Part 10
[Note 177: /'em/ F1 F2 F3 | them F4.]
[Note 157: /of him:/ in him. The "appositional genitive." See Abbott, § 172.]
[Note 164: /envy:/ malice. Commonly so in Shakespeare, as in _The Merchant of Venice_, IV, i, 10. So 'envious' in the sense of 'malicious' in l. 178.]
[Note 175-177: So the king proceeds with Hubert in _King John_. And so men often proceed when they wish to have a thing done, and to shirk the responsibility; setting it on by dark hints and allusions, and then, after it is done, affecting to blame or to scold the doers of it.]
[Note 180: /purgers:/ healers, cleansers of the land from tyranny.]
[Page 55]
And for Mark Antony, think not of him; For he can do no more than Cæsar's arm When Cæsar's head is off.
CASSIUS. Yet I fear him, For in the ingrafted love he bears to Cæsar--
BRUTUS. Alas, good Cassius, do not think of him: 185 If he love Cæsar, all that he can do Is to himself, take thought and die for Cæsar: And that were much he should, for he is given To sports, to wildness, and much company. 189
TREBONIUS. There is no fear in him; let him not die; For he will live, and laugh at this hereafter. [_Clock strikes_]
BRUTUS. Peace! count the clock.
CASSIUS. The clock hath stricken three.
TREBONIUS. 'Tis time to part.
[Note 187: 'Think and die,' as in _Antony and Cleopatra_, III, xiii, 1, seems to have been a proverbial expression meaning 'grieve oneself to death'; and it would be much indeed, a very wonderful thing, if Antony should fall into any killing sorrow, such a light-hearted, jolly companion as he is. Cf. _Hamlet_, III, i, 85. 'Thoughtful' (sometimes in the form 'thoughtish') is a common provincial expression for 'melancholy' in Cumberland and Roxburghshire to-day.]
[Note 188-189: Here is Plutarch's account in _Marcus Antonius_, of contemporary criticism of Antony's habits: "And on the other side, the noblemen (as Cicero saith), did not only mislike him, but also hate him for his naughty life: for they did abhor his banquets and drunken feasts he made at unseasonable times, and his extreme wasteful expenses upon vain light huswives; and then in the daytime he would sleep or walk out his drunkenness, thinking to wear away the fume of the abundance of wine which he had taken over night."]
[Note 190: /no fear:/ no cause of fear. Cf. _The Merchant of Venice_, II, i, 9.]
[Note 192: /stricken./ In II, ii, 114, we have the form 'strucken.' An interesting anachronism is this matter of a striking clock in old Rome.]
[Page 56]
CASSIUS. But it is doubtful yet Whether Cæsar will come forth to-day or no; For he is superstitious grown of late, 195 Quite from the main opinion he held once Of fantasy, of dreams, and ceremonies: It may be these apparent prodigies, The unaccustom'd terror of this night, And the persuasion of his augurers, 200 May hold him from the Capitol to-day.
[Note 194: /Whether./ So in the Folios. Cf. the form 'where' in I, i, 63.]
[Note 196: For 'from' without a verb of motion see Abbott, § 158. 'Main' is often found in sixteenth century literature in the sense of 'great,' 'strong,' 'mighty.' Cæsar was, in his philosophy, an Epicurean, like most of the educated Romans of the time. Hence he was, in opinion, strongly skeptical about dreams and ceremonial auguries. But his conduct, especially in his later years, was characterized by many gross instances of superstitious practice.]
[Note 198: /apparent prodigies:/ evident portents. 'Apparent' in this sense of 'plainly manifest,' and so 'undeniable,' is found more than once in Shakespeare. Cf. _King John_, IV, ii, 93; _Richard II_, I, i, 13.]
[Page 57]
DECIUS. Never fear that: if he be so resolv'd, I can o'ersway him; for he loves to hear That unicorns may be betray'd with trees, And bears with glasses, elephants with holes, 205 Lions with toils, and men with flatterers: But when I tell him he hates flatterers, He says he does, being then most flattered. Let me work; For I can give his humour the true bent, 210 And I will bring him to the Capitol.
CASSIUS. Nay, we will all of us be there to fetch him.
BRUTUS. By the eighth hour; is that the uttermost?
CINNA. Be that the uttermost, and fail not then.
