 235 
 
 By that which he will utter ? 
 
 Bru. By your pardon ; 
 
 I will myself into the pulpit first, 
 And show the reason of our Caesar's death : 
 What Antony shall speak, I will protest 
 He speaks by leave and by permission, 240 
 
 And that we are contented Cffisar shall 
 Have all true rites and lawful ceremonies. 
 It shall advantage more than do us wrong. 
 
 Cas. I know not what may fall ; I like it not. 
 
 Bru. Mark Antony, here, take you Caesar's body, 245 
 You shall not in your funeral speech blame us, 
 But speak all good you can devise of Caesar, 
 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 
 
50 JULIUS C^SAR. 
 
 In the same pulpit whereto I am going, 
 After my speech is ended. 
 
 Ant. Be it so ; 
 
 I do desire no more. 
 
 Bru. Prepare the body then, and follow us. 
 
 \_Exeunt all hut Antony. 
 
 Ant. 0, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, 2.55 
 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 choked with custom of fell deeds : 270 
 
 And Caesar'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. 
 
 Enter a Servant. 
 You serve Octavius Caesar, do you not ? 
 
 Serv. I do, Mark Antony. 
 
 Ant. Caesar did write for him to come to Rome. 
 
ACT in. SCENE n. 51 
 
 Serv. He did receive his letters, and is coming ; 280 
 And bid me say to you by word of mouth — 
 Caesar ! — \_Seeing the body. 
 
 Ant. Thy heart is big ; get thee apart and weep. 
 Passion, I see, is catching ; for mine eyes, 
 Seeing those beads of sorrow stand in thine, 285 
 
 Began to water. Is thy master coming ? 
 
 Serv. He lies to-night within seven leagues of Rome. 
 
 Ant. Post back with speed, and tell him what hath 
 chanced : 
 Here is a mourning Eome, a dangerous Rome, 
 jSTo 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 Ccesar's body. 
 
 Scene II. The Forum. 
 
 Enter Brutus and Cassius, and a throng of Citizens. 
 
 Citizens. We will be satisfied ; let us be satisfied. 
 
 Bru. 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 Caesar's death. 
 
 First Cit. I will hear Brutus speak. 
 
52 JULIUS C^SAR. 
 
 Sec. Cit. I will hear Cassius ; and compare their reasons, 
 When severally we hear them rendered. 10 
 
 [^xit Cassius, with some of the Citizens. Brutus 
 goes into the pulpit. 
 
 Third Cit. The noble Brutus is ascended : silence ! 
 
 Bru. Be patient till the last. 
 Romans, countrymen, and lovers ! hear me for my cause, 
 and be silent that you may hear : believe me for miiie 
 honor, and have respect to mine honor, that you may be- 
 lieve : 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 Caesar's, to him I say, that 
 Brutus' love to Csesarwas no less than his. If then that 
 friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my 
 answer : — Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved 
 Eome more. Had you rather Caesar were living and die 
 all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live all free 
 men ? As Caesar loved me, I weep for him ; as he was 
 fortunate, I rejoice at it ; as he was valiant, I honor him : 
 but as he was ambitious, I slew him. There is tears for 
 his love ; joy for his fortune ; honor for his valor ; 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. 
 
 Bru. Then none have I offended. I have done no 
 more to Caesar than you shall do to Brutus. The ques- 
 tion of his death is enrolled in the Capitol ; his glory not 
 extenuated, wherein he was worthy, nor his offences en- 
 forced, for which he suffered death. 
 
ACT III. SCENE 11. 53 
 
 JEnter Antony and others, ivith C^sae's body. 
 Here comes his body, mourned 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. 40 
 
 All. Live, Brutus ! live, live ! 
 
 First Cit. Bring him with triumph home unto his house. 
 
 Sec. Cit. Give him a statue with his ancestors. 
 
 Third Cit. Let him be Csesar. 
 
 Fourth Cit. Caesar's better parts 50 
 
 Shall be crowned in Brutus. 
 
 First Cit. We '11 bring him to his house with shouts 
 and clamors. 
 
 Brti. My countrymen, — 
 
 Sec. Cit. Peace, silence ! Brutus speaks. 
 
 First Cit. Peace, ho ! 
 
 Bru. Good countrymen, let me depart alone, 55 
 
 And, for my sake, stay here with Antony : 
 Do grace to Csesar's corpse, and grace his speech 
 Tending to Cajsar's glories ; which Mark Antony, 
 By our permission, is allowed to make. 
 I do entreat you, not a man depart, 00 
 
 Save I alone, till Antony have spoke. \_Exit. 
 
 First Cit. Stay, ho ! and let us hear Mark Antony. 
 
 Third Cit. Let him go up into the public chair ; 
 We '11 hear him. Noble Antony, go up. 
 
 Ant. For Brutus' sake, I am beholding to you. 65 
 
 [ Goes into the pulpit. 
 
 Fourth Cit. What does he say of Brutus ? 
 
54 JULIUS C^SAR. 
 
 Third Cit. He says, for Brutus' sake, 
 
 He finds himself beholding to us all. 
 
 Fourth Cit. 'T were best he speak no harm of Brutus 
 here. 
 
 First Cit. This Caesar was a tyrant. 
 
 Third Cit. Nay, that 's certain : 
 
 We are blest that Eome is rid of him. 70 
 
 Sec. Cit. Peace ! let us hear what Antony can say. 
 
 Ant. You gentle Romans, — 
 
 Citizens. Peace, ho ! let us hear him. 
 
 Ant. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears ; 
 I come to bury Caesar, 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 Caesar. The noble Brutus 
 Hath told you Caesar was ambitious : 
 If it were so, it was a grievous fault. 
 And grievously hath Caesar answered it. 80 
 
 Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest, — 
 For Brutus is an honorable man; 
 So are they all, all honorable men, — 
 Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral. 
 He was my friend, faithful and just to me : 85 
 
 But Brutus says he was ambitious ; 
 And Brutus is an honorable man. 
 He hath brought many captives home to Eome, 
 Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill r 
 Did this in Caesar seem ambitious ? 90 
 
 When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept : 
 Ambition should be made of sterner stuff : 
 Yet Brutus says he was ambitious ; 
 And Brutus is an honorable man. 
 
ACT in. SCENE IL 55 
 
 You all did see that on the Luperoal 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 honorable 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 ? 
 
 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 Caesar, 
 And I must pause till it come back to me. 
 
 First Cit. Methinks there is much reason in his sayings. 
 
 Sec. Cit. If thou consider rightly of the matter, 
 Caesar has had great wtong. 
 
 Third Cit. Has he, masters ? 110 
 
 1 fear there will a worse come in his place. 
 
 Fourth Cit. Marked ye his words ? He would not 
 take the crown ; 
 Therefore 't is certain he was not ambitious. 
 
 First Cit. If it be found so, some will dear abide it. 
 See. Cit. Poor soul ! his eyes are red as fire with 
 weeping. 115 
 
 Third Cit. There 's not a nobler man in Rome than 
 
 Antony. 
 Fourth Cit. Now mark him, he begins again to speak. 
 Ant. But yesterday the word of Caesar might 
 Have stood against the world ; now lies he there, 
 And none so poor to do him reverence. 120 
 
 masters, if I were disposed to stir 
 Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage, 
 
56 JULIUS C^SAR. 
 
 I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong, 
 
 Who, you all know, are honorable 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 honorable men. 
 
 But here 's a parchment with the seal of Csesar ; 
 
 I found it in his closet ; 't is 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 Caesar'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. 
 
 Fourth Git. We '11 hear the will : read it, Mark Antony. 
 
 All. The will ! the will ! we will hear Caesar's will. 
 
 Ant. Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it ; 
 It is not meet you know how Caesar loved you. 141 
 
 You are not wood, you are not stones, but men ; 
 And,- being men, hearing the will of Caesar, 
 It will inflame you, it will make you mad : 
 'T is good you know not that you are his heirs ; 14.5 
 
 For, if you should, 0, what would come of it ! 
 
 Fourth Cit. Read the will ; we '11 hear it, Antony ; 
 You shall read us the will, Caesar's will. 
 
 Ant. Will you be patient ? will you stay awhile ? 
 I have o'ershot myself to tell you of it : 150 
 
 I fear I wrong the honorable men 
 Whose daggers have stabbed Caesar ; I do fear it. 
 
 Fourth Cit. They were traitors : honorable men ! 
 
 All. The will ! the testament ! 
 
ACT III. SCENE II. 57 
 
 Sec. Clt. They were villains, murderers : the will ! 
 read the will. 156 
 
 Ant. You will compel me. then, to read the will ? 
 Then make a ring about the corpse of Csesar, 
 And let me show you him that made the will. 
 Shall I descend ? and will you give me leave ? 160 
 
 AU. Come down. 
 
 Sec. Clt. Descend. [^Ife comes doivnfrom the pulpit. 
 
 Third Clt. You shall have leave. 
 
 Fourth Clt. A ring ; stand round. 
 
 First Cit. Stand from the hearse, stand from the body. 
 
 Sec. Cit. Room for Antony, most noble Antony. 166 
 
 Ant. Nay, press not so upon me ; stand far off. 
 
 Several Cit. Stand back. Room ! Bear Lack. 
 
 Ant. If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. 
 You all do know this mantle : I remember 170 
 
 The first time ever Caesar put it on ; 
 'T was 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 : 175 
 
 Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabbed; 
 And as he plucked his cursed steel away, 
 Mark how the blood of Csesar followed it. 
 As rushing out of doors, to be resolved 
 If Brutus so unkindly knocked, or no ; 180 
 
 For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel : 
 Judge, you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him ! 
 This was the most unkindest cut of all ; 
 For when the noble Caesar saw him stab, 
 Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms, 185 
 
 Quite vanquished him : then burst his mighty heart ; 
 
58 JULIUS C^SAR. 
 
 And, in his mantle muffling up his face, 
 
 Even at the base of Pompey's statue. 
 
 Which all the while ran blood, great Caesar fell. 
 
 0, what a fall was there, my countrymen ! 190 
 
 Then I, and you, and all of us fell down, 
 
 Whilst bloody treason flourished 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 195 
 
 Our Caesar's vesture wounded ? Look you here. 
 
 Here is himself, marred, as you see, with traitors. 
 
 First Cit. piteous spectacle ! 
 
 Sec. Cit. noble Caesar ! 
 
 Third Cit. woful day ! 200 
 
 Fourth Cit. traitors, villains ! 
 
 First Cit. most bloody sight ! 
 
 Sec. Cit. We will be revenged. 
 
 All. Eevenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire! Kill! 
 Slay ! Let not a traitor live ! 205 
 
 Ant. Stay, countrymen. 
 
 First Cit. Peace there ! hear the noble Antony. 
 
 Sec. Cit. We '11 hear him, we '11 follow him, we '11 die 
 with him. 
 
 Ant. Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up 
 To such a sudden flood of mutiny. 211 
 
 They that have done this deed are honorable : 
 What private griefs they have, alas, I know not, 
 That made them do it : they are wise and honorable, 
 And will, no doubt, with reasons answer you. 215 
 
 1 come not, friends, to steal away your hearts : 
 ^ am no orator, as Brutus is ; 
 But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man, 
 
ACT III. SCENE II. 59 
 
 That love my friend ; and that they know full well 
 
 That gave me public leave to speak of him : 220 
 
 For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth, 
 
 Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech, 
 
 To stir men's blood : I only speak right on ; 
 
 I tell you that which you yourselves do know ; 
 
 Show you sweet Caesar's wounds, poor, poor dumb mouths, 
 
 And bid them speak for me : but were I Brutus, 226 
 
 And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony 
 
 Would ruffle up your spirits and put a tongue 
 
 In every wound of Csesar that should move 
 
 The stones of Eome to rise and mutiny. 230 
 
 All. We '11 mutiny. 
 
 First Cit. We '11 burn the house of Brutus. 
 
 Third Cit. Away then ! come, seek the conspirators. 
 
 Ant. Yet hear me, countrymen ; yet hear me speak. 
 
 All . Peace, ho ! Hear Antony. Most noble Antony ! 
 
 Ant. Why, friends, you go to do you know not what : 
 Wherein hath Ceesar thus deserved your loves ? 237 
 
 Alas, you know not : I must tell you then : 
 Yoa have forgot the will I told you of. 
 
 All. Most true : the will ! Let 's stay and hear the 
 will. 240 
 
 Ant. Here is the will, and under Caesar's seal. 
 To every Roman citizen he gives. 
 To every several man, seventy-five drachmas. 
 
 Sec. Cit. Most noble Caesar ! We '11 revenge his death. 
 
 Third Cit. royal Csesar ! 245 
 
 Ant. Hear me with patience. 
 
 All. Peace, ho! ... 
 
 Ant. Moreover, he hath left you all his walks, ^ 
 
 His private arbors and new-planted orchards. 
 
60 JULIUS CJESAR. 
 
 On this side Tiber ; he hath left them you, 250 
 
 And to your heirs for ever ; common pleasures, 
 
 To walk abroad and recreate yourselves. 
 
 Here was a Caesar ! when comes such another ? 
 
 First Cit. Never, never. Come, away, away ! 
 We '11 burn his body in the holy place, 255 
 
 And with the brands fire the traitors' houses. 
 Take up the body. 
 
 Sec. Cit. Go fetch fire. 
 
 Third Cit. Pluck down benches. 
 
 Fourth Cit. Pluck down forms, windows, anytliing. 
 
 \_Exeunt Citizens witli the body. 
 
 Ant. Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot, 261 
 Take thou what course thou wilt ! 
 
 Enter a Servant. 
 
 How now, fellow ! 
 
 Serv. Sir, Octavius is already come to Eome. 
 
 Ant. Where is he ? 
 
 Se7-v. He and Lepidus are at Caesar's house. 265 
 
 Ant. And thither will I straight to visit him : 
 He comes upon a wish. Fortune is merry. 
 And in this mood will give us any thing. 
 
 Serv. I heard him say, Brutus and Cassius 
 Are rid like madmen through the gates of Rome. 270 
 
 Ant. Belike they had some notice of the people, 
 How I had moved them. Bring me to Octavius. 
 
 \_Exeunt. 
 Scene III. A street. 
 
 Enter Cinna the poet. 
 Cin. I dreamt to-night that I did feast with Caesar, 
 And things unMcky charge my fantasy : 
 
ACT III. SCENE III. 61 
 
 I have no will to wander forth of doors, 
 Yet something leads me forth. 
 
 Enter Citizens. 
 
 First Cif. What is your name ? .5 
 
 Sec. Cif. "Whither are you going ? 
 
 Third Cif. AVhere do you dwell ? 
 
 Fourth Cif. Are you a married man or a bachelor ? 
 
 Sec. Cif. Answer every man- directly- 
 
 Fir.st Cif. Ay, and briefly. 10 
 
 Fourth Cif. Ay, and wisely. 
 
 Third Cif. Ay, and truly, you were best. 
 
 Cin. 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 
 
 Sec. Cif. That 's as much as to say, they are fools 
 that marry : you '11 bear me a bang for that, I fear. Pro- 
 ceed ; directly. 
 
 Cin. Directly, I am going to Csesar's funeral. 20 
 
 First Cit. As a friend or an enemy ? 
 
 CV«. As a friend. 
 
 Sec. Cit. That matter is answered directly. 
 
 Fourth Cif. For your dwelling, briefly. 
 
 Cin. Briefly, I dwell by the Capitol. 25 
 
 Third Cit. Your name, sir, truly. 
 
 Cin. Truly, my name is Cinna. 
 
 Fii-st Cit. Tear him to pieces ; he 's a conspirator. 
 
 Cin. I am Cinna the poet, I am Cinna the poet. 
 
 Fourth Cit. Tear him for his bad verses, tear him for 
 his bad verses. 31 
 
 Cin. I am not Cinna the conspirator. 
 
 Fourth Cit. It is no matter, his name 's Cinna; pluck 
 but his name out of his heart, and turn him going. 
 
62 JULIUS CjESAR. 
 
 Third Cit. Tear him, tear liim ! Come, brands, Ilo ! 
 fire-brands : to Brutus', to Cassius' ; burn all : some to 
 Deeius' house, and some to Casca's ; some to Ligarius' ; 
 away, go ! [^Exeunt. 
 
 ACT IV. 
 
 Scene I. A house in Rome. 
 
 Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus, seated at a table. 
 
 Ant. These many, then, shall die; their names are 
 pricked. 
 
 Oct. Your brother too must die ; consent you, Leiji- 
 dus? 
 
 Lep. I do consent — 
 
 Oct. Prick him down, Antony. 
 
 Lep. Upon condition Publius shall not live. 
 Who is your sister's son, Mark Antony. 6 
 
 Ant. He shall not live ; look, with a spot I damn him. 
 But, Lepidus, go you to Caesar's house ; 
 Fetch the will hither, and we shall determine 
 How to cut oi? some charge in legacies. 
 
 Lep. What, shall I find you here ? 10 
 
 Oct. Or here, or at the Capitol. \_Exit Lepidus. 
 
 Ant. This is a slight xinmeritable 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 ? 
 
 Oct. So you thought him, 15 
 
 And took his voice who should be pricked to die. 
 In our black sentence and proscription. 
 
 Ant. Octavius, I have seen more days than you : 
 And though we lay these honors on this man. 
 To ease ourselves of divers slanderous loads, 20 
 
ACT IV. SCENE I. 63 
 
 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. 
 
 Oct. You may do your will ; 
 
 But he 's a tried and valiant soldier. 
 
 Ant. 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 governed by my spirit. 
 And, in some taste, is Lepidus but so ; 
 He must be taught, and trained, and bid go forth ; 35 
 
 A barren-spirited fellow ; one that feeds 
 On objects, arts and imitations. 
 Which, out of use and staled 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 combined, 
 Our best friends made, our means stretched ; 
 And let us presently go sit in council, 45 
 
 How covert matters may be best disclosed. 
 And open perils surest answered. 
 
 Oct. Let us do so : for we are at the stake. 
 And bayed about with many enemies ; 
 And some that smile have in their hearts, I fear, 50 
 
 Millions of mischiefs. \_Exeunt. 
 
64 JULIUS C^SAR. 
 
 Scene II. Camp near Sardis. Before Brutus's tent. 
 
 Drum. Enter Beutus, Lucilius, Lucius, and Soldiers : 
 TiTiNius and Pindabus meeting them. 
 
 Bru. Stand, ho ! 
 
 Lueil. Give the word, ho ! and stand. 
 
 Bru. What now, Lucilius ! is Cassius near ? 
 
 Lueil. He is at hand ; and Pindarus is come 
 To do you salutation from his master. .5 
 
 Bru. 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. 
 
 Pin. I do not doubt 10 
 
 But that my noble master will appear 
 Such as he is, full of regard and honor. 
 
 Bru. He is not doubted. A word, Lucilius, 
 How he received you : let me be resolved. 
 
 Lueil. With courtesy and with respect enough ; 15 
 But not with such familiar instances. 
 Nor with such free and friendly conference. 
 As he hath used of old. 
 
 Bru. Thou hast described 
 
 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 ; 
 Biat 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 ? 
 
ACT IV. SCENE II. 65 
 
 Lucil. They mean this night in Sardis to be quartered ; 
 The greater part, the horse in general, 
 Are come with Cassius. [iow march within. 
 
 Brit. Hark ! he is arrived. ;!0 
 
 March gently on to meet him. 
 
 Enter Cassius and his jMwers. 
 
 Cos. Stand, ho ! 
 
 Bru. Stand, ho ! Speak the word along. 
 
 First Sol. Stand ! 
 
 Sec. Sol. Stand! .85 
 
 Third Sol. Stand ! 
 
 Cas. Most noble brother, you have done me wrong. 
 
 Bru. Judge me, you gods ! wrong I mine enemies ? 
 And, if not so, how should I wrong a brother ? 
 
 Cas. Brutus, this sober form of yours hides wrongs ; 40 
 And when you do them — 
 
 Bru. Cassius, be content ; 
 
 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 ; 4;") 
 
 Then in my tent, Cassius, enlarge your griefs. 
 And I will give you audience. 
 
 Cas. Pindarus, 
 
 Bid our commanders lead the charges off 
 A little from this ground. 
 
 Bru. 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. 
 
66 JULIUS C^SAR. 
 
 Scene III. Brutus^ tent. 
 Enter Brutus and Cassius. 
 
 Cas. That you have wronged me doth appear in this ; 
 You have condemned and noted Lucius Pella 
 For taking bribes here of the Sardians ; 
 Wherein my letters, praying on his side, 
 Because I knew the man, were slighted off. 5 
 
 Btu. You wronged yourself to write in such a case. 
 
 Cas. In such a time as this it is not meet 
 That every nice offence should bear his comment. 
 
 Bru. Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself 
 Are much condemned to have an itching palm, lo 
 
 To sell and mart your offices for gold 
 To undeservers. 
 
 Cas. I an itching palm ! 
 
 You know that you are Brutus that speaks this, 
 Or, by the gods, this speech were else your last. 
 
 Bru. The name of Cassius honors this corruption, 15 
 And chastisement doth therefore hide his head. 
 
 Cas. Chastisement ! 
 
 Bru. Eemember March, the ides of March remember : 
 Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake ? 
 What villain touched his body, that did stab, 20 
 
 And not for jj^stice ? 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 honors 25 
 
 For so much trash as may be grasped thus ? 
 I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon. 
 Than siich a Roman. 
 
ACT IV. SCENE III. 67 
 
 Cas. Brutus, bait not me ; 
 
 I '11 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. 
 
 Bru. Go to ; you are not, Cassius. 
 
 Cas. I am. 
 
 Bm. I say you are not. 
 
 Cas. Urge me no more, I shall forget myself ; 35 
 
 Have mind upon your health, tempt me no farther. 
 
 Bru. Away, slight man ! 
 
 Cas. Is 't possible ? 
 
 Bru. 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 
 
 Cas. ye gods, ye gods ! must I endure all this ? 
 
 Bru. 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 humor ? By the gods, 
 You shall digest the venom of your spleen. 
 Though it do split you ; for, from this day forth, 
 I '11 use you for my mirth, yea, for my laughter. 
 When you are waspish. 
 
 Cas. Is it come to this ? 50 
 
 Bru. Yoti 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. 
 
 Cas. You wrong me every way ; you wrong me, Brutus ; 
 
68 JULIUS OJESAR. 
 
 I said, an elder soldier, not a better : 56 
 
 Did I say, better ? 
 
 Sru. If you did, I care not. 
 
 Cas. When Csesar lived, he durst not thus have 
 moved me. 
 
 Bru. Peace, peace ! you durst not so have tempted him. 
 
 Cas. I durst not ! _ 00 
 
 Bru. No. 
 
 Cas. What, durst not tempt him ! 
 
 Bru. For your life you durst not. 
 
 Cas. Do not presume too much upon my love ; 
 I may do that I shall be sorry for. 
 
 Bric. You have done that you should be sorry for. 65 
 There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats ; 
 For I am armed 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 answered 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 ! 
 
 Cas. I denied you not. 
 
 Bru. You did. 
 
ACT IV. SCENE III. 69 
 
 Cas. I did not : he was but a fool 
 
 That brought my answer back. Brutus hath rived my 
 
 heart : 
 A friend should bear his friend's infirmities, S5 
 
 But Brutus makes mine greater than they are. 
 
 Bru. I do not, till you practise them on me. 
 
 Cas. You love me not. 
 
 Bru. I do not like your faults. 
 
 Cas. A friendly eye could never see such faults. 
 
 Bru. A flatterer's would not, though they do appear 90 
 As huge as high Olympus. 
 
 Cas. Come, Antony, and young Octavius, come ; 
 Eevenge yourselves alone on Cassius, 
 For Cassius is aweary of the world ; 
 Hated by one he loves ; braved by his brother ; 95 
 
 Checked like a bondman ; all his faults observed. 
 Set in a note-book, learned, and conned by rote, 
 To cast into my teeth. 0, I could weep 
 My spirit from mine eyes ! There is my dagger. 
 And here my naked breast ; within, a heart 100 
 
 Dearer than Plutus' mine, richer than gold : 
 If that thou be'st a Eoman, take it forth ; 
 I, that denied thee gold, will give my heart : 
 Strike, as thou didst at Caesar ; for I know. 
 When thou didst hate him worst, thou lovedst him 
 better wr. 
 
 Than ever thou lovedst Cassius. 
 
 Bru. Sheathe your dagger : 
 
 Be angry when you will, it shall have scope ; 
 Do what you will, dishonor shall be humor. 
 Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb 
 That carries anger as the flint bears fire, 110 
 
70 JULIUS CjESAR. 
 
 Who, much enforced, shows a hasty spark 
 And straight is cold again. 
 
 Cos. Hath Cassius lived 
 
 To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus, 
 When grief and blood ill-tempered vexeth him ? 
 
 Bru. When I spoke that, I was ill-tempered too. 115 
 
 Cos. Do you confess so much ? Give me your hand. 
 
 Bru. And my heart too. 
 
 Cas. Brutus ! 
 
 Bru. What 's the matter ? 
 
 Cas. Have not you love enough to bear with me. 
 When that rash humor which my mother gave me 
 Makes me forgetful ? 
 
 Bru. Yes, Cassius, and from henceforth, 120 
 
 When you are over-earnest with your Brutus, 
 He '11 think your mother chides, and leave you so. 
 
 Poet. [ Within.^ Let me go in to see the generals ; 
 There is some grudge between ^em ; 't is not meet 
 They be alone. 
 
 Lucil. [ Within.] You shall not come to them. 125 
 
 Poet. [ Within.] Nothing but death shall stay me. 
 JSnter FoBT, followed by IiUCIIjIVS, Titinius, and Lucius. 
 
 Cas. How now ! what 's the matter ? 
 
 Poet. For shame, you generals ! what do you mean ? 
 Love, and be friends, as two such men should be ; 
 For I have seen more years, I 'm sure, than ye. l:;o 
 
 Cas. Ha, ha ! how vilely doth this cynic rhyme ! 
 
 Bi-u. Get you hence, sirrah ; saucy fellow, hence ! 
 
 Cas. Bear with him, Brutus ; 't is his fashion. 
 
 Bru. I '11 know his humor, when he knows his time : 
 What should the wars do with these jigging fools ? 135 
 Companion, hence ! 
 
ACT IV. SCENE III. 71 
 
 Cos. Away, away, be gone ! \_Exit Poet. 
 
 Bru. Lueilius and Titinius, bid the commanders 
 Prepare to lodge their companies to-night. 
 
 Ca^. And come yourselves, and bring Messala with you 
 Immediately to us. \^I!xeinit Lucilias and Titinius. 
 
 Bru. Lucius, a bowl of wine ! \^^xit Lucius. 
 
 Cas. I did not think you could have been so angry. 141 
 
 Bru. Cassius, I am sick of many griefs. 
 
 Cas. Of your philosophy you make no use. 
 If you give place to accidental evils. 
 
 Bru. No man bears sorrow better : Portia is dead. 145 
 
 Cas. Ha ! Portia ! 
 
 Bru. She is dead. 
 
 Cas. How scaped I killing when I crossed jou so ? 
 
 insupportable and touching loss ! 
 Upon what sickness ? 
 
 Bru. Impatient of my absence, 150 
 
 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. 
 And, her attendants absent, swallowed fire. 
 
 Cas. And died so ? 
 
 Bru. Even so. 
 
 Cas. ye immortal gods ! 155 
 
 Re-enter Lucius, with wine and taper. 
 
 Bru. Speak no more of her. Give me a bowl of wine. 
 In this I bury all unkindness, Cassius. [Drinks. 
 
 Cas. My heart is thirsty for that noble pledge. 
 Fill, Lucius, till the wine o'erswell the cup ; 159 
 
 1 cannot drink too much of Brutus' love. \_Dnnhs. 
 Bru. Come in, Titinius ! \_Exit Lucius. 
 
72 JULIUS CjESAS. 
 
 He-enter Titinius, with Messala. 
 
 Welcome, good Messala. 
 Now sit we close about this taper here, 
 And call in question our necessities. 
 
 Cas. Portia, art thou gone ? 
 
 Bru. No more, I pray you. 
 
 Messala, I have here received letters, 165 
 
 That young Octavius and Mark Antony 
 Come down upon us with a mighty power. 
 Bending their expedition toward Philippi. 
 
 Mes. Myself have letters of the selfsame tenor. 
 
 Brii. With what addition ? 170 
 
 Men. That by proscription and bills of outlawry, 
 Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus, 
 Have put to death an hundred senators. 
 
 Bni. Therein our letters do not well agree ; 
 Mine speak of seventy senators that died 17.5 
 
 By their proscriptions, Cicero being one. 
 
 Cas. Cicero one ! 
 
 Mes. Cicero is dead, 
 
 And by that order of proscription. 
 Had you your letters from your wife, my lord ? 
 
 Bru. No, Messala. 180 
 
 Mes. Nor nothing in your letters writ of her ? 
 
 Bru. Nothing, Messala. 
 
 Mes. That, methinks, is strange. 
 
 Bru. Why ask you ? hear you aught of her in yours ? 
 * Mes. No, my lord. 
 
 Bru. Now, as you are a Roman, tell me true. 18.5 
 
 Mes. Then like a Roman bear the truth I tell : 
 For certain she is dead, and by strange manner. 
 
ACT IV. SCENE III. 73 
 
 Bra. "Why, farewell, Portia. We must die, Messala : 
 With meditating that she must die once 
 I have the patience to endure it now. 190 
 
 Mes. Even so great men great losses should endure. 
 Cos. I have as much of this in art as you, 
 But yet my nature could not bear it so. 
 
 Bfu. Well, to our work alive. What do you think 
 Of marching to Philippi presently? 195 
 
 Cas. I do not think it good. 
 Bru. Your reason ? 
 
 . Ca.t. This it is : 
 
 'T is better that the enemy seek us : 
 So shall he waste his means, weary his soldiers, 
 ' Doing himself offence ; whilst we, lying still. 
 Are full of rest, defence, and nimbleness. 200 
 
 Bm. Good reasons must of force give place to better. 
 The people 'twixt Philippi and this ground 
 Do stand but in a forced affection, 
 For they have grudged us contribution : 
 The enemy, marching along by them, «, 205 
 
 By them shall make a fuller number up. 
 Come on refreshed, new-added, and encouraged ; 
 From which advantage shall we cut him off, 
 If at Philippi we do face him there. 
 These people at our back. 
 
 Cas. Hear me, good brother. 210 
 
 Bn(. 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 : 
 The enemy increaseth every day ; 
 
 We,' at the height, are ready to decline. 215 
 
 There is a tide in the affairs of men. 
 
74 JULIUS C^SAR. 
 
 Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ; 
 
 Omitted, all the voyage of their life 
 
 Is bound in shallows and in miseries. 
 
 On such a full sea are we now afloat ; 220 
 
 And we must take the current when it serves, 
 
 Or lose our ventures. 
 
 Cas. Then, with your will, go on ; 
 
 We '11 along ourselves, and meet them at Philippi. 
 
 Bru. The deep of night is crept upon our talk, 
 And nature must obey necessity ; 225 
 
 Which we will niggard with a little rest. 
 There is no more to say ? 
 
 Cas. No more. Grood night : 
 
 Early to-morrow will we rise and hence. 
 
 Bru. Lucius ! ££!nter Lucius.] My gown. [Uxit Lucius.] 
 Farewell, good Messala : 
 Good night, Titinius : noble, noble Cassius, 230 
 
 Good night, and good repose. 
 
 Cas. my dear brother ! 
 
 Thi« was an ill beginning of the night : 
 Never come such division 'tween our souls ! 
 Let it not, Brutus. 
 
 Bru. Everything is well. 
 
 Cas. Good night, my lord. 
 
 Bru. Good night, good brother. 235 
 
 Tit. Mes. Good night, lord Brutus. 
 
 Bru. Farewell, every one. 
 
 \_Ex6unt all but Brutus. 
 
 Re-enter Lucius, with the goivn. 
 
 Give me the gown. Where is thy instrument ? 
 Luc. Here in the tent. 
 
ACT IV. SCENE HI. 75 
 
 Bti~u. What, thou speak'st drowsily ? 
 
 Poor knave, I blame thee not ; thou art o'erwatched. 
 Call Claudius and some other of my men ; 240 
 
 I '11 have them sleep on cushions in my tent. 
 
 Luc. Varro and Claudius ! 
 
 Enter Varro and Claudius. 
 
 Var. Calls my lord ? 
 
 Bru. I pray you, sirs, lie in my tent and sleep ; 
 It may be I shall raise you by and by 245 
 
 On business to my brother Cassius. 
 
 Var. So please you, we will stand and watch your 
 pleasure. 
 
 Bni. I will not have it so : lie down, good sirs ; 
 It may be I shall otherwise bethink me. 
 Look, Lucius, here 's the book I sought for so ; 250 
 
 I put it in the pocket of my gown. 
 
 [ Varro and Claudius lie dotun. 
 
 Luc. I was sure your lordship did not give it me. 
 
 Bi-u. Bear with me, good boy, I am much forgetful. 
 Canst thou hold up thy heavy eyes awhile. 
 And touch thy instrument a strain or two ? 255 
 
 Luc. Ay, my lord, an 't please you. 
 
 Bru. It does, my boy • 
 
 I trouble thee too much, but thou art willing. 
 
 Luc. It is my duty, sir. 
 
 Bru. I should not urge thy duty past thy might ; 
 I know young bloods look for a time of rest. 260 
 
 Lufi. I have slept, my lord, already. 
 
 Bru. It was well done ; and thou shalt sleep again ; 
 I will not hold thee long ; if I do life, 
 I will be good to thee. [Music, and a song. 
 
 This is a sleepy tune. murderous slumber, 265 
 
76 JULIUS C^SAR. 
 
 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 : 
 
 If thou dost nod, thou break'st thy instrument ; 
 
 I '11 take it from thee ; and, good boy, good night. 270 
 
 Let me see, let me see ; is not the leaf turned down 
 
 Where I left reading ? Here it is, I think. 
 
 Enter the Ghost of C^sab. 
 How ill this taper burns ! Ha ! who comes here ? 
 I think it is the weakness of mine eyes 
 That shapes this monstrous apparition. 275 
 
 It comes upon me. Art thou any thing ? 
 Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil. 
 That makest my blood cold and my hair to stare ? 
 Speak to me what thou art. 
 
 Ghost. Thy evil spirit, Brutus. 
 
 Bru. Why comest thou ? 280 
 
 Ghost. To tell thee thou shalt see me at Philippi. 
 
 Bru. Well ; then I shall see thee again ? . 
 
 Ghost. Ay, at Philippi. 
 
 BriL Why, I will see thee at Philippi, then. 
 
 \_Exit Ghost. 
 Now I have taken heart thou vanishest : 285 
 
 111 spirit, I would hold more talk with thee. 
 Boy, Lucius ! Varro ! Claudius ! Sirs, awake ! 
 Claudius ! 
 
 Luc. The strings, my lord, are false. 
 
 Bru. He thinks he still is at his instrument. 290 
 
 Lucius, awake ! 
 
 Luc. My lord ? ' 
 
 Bru. Didst thou dream, Lucius, that thou so criedst 
 out? 
 
ACT V. SCENE I. 11 
 
 Luc. My lord, I do not know that I did cry. 
 
 Bni. Yes, that thou didst : didst thou see any thing ? 
 
 Luc. Nothing, my lord. 
 
 Bni. Sleep again, Lucius. Sirrah, Claudius ! 
 [To Varro] Fellow thou, awake ! 
 
 Var. My lord ? 
 
 Clau. My lord? 300 
 
 Bru. Why did you so cry out, sirs, in your sleep ? 
 
 Var. Clau. Did we, my lord ? 
 
 Btu. Ay: saw you any thing ? 
 
 Var. No, my lord, I saw nothing. 
 
 Clau. Nor I, my lord. 
 
 Bru. Go and commend me to my brother Cassius ; 
 Bid him set on his powers betimes before, 305 
 
 And we will follow. 
 
 Var. Clau. It shall be done, my lord. \_l!!xeunt 
 
 ACT V. 
 
 ScEXE I. The plains of Pliilippi: 
 
 Enter Octavius, Antony, and their Army. 
 
 Oct. 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. 
 
 Ant. 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 't is not so. 
 
78 JULIUS CJESAR. 
 
 Enter a Messenger. 
 
 Mess. 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 
 
 Ant. Octavius, lead your battle softly on, 
 Upon the left hand of the even field. 
 
 Oct. Upon the right hand I ; keep thou the left. 
 
 Ant. Why do you cross me in this exigent ? 19 
 
 Oct. I do not cross you ; but I will do so. [March. 
 
 Drum. Enter Bkutus, Cassius, and their Array ; Lu- 
 ciLius, TiTiNius, Mbssala, and others. 
 
 B7m. They stand, and would have parley. 
 
 Cas. Stand fast, Titinius : we must out and talk. 
 
 Oct. Mark Antony, shall we give sign of battle ? 
 
 Ant. No, Caesar, we will answer on their charge. 
 Make forth ; the generals would have some words. 25 
 
 Oct. Stir not until the signal. 
 
 Bi-u. Words before blows : is it so, countrymen ? 
 
 Oct. Not that we "love words better, as you do. 
 
 Bru. G-ood words are better than bad strokes, Octa- 
 vius. 
 
 Ant. In your bad strokes, Brutus, you give good 
 words : 
 Witness the hole you made in Caesar's heart, 31 
 
 Crying " Long live ! hail, Caesar ! " 
 
 Cas. Antony, 
 
 The posture of your blows are yet unknown ; 
 But for your words, they rob the Hybla bees, 
 And leave them honeyless. 
 
 Ant, Not stingless too. 36 
 
ACT V. SCENE 1. 79 
 
 Bru. 0, yes, and soundless too ; 
 For you have stolen their buzzing, Antony, 
 And very wisely threat before you sting. 
 
 Ant. Villains, you did not so, when your vile daggers 
 Hacked one another in the sides of Caesar : 40 
 
 You showed your teeth like apes, and fawned like 
 
 hounds. 
 And bowed like bondmen, kissing Caesar's feet ; 
 Whilst damned Casca, like a cur, behind 
 Struck Caesar on the neck. you flatterers ! 
 
 Cas. Flatterers ! Now, Brutus, thank yourself : 45 
 This tongue had not offended so to-day. 
 If Cassius might have ruled. 
 
 Oct. 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 Caesar's three and thirty wounds 
 Be well avenged, or till another Caesar 
 Have added slaughter to the sword of traitors. 55 
 
 Bru. Caesar, thou canst not die by traitors' hands. 
 Unless thou bring'st them with thee. 
 
 Oct. So I hope ; 
 
 I was not born to die on Brutus' sword. 
 
 Bru. 0, if thou wert the noblest of thy strain. 
 Young man, thou couldst not die more honorable. 00 
 
 Cas. A peevish schoolboy, worthless of such honor, 
 Joined with a masker and a reveller ! 
 
 Ant. Old Cassius still ! 
 
 Oct. Come, Antony, away . 
 
 Defiance, traitors, hurl we in your teeth : 
 
80 JULIUS C^SAR. 
 
 If you dare fight to-day, come to the field ; 65 
 
 If not, when you have stomachs. 
 
 [^Exeunt Octavius, Antony, and theiv army. 
 
 Cas. Why, now, blow wind, swell billow, and swim 
 bark ! 
 The storm is up, and all is on the hazard. 
 
 Bru. Ho, Luoilius ! hark, a word with you. 
 
 Lucil. \_Standing forth.^ My lord ! 
 
 \_Brutus and Lucilius converse a-paH. 
 
 Cas. Messala . 
 
 Mes. \_Standing forth.] What says my general ? 
 
 Cas. Messala, 
 
 This is my birthday ; as this very day 71 
 
 Was Cassius born. Give me thy hand, Messala : 
 Be thou my witness that against my will. 
 As Pompey was, am I compelled to set 
 Upon one battle all our liberties. 75 
 
 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 
 Two mighty eagles fell, and there they perched, 80 
 
 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 
 Fly o'er our heads and downward look on us, 85 
 
 As we were sickly prey : their shadows seem 
 A canopy most fatal, under which 
 Our army lies, ready to give up the ghost. 
 
 Mes. Believe not so. 
 
 Cas. I but believe it partly ; 
 
ACT V. SCENE I. 81 
 
 For I am fresh of spirit and resolved 90 
 
 To meet all perils very constantly. 
 
 Bru. Even so, Lucilius. 
 
 Cas. Now, most noble Brutus, 
 
 The gods to-day stand friendly, that we may. 
 Lovers in peace, lead on our days to age ! 
 But since the affairs of men rest still incertain, 95 
 
 Let 's reason with the worst that may befall. 
 If we do lose this babtle, then is this 
 The very last time we shall speak together : 
 What are you then determined to do ? 
 
 Bru. Even by the rule of that philosophy 100 
 
 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, 
 Eor fear of what might fall, so to prevent 
 The time of life : arming myself with patience 105 
 
 To stay the providence of some high powers 
 That govern us below. 
 
 Cas. Then, if we lose this battle, 
 
 You are contented to be led in triumph 
 Thorough the streets of Rome ? 
 
 Bru. No, Cassius, no : think not, thou noble Eoman, 
 That ever Brutus will go bound to Rome ; ill 
 
 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. 
 Therefore our everlasting farewell take : 115 
 
 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. 
 
 Cas. For ever, and for ever, farewell, Brutus ! 
 
82 JULIUS C^SAR. 
 
 If we do meet again, we '11 smile indeed ; 120 
 
 If not, 't is true this parting was well made. 
 
 B')'u. Why, then, lead on. 0, that a man might know 
 The end of this day's business ere it come ! 
 But it sufRceth that the day will end. 
 And then the end is known. Come, ho ! away ! \_Exeunt. 
 
 Scene II. The sajne. The field of battle. 
 Alarum. Enter Bbutus and Mbssala. 
 Bno. Hide, ride, Messala, ride, and give these bills 
 Unto the legions on the other side. \_Loud alarum. 
 
 Let them set on at once ; for I perceive 
 But cold demeanor in Octavius' wing, 
 And sudden push gives them the overthrow. 5 
 
 Eide, ride, Messala : let them all come down. [Exeunt. 
 
 Scene III. Another part of the field. 
 Alarums. Enter Cassius and Titinius. 
 
 Cos. 0, look, Titinius, look, the villains fly ! 
 Myself have to my own turned enemy : 
 This ensign here of mine was turning back ; 
 I slew the coward, and did take it from him. 
 
 Tit. Cassius, Brutus gave the word too early ; 5 
 Who, having some advantage on Octavius, 
 Took it too eagerly : his soldiers fell to spoil. 
 Whilst we by Antony are all enclosed. 
 
 Enter Pindabus. 
 
 Pin. Fly further off, my lord, fly further off ; 
 Mark Antony is in your tents, my lord : 10 
 
 Fly, therefore, noble Cassius, fly far off. 
 
 Cas. This hill is far enough. Look, look, Titinius ; 
 Are those my tents where I perceive the fire ? 
 
ACT V. SCENE HI. 83 
 
 Tit. They are, my lord. 
 
 Cas. Titinius, if thou lovest me, 
 
 Mount thou my horse and hide thy spurs in him, 15 
 
 Till he have brought thee up to yonder troops 
 And here again ; that I may rest assured 
 Whether yond troops are friend or enemy. 
 
 Tit. I will be here again, even with a thought. [Exit. 
 Cas. Go, Pindarus, get higher on that hill ; 20 
 
 My sight was ever thick ; regard Titinius, 
 And tell me what thou notest about the field. 
 
 [Pindarus ascends the hill. 
 This day I breathed first : time is come round. 
 And where I did begin, there shall I end ; 
 My life is run his compass. Sirrah, what news ? 25 
 
 Pin. [Above.] my lord ! 
 Cas. What news ? 
 
 Pin. [Above.] Titinius is enclosed round about 
 With horsemen, that make to him on the spur ; 
 Yet he spurs on. Now they are almost on him. .30 
 
 Now, Titinius ! Now some light. 0, he lights too. 
 He 's ta'en. [Shout.] And, hark ! they shout for joy. 
 
 Cas. Come down, behold no more. 
 0, coward that I am, to live so long. 
 To see my best friend ta'en before my face ! .35 
 
 [Pindarus descends. 
 Come hither, sirrah : 
 In Parthia did I take thee prisoner ; 
 And then I swore thee, saving of thy life. 
 That whatsoever I did bid thee do. 
 Thou shouldst attempt it. Come now, keep thine oath ; 
 Now be a freeman : and with ,this good sword, 41 
 
 That ran through Caesar's bowels, search this bosom. 
 
84 .TULIUS C^SAR. 
 
 Stand not to answer : here, take thou the hilts ; 
 And, when my face is covered, as 't is now, 
 Guide thou the sword. \_Pindarus stabs him.] Ceesar, 
 thou art revenged, 45 
 
 Even with the sword that killed thee. [Dies. 
 
 Pin. So, I am free ; yet would not so have been. 
 Durst I have done my will. Cassius ! 
 Par from this country Pindarus shall run. 
 Where never Roman shall take note of him. \^^xit. 
 
 Re-enter Titinius with Messala. 
 
 Mes. It is but change, Titinius; for Oetavius 51 
 
 Is overthrown by noble Brutus' power, 
 As Cassius' legions are by Antony. 
 
 Tit. These tidings will well comfort Cassius. 
 
 Mes. Where did you leave him ? 
 
 Tit. All disconsolate, .55 
 
 With Pindarus his bondman, on this hill. 
 
 Mes. Is not that he that lies upon the ground ? 
 
 Tit. He lies not like the living. my heart ! 
 
 Mes. Is not that he ? 
 
 Tit. No, this was he, Messala, 
 
 But Cassius is no more. setting sun, 60 
 
 As in thy red rays thou dost sink to-night. 
 So in his red blood Cassius' day is set ; 
 The sun of Rome is set ! Our day is gone ; 
 Clouds, dews, and dangers come ; our deeds are done ! 
 Mistrust of my success hath done this deed. 65 
 
 Mes. Mistrust of good success hath done this deed. 
 hateful error, melancholy's child. 
 Why dost thou show to the apt thoughts of men 
 The things that are not ? error, soon conceived, 
 
ACT V. SCENE III. 85 
 
 Thou never comest unto a happy birth, 70 
 
 But kill'st the mother that engendered thee. 
 
 Tit. What, Pindarus ! where art thou, Pindarus ? 
 
 Mes. Seek him, Titinins, whilst I go to meet 
 The noble Brutus, thrusting this report 
 Into his ears : I may say, thrusting it ; 75 
 
 For piercing steel and darts envenomed 
 Shall be as welcome to the ears of Brutus 
 As tidings of this sight. 
 
 Tit. Hie you, Messala, 
 
 And I will seek for Pindarus the while. \_Exit Messala. 
 Why didst thou send me forth, brave Cassius ? 80 
 
 Did I not meet thy friends ? and did not they 
 Put on my brows this wreath of victory. 
 And bid me give it thee ? Didst thou not hear their 
 
 shouts ? 
 Alas, thou hast misconstrued every thing ! 
 But, hold thee, take this garland on thy brow ; 85 
 
 Thy Brutus bid me give it thee, and I 
 Will do his bidding. Brutus, come apace. 
 And see how I regarded Caius Cassius. 
 By your leave, gods : this is a Roman's part : 
 Come, Cassius' sword, and find Titinius' heart. 
 
 \_Kills himself. 
 
 Alarum. Re-enter Messala, with Beutus, young Cato, 
 Steato, Volumnius, and Lucilius. 
 Bru. Where, where, Messala, doth his body lie ? 91 
 Mes. Lo, yonder, and Titinius mourning it. 
 Bini. Titinius' face is upward. 
 Cato. He is slain. 
 
 Bnt. Julius Caesar, thou art mighty yet ! 
 
86 JULIUS CMSAR. 
 
 Thy spirit walks abroad, and turns our swords 95 
 
 In our own proper entrails. \Low alarums. 
 
 Cato. Brave Titinius ! 
 
 Look, whether he have not crowned dead Cassius ! 
 
 Bru. Are yet two Romans living such as these ? 
 The last of all the Romans, fare thee well ! 
 It is impossible that ever Rome 100 
 
 Should breed thy fellow. Friends, I owe moe tears 
 To this dead man than you shall see me pay. 
 I shall find time, Cassius, I shall find time. 
 Come, therefore, and to Thasos send his body : 
 His funerals shall not be in our camp, 105 
 
 Lest it discomfort us. Lucilius, come ; 
 And come, young Cato ; let us to the field. 
 Labeo and Mavius, set our battles on : 
 'T is three o'clock ; and, Romans, yet ere night 
 We shall try fortune in a second fight. \_Exeunt.'] 110 
 
 Scene IV. Another part of the field. 
 
 Alarum. Enter, fighting, Soldiers of both armies ; then 
 
 Brutus, young Cato, Lucilius, and others. 
 
 Bru. Yet, countrymen, 0, yet hold up your heads ! 
 
 Cato. What bastard doth not ? Who will go with me ? 
 I will proclaim my name about the field : 
 I am the son of Marcus Cato, ho ! 
 
 A foe to tyrants, and my country's friend ; 5 
 
 I am the son of Marcus Cato, ho ! 
 
 Bru. And I am Brutus, Marcus Brutus, I ; 
 Brutus, my country's friend ; know me for Brutus ! \_Exit. 
 
 Lucil. young and noble Cato, art thou down ? 
 Why, now thou, diest as bravely as Titinius ; lo 
 
 And mayst be honored, being Cato's son. 
 
 First Sold. Yield, or thou diest. 
 
ACT V. SCENE V. 87 
 
 Lucil. Only I yield to die : 
 
 There is so much that thou wilt kill me straight ; 
 
 [ Offering money. 
 Kill Brutus, and be honored in his death. 
 
 First Sold. We must not. A noble prisoner ! 1.5 
 
 See. Sold. Koom, ho ! Tell Antony, Brutus is ta'en. 
 
 First Sold. I '11 tell the news. Here comes the general. 
 Enter Antont. 
 Brutus is ta'en, Brutus is ta'en, my lord. 
 
 Ant. Where is he ? 
 
 Lucil. Safe, Antony ; Brutus is safe enough : 20 
 
 I dare assure thee that no enemy 
 Shall ever take alive the noble Brutus : 
 The gods defend him from so great a shame ! 
 When you do find him, or alive or dead. 
 He will be found like Brutus, like himself. 25 
 
 Ant. This is not Brutus, friend ; but, I assure you, 
 A prize no less in worth : keep this man safe ; 
 Give him all kindness : I had rather have 
 Such men my friends than enemies. Go on. 
 And see whether Brutus be alive or dead ; 30 
 
 And bring us word unto Octavius' tent 
 How every thing is chanced. [^Exeunt. 
 
 Scene V. Another part of the field. 
 Enter Beutus, Dabdanius, Clitus, Strato, and 
 
 VOLUMNIUS. 
 
 Bru. Come, poor remains of friends, rest on this rock. 
 
 Cli. Statilius show'd the torch-light, but, my lord. 
 He came not back : he is or ta'en or slain. 
 
 Bni. Sit thee down, Clitus : slaying is the word ; 
 It is a deed in fashion. Hark thee, Clitus. [ Whispering. 5 
 
88 JULIUS C^SAR. 
 
 Cli. AVhat, I, my loid ? No, not for all the world. 
 
 Bru. Peace, then ! no words. 
 
 Cli. T '11 rather kill myself. 
 
 Bru. Hark thee, Dardanius. [ Whispering. 
 
 Bar. Shall I do such a deed ? 
 
 Cli. Dardanius ! 
 
 Bar. Clitus ! 10 
 
 Cli. What ill request did Brutus make to thee ? 
 
 Dar. To kill him, Clitus. Look, he meditates. 
 
 Cli. Now is that noble vessel full of grief. 
 That it runs over even at his eyes. 
 
 Bru. Come hither, good Volumnius ; list a word. 15 
 • Vol. What says my lord ? 
 
 Brii. Why, this, Volumnius : 
 
 The ghost of Ceesar hath appeared to me 
 Two several times by night ; at Sardis once. 
 And this last night here in Philippi fields : 
 I know my hour is come. 
 
 Vol. ISTot so, my lord. 20 
 
 Bru. Nay, I am sure it is, Volumnius. 
 Thou seest the world, Volumnius, how it goes ; 
 Our enemies have beat us to the pit : \_Loiu alarums. 
 
 It is more worthy to leap in ourselves, 
 Than tarry till they push us. Good Volumnius, 25 
 
 Thou know'st that we two went to school together : 
 Even for that our love of old, I prithee, 
 Hold thou my sword-hilts, whilst I run on it. 
 
 Vol. That 's not an office for a friend, my lord. 
 
 \_Alarum, still. 
 
 Cli. Ply, fly, my lord ; there is no tarryiug here. 30 
 
 Bru. Farewell to you ; and you ; and you, Volumnius. 
 Strato, thou hast been all this while asleep ; 
 
ACT V. SCENE V. 89 
 
 Parewell to thee too, Strato. Countrymen, 
 
 My heart doth joy that yet in all my life 
 
 I found no man but he was true to me. 35 
 
 I shall have glory by this losing day. 
 
 More than Octavius and Mark Antony 
 
 By this vile conquest shall attain vinto. 
 
 So, fare you well at once ; for Brutus tongue 
 
 Hath almost ended his life's history : 40 
 
 Night hangs upon mine eyes ; my bones would rest, 
 
 That have but labored to attain this hour. 
 
 \_Alarum. Cry within, " Fly, fly, fly ! " 
 
 Cli. Fly, my lord, fly. 
 
 Bru. Hence ! I will follow. 
 
 \^Hx6unt Clitus, Dardanius, and Volumnius. 
 I prithee, Strato, stay thou by thy lord : 
 Thou art a fellow of a good respect ; 45 
 
 Thy life hath had some smatch of honor in it : 
 Hold then my sword, and turn away thy face. 
 While I do run upon it. Wilt thou, Strato ? 
 
 Stra. Give me your hand first. Fare you well, my lord. 
 
 Bru. Farewell, good Strato. \_Runs on his sword.] 
 
 Caesar, now be still : " 50 
 
 I killed not thee with half so good a will. [Dies. 
 
 Alarum. Retreat. Enter Octavius, Antony, Messala, 
 LuciLius, and the army. 
 
 Oct. What man is that ? 
 
 Mes. My master's man. Strato, where is thy master ? 
 
 Stra. Free from the bondage you are in, Messala : 
 The conquerors can but make a fire of him ; 55 
 
 For Brutus only overcame himself. 
 And no man else hath honor by his death. 
 
, 90 ' JULIUS C^SAR. 
 
 LvAiil. So Brutus should be found. I thank thee, 
 Brutus, ^ 
 
 That thou hast proved Lucilius' saying true. 
 
 Oct. All that served Brutus, I will entertain them. 60 
 Fellow, wilt thou bestow thy time with me ? 
 
 Stra. Ay, if Messala will prefer me to you. 
 
 Oct. Do so, good Messala. 
 
 Mes. How died my master, Strato ? 
 
 Stra. I held the sword, and he did run on it. 65 
 
 Mes. Octavius, then take him to follow thee. 
 That did the latest service to my master. 
 ' Ant. This was the noblest Eoman of them all : 
 All the conspirators, save only he. 
 
 Did that they did in envy of great Caesar ; 70 
 
 He only, in a general honest thought 
 And common good to all, made one of them. 
 His life was gentle, and the elements 
 So mixed in him that Nature might stand up 
 , And say to all the world, " This was a man ! " 75 
 
 Oct. According to his virtue let us use him. 
 With all respect and rites of burial. 
 Within my tent his bones to-night shall lie. 
 Most like a soldier, ordered honorably. 
 So call the field to rest ; and let 's away, 80 
 
 To part the glories of this happy day. [^Exeunt. 
 
PERSONS REPRESENTED. 
 
 (Appears) 
 
 Julius CjESab I, 2; II, 2; III, 1. 
 
 OcTAVius C^SAR, a triumvir 
 
 after the death o/Juline Caesar, IV, 1; V, 1, 5. 
 Marcus Antonius, a triummr 
 
 a/terthe death of JuliuB Caesar, I, 2; II, 2; HI, 1, 2; IV, 1; V, l,4i5. 
 M. ^MiLius Lepidus, a tri- 
 umvir after the death o/Caeear, III, 1; IV, I. 
 
 CrcERO, a senator I, 2, 3. 
 
 FuBLivs, a senator n, 2;III, 1. 
 
 PopiLius Lena, a senator .... Ill, 1. 
 
 Marcus Brutus, a conspirator , I, 2; II, 1, 2; III, 1, 2; IV, 2, 3; V, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 
 
 Cassius, « conspirator I, 2, 3; II, 1; III, 1, 2; IV, 2, 3; V, 1, 3. 
 
 Casca, a conspirator I, 2, 3; II, 1, 2; III, 1. 
 
 l^-R-KRO^ivs, a conspirator . . . II, 1, 2; III, 1. 
 LiGAKius, a conspirator . . - II, 1, 2. 
 Decius Brutus, a conspirator . 1, 2; II, 1, 2; III, 1. 
 Metellus CiiasB-R, a con8pirator,ll, 1, 2; HI, 1. 
 
 CiNJ-iA, a conspirator I, 3; II, 1, 2; HI, I. 
 
 Flavius, a tribune I, 1. 
 
 Marullus, a tribune I> 1- 
 
 Abtemidorus, a sophist of 
 
 Cnidos n, 3; m, 1. 
 
 A Soothsayer I, 2; II, 4; III, 1. 
 
 CiMNA, a poet Ill, 3. 
 
 A Poet IV, 3. 
 
 LuciLius, a friend to Brutus and 
 
 Casaius IV, 2, 3; V, 1, 3, 4, 5. 
 
 TiTiNius, afriendtoBmituBand 
 
 Cassms IV, 2, 3; V, 1, 3. 
 
 Messala, a friend to Brutus and 
 
 Cassius IV, 3; V, 1,2, 3, 6. 
 
 Young Cato, a friend io Brutus 
 
 and passius V, 3, 4. 
 
 VoLUMNius, a friend to Brutus 
 
 and Cassius V, 3, 5. 
 
 Varko, servant to Brutus . . . IV, 3. 
 Clitus, servant to Brutus . . . . V, 5. 
 Claudius, seruaniZo Brutus . . . IV, 3, 
 STBATO,sfin;arai ^0 Brutus . . . . V, 3, 5. 
 Lucius, servant to Brutus . . . n, 1, 4; IV, 2, 3. 
 Dardanius, servant to Brutus . V, 5. 
 PiNDARUS, servant to Cassius . . IV, 2; V, 3. 
 Calpurnta, wife to Caesar . . I, 2; II, 2. 
 Portia, ifJi/6 io Brutus I, 2; II, 1,4. 
 
 Senators, Citisens, Guards, Attendants, etc. 
 
 SCENE. — During a great part op the Plat at Rome; afterwards at 
 
 Sardis, and near Philippi. 
 
 (92) 
 
XOTES.i 
 
 Julius CcBsar must have been written between 1598 and 1603. 
 Dowden assigns it to the year 1601. It was first published in 
 the folio of 1623. The play belongs to the same period of the 
 poet's life as Hamlet. The poet's diction at this period was 
 simpler, his style more flowing, and to modern readers easier, 
 than it became in the later plays, as, e.g., in Coriolanus and 
 Cymbeline. 
 
 As compared with the other great tragedies, except Macbeth, 
 Julius Csesar is remarkably short. The peculiarity has been 
 conjecturally accounted for by supposing that the copy of the 
 play which came into the hands of the editors of 1623 had 
 been shortened for stage purposes ; and there are some reasons 
 for thinking that this shortening was done by Ben Jonson. 
 See Fleay's Shakespeare Manual. 
 
 In the text as here given no distinction is made between 
 verbs in which the final ed counts as a syllable and those in 
 which it does not. This is a matter in which the learner must 
 help himself. The peculiarities of Shakespeare's syllabica- 
 tion, and the metric freedoms he allowed himself, are only to 
 be learned by observation. 
 
 In the reading of the verse care must be taken on the one 
 hand to catch the rhythmic movement, and on the other, to 
 avoid everything like formal scanning. The English blank 
 verse is elastic, and assumes various shapes while never depart- 
 ing from its norm. Lines that have five equal accents occur 
 but now and then ; but with extremely few exceptions, the 
 lines are rhythmic, in accordance with the five-accent, iambic 
 standard. The reader must learn to reconcile the verses to this 
 blank verse standard while at the same time reading naturally 
 and vidth regard to dramatic expression. 
 
 J The references to the other plays are always to the fflobe Shakespeare, 
 Macmillan & Co. 
 
94 NOTES. 
 
 ACT I. 
 
 The subject of the play, it must be understood from the be- 
 ginning, is Marcus Brutus. 
 
 The idea of a conspiracy against Csesar's life is shown in 
 the first act as originating in the mind of Cassius on grounds 
 of personal enmity, and as finding acceptance in the mind of 
 Brutus on grounds of concern for the public welfare. The 
 deliberate, conscientious meditation of Brutus on the awful 
 step he contemplates as the means of freeing Rome from 
 tyranny, is contrasted with the ardor and the un scrupulousness 
 with which Cassius and Casca apply themselves to the fur- 
 therance of the plot, and chiefly to the securing of Brutus as 
 its leader. The sum and substance of the act is expressed in 
 the last eight lines of the last scene. 
 
 Scene 1. 
 
 All the actors in this scene disappear from the play with the 
 end of the scene itself. Tribunes and commoners, they are 
 not personm of the drama at all, but speak their brief parts as 
 types of the social divisions and the political animosities of the 
 Rome of Caesar's time. What the historian would require 
 pages to tell and explain the poet in a few lines reveals to 
 us as picture. The commoners are nameless, as they are 
 in the records of history, and have to be distinguished by 
 being numbered ; they ai-e facetious, good-natured, coarse of 
 speech, incapable of high political principle. But they repre- 
 sent the physical strength of Rome because they are a multi- 
 tude and will follow devotedly a leader who wins them to his 
 side. ' Whoever aspires to control Rome must be popular 
 with the commons, and the commons have been won by 
 Csesar. The tribunes stand by the lost cause of Pompey. 
 The tribunes represent patrician conservatism; they are im- 
 perious and full of dignity; their speech is warmed with 
 noble sentiment; they typify Roman patriotism. 
 
NOTES. 95 
 
 3. mechanical. To understand wliat, in tlie poet's mind, was 
 the connotation of this word, compare the following passages ; 
 Cor. ., 3, 83; Ant. v, 2, 209; Hen. V, i, 2, 200; Mids. iii, 2, 9. 
 He always uses the word for the sake of this implied meaning, 
 never in its honorable modern sense. 
 
 you ought not walk. Everywhere else in Shakespeare, ought 
 is connected with its infinitive in the modern way, as in ii, 1, 270. 
 See Paradise Lost, viii, 74. There is still another very different 
 early construction of ought fovmi^ e.g., in Chaucer. See Legend 
 of Good Women, Prologue, 27, and the Man of Law's Tale, 1097. 
 This word has a most interesting history, which should be looked 
 up in the dictionaries and historical grammars. 
 
 4. Compare laboring with growing in line 73. Do both these 
 words belong to the same part of speech ? Pew things in English 
 grammar are more puzzling than the verb-forms ending in -ing. 
 They cannot be understood without reference to their origins. 
 
 Flavius and Marullus would seem in this passage, — lines 1- 
 5, — to be enforcing a Roman law ; but the existence of such a 
 law is an invention of the poet, who perhaps transfers to Rome 
 a usage of his own eotmtry. It must be remembered that 
 Shakespeare got his knowledge of history from very limited 
 reading, and had no conception of nice scholarly scruples 
 about mingling features of ancient and modern times. It may 
 be said, generally, that the plays give evidence of wide obser- 
 vation, but not of exact learning. 
 
 It is worth noting that Shakespeare, who is so given to pun- 
 ning, nowhere uses the word pun in its modern sense. For 
 the meaning this word had to the poet see Troil. ii, 1, 42. 
 The serious, malevolent ambiguity of speech is described in 
 Mac. V, 8, 20 : the playful quibble in Merch. iii, 5, 74. In the 
 speeches of the Second Commoner be sure to see and under- 
 stand six pairs of equivocal meanings. 
 
 9. Broken, or partial, lines are frequent in Shakespeare's verse. 
 These partial lines are not unmetrical, and can be scanned so far as 
 they go. Sometimes a reason for this procedure may be surmised. 
 See lines 53 and 67, this scene. 
 
96 NOTES. 
 
 16. naughty ; a most interesting word. Look up its derivation. 
 See Proverbs, xx, 14 ; Jeremiah, xxiv, 2 ; Lear, ii, 4, 136, and 
 other instances in the Bible and in Shakespeare of this word, and 
 of naught., or nought, both as adjective and as noun. Consider 
 how the meaning of these words has changed. 
 
 26. neat's-leather. Is the word neat yet quite obsolete? See 
 it defined by the poet, Wint. i, 2, 124 ; see also 3 Hen. VI, ii, 
 1, 14. 
 
 27. It will be a useful lesson in etymology to investigate the 
 three different origins of the i's in handiwork, handicraft, and 
 handicap. 
 
 33. Throughout the dialogue with the commoners the 
 speeches of the tribunes have been in verse. Such intermixt- 
 ure or close juxtaposition of prose and verse Shakespeare em- 
 ploys to enhance the distinction between a certain nobility or 
 elevation of tone and the low level of commonplace. Note the 
 prose of Casca's story in the next scene and that of Brutus's 
 speech, Act iii, Sc. 2. In the latter case the use of prose is an 
 affectation of low tone, by which Brutus aims to show himself 
 utterly devoid of passion. 
 
 With line 33 Marullus suddenly rises to a high strain of 
 fervent indignation which overwhelms the commoners and 
 puts an end to the dialogue. This contrast of gentles and 
 churls is a frequent motive with Shakespeare, as it had been, 
 two centuries before, with Chaucer. Social distinctions had 
 not in the Tudor time begun to be obliterated by the modern 
 democratic revolutions. The great middle class of the present 
 day, absorbing into itself all useful elements both from above 
 and from below, and already the governing class in all ad- 
 vanced nations, was then still a quantity to be neglected. 
 
 42. live-long. Consider the origin, the meaning, and the pro- 
 nunciation of the expression. 
 
 46, 48. her banks, her shores. The poet uses the neuter pos- 
 sessive its only ten times in all his works. See this play, v, 3, 
 
NOTES. 97 
 
 25; Hamlet, i, 2, 216. Consult Abbott's Shak. Gram. 228, 229. 
 Compare a passage, e.g., Genesis, i, 24, in the Bible of 1611, with 
 the same passage in the revised version of 1885. As to the gender 
 ascribed to Tiber, is Shakespeare in harmony with classic usage ? 
 Look up the pronouns referring to Thames in Spenser's Protha- 
 lamion. Look up Milton's usage, — Vac. Ex. 94; Comus, 882; 
 Lycidas, 55 ; Par. Lost, iv, 224. See also Scriptural usage, — 
 Joshua, iii, 15, and 1 Chronicles, xii, 15. 
 
 51. in his way that comes: a construction common enough in 
 Elizabethan times. What is the antecedent of that ? See the Gos- 
 pel of John, vii, 16. 
 
 52. Consult the histories and learn in what sense Caesar on this 
 occasion triumphs "over Pompey's blood." 
 
 59-61. Find in the poet's works other instances of the same 
 hyperbole. 
 
 62. tnetal, also used in the form mettle ; a favorite word with 
 Shakespeare in this sense. See line 294, this scene, and Mac. i, 
 7, 7.3. 
 
 66. ceremonies. See Henry V, iv, 1, 109. 
 
 68. Lupercal. See Plutarch's life of Caesar, but especially 
 Smith's Diet, of Greek and Roman Antiquities. Plutarch repre- 
 sents the images of Caesar as being set up with diadems on their 
 heads, and as being disrobed of their decorations, after the offer- 
 ing of the crown (see Scene 2). Historically, the date of the 
 annual feast of Lupercal was February 15. 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 With tlie second scene all the great characters are introduceil. 
 First is Marcus Brutus, the hero of the tragedy. Although the 
 play bears the name of Julius Caesar, Brutus is the veritable 
 hero of it, for it is his fate that furnishes the motive for the 
 entire piece, his is the only figure that moves to its tragic exit 
 in unbroken dignity and majesty. With not a single touch 
 does the poet derogate from the impression of moral great- 
 ness which he means we shall form of his Brutus In his con- 
 ception of Brutus's character he f(jllows Plutarch, but goes 
 
98 NOTES. 
 
 further than his authority, as was dramatically right, and as 
 he has done with the other chief persons of the drama, notably 
 with Caesar. 
 
 The main motive of the tragedy, — the essentially tragical 
 point of it, is the mistake of Brutus in undertaking a task for 
 which his moral scrupulousness renders him unfit. The assassi- 
 nation of Csesar is, in the play, incidental to the develop- 
 ment of the career of Brutus. Brutus commands deference 
 from all ; and Cassius, who is Brutus's superior in practical 
 sagacity, cheerfully yields to him in matters of crucial moment, 
 being overawed by his commanding force of character. This 
 force of personal character, joined with a reputation for abso- 
 lute integrity of purpose, makes Brutus the natural leader of 
 the men of his own rank with whom he is brought into con- 
 tact. He stands well with the mob also, but does not make 
 sufficient allowance for its fickleness, and foolishly imputes 
 to it something of his own constancy and sense of honor. 
 
 As Shakespeare is not writing history or chronicle, but 
 drama, — though indeed he is dramatizing a chapter of history, 
 — heis no more bound to observe the exact proportions of char- 
 acter as these may be deduced from the records, than he is to 
 respect the unities of time and place. •'For his present purpose 
 he wished to enlarge and idealize Brutus, and to obscure and 
 vulgai-ize Csesar. For this procedure with regard to Caesar 
 he found a shadow of warrant in his historian. Plutarch is a 
 gossip, by no means always studious to tell of his heroes only 
 the grand achievements by which men win renown. Caesar 
 appears in his pages quite subject to the infirmities of human 
 nature. The poet finds this aspect of the great dictator suit- 
 able to his purpose, aggravates it in accordance with his habit, 
 and so gives us his Julius CiBsar. Ridiculous ^s the char- 
 acter appears to us who think we know something about the 
 mightiest Julius, it suited the poet's main purpose in the 
 play, and is no more unhistorical than he had a perfect right 
 to make it. 
 
NOTES. 99 
 
 That the play is named Julius Csesar, the foremost actor in 
 it being Marcus Brutus, seems an anomaly. But so Henry 
 VIII is by no means dramatically the chief figure in the his- 
 torical play that bears his name. The things in the " Famous 
 History of the Life of King Henry VIII" that are " sad, high, 
 and working, full of state and woe," do not pertain to the 
 king, but to Wolsey and Katharine. It is the tragic fates of 
 these two personages that form the motive of the tragedy. 
 Plays which in their earlier form had been entitled "The 
 first part of the contention betwixt the two famous houses 
 of Yorke and Lancaster," etc., and ''The True Tragedie of 
 Richard, Duke of Yorke," etc., and had been correctly so des- 
 ignated in accordance with their content, came, under Shake- 
 speare's revision, to bear the simple name of King Henry VI. 
 Evidently the poet had his reasons for giving to these plays 
 the names of the characters in them that were politically, or 
 historically, the most imposing. Historical prominence by 
 no means implies dramatic usefulness, though a name promi- 
 nent in history may be exceedingly useful as the title of a 
 drama. 
 
 19. " Furthermore, there was a, certaine Soothsayer, that liad 
 given Caesar warning long afore, to take heed of the day of the 
 Ides of March (which is the fifteenth of the moneth), for on that 
 day he should be in great danger." Plut., Jul. Caes. 
 
 21. Now that Cassius is introduced, let us see how this leader of 
 the conspiracy is depicted by Plutarch : "Cassius being a choler- 
 icke man, and hating Caesar priuatly, more than he did the tyrannic 
 openly, incensed Brutus against him. It is also reported, that 
 Brutus could euill away with the tyrannie, and that Cassius hated 
 the tyrant : making many complaints for the iniuries he had done 
 liim ; and amongst others, for that he had taken away his Lions from 
 liim. Cassius had prouided them for his sports, when he should be 
 ^dilis, and they were found in the city of Megara. . . . And 
 this was the cause (as some do report) that made Cassius conspire 
 against Caesar. But this holdeth no water : for Cassius ouen from 
 
100 NOTES. 
 
 his cradle could not abide any manner of tyrants, as it appeared 
 when he was but a boy and went vnto the same schoole that Faus- 
 tus, the son of Sylla, did. And Faustus bragging among other 
 boyes, highly boasted of his father's kingdom : Cassius rose vp on 
 his feet, and gaTe him two good whirts on the eare. Faustus gov- 
 ernors would have put this matter in sute against Cassius ; but 
 Pompey would not suffer them, but caused the two boyes to bo 
 brought before him, and asked them how the matter came to passe. 
 Then Cassius (as it is written of him) said unto the other : " Go too 
 Faustus, speake againe and thou darest, before this Nobleman 
 here, the same words that made me angrie with thee, that my fistes 
 may walke once againe about thine ears. Such was Cassius bote 
 stirring nature." 
 
 30, 36. Notice that Cassius is pronounced in one case as two 
 syllables and in the other as three. 
 
 34. See the same use of as in line 174 of this scene. 
 
 40. passions of some difference; conflicting passions. 
 
 41. proper to myself; concerning myself alone. 
 
 42. soil. See Hamlet, i, 3, 15. 
 
 49-50. Supposing you had become alienated from me, I had re- 
 frained from communicating to you certain momentous thoughts 
 which I have been entertaining. 
 
 51. Thus mysteriously the wily Cassius begins to make his over- 
 tures to Brutus. 
 
 60. Note the insinuating mention of C<esar. 
 
 91. favor. See Mac. i, 5, 73; Hamlet, v, 1, 214; Proverbs, 
 xxxi, 30; and this play, i, 3, 129. 
 
 95. I had as lief not be as live, etc. A genuine English 
 idiomatic expression, present in the language at all periods, and 
 still in full vigor and likely to remain so in spite of the hostility of 
 those who imagine the had to be the auxiliary of tense and the fol- 
 lowing verb mistakenly used for the participle. Had is subjunctive, 
 and le and live are infinitives. The attempt to substitute for had a 
 subjunctive would is utterly needless, and betrays ignorance of the 
 elements of historical grammar. 
 
 110. arrive the point. See Par. Lost, ii, 410; 3 Hen. VI, v, 3, 
 8; Coriolanus, ii, 3, 189. 
 
NOTES. 101 
 
 114. One of Shakespeare's occasional six-foot lines. 
 
 156. See K. John, iii, 1, 180. 
 
 162. The word jealous may still be occasionally heard in this 
 sense. See 2 Corinthians, xi, 2; Henry V, iv, 1, 302. 
 
 166. So is here conditional, nearly equivalent to i/, and is fol- 
 lowed by the subjunctive, as in 1 Henry IV, i, 3, 76. 
 
 2-tr, 250. swounded, swound. Shakespeare uses these forms 
 indifferently with the modern ones, swoon, swooned. 
 
 253. he hath the falling-sickness. " When they had decreed 
 diners honors for him in the Senate, the Consuls and Praetors, 
 accompanied with the whole assembly of the Senate, went vnto 
 him in the market place, where he was set by the pulpit for orations, 
 to tell him what honors they had decreed for him in his absence. 
 But he sitting stil in his maiestie, disdaining to rise up unto them 
 when they came in, as if they had been private men, answered 
 them : that his honors had more neede to be cut off then enlarged. 
 This did not onely offend the Senate, but the common people also, 
 to see that he should so lightly esteeme of the Magistrates of the 
 common wealth : insomuch as euery man that might lawfully go 
 his way, departed thence very sorrowfully. Thereupon also 
 Caesar rising, departed home to his house, and tearing open his 
 dublet coller, making his necke bare, he cried out aloud to his 
 friends, that his throte was readie to offer to any man that would 
 come and cut it. Notwithstanding, it is reported, that afterwards 
 to excuse this folly, he imputed it to his disease, saying, that their 
 wits are not perfit which haue this disease of the falling euill, when 
 standing on their feet they speake to the common people, but are 
 soone troubled with a trembling of their bodie, and a sodaine dim- 
 nesse and giddinesse. But that was not true " etc., Plut. , Jul. Caes. 
 
 259. In modern English this employment of use in the present, 
 with an infinitive object, is obsolete. 
 
 264. plucked me ope his doublet. See Merch, of Ven. i, 
 3, 85; ii, 2, 115; 1 Henry IV, ii, 4, 223, and 241; Two Gent, of 
 Ver. iv, 4, 9 ; Tro. and Cres. i, 2, 188 ; Merry Wives, ii, 2, 102. 
 The redundant me and you in these passages are instances of the 
 so-called ethical dative, used in familiar, animated speech to ex- 
 press the speaker's interest in what lie is saying and to stimulate 
 
102 NOTES. 
 
 interest in the person addressed. The construction is not quite 
 obsolete : Carlyle and Bulwer used it. 
 
 In clothing his Romans in doublets the poet is guilty of one of 
 his frequent anachronisms; but this particular one he gets from 
 North's Plutarch. See note to line 253. 
 
 265. On an, or and, as a conjunction with the meaning if, see 
 the dictionaries. 
 
 An I had been a man of any occupation. C:isca was not a 
 man of any occupation : he was a patrician, and did not belong to 
 the " common herd" to whom Ca;sar made his offer. 
 
 295. execution : fire syllables, metrically half the line. Be on 
 the lookout for similar instances of expansion of final ion, ience, 
 ius. 
 
 311. bear me hard. See ii, 1, 215; iii, 1, 167. 
 
 314. he should not humor me : humor in the sense of cajole. 
 See Much Ado, ii, 1, 396 ; 2 Hen. IV, t, 1, 80. 
 
 Scene 3. 
 
 In the preceding scene we saw Cassius sound Brutus's feel- 
 ing concerning the growth of Caesar's power in the state, and 
 learned from his final soliloquy the result of his observations, — 
 
 Well, Brutus, thou art noble, yet I see, . . . 
 
 The third scene shows Cassius rapidly and with simple 
 means winning the apt spirit of Casca, and concerting with 
 Casca and Cinna the subtler devices which shall appeal to the 
 moral sense of Brutus. 
 
 Note that Cicero appeared on the stage for a very short 
 time at the beginning of Scene 2, but without any part in the 
 dialogue. He here appears briefly questioning Casca, then 
 to vanish finally from the play. Examine the allusions to 
 Cicero (i, 2, 185, 277; ii, 1, 141-253), and consider his 
 speeches here, with a view to discussing the question why the 
 poet has him as a personage in the play at all. Historically, 
 the most imposing figure in the drama, after Csesar himself, 
 
XOTES. 103 
 
 he is treated, like Csesar, without the least regard for his 
 greatness. AVhy is this ? 
 
 ' 1. brought. See the verb bring in the same sense, Temp, ii, 
 2, 171; Much Ado, iii, 2, 3. 
 
 3. the sway of earth ; the fixed and established order of nature. 
 
 12. saucy. The meaning of the word is illustrated in Twelfth 
 Night, iii, 4, 159. 
 
 20. against, opposite. 
 
 23. upon a heap. See Henry V, iv, 5, IS ; Richard III, ii, 
 1, 53. 
 
 26. the bird of night. See Macbeth, ii, 3, 64 ; Hamlet, i, 1, 160. 
 
 32. climate. Consider other instances of the use of this word 
 and see if Shakespeare attributes to it the idea of temperature. 
 See Tempest, ii, 1, 200; Richard II, ir, 1, 130. 
 
 41. to walk in. An instance of the gerundial infinitive, tlie ^ 
 being a real preposition, and walk, its object, a verbal noun. 
 
 42. what night is this ! Consider what modification this sen- 
 tence needs to make it express its meaning in the English of to-day. 
 
 48. See ii, 1, 262; Hamlet, ii, 1, 78. 
 
 49. thunder-stone. See Othello, v, 2, 235 ; Cymbeline, iv, 2, 
 271. See also lelemnite in the dictionaries. 
 
 60. cast yourself in wonder. An unexampled use of the verb 
 cast. Richard Grant White ventures to substitute case. 
 
 77. prodigious. Be sure to understand the exact meaning of 
 this word. See M. N. Dream, v, 1, 419; Tro. and Cres. v, 1, 
 100. 
 
 fi.i. governed with. A use of with common in Shakespeare. 
 
 117. fleering. See Much Ado, v, 1, 58; Rom. and Jul. i, 5, 
 5!). Hold, as so often in Shakespeare, is interjectional. 
 
 118. factious for redress. See 2 Henry VT, ii, 1, 40; Rich. 
 Ill, i, 3, 128. 
 
 138, 148, 155. Shakespeare's use of a singular verb with a plural 
 subject is not to be explained as a mere violation of grammatical 
 rule. See Abbott's Grammar, 332-338. 
 
 159. alchemy. See K. John, iii, 1. 78; Tim. of Ath. >', 1, 
 117. 
 
104 NOTES. 
 
 ACT II. 
 
 The first act shows the conspiracy in its inception : the 
 second shows its progi'ess to maturity. 
 
 Scene 1. 
 Brutus decides to himself that Csssar must die : in his anxi- 
 ety he cannot sleep : fiieeting the other conspirators, he natu- 
 rally takes his proper position as leader, and himself initiates a 
 new member of tlie band : his preoccupation of minil alarms 
 Portia, whose solicitude for her husband reveals the conflict in 
 his soul more impi'essively than even his own soliloquies. 
 
 5. when, an exclamation of impatience. See Rich. II, i, 1, 
 lf!2. 
 
 12. general; as in Ham. ii, 2, 453; Meas. for Meas. ii, 4, 
 27. 
 
 15. that, elliptical for, — suppose we do crown Mm. See also 
 Much Ado, ii, 3, 145. 
 
 21. proof; used in a sense now obsolete. See M. of V. i, 1, 
 144 ; Cymbeline, i, 6, 70. 
 
 28. prevent; in its primitive signification, as below, iii, 1, 35; 
 M. of V. i, 1, 61. 
 
 29. color, as 2 Henry VI, iii, 1, 236; Ant. and Cle. i, 3, 32. 
 42. calendar; a word of interesting origin. 
 
 55. In this line the words speak and strike must be regarded as 
 having, metrically, each the value of a complete foot. 
 
 59. wasted: in a sense which the word no longer has. See M. 
 of V. iii, 4, 12. 
 
 How utterly out of the question it is to hold the poet responsible 
 for correct dealing with historical time is shown here as in so many 
 other instances in the plays. From the feast of Lupercal to the 
 ides of March is just a month. But we cannot find this month in 
 the drama. The actual time occupied by the events pictured in the 
 play, i.e., from the feast of Lupercal, Feb. 15, B.C. 44, to the 
 battle of Philippi, Nov., B.C. 42, is about two years and nine 
 
NOTES. 105 
 
 mouths. Shakespeare had no occasion to encumber the play with 
 chronological data, and has therefore omitted all such data. The 
 time-indications here, as in the plays generally, are inferences to 
 be drawn from the sequence of events. To enjoy the play it is not 
 necessary to draw these inferences at all. To be intimately ac- 
 quainted with Roman history is a disqualification for cordial appre- 
 ciation of the drama as a work of art, if such acquaintance begets 
 a desire to find in the poet the same knowledge. It is always in- 
 teresting, in reading a play, whether a "historical" one or not, to 
 note the indications of the lapse of time. But these indications 
 are usually indefinite, and the best readers will differ as to how 
 much they indicate. We must learn to " brook abridgment," 
 
 " jumping o'er times, 
 Turning the accomplishment of many years 
 Into an hour-glass." 
 
 66. genius. See Mac. iii, 1, 56. 
 
 mortal instruments : deadly instruments, — all the means and 
 devices which the conspiracy is to use to accomplish its deadly 
 purpose. 
 
 Compare this speech of Brutus with the soliloquy of Lady 
 Macbeth, i, 5, 39-55. 
 
 72. moe. Moe^ formerly the comparative of many, as more 
 was of much, was already in the Tudor period becoming obsolete, 
 and the form more was coming to be used in both senses, as it 
 now is. 
 
 83. path. The only instance of path as a verb. If the reading 
 is correct, it must mean walk or go forward. Other readings that 
 have been suggested are ma/rch. put, hadst, pall, walk, parle, pass, 
 pace. With the reading path, and with most of the others, tlie 
 words, thy native semblance on, must be taken absolutely, the 
 participle, being, to be understood. 
 
 85. prevention; i.e., anticipation or detection. 
 
 99. night; i.e., sleep. 
 
 101. The "other Brutus" among the conspirators is by the 
 poet, who therein follows Plutarch, incorrectly named Decius. 
 The name should be Decimus Brutus; and, historically, it was 
 
106 NOTES. 
 
 this Decimus, and not the arch-conspirator, Marcus Brutus, who 
 held so high a place in the affections of Julius Cajsar. 
 
 101-111. Cassius having signified his desire to speak privately 
 with Brutus, the rest naturally direct their conversation to indif- 
 ferent matters. The leaders of the conspiracy seeming to take for 
 a moment the entire burden of responsibility on themselves, the 
 mental tension of the inferiors seeks relief in what appears a trivial 
 and irrelevant debate. But note the poetical elevation of the 
 speeches of Cinna and Casca. 
 
 108. weighing ; taking into account. 
 
 116. Note the change of construction, — anacoluihon. 
 
 119. lottery. See M. of V. ii, 1, 15. 
 
 1^6. palter. See Mac. v, 8, 20. 
 
 129. cautelous. See Ham. i, 3, 15; Cor. iv, 1, 33. 
 
 150. break with him. What two dissimilar meanings may this 
 expression have? Which is the better here ? 
 
 175-177. Note how the as clause, once introduced, takes the 
 lead and draws the rest of the sentence after itself - 
 
 178. envious. See instances of the word raeaximg, malignant 
 or spiteful, Rom. and Jul. i, 1, 156; iii, 1, 173; Ham. iv, 7, 174. 
 
 187. take thought; perhaps with the meaning, grow melan- 
 choly. See Hamlet, iv, 5, 188; iii, 4, 51. 
 
 198. apparent; not in the modern sense, but as in Win. Tale, 
 1, 2, 270; Rich. Ill, iii, 5, 30. 
 
 212. To fetch him; as in Scene 2 of this act, lines 59 and 108. 
 
 224. look fresh and merrily ; an illustration of the indifference 
 with which Shakespeare uses adjective and adverb to complete 
 the predicate after the verb looTc. 
 
 227. with formal constancy, i.e., with speech, gesture, and bear- 
 ing consistent with the character they are representing. 
 
 Compare, in respect of tone., Brutus's speech (224-228) with the 
 speeches of the same tenor in Macbeth, i, 4, 12; i, 5, 63; i, 7, 
 82 ; iii, 2, 34. 
 
 231. Thou hast no figures, etc. So King Henry envied the 
 "wet sea-boy," and Macbeth the dead Duncan. 2 K. Hen. IV, 
 iii, 1, 4-^31 ; Mac. iii, 2, 23. 
 
 248. Compare, metrically, the word impatience in this line with 
 the same word, i, 3, 61. 
 
NOTES. 107 
 
 280-282. Was there a reservation made in our marriage-bond 
 to the effect that I should not know your secrets? 
 
 289-290. Consider how the perfect figuTe exalts and ennobles 
 the sentiment. Not only is the expression more beautiful, but it 
 means more, than simple, every-day words. 
 
 300. See Plutarch's Marcus Brutus. 
 
 308. See Merry Wives, y, 5, 77. 
 
 323. exorcist, exorcism, and exorciser always refer in Shake- 
 speare to the calling up or summoning of spirits. This sense is 
 now nearly obsolete. 
 
 324. Do not mistake tlie meaning of mortified. It is used here 
 in the only sense known to Shakespeare. See Mac. >, 2, 5; L. 
 L. Lost, i, 1, 28 ; Henry V, i, 1, 26 ; M. of V. i, 1, 82. 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 The story of Calpurnia's crying out in her sleep, of the ill 
 omens announced by the augurs, and of Ciesar's irresolution, 
 is all in Plutarch, and is not exaggerated by the poet. This 
 scene between Calpurnia and Caesar and the similar one be- 
 tween Portia and Brutus should be compared with reference to 
 differences of character in the actors which the dialogue brings 
 to light. 
 
 .57. Here's Decius Brutus. Refer back to ii, 1, 202. 
 
 67. gfraybeards; a contemptuous reference to the senators. 
 
 76. statue ; obviously to be pronounced in three syllables, as 
 also in iii, 2, 192. Some editors print statua. 
 
 80. A six-foot line, or Alexandrine. 
 
 89. cognizance; as in 1 Henry VI, ii, 4, 108; Cym. ii, 4, 127. 
 A term of heraldry. See dictionary. 
 
 97. rendered, i.e., repeated, talked about. See Bacon's Essay, 
 Of Friendship. 
 
 104. liable; that is, subject, as in K. John, ii, 1, 490; Pericles, 
 iv, 6, 178. 
 
 121. hour's ; here dissyllabic. 
 
 124, 128. Compare Trebonius's Aside with that of Brutus. 
 
108 NOTES. 
 
 129. That every like is not the same, etc. The like used by 
 Cifisar is very different from the like in Brutus's mind. 
 
 Scene 3. 
 
 " And one Artemidorus also, a Doctor of Rhetoricke, who 
 by meanes of his profession was very familiar with certaine 
 of Brutus confederates, and therefore knew the most part of 
 all their practices against C«sar, came and brought him a litlo 
 bill written with his owne hand, of all that he meant to tell 
 him." Plutarch, Jul. Gees. 
 
 6. If thou beest. " In the present subjunctire, second singu- 
 lar, after */, though, etc., beest, properly an indicative form, was 
 common in the 16th and 17th centuries, and is regularly used by 
 Shakespeare." Murray, New Eng. Diet. See the correct form in 
 Genesis, xxtU, 21. 
 
 7. security, in the sense most frequent in Shakespeare and Mil- 
 ton. See Ham. i, 5, 61; Mac. iii. 5, 32; Allegro, 91; Par. Lost, 
 i, 261. 
 
 12. emulation; used here in a sense now obsolete. See Tro. 
 and Cres. ii, 2, 212. 
 
 14. contrive. So in Ham. iv, 7, 136; M. of V. ir, 1, 352, 
 360. 
 
 Scene 4-. 
 
 May we infer from this scene that Portia knows of the plot? 
 Has Brutus kept his promise to her, ii, 1, 305-308? Or is her 
 anxiety due merely to suspicion and presentiment of impend- 
 ing trouble ? 
 
 39. The fire accents are all present in the line. Perhaps the 
 interjection is to be expanded to fill an entire foot. The reading 
 has been suggested, " O Brutus mine.'' This satisfies the met- 
 rical requirements, but does it sound like Shakespeare? 
 
NOTES. 109 
 
 ACT III. 
 
 The conspiracy attains its object in the assassination of Ctu- 
 sar. Antony, belying Brutus's estimate of his character, 
 enters with vigor and craft upon the tasli of avenging the dic- 
 tator's death. 
 
 Scene I. 
 Caesar is slain, and trepidation prevails in the city. Brutus 
 believes his own " reasons so full of good regard " that he will 
 easily justify himself to the world. He overrides Cassius's 
 suggestions of precautionary measures, and with fatal gener- 
 osity pennits Mark Antony to speak in Caesar's funeral. 
 
 10. Sirrah. See Webster's Diet. 
 
 29. addressed, ready, as always in Shakespeare. 
 
 39. fond, in its primary sense of foolish. Chaucer has the 
 noun /o«ne, meaning d/oo/. 
 
 67. And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive : All 
 men are of one flesh, and belong to one family ; and all men are 
 endowed with reason. Yet, etc. 
 
 77. Et tu Brute. These words are probably an invention of 
 some dramatist of the poet's own time. They occur in the True 
 Tragedie of Richard, Duke of Yorke, a play in whose composition 
 Shakespeare probably had a share, and which certainly formed the 
 ground-work of the third part of his King Henry VI. See True 
 Tragedie, v, 1, 53, in the Cambridge Shakespeare. A play on the 
 subject of Julius Caesar, written in Latin, by Kichard Eedes, had 
 been performed at the University of Oxford in 1582. It is possi- 
 ble that Et til Brute is Eedes's rendering into Latin of the Greek 
 words, meaning and you my child, which Suetonius says were 
 traditionally reported, — ^^tradiderunt quidam,'' — as forming 
 Caesar's last exclamation to Brutus. Plutarch's account is very 
 different : 
 
 "' So Caesar comming into the house, all the Senate stood vp on 
 their feete to do him honour. Then part of Brutus company and 
 
IIQ NOTES. 
 
 confederates stood round about Czesar's chaire, and part of them 
 also came towards him, as though they made sute with Metellus 
 Ciraber to call home his brother againe from banishment: and 
 thus prosecuting still their eute, they followed Cssar till he was 
 set in his chaire. Who, denying their petitions, and being offended 
 with them one after another, because the more they were denied, 
 the more they pressed upon him, and were the earnester with him : 
 Metellus at length, taking his gowne with both his hands, pulled it 
 over his necke, which was the signe giuen the confederates to set 
 ' vpon him. Then Casca behind him strake him in the necke with 
 his sword, howbeit the wound was not great nor mortall, because 
 it seemed the fear of such a, diuelish attempt did amaze him, and 
 take his strength from him, that he killed •him not at the first blow. 
 But Csesar turning straight unto him, caught hold of his sword, 
 and held it hard, and they both cried out; Csesar in latin, vile 
 traitor Casca, what doest thou? And Casca in Greek to his 
 brother. Brother, help me. At the beginning of this stir, they that 
 were present, not knowing of the conspiracie, were so amazed 
 with the horrible sight they saw, they had no power to flie, neither 
 to help him, nor so much as once to make an outcrie. They on 
 the other side that had conspired his death, compassed him in on 
 euery side with their swprds drawn in their hands, that Cajsar 
 turned him nowhere, but he was striken at by some, and still had 
 naked swords in his face, and was hacked & mangled among them, 
 as a wild beast taken of hunters. For it was agreed among them 
 that every man should give him a wound, because al their parts 
 should be in this murther. Men report also, that Caesar did stil 
 defend himself against the rest, running every way with his bodie : 
 but when he saw Brutus with his sword drawne in his hand, then 
 he pulled his gowne ouer his head, and made no more resistance, 
 and was driven either casually or purpoaedly, by the counsel of 
 the conspirators, against the base whereupon Pompey's image 
 stood, which ran all of a goare bloud till he was slaine. Thus it 
 seemed that the image tooke iust revenge of Pompeys enemie, 
 being throwne down on the ground at his feet & yeelding up his 
 ghost there, for the number of wounds he had upon him. For it 
 is reported, that he had three and twentie wounds upon his bodie : 
 
NOTES. Ill 
 
 and divers of the conspirators did hurt themselves, striking one 
 bodie with so many blowes." Plut., Julius CcBsar. 
 
 86. ^A^here's Publius ? Publius speaks three words, ii. 2, 109, 
 and again three words in line 10 of this scene. For what dramatic 
 purpose can it be that he is introduced ? 
 
 90. Talk not of standing; i.e., we have no occasion to fear 
 danger from Caesar's friends. 
 
 95. abide this deed. Chaucer had the word abyde, to wait for, 
 and the word abye, to answer for, to stand the consequences of. 
 Shakespeare, on the authority of the earliest echtions, lias abye in 
 Mid. N. Dr. iii, 2, 175, 335. But elsewhere in Shakespeare, as 
 in modern speech, the two verbs appear with the form abide. 
 
 109, 111. walk we ... let us cry. There is no imperative of 
 the first person. Substitutes for such an imperative in the plural 
 are made in the two ways here illustrated. The former is the more 
 ancient, and is now obsolete. Shakespeare uses both. In the 
 Gospel of John, xi, 15, 16, Wycliff's version has go we, while 
 Tyndale and the later translations have let us go. 
 
 122. most boldest. The double superlative is frequent in 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 124-138. With this message to Brutus, which is really Antony's 
 first speech in his career as champion of Caesar's cause, what may 
 be called the second part of the tragedy begins. Caasar, with " his 
 general behavior vain, ridiculous and thrasonical," is gone. Ex- 
 cept Brutus and Cassius, all the conspirators, after shaking hands 
 with Antony (186-190) disappear from the scene. Calpurnia and 
 Portia have finished their parts. Of Portia's touching death we are 
 to hear when a report of it is needed to set off her husband's stoic 
 fortitude. 
 
 We have heard Cajsar and Antony discuss the character of 
 Cassius, and have seen, from this discussion, that Antony is appar- 
 ently incompetent to judge of men. We have heard Brutus and 
 Cassius discuss the character of Antony, and, trusting to Brutus's 
 insight, have perhaps concluded that Antony is a man of feeble 
 quality, " given to sports, to wildness, and much company." 
 
 As we have learned that Caesar was in the right concerning 
 Cassius, so now we are to learn that Cassius, and not Brutus, was 
 
112 NOTES. 
 
 in the right concerning Antony. Antony now suddenly develops 
 astonishing powers of action, and consummate tact in managing 
 the populace. Haringin the play hitherto spoken in all some half- 
 dozen lines, he now shows himself an orator, and makes long and 
 notable speeches which accomplish their object. He overwhelms 
 the conspirators at home and pursues them into distant lands. The 
 story of the fourth act may be entitled, Antony triumphant. 
 
 141. So please him come; please is subjunctive, and come in- 
 finitive, subject ot please. In our expressions, if you please, if he 
 pleases, the verb please has departed from its original and true 
 meaning. The corresponding verbs in German and French adhere 
 to their primitive sense : wenn es ihw, gefallt ; s'il lui plait. 
 
 146-147. In spite of the conciliatory message just delivered by 
 the servant, Cassius still has misgivings as to Antony's intention. 
 
 153. rank. See Sonnet exviii, 12 ; 2 Henry IV, iii, 1, 39. 
 
 159. The fiction that hands stained with fresh blood reek and 
 smoke is a commonplace with the poets. 
 
 lUO. Live is subjunctive conditional, with ellipsis of subject. 
 
 172. The first fire is dissyllabic. See Abbott, Shak. Gram. 
 475, 480. 
 
 175. in strength of malice. The difiiculty of making sense of 
 this passage has led to various alterations of tlie text. Pope reads, 
 exempt from malice; Hudson, in strength of amity. 
 
 207. lethe, — two syllables. The only instance of the word in 
 Shakespeare. Do not confound it with lethe, Ham. i, 5, 33 ; T. 
 Night, iv, \, 66, and elsewhere. 
 
 217. pricked. See dictionary. So used again below, iv, 1, 1 
 and 16. 
 
 274. " havoc." Look up the derivation. See K. John, ii, 1, 
 357 ; Coriol. iii, 1, 275 ; Ham. v, 2, 375. 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 The scene of the famous speeches to the citizens. Brutus 
 speaks with studied plainness of manner, disdaining rhetorical 
 artifice, presenting his case with fewest possible words, as 
 though his cause were manifestly right and needed no setting 
 
NOTES. 113 
 
 out. He tries to seem to have brought no passion to his deed 
 as assassin. As he had refused to include Antony as a victim, 
 together with CiBsar, so now he makes another mistake in 
 allowing Antony to speak after himself. Antony uses all the 
 tricks of the demagogue. He is overwhelmed with grief and 
 apologizes for his emotion. It is the rhetorician, of course, 
 who succeeds, for the audience is a mob. 
 
 Consider the poet's art in casting Brutus's speech in the 
 form of prose. See note to i, 1, 33. 
 
 1. satisfied, in the sense of fully informed, convinced. So 
 abore, iii, 1, 48, l-tl, 226; Eom. andjul. ii, 5, 37. 
 
 16. censure, in the sense, usual in Shakespeare, of judge. 
 See 2 Henry VI, iii, 1, 275. 
 
 22. Had you rather Csesar were, etc. Had, the principal 
 verb, is subjunctire, as is also were in the object clause; die is 
 infinitive. After the than the conjunction that is inserted, though 
 in the former clause it was naturally omitted. 
 
 38. enforced is obviously the opposite of extenuated. 
 
 42. a place in the commonwealth ; i.e., citizenship in the re- 
 public, whose existence was threatened by Caesar's ambition. 
 
 65. beholding, a corruption of the other participle, beholden, 
 and in tlie sense of the latter. 
 
 73. " When Caesar's body was brought into the market place, 
 Antonius making his funeral oration in praise of the dead, accord- 
 ing to the ancient custome of Rome, and perceiving that his words 
 moved the common people to compassion : he framed his elo- 
 quence to make their harts yern the more, and taking Caesar's 
 gowne all bloudy in his hand, he laid it open to the sight of them 
 all, showing what a number of cuts and holes it had upon it. 
 Therewithal! the people fell presently into such a rage and mutinie, 
 that there was no more order kept amongst the common people." 
 Pint., Brutus. 
 
 77. So let it be with Caesar. Antony pretends to agree with 
 the assassins of Caesar, assuming that to justify their deed they 
 will naturally dwell on the evil that Caesar has done. So in line 
 125, " I rather choose to wrong the dead," etc. 
 
114 NOTES. 
 
 82, 83. These lines must not be pronounced in an ironical tone. 
 In the successive repetitions of this sentiment, in almost the same 
 words, throughout the speech, the tone of irony may be gradually 
 introduced and at last employed without restraint. 
 
 91. When that. See Abbott, Shak. Gram. 287. 
 
 132-137. Kecur to Decius'a interpretation of Calpurnia's dream. 
 
 153. honorable men ! Here, of course, we want the ironical 
 Inflection to the full. 
 
 194. dint. Dint and dent, originally forms of the same word, 
 have become distinct in meaning. 
 
 256. fire; two syllables. 
 
 Scene 3. 
 
 Consider the dramatic purpose of this brief scene, and 
 compare it with the first scene of the play. The incident is 
 related by Phitarch. 
 
 12. you wrere best ; where we should say, you had better. See 
 Abbott, Shak. Gram. 230 and 352. 
 
 18. You'll bear me a bang. Not, you will give me a blow, but, 
 you will get a blow from me ; me, in the passage, being the ethical 
 dative. See Note on i, 2, 264. 
 
 ACT IV. 
 
 After the first scene the entire act is devoted to the unfold- 
 ing of the character of Brutus, whom we see placed in the 
 most interesting and moving situations, — the quarrel and 
 reconciliation with Cassius, the reception of the news of 
 Portia's death, the night-scene with the boy Lucius, the inter- 
 view with the ghost. Every detail is meant to exalt our 
 estimate of the nobility of Brutus. 
 
 Scene 1. 
 
 The triumvirs, having placed themselves at the head of the 
 Roman state, have now to settle which of them shall stand at 
 
NOTES. 115 
 
 the head of the triumvirate. Lepidus goes on an errand: 
 evidently it will not be he. Antony, who has sent Lepidus 
 away so easily, sets forth in large speech to Octavius the sub- 
 servient character of their absent colleague, while Octavius 
 keeps his counsel : evidently it will not be Antony. 
 
 9. Recur to Antony's publication of Cassar's will. 
 
 13. Meet : a word of very frequent occurrence in Shakespeare 
 and the Bible, but now, unhappily, falling out of use. The ad- 
 jective meet is connected, not with the verb of the same spelling, 
 but with mete. 
 
 37. abjects: things thrown away, refuse matter. On orts see 
 dictionary. 
 
 40. property : a thing owned and to be used, — a tool. 
 
 44. Metrically, a defective line, but usually so printed because 
 so given in the first folio, the most authoritative text. All the sub- 
 sequent folios have the line thus, — 
 
 •' Our best friends made, and our beet means stretched out." 
 
 48, 49. See 2 Henry VI, v, 1, 144; Mac. v, 7, 1 ; Lear, iii, 7, 
 54. 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 The scene serves as an introduction to the next. 
 
 10. satisfied. See note on iii, 2, 1. 
 
 14. resolved. See Tempest, v, 1,248. We no longer use the 
 word quite in this sense. 
 
 23. hot at hand : i.e., " fiery as long as they are led by the hand, 
 not mounted and managed with the rein and spur." Schmidt, 
 Shakespeare Lexicon. 
 
 Scene 3. 
 
 The quarrel and reconciliation, like the speeches in Act iii, 
 are mentioned with meagre detail in Plutarch ; but like those 
 speeches, the quarrel scene is essentially Shakespeare's. For 
 
l\Q NOTES. 
 
 the foundation of fact the poet is indebted to tlie biographer ; 
 but the life, the color, the movement, all that makes the storj- 
 profoundly interesting, is the poet's. 
 
 8. nice, as in Richard III, iii, 7, 175. 
 
 10. condemned to have : charged with haying. See Abbott, 
 Shak. Gram. 356. 
 
 44. budge. See M. of V. ii, 2, 20; Rom. and Jul. iii, 1, 58. 
 
 72,73. coin . . . drop . . . to wring. Note the three infinitires, — 
 two "pure," and one, in form, gerundial, but all equally infini- 
 tives, and objects of had. See i, 2, 173, this play, and also iii, 2, 
 22; Othello, i, 3, 191. Consult Abbott, Shak. Gram. 350. 
 
 136. companion : used contemptuously, as in Coriolanus, iv, 
 5, 14; T, 2, 65, and many other passages. 
 
 153. tidings : never used without the final s, but regarded in- 
 discriminately as either singular or plural. See this play, v, 3, 
 54. 
 
 163. call in question: i.e., discuss, as in As You Like It, v, 
 2, 6. So, use question, M. of V. iv, 1, 73. 
 
 226. we will niggard. Discuss other uses of the word niggard, 
 as in Mac. iv, 3, 180, and Hamlet iii, 1, 13.' 
 
 240. some other of my men. Adjectives becoming nouns or 
 pronouns do not, regularly, take the plural «. Thus we say, rich 
 and poor alike, many, all, some, etc. Yet we say, our betters, and 
 we now always say others, though, as we see, Shakespeare was apt 
 to use the regular form. 
 
 271. The words let me see constitute in each case a foot. Here 
 three words, in rapid utterance, are compressed metrically to oc- 
 cupy the time normally given to two syllables. See a case where 
 a word of one syllable is made to count for two in consequence of 
 slow, deliberate utterance, ii, 1, 55. 
 
 278. stare : the only instance in Shakespeare of this word ap- 
 plied to the hair. 
 
NOTES. 117 
 
 ACT V. 
 
 Historically, there were two battles at Philippi, separated 
 bj' an interval of two weeks. It is the former of these battles 
 that the poet adopts as the ground-work of his representation, 
 though the death of Brutus took place immediately after the 
 second. 
 
 Scene 1. 
 
 7. I am in their bosoms. See 1 Hen. IV, i, 3, 266 ; Lear, iv, 
 5, 20. 
 
 8. could be content : would like. 
 
 16. softly : slowly. See softly again in a military connection, 
 Hamlet, iv, 4, 8. 
 
 17-20. Remember that according to military usage the ranking 
 officer takes command of the right. 
 
 This little touch of acrimonious dissension between Octavius 
 and Antony is not in Plutarch, who, however, tells of a disagree- 
 ment, that was amicably settled, between Brutus and Cassius, on 
 the same question of precedence. Cassius, the older man, yields 
 to Brutus in this matter, as we have seen him do whenever differ- 
 ence of opinion arose between them. This grudging acquiescence 
 of Antony in the leadership of young Octavius the poet invents as 
 a foil to set off the ready and wilUng deference paid by Cas.iius to 
 Brutus. We are not told in the play that Brutus went into the 
 battle in command of the right of his army ; but as we learn from 
 V, .3, 51-53, that Brutus's wing confronted that of Octavius, and 
 have seen that Octavius has insisted on having the command of his 
 own right, we must infer that the poet, if he thought the matter 
 out, gave to Brutus the subordinate position on the left, choosing 
 herein to differ from his authority. Plutarch tells us: "Brutus 
 prayed Cassius he might have the leading of the right wing, tlie 
 which men thought was farre meeter for Cassius : both because he 
 was the elder man, and also for that he had the better experience. 
 But yet Cassius gave it to him,'' etc. In his life of Antony, Plu- 
 tarch tells us; " When they had passed over the seae, and that 
 
118 NOTES. 
 
 they began to make warre, they being both camped by their ene- 
 mies, to wit, Antonius against Cassius, and Cassar against Brutus : 
 Csesar did no great matter, but Antonius had alway the upper hand, 
 and did all." It is interesting to consider why Shakespeare, who 
 in so many things follows Plutarch exactly, prefers not to follow 
 him in this. 
 
 19. exigent. See Ant. and Cle. iv, 14, 63. 
 
 24. we will answer on their charge : i.e., we will let them make 
 the overture of battle. 
 
 33. The posture . . . are yet, etc. A grammatical blunder 
 still exceedingly common. 
 
 45. Probably to be read as a four-syllable line. 
 
 59. strain. See Pericles, iv, 3, 24. 
 
 66. stomachs. See Hen. V, iii, 7, 166, and iv, 3, 35 ; Ham. i, 
 1, 100. 
 
 71. as this very day. The as is apparently superfluous. See 
 Meae. for Meas. v, 1, 74; Rom. and Jul. a, 3,247. Consult 
 Abbott's Shak. Gram. 114. 
 
 79. This absolute, or loose, employment of the participle, as in 
 comingf, has been common throughout the entire modern English 
 period, and need not to-day be censured as incorrect or slovenly 
 English. See a participle very loosely used, iv, 3, 218, this play. 
 
 on our former ensign. The comparative /ormer is here equiva- 
 lent to the superlative foremost, as is shown in the words of Plu- 
 tarch, " There came two Eagles that flying with a maruellous force, 
 lighted upon two of the foremost ensignes," etc. 
 
 82. The relative who, says Abbott, Shak. Gram. 259, " is 
 especially used after antecedents that are lifeless or irrational when 
 personification is employed." 
 
 86. As we were. See Mac. ii, 2, 28 ; v, 5, 13. 
 
 93. stand, subjunctive. 
 
 94. lovers. See this play, ii, 3, 8; iii, 2, 13; iii, 2, 44. 
 
 96. Let's reason with the worst: let us confer together in view 
 of the possibility of the ruin of our cause in the impending battle. 
 See M. of V. ii, 8, 27; Rom. and Jul. iii, 1, 55. 
 
 100-107. In this speech Brutus seems determined to stand by 
 his stoic principles ; and so Cassius understands him. But in his 
 
NOTES. 119 
 
 next speech (110-118) he contemplates a fate so horribk as to 
 justify him in sacrificing his philosophy. Thus, just as we have 
 seen Cassius confess that he could no longer quite maintain his 
 Epicurean opinions, so now we see Brutus shrinking from the 
 consistent application of his stoic doctrines. Plutarch, in his life 
 of Brutus, tells the story thus : 
 
 " The next morning, by breake of day, the signall of battell was set 
 out in Brutus and Cassius campe ... & both the Chieftaines 
 spake together in the midst of their armies. There Cassius began to 
 speake first, and sayd : The gods grant ts, o Brutus, that this day 
 we may win the field, and euer after to line all the rest of our life 
 quietly, one with another. But sith the gods haue so ordained it, 
 that the greatest and chief est things amongst men are most vn- 
 certaine, and that if the battell fall out otherwise to-day than we 
 wish or looke for, we shall hardly meet againe : what art thou then 
 determined to do, to flie, or die? Brutus answered him, being yet 
 but a yong man, and not oner greatly experienced in the world : I 
 trust (I know not how) a certaine rule of Philosophie, by the which 
 I did greatly blame and reproue Cato for killing himselfe, as being 
 no lawfull nor godly act, touching the gods : nor concerning men, 
 valiant; nor to give place and yeeld to diuine prouidence, and not 
 constantly and patiently to take whatsoeuer it pleaseth him to send 
 vs, but to draw backe and flie : but being now in the middest of the 
 danger, I am of a contrary mind. For if it be not the will of God, 
 that this battell fall out fortunately for vs : I will looke no more 
 for hope, neither seeke to make any new supply for war againe, 
 but will rid me of this miserable world, and content me with my 
 fortune. For, I gaue vp my life for my countrey in the Ides of 
 March, for the which I shall live in another more glorious world. 
 Cassius fell a laughing to heare what he sayd, & imbracing liim. 
 Come on then (said he) let us go & charge our enemies with this 
 mind." 
 
 106. stay. So in M. of V. ii, 8, 40; Mac. iv, 3, 142; 
 Ham. V, 2, 24. 
 
 109. Thorough. A frequent form of the preposition when two 
 syllables are needed. See Mid. N. Dream, ii, 1, 3. 
 
 113. begun. The English of to-day is still subject to the con- 
 
120 NOTES. 
 
 fusion j)f a anil o in the past tense, and the participle of such 
 verbs as begin, sing, spring, drink, etc. The cause of this con- 
 fusion is easily ascertained. 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 " In the meane time Brutus, that led the right wing, sent little 
 bils to the Colonels and Captains of priuate bands, in the 
 which he wrote the word of the battell, and besides, the most 
 of them neuer taried to haue it told them," etc. Plut., Brutus. 
 
 Scene 3. 
 
 " Cassius thinking indeed that Titinius was taken of the 
 enemies, he then spake these words : desiring too much to 
 Hue, I have lined to see one of my best friends taken, for my 
 sake, before my face. After that, he got into a tent where no 
 body was, and tooke Findarus with him, one of his freed 
 bondmen, whom he reserved euer for such a pinch. Then 
 casting his cloke over his head, and holding out his bare 
 necke vnto Pindarus, he gave him his head to be stricken ofif. 
 So the head was found seuered from the body : bnt after that 
 time Pindarus was never seene more." Plut., Brutus. 
 
 3, 4. ensign ... it. The ensign is the subaltern officer 
 who carried the standard, and the H refers to the standard which 
 he bore. 
 
 11. Fly. It is interesting to note that Shakespeare uses the 
 present jftee only once, but the past _^ed very frequently; while in 
 the Bible both tenses are equally common. The Bible always 
 uses the verb fiy, flew, flown in its proper sense. Shakespeare 
 uses the past ^ew properly, but regularly substitutes /y for /ee. 
 Remember that the translators of Ifill were influenced by older 
 versions, while Shakespeare uses the language of his own day. 
 
 23. See Scene 1, line 71, this act. 
 
 32. Evidently a line of four syllables. 
 
NOTES. 121 
 
 38. Saving of thy life ; a mixture of participle with the gerun- 
 (lial form. 
 
 is. Durst I have done. Durst is here in precisely the same 
 construction as is were in the clause, Were I Brutus. The mood 
 of the %erb in the latter case is obvious to the eye : in the former 
 case it has to be inferred. 
 
 66. Mistrust of my success : not doubt whether I had succeeded 
 or not, but full belief that I had miscarried. 
 
 67. O hateful error, melancholy's child. Refer to Cassius's 
 speech to Messala, 71-89, this act. Note also what Plutarch says : 
 " Touching Cassius, Messala reporteth that he supped by him- 
 self in his tent with a few of his friends, and that all supper time 
 he looked verie sadly, & was full of thoughts, although it was 
 against his nature : & that after supper he tooke him by the hand, 
 & holding him fast (in token of kindnesse as his maner was) told 
 him in Greeke : Messala, I protest unto thee, & make thee my 
 witnesse, that I am compelled against my mind and will (as Pompey 
 the great was) to leopard the liberty of our country, to the hazard 
 of a battell." 
 
 68. the apt thoughts of men: apt, as in iii, 1, 160, meaning 
 inclined. See Hamlet, i, 5, 31. 
 
 Scene 4. 
 
 9. "There was the sonue of Marcus Cato slaine, valiantly 
 fighting among the lustie youths." Pint., Brutus^ 
 
 14. "One of Brutus friends called Lucilius, seeing a troupe of 
 barbarous men, making no reckoning of all men else they met in 
 their way, but going all together right against Brutus, determined 
 to stay them with the hazard of his life, and being left behind, told 
 them that he was Brutus." Plut., Brutus. 
 
 Scene 5. 
 
 2. Statilius had voluntarily gone into the enemies' camp to seek 
 for Brutus information about tlie number of men slain in the bat- 
 tle, promising, if all were well, to lift up -i torch-light in the air. 
 
122 NOTES. 
 
 " But his euill fortune was such, that as he came backe, he lighted 
 in his enemies hands and was slaine." Pint., Brutus. 
 
 4. " Now the night being far spent, Brutus, as he sate, bowed 
 towards Clitus, one of his men, and told him somewhat in his eare : 
 the other answered him not, but fell a weeping. Thereupon he 
 proued Dardanus, and said somewhat also to him : at length he 
 came to Volumnius himself, and speaking to him in Greeke, prayed 
 him for the studies sake which brought them acquainted together, 
 that he would helpe him to put his hand to his sword, to thrust it 
 in him to kill him. Volumnius denied his request, and so did 
 many others : and amongst the rest, one of them said, there was 
 no tarying for them there, but that they must needs flie. Then 
 Brutus rising up, we must flie indeed, said he, but it must be with 
 our hands, not with our feet. Then taking euery man by the hand, 
 he said these words vnto them with a chearefull countenance. It 
 reioyceth my heart, that not one of my friends hath failed me at 
 my need, and I do not complain of my fortune, but onely for my 
 countries sake : for, as for me, I think myself happier than they 
 that hare overcome, considering that I leave a perpetuall fame of 
 our courage and manhood, the which our enemies the conquerors 
 shall neuer attaine unto by force or money ; neither can let their 
 posterity to say, that they being naughtie and unjust men, have 
 slaine good men, to usurpe tyrannicall power not pertaining to 
 them. Having said so, he prayed euery man to shift for them- 
 selves, and then he went a little aside with two or three onely, 
 among the whiat Strato was one, with whom he came first ac- 
 quainted by the study of Rhetoricke. He came as neare to him as 
 he could, and taking his sword by the hilt with both his hands , and 
 falling downe vpon the point of it, ranne himself through. Others 
 say that not he, but Strato (at his request) held the sword in Ms 
 hand, and turned his head aside, and that Brutus fell downe upon 
 it; and so ranne himself through, and died presently." Plut., 
 Brutus. 
 
 23. have beat us to the pit. The figure is taken from hunting. 
 See Mac. iv, 2, 35. 
 
 46. smatch : quite the same word as smack. See 2 Hen. IV, 
 i, 2, 111 ; and smack as a verb, Mac. i, 2, 44. 
 
NOTES. 123 
 
 59. To what passage does this line refer ? 
 
 G2. prefer me to you. See iii, 1, 28, this play, and Cymbeliue, 
 iv, 2, 386, and v, 5, 326. 
 
 69. save only he. Save is of course not a preposition. The 
 expression perhaps originated in a nominative-absolute form, — he 
 only being saved, i.e., excepted. See T. Night, iii, 1, 172; and 
 this play, iii, 2, 66. 
 
 71. a general honest thought: explained in the following 
 words. 
 
^be acabcmi? Scries 
 
 OF 
 
 ]£ngli8b Classics. 
 
 Uniform with this Volume. Price 20 Cents. 
 
 Burke. 
 
 On Conciliation with the Colonies. 
 
 C. B. Bradley. 
 
 Webster. 
 
 Reply to Hayne. 
 
 
 C. B. Bradley. 
 
 Addison. 
 
 De Coverley Papers. 
 
 
 S. Thurber 
 
 Carlyle. 
 
 Essay on Burns. 
 
 
 H. W. Bovnton 
 
 Macaulav 
 
 Essay on Addison. 
 Essay on Milton. 
 Essay on Johnson. 
 Essay on Chatham. 
 Essay on Clive. 
 
 
 S. Thurber 
 
 
 Essay on Warren Hastings. 
 
 • 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 Julius Csesar. 
 Macbeth. 
 
 
 
 
 Other volumes m 
 
 preparation. 
 
 
 ALLYN AND BACON, Publishers, 
 
 172, Tremont St., BOSTON. 355, Wabash Ave., CHICAGO.