Part 15
[Note 37-39: As the textual notes show, modern editors have not been content with the reading of the Folios. The serious trouble with the old text is the period at the close of l. 37. If a comma be substituted the meaning becomes obvious: Lepidus is one who is always interested in, and talking about, such things--books, works of art, etc.--as everybody else has got tired of and thrown aside. Cf. Falstaff's account of Shallow, _2 Henry IV_, III, ii, 340: "'a came ever in the rearward of the fashion; and sung those tunes to the over-scutch'd huswives that he heard the carmen whistle, and sware they were his fancies or his good-nights." 'Stal'd' is 'outworn,' or 'grown stale'; and the reference is not to objects, etc., generally, but only to those which have lost the interest of freshness. 'Abjects' in the Staunton-Cambridge reading, is 'things thrown away'; 'orts,' 'broken fragments.']
[Note 40: /a property:/ a tool, an accessory. The reference is to a 'stage property.' Cf. Fletcher and Massinger, _The False One_, V, iii:
this devil Photinus Employs me as a property, and, grown useless, Will shake me off again.
Shakespeare uses 'property' as a verb in this sense in _Twelfth Night_, IV, ii, 99: "They have here propertied me."]
[Note 41: /Listen./ The transitive use is older than the intransitive.]
[Note 42: /make head:/ raise an armed force. 'Head' has often the meaning of 'armed force' in Shakespeare. So in sixteenth century literature and old ballads. It usually connotes insurrection.]
[Note 44: The reading adopted is that of the later Folios. It makes a normal blank verse line. Cf. II, i, 158-159.]
[Page 119]
OCTAVIUS. Let us do so: for we are at the stake, And bay'd about with many enemies; And some that smile have in their hearts, I fear, 50 Millions of mischiefs. [_Exeunt_]
[Note 48-49: The metaphor is from bear-baiting. Cf. _Macbeth_, V, vii, 1.]
[Page 120]
## SCENE II. _Before_ BRUTUS'S _tent, in the camp near Sardis_
_Drum._ _Enter_ BRUTUS, TITINIUS, LUCIUS, _and_ Soldiers; LUCILIUS _and_ PINDARUS _meet them_
BRUTUS. Stand, ho!
LUCILIUS. Give the word, ho! and stand.
BRUTUS. What now, Lucilius! is Cassius near?
LUCILIUS. He is at hand; and Pindarus is come To do you salutation from his master. 5
[PINDARUS _gives a letter to_ BRUTUS]
BRUTUS. He greets me well. Your master, Pindarus, In his own change, or by ill officers, Hath given me some worthy cause to wish Things done undone: but, if he be at hand, I shall be satisfied.
PINDARUS. I do not doubt 10 But that my noble master will appear Such as he is, full of regard and honour.
[Note: SCENE II. _Before ... Sardis_ Rowe | Ff omit.]
[Note: _Enter_ BRUTUS ... _meet them_ | Enter Brutus, Lucillius, and the Army. Titinius and Pindarus meet them Ff.]
[Note 5: [PINDARUS _gives_ ...] | Ff omit.]
[Note 7: /change/ Ff | charge Hanmer.]
[Note: SCENE II. This scene is separated from the foregoing by about a year. The remaining events take place in the autumn, B.C. 42.]
[Note 6: /He greets me well./ A dignified return of the salutation.]
[Note 7: If the Folio reading be retained, 'change' will mean 'altered disposition,' 'change in his own feelings towards me.' Warburton's suggestion 'charge,' adopted by Hanmer and in previous editions of Hudson's Shakespeare, would give as the meaning of the line, Either by his own command, or by officers, subordinates, who have abused their trust, prostituting it to the ends of private gain.]
[Page 121]
BRUTUS. He is not doubted. A word, Lucilius, How he receiv'd you: let me be resolv'd.
LUCILIUS. With courtesy and with respect enough; 15 But not with such familiar instances, Nor with such free and friendly conference, As he hath us'd of old.
BRUTUS. Thou hast describ'd A hot friend cooling: ever note, Lucilius, When love begins to sicken and decay, 20 It useth an enforced ceremony. There are no tricks in plain and simple faith: But hollow men, like horses hot at hand, Make gallant show and promise of their mettle; But when they should endure the bloody spur, 25 They fall their crests, and, like deceitful jades, Sink in the trial. Comes his army on?
LUCILIUS. They mean this night in Sardis to be quarter'd; The greater part, the horse in general, Are come with Cassius. [_Low march within_]
BRUTUS. Hark! he is arriv'd. 30 March gently on to meet him.
[Note 13-14: /word, Lucilius/ ... you: F3 F4 | word Lucillius ... you: F1 F2 | word, Lucilius,-- ... you, Rowe.]