METELLUS. Caius Ligarius doth bear Cæsar hard, 215 Who rated him for speaking well of Pompey: I wonder none of you have thought of him.
[Note 213: /eighth/ F4 | eight F1 F2 F3.]
[Note 215: /hard/ F1 | hatred F2 F3 F4.]
[Note 204: So in Spenser, _The Faerie Queene_, II, v, 10:
Like as a Lyon, whose imperiall powre A prowd rebellious Unicorn defyes, T' avoide the rash assault and wrathful stowre Of his fiers foe, him to a tree applyes, And when him ronning in full course he spyes, He slips aside; the whiles that furious beast His precious home sought of his enimyes, Strikes in the stocke ne thence can be releast, But to the mighty victor yields a bounteous feast.]
[Note 205: Bears are said to have been caught by putting looking-glasses in their way; they being so taken with the images of themselves that the hunters could easily master them. Elephants were beguiled into pitfalls, lightly covered over with hurdles and turf.]
[Note 206: /toils:/ nets, snares. The root idea of the word is a 'thing woven' (Cf. Spenser's 'welwoven toyles' in _Astrophel_, xvii, 1), and while it seems to have primary reference to a web or cord spread for taking prey, the old Fr. _toile_ sometimes means a 'stalking-horse of painted canvas.' Shakespeare uses the word several times. Cf. _Antony and Cleopatra_, V, ii, 351; _Hamlet_, III, ii, 362.]
[Note 215: /doth bear Cæsar hard./ For a discussion of this interesting expression see note, p. 29, l. 310. "Now amongst Pompey's friends there was one called Caius Ligarius, who had been accused unto Cæsar for taking part with Pompey, and Cæsar discharged him. But Ligarius thanked not Cæsar so much for his discharge, as he was offended with him for that he was brought in danger by his tyrannical power: and therefore in his heart he was always his mortal enemy, and was besides very familiar with Brutus, who went to see him being sick in his bed, and said unto him: 'Ligarius, in what a time art thou sick?' Ligarius, rising up in his bed, and taking him by the right hand, said unto him: 'Brutus,' said he, 'if thou hast any great enterprise in hand, worthy of thyself, I am whole.'"--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]
[Page 58]
BRUTUS. Now, good Metellus, go along by him: He loves me well, and I have given him reasons; Send him but hither, and I'll fashion him. 220
CASSIUS. The morning comes upon 's: we'll leave you, Brutus: And, friends, disperse yourselves; but all remember What you have said, and show yourselves true Romans.
BRUTUS. Good gentlemen, look fresh and merrily; Let not our looks put on our purposes; 225 But bear it as our Roman actors do, With untir'd spirits and formal constancy: And so, good morrow to you every one. [_Exeunt all but_ BRUTUS] Boy! Lucius! Fast asleep? It is no matter; Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber: 230 Thou hast no figures nor no fantasies, Which busy care draws in the brains of men; Therefore thou sleep'st so sound.
[Note 221: Two lines in Ff.]
[Note 228: [_Exeunt_ ...] | Exeunt. Manet Brutus Ff.]
[Note 230: /honey-heavy dew/ | hony-heavy-Dew Ff | honey heavy dew Johnson | heavy honey-dew Collier.]
[Note 218: /by him:/ by his house. Make your way home that way.]
[Note 225: Let not our looks betray our purposes by wearing, or being attired with, any indication of them. Cf. _Macbeth_, I, vii, 81.]
[Note 230: The compound epithet, 'honey-heavy,' is very expressive and apt. The 'dew of slumber' is called 'heavy' because it makes the subject feel heavy, and 'honey-heavy,' because the heaviness it induces is sweet. But there may be a reference to the old belief that the bee gathered its honey from falling dew. So in Vergil's _Georgics_, IV, i, we have "the heavenly gifts of honey born in air." Brutus is naturally led to contrast the free and easy state of the boy's mind with that of his own, which the excitement of his present undertaking is drawing full of visions and images of trouble.]
[Page 59]
_Enter_ PORTIA
PORTIA. Brutus, my lord!
BRUTUS. Portia, what mean you? wherefore rise you now? It is not for your health thus to commit 235 Your weak condition to the raw cold morning.
PORTIA. Nor for yours neither. You've ungently, Brutus, Stole from my bed: and yesternight at supper You suddenly arose, and walk'd about, Musing and sighing, with your arms across; 240 And when I ask'd you what the matter was, You star'd upon me with ungentle looks: I urg'd you further; then you scratch'd your head, And too impatiently stamp'd with your foot: Yet I insisted, yet you answer'd not, 245 But with an angry wafture of your hand Gave sign for me to leave you. So I did, Fearing to strengthen that impatience Which seem'd too much enkindled, and withal Hoping it was but an effect of humour, 250 Which sometime hath his hour with every man. It will not let you eat, nor talk, nor sleep, And, could it work so much upon your shape As it hath much prevail'd on your condition, I should not know you, Brutus. Dear my lord, 255 Make me acquainted with your cause of grief.
[Note 233: Scene III Pope.]
[Note 237: /You've/ Rowe | Y' have Ff.]
[Note 239: /suddenly/ | sodainly Ff.]
[Note 246: /wafture/ Rowe | wafter Ff.]
[Note 255: /you, Brutus/ F4 | you Brutus F1 F2 F3.]
[Note 233: Similarities and differences between this scene with Brutus and Portia and that between Hotspur and his wife in _1 King Henry IV_, II, iii, will prove a suggestive study. The description of the development of Portia's suspicion here is taken directly from Plutarch. "Out of his house he (Brutus) did so frame and fashion his countenance and looks that no man could discern he had anything to trouble his mind. But when night came that he was in his own house, then he was clean changed: for either care did wake him against his will when he would have slept, or else oftentimes of himself he fell into such deep thoughts of this enterprise, casting in his mind all the dangers that might happen: that his wife, lying by him, found that there was some marvellous great matter that troubled his mind, not being wont to be in that taking, and that he could not well determine with himself."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]
[Note 237: Double negatives abound in Shakespeare. See Abbott, § 406.]
[Note 250: /humour:/ moody caprice. The word comes to have this meaning from the theory of the old physiologists that four cardinal humors--blood, choler or yellow bile, phlegm, and melancholy or black bile--determine, by their conditions and proportions, a person's physical and mental qualities. The influence of this theory survives in the application of the terms 'sanguine,' 'choleric,' 'phlegmatic,' and 'melancholy' to disposition and temperament.]
[Note 254: /condition:/ disposition, temper. So in _The Merchant of Venice_, I, ii, 143: "If he have the condition of a saint and the complexion of a devil, I had rather he should shrive me than wive me." Cf. the term 'ill-conditioned,' still in use to describe an irascible or quarrelsome disposition. In l. 236 'condition' refers to bodily health.]
[Note 255: /Dear my lord./ This transposition, common in earnest address, is due to close association of possessive adjective and noun.]
[Page 60]
BRUTUS. I am not well in health, and that is all.
PORTIA. Brutus is wise, and, were he not in health, He would embrace the means to come by it.
BRUTUS. Why, so I do. Good Portia, go to bed. 260
[Page 61]
PORTIA. Is Brutus sick? and is it physical To walk unbraced and suck up the humours Of the dank morning? What, is Brutus sick, And will he steal out of his wholesome bed, To dare the vile contagion of the night, 265 And tempt the rheumy and unpurged air To add unto his sickness? No, my Brutus; You have some sick offence within your mind, Which by the right and virtue of my place I ought to know of: and, upon my knees, 270 I charm you, by my once-commended beauty, By all your vows of love and that great vow Which did incorporate and make us one, That you unfold to me, yourself, your half, Why you are heavy, and what men to-night 275 Have had resort to you; for here have been Some six or seven, who did hide their faces Even from darkness.
[Note 263: /dank/ | danke F1 | darke F2 | dark F3 F4.]
[Note 267: /his/ | hit F1]
[Note 271: /charm/ F3 F4 | charme F1 F2 | charge Pope.]
[Note 261: /physical:/ wholesome, salutary. Cf. _Coriolanus_, I, v, 19.]
[Note 266: 'Rheumy' here means that state of the air which causes the unhealthy issue of 'rheum,' a word which was specially used of the fluids that issue from the eyes or mouth. So in _Hamlet_, II, ii, 529, we have 'bisson rheum' for 'blinding tears.' So in _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, II, i, 105, Titania speaks of the moon as washing "all the air, That rheumatic diseases do abound."]
[Note 271: /charm:/ conjure, appeal by charms. So in _Lucrece_, l. 1681.]
[Page 62]
BRUTUS. Kneel not, gentle Portia.
PORTIA. I should not need, if you were gentle Brutus. Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus, 280 Is it excepted I should know no secrets That appertain to you? Am I yourself But, as it were, in sort or limitation, To keep with you at meals, comfort your bed, And talk to you sometimes? Dwell I but in the suburbs 285 Of your good pleasure? If it be no more, Portia is Brutus' harlot, not his wife.
[Note 280: /the/ | tho F1.]
[Note 279: This speech, and that beginning with l. 291, follow Plutarch very closely: "His wife Porcia[A] ... was the daughter of Cato, whom Brutus married being his cousin, not a maiden, but a young widow after the death of her first husband Bibulus, by whom she had also a young son called Bibulus, who afterwards wrote a book of the acts and gests of Brutus .... This young lady, being excellently well seen[B] in philosophy, loving her husband well, and being of a noble courage, as she was also wise: because she would not ask her husband what he ailed before she had made some proof by her self: she took a little razor, such as barbers occupy to pare men's nails, and, causing her maids and women to go out of her chamber, gave herself a great gash withal in her thigh, that she was straight all of a gore blood: and incontinently after a vehement fever took her, by reason of the pain of her wound. Then perceiving her husband was marvellously out of quiet, and that he could take no rest, even in her greatest pain of all she spake in this sort unto him: 'I being, O Brutus,' said she, 'the daughter of Cato, was married unto thee; not to be thy bed-fellow and companion in bed and at board only, like a harlot, but to be partaker also with thee of thy good and evil fortune. Now for thyself, I can find no cause of fault in thee touching our match: but for my part, how may I shew my duty towards thee and how much I would do for thy sake; if I cannot constantly bear a secret mischance or grief with thee, which requireth secrecy and fidelity? I confess that a woman's wit commonly is too weak to keep a secret safely: but yet, Brutus, good education, and the company of virtuous men, have some power to reform the defect of nature. And for my self, I have this benefit moreover, that I am the daughter of Cato, and wife of Brutus. This notwithstanding, I did not trust to any of these things before, until that now I have found by experience, that no pain or grief whatsoever can overcome me.' With those words she shewed him her wound on her thigh, and told him what she had done to prove herself. Brutus was amazed to hear what she said unto him, and lifting up his hands to heaven, he besought the gods to give him the grace he might bring his enterprise to so good pass, that he might be found a husband, worthy of so noble a wife as Porcia: so he then did comfort her the best he could."--_Marcus Brutus._]
[Note A: the correct classical spelling.]
[Note B: i.e. versed.]
[Note 285-286: In the outskirts or borders, and not at the center or near the heart. The image is exceedingly apposite and expressive.]
[Page 63]
BRUTUS. You are my true and honourable wife, As dear to me as are the ruddy drops That visit my sad heart. 290
PORTIA. If this were true, then should I know this secret. I grant I am a woman; but withal A woman that Lord Brutus took to wife: I grant I am a woman; but withal A woman well-reputed, Cato's daughter. 295 Think you I am no stronger than my sex, Being so father'd and so husbanded? Tell me your counsels; I will not disclose 'em. I have made strong proof of my constancy, Giving myself a voluntary wound 300 Here, in the thigh: can I bear that with patience, And not my husband's secrets?
BRUTUS. O ye gods, Render me worthy of this noble wife! [_Knocking within_] Hark, hark! one knocks. Portia, go in a while; And by and by thy bosom shall partake 305 The secrets of my heart: All my engagements I will construe to thee, All the charactery of my sad brows. Leave me with haste. [_Exit_ PORTIA] Lucius, who's that knocks?
[Note 303: [_Knocking within_] Malone | Knocke F1 F2.]
[Note 289-290: This embodies what was known about the circulation of the blood at the close of the sixteenth century. In 1616, the year of Shakespeare's death, William Harvey, born in 1578, lectured on his great discovery, but his celebrated treatise was not published until 1628. The general fact of the circulation was known in ancient times, and Harvey's discovery lay in ascertaining the _modus operandi_ of it, and in reducing it to matter of strict science.]
[Note 295: Cf. _The Merchant of Venice_, I, 1, 166:
Her name is Portia, nothing undervalued To Cato's daughter, Brutus' Portia.]
[Note 308: /charactery:/ "writing by characters or strange marks." Brutus therefore means that he will divulge to her the secret cause of the sadness marked on his countenance. 'Charactery' seems to mean simply 'writing' in the well-known passage in _The Merry Wives of Windsor_, V, v, 77: "Fairies use flowers for their charactery." So in Keats: "Before high-piled books in charactery Hold like rich garners the full-ripen'd grain."]
[Note 309: Editors from Pope down have been busy trying to mend the grammar and the rhythm of this line. But in Shakespeare the full pause has often the value of a syllable, and the omission of the relative is common in Elizabethan literature. See Abbott, § 244.]
[Page 64]
_Re-enter_ LUCIUS _with_ LIGARIUS
LUCIUS. Here is a sick man that would speak with you. 310
BRUTUS. Caius Ligarius, that Metellus spake of. Boy, stand aside. Caius Ligarius! how?
LIGARIUS. Vouchsafe good morrow from a feeble tongue.
BRUTUS. O, what a time have you chose out, brave Caius, To wear a kerchief! Would you were not sick! 315
LIGARIUS. I am not sick, if Brutus have in hand Any exploit worthy the name of honour.
[Note 310: _Re-enter ... with_ Dyce | Enter ... and Ff after [Exit Portia].]
[Note 313 (and elsewhere): LIGARIUS | Cai. Ff.]
[Note 315: /To wear a kerchief./ It was a common practice in England for those who were sick to wear a kerchief on their heads. So in Fuller's _Worthies, Cheshire_, 1662, quoted by Malone: "If any there be sick, they make him a posset and tye a kerchief on his head: and if that will not mend him, then God be merciful to him."]
[Page 65]
BRUTUS. Such an exploit have I in hand, Ligarius, Had you a healthful ear to hear of it.
LIGARIUS. By all the gods that Romans bow before, 320 I here discard my sickness! Soul of Rome! Brave son, deriv'd from honourable loins! Thou, like an exorcist, hast conjur'd up My mortified spirit. Now bid me run, And I will strive with things impossible; 325 Yea, get the better of them. What's to do?
BRUTUS. A piece of work that will make sick men whole.
LIGARIUS. But are not some whole that we must make sick?
BRUTUS. That must we also. What it is, my Caius, I shall unfold to thee, as we are going 330 To whom it must be done.
LIGARIUS. Set on your foot, And with a heart new-fir'd I follow you, To do I know not what; but it sufficeth That Brutus leads me on.
BRUTUS. Follow me, then. [_Exeunt_]
[Note 327: Two lines in Ff.]
[Note 334: _Thunder_ Ff.]
[Note 321: /I here discard my sickness./ Ligarius here pulls off the kerchief. Cf. Northumberland's speech, _2 Henry IV_, I, i, 147, "hence, thou sickly quoif! Thou art a guard too wanton for the head."]
[Note 323: In Shakespeare's time, 'exorcist' and 'conjurer' were used indifferently. The former has since come to mean only 'one who drives away spirits'; the latter, 'one who calls them up.']
[Note 324: /My mortified spirit:/ my spirit that was dead in me. So 'mortifying groans' in _The Merchant of Venice_, I, i, 82, and 'mortified man' in _Macbeth_, V, ii, 5. Words directly derived from Latin are often used, by Shakespeare and sixteenth century writers, in a signification peculiarly close to the root notion of the word.]
[Page 66]
## SCENE II. CÆSAR'S _house_
_Thunder and lightning._ _Enter_ CÆSAR, _in his night-gown_
CÆSAR. Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace to-night: Thrice hath Calpurnia in her sleep cried out, 'Help, ho! they murder Cæsar!' Who's within?
[Note: SCENE II Rowe | Scene IV Pope.] [Note: --CÆSAR'S _house_ | Ff omit.] [Note: _Enter_ CÆSAR ... | Enter Julius Cæsar ... Ff.--_in his night-gown_ Pope omits.]
[Note 1: Two lines in Ff.]
[Note: This scene, taken with the preceding, affords an interesting study in contrasts: Cæsar and Brutus; Calpurnia the yielding wife, and Portia the heroic.]
[Note: _Enter_ CÆSAR _in his night-gown_.' Night-gown' here, as in _Macbeth_, II, ii, 70, V, 1, 5, means 'dressing-robe' or 'dressing-gown.' This is the usual meaning of the word in English from the fifteenth century to the eighteenth. So Addison and Steele use it in _The Spectator_.]