[Note 30: [_Low_ ...] in Ff after l. 24.]
[Note 13-14: Mainly the Folio punctuation. A colon after 'Lucilius,' and a comma after 'you,' would give a characteristic inversion.]
[Note 14: /How:/ as to how.--/resolv'd./ See note, p. 90, l. 132.]
[Note 16: /familiar instances:/ marks of familiarity. In Schmidt is a list of the various senses in which Shakespeare uses 'instances.']
[Note 23: /hot at hand:/ spirited or mettlesome when held back.]
[Note 26: /fall:/ let fall.--/deceitful jades:/ horses that promise well in appearance but "sink in the trial." 'Jade' is 'a worthless horse.']
[Page 122]
_Enter_ CASSIUS _and his Powers_
CASSIUS. Stand, ho!
BRUTUS. Stand, ho! Speak the word along.
1 SOLDIER. Stand!
2 SOLDIER. Stand! 35
3 SOLDIER. Stand!
CASSIUS. Most noble brother, you have done me wrong.
BRUTUS. Judge me, you gods! wrong I mine enemies? And, if not so, how should I wrong a brother?
CASSIUS. Brutus, this sober form of yours hides wrongs; And when you do them--
BRUTUS. Cassius, be content; 41 Speak your griefs softly: I do know you well. Before the eyes of both our armies here, Which should perceive nothing but love from us, Let us not wrangle: bid them move away; 45 Then in my tent, Cassius, enlarge your griefs, And I will give you audience.
CASSIUS. Pindarus, Bid our commanders lead their charges off A little from this ground.
BRUTUS. Lucilius, do you the like; and let no man 50 Come to our tent till we have done our conference. Let Lucius and Titinius guard our door. [_Exeunt_]
[Note 34, 35, 36: SOLDIER |Ff omit.]
[Note 50: /Lucilius/ Ff | Lucius Craik.]
[Note 52: /Let Lucius/ Ff |Lucilius Craik.--/our/ Ff | the Rowe.]
[Note 46: /enlarge your griefs:/ enlarge upon your grievances. This use of 'grief' is not unusual in sixteenth century English.]
[Note 50, 52: In previous editions of Hudson's Shakespeare was adopted Craik's suggestion that in these lines, as they stand in the Folios, the names Lucius and Lucilius got shuffled each into the other's place; and then, to cure the metrical defect in the third line, that line was made to begin with 'Let.' Craik speaks of "the absurdity of such an association as Lucius and Titinius for the guarding of the door." In Porter and Clarke's 'First Folio,' _Julius Cæsar_, the answer to this criticism is: "But a greater absurdity is involved in sending the page with an order to the lieutenant commander of the army, and the extra length of l. 50 pairs with a like extra length in l. 51. Lucilius, having been relieved by Lucius, after giving the order returns and guards the door again."]
[Page 123]
## SCENE III. BRUTUS'S _tent_
_Enter_ BRUTUS _and_ CASSIUS
CASSIUS. That you have wrong'd me doth appear in this: You have condemn'd and noted Lucius Pella For taking bribes here of the Sardians; Wherein my letters, praying on his side, Because I knew the man, was slighted off. 5
[Note: SCENE III Pope | Rowe omits.--BRUTUS'S _tent_ Hanmer | Ff omit.]
[Note: _Enter_ BRUTUS ... Capell | Manet Brutus ... F1 | Manent ... F2 F3 F4.]
[Note 4-5: /letters ... man, was/ | Letters ... man was F1 | letter ... man, was, F2 F3 F4 | letters ... man, were Malone.]
[Note: SCENE III. Dowden points out that this scene was already celebrated in Shakespeare's own day, Leonard Digges recording its popularity, and Beaumont and Fletcher imitating it in _The Maid's Tragedy_. "I know no part of Shakespeare that more impresses on me the belief of his genius being superhuman than this scene between Brutus and Cassius."--Coleridge.]
[Note 1: "Now as it commonly happened in great affairs between two persons, both of them having many friends and so many captains under them, there ran tales and complaints between them. Therefore, before they fell in hand with any other matter they went into a little chamber together, and bade every man avoid, and did shut the doors to them. Then they began to pour out their complaints one to the other, and grew hot and loud, earnestly accusing one another, and at length both fell a-weeping. Their friends that were without the chamber, hearing them loud within, and angry between themselves, they were both amazed and afraid also, lest it would grow to further matter: but yet they were commanded that no man should come to them."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]
[Note 2: /noted:/ marked with a stigma. North thus uses the word. See quotation from _Marcus Brutus_ on following page, l. 3.]
[Note 3: "The next day after, Brutus, upon complaint of the Sardians, did condemn and note Lucius Pella.... This judgment much misliked Cassius, because himself had secretly ... warned two of his friends, attainted and convicted of the like offences, and openly had cleared them."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]
[Note 5: /was./ The verb is attracted into the singular by the nearest substantive.--/slighted off/: contemptuously set aside.]
[Page 124]
BRUTUS. You wrong'd yourself to write in such a case.
CASSIUS. In such a time as this it is not meet That every nice offence should bear his comment.
BRUTUS. Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself Are much condemn'd to have an itching palm, 10 To sell and mart your offices for gold To undeservers.
CASSIUS. I an itching palm! You know that you are Brutus that speaks this, Or, by the gods, this speech were else your last.
BRUTUS. The name of Cassius honours this corruption, And chastisement doth therefore hide his head. 16
[Note 6: /to write:/ by writing. This gerundive use of the infinitive is very common in this play. Cf. 'to have' in l. 10; 'To sell and mart' in l. 11; 'To hedge me in' in l. 30, and so on. See Abbott, §356.]
[Note 8: /nice:/ foolish, trifling.--/his:/ its. The meaning of the line is, Every petty or trifling offense should not be rigidly scrutinized and censured. Cassius naturally thinks that "the honorable men whose daggers have stabb'd Cæsar" should not peril their cause by moral squeamishness. "He reproved Brutus, for that he should show himself so straight and severe, in such a time as was meeter to bear a little than to take things at the worst."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]
[Page 125]
CASSIUS. Chastisement!
BRUTUS. Remember March, the Ides of March remember: Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake? What villain touch'd his body, that did stab, 20 And not for justice? What! shall one of us, That struck the foremost man of all this world But for supporting robbers, shall we now Contaminate our fingers with base bribes, And sell the mighty space of our large honours 25 For so much trash as may be grasped thus? I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon, Than such a Roman.
CASSIUS. Brutus, bait not me; I'll not endure it. You forget yourself, To hedge me in; I am a soldier, I, 30 Older in practice, abler than yourself To make conditions.
[Note 27: /bay/ F1 | baite F2 | bait F3 F4.]
[Note 28: /bait/ F3 F4 | baite F1 F2 | bay Theobald Delius Staunton.]
[Note 30: /I/, Ff | ay, Steevens.]
[Note 18: "Brutus in contrary manner answered that he should remember the Ides of March, at which time they slew Julius Cæsar, who neither pilled[A] nor polled[B] the country, but only was a favourer and suborner of all them that did rob and spoil, by his countenance and authority. And if there were any occasion whereby they might honestly set aside justice and equity, they should have had more reason to have suffered Cæsar's friends to have robbed and done what wrong and injury they had would[C] than to bear with their own men."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]
[Note A: i.e. robbed, pillaged.]
[Note B: i.e. taxed, spoiled.]
[Note C: i.e. wished (to do).]
[Note 20-21: "Who was such a villain of those who touched his body that he stabbed from any other motive than justice?"--Clar.]
[Note 28-32: "Now Cassius would have done Brutus much honour, as Brutus did unto him, but Brutus most commonly prevented him, and went first unto him, both because he was the elder man as also for that he was sickly of body. And men reputed him commonly to be very skilful in wars, but otherwise marvellous choleric and cruel, who sought to rule men by fear rather than with lenity: and on the other side, he was too familiar with his friends and would jest too broadly with them."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]
[Page 126]
BRUTUS. Go to; you are not, Cassius.
CASSIUS. I am.
BRUTUS. I say you are not.
CASSIUS. Urge me no more, I shall forget myself; 35 Have mind upon your health, tempt me no farther.
BRUTUS. Away, slight man!
CASSIUS. Is't possible?
BRUTUS. Hear me, for I will speak. Must I give way and room to your rash choler? Shall I be frighted when a madman stares? 40
CASSIUS. O ye gods, ye gods! must I endure all this?
BRUTUS. All this! ay, more: fret till your proud heart break; Go show your slaves how choleric you are, And make your bondmen tremble. Must I budge? Must I observe you? must I stand and crouch 45 Under your testy humour? By the gods, You shall digest the venom of your spleen, Though it do split you; for, from this day forth, I'll use you for my mirth, yea, for my laughter, When you are waspish.
[Note 32: /Go to/ | Go too F1.--/not, Cassius/ Hanmer | not Cassius Ff.]
[Note 44: /budge/ F4 | bouge F1 | boudge F2 F3.]
[Note 48: /Though/ F1 | Thought F2.]
[Note 32: 'Go to' is a phrase of varying import, sometimes of reproof, sometimes of encouragement. 'Go till' is its earliest form.]
[Note 45: /observe:/ treat with ceremonious respect or reverence.]
[Note 47: The spleen was held to be the special seat of the sudden and explosive emotions and passions, whether of mirth or anger. Cf. _Troilus and Cressida_, I, iii, 178; _1 Henry IV_, V, ii, 19.]
[Page 127]
CASSIUS. Is it come to this? 50
BRUTUS. You say you are a better soldier: Let it appear so; make your vaunting true, And it shall please me well: for mine own part, I shall be glad to learn of noble men.
CASSIUS. You wrong me every way; you wrong me, Brutus; 55 I said an elder soldier, not a better: Did I say 'better'?
BRUTUS. If you did, I care not.
CASSIUS. When Cæsar liv'd, he durst not thus have mov'd me.
BRUTUS. Peace, peace! you durst not so have tempted him.
CASSIUS. I durst not! 60
BRUTUS. No.
CASSIUS. What, durst not tempt him!
BRUTUS. For your life you durst not.
CASSIUS. Do not presume too much upon my love; I may do that I shall be sorry for.
[Note 54: /noble/ Ff | abler Collier.]
[Note 55: Two lines in Ff.]
[Note 51-54: This mistake of Brutus is well conceived. Cassius was much the abler soldier, and Brutus knew it; and the mistake grew from his consciousness of the truth of what he thought he heard. Cassius had served as quæstor under Marcus Crassus in his expedition against the Parthians; and, when the army was torn all to pieces, both Crassus and his son being killed, Cassius displayed great ability in bringing off a remnant. He showed remarkable military power, too, in Syria.]
[Page 128]
BRUTUS. You have done that you should be sorry for. 65 There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats; For I am arm'd so strong in honesty, That they pass by me as the idle wind, Which I respect not. I did send to you For certain sums of gold, which you denied me: 70 For I can raise no money by vile means: By heaven, I had rather coin my heart, And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash By any indirection. I did send 75 To you for gold to pay my legions, Which you denied me. Was that done like Cassius? Should I have answer'd Caius Cassius so? When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous, To lock such rascal counters from his friends, 80 Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts, Dash him to pieces!
[Note 75: /indirection:/ crookedness, malpractice. In _King John_, III, i, 275-278, is an interesting passage illustrating this use of 'indirection.' Cf. _2 Henry IV_, IV, v, 185.]
[Note 80: The omission of the conjunction 'as' before expressions denoting result is a common usage in Shakespeare.--/rascal counters:/ worthless money. 'Rascal' is properly a technical term for a deer out of condition. So used literally in _As You Like It_, III, iii, 58. 'Counters' were disks of metal, of very small intrinsic value, much used for reckoning. Cf. _As You Like It_, II, vii, 63; _The Winter's Tale_, IV, iii, 38. Professor Dowden comments aptly on what we have here: "Brutus loves virtue and despises gold; but in the logic of facts there is an irony cruel or pathetic. Brutus maintains a lofty position of immaculate honour above Cassius; but ideals, and a heroic contempt for gold, will not fill the military coffer, or pay the legions, and the poetry of noble sentiment suddenly drops down to the prosaic complaint that Cassius had denied the demands made by Brutus for certain sums of money. Nor is Brutus, though he worships an ideal of Justice, quite just in matters of practical detail."]
[Page 129]
CASSIUS. I denied you not.
BRUTUS. You did.
CASSIUS. I did not: he was but a fool that brought My answer back. Brutus hath riv'd my heart: 85 A friend should bear his friend's infirmities, But Brutus makes mine greater than they are.
BRUTUS. I do not, till you practise them on me.
CASSIUS. You love me not.
BRUTUS. I do not like your faults.
CASSIUS. A friendly eye could never see such faults. 90
BRUTUS. A flatterer's would not, though they do appear As huge as high Olympus.
[Note 84: /that brought/ | Ff give to l. 85.]
[Note 82-83: "Whilst Brutus and Cassius were together in the city of Smyrna, Brutus prayed Cassius to let him have part of his money whereof he had great store.... Cassius's friends hindered this request, and earnestly dissuaded him from it; persuading him, that it was no reason that Brutus should have the money which Cassius had gotten together by sparing, and levied with great evil will of the people their subjects, for him to bestow liberally upon his soldiers, and by this means to win their good wills, by Cassius's charge. This notwithstanding, Cassius gave him the third part of this total sum."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]
[Page 130]
CASSIUS. Come, Antony, and young Octavius, come, Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius, For Cassius is a-weary of the world; 95 Hated by one he loves; brav'd by his brother; Check'd like a bondman; all his faults observ'd, Set in a note-book, learn'd, and conn'd by rote, To cast into my teeth. O, I could weep My spirit from mine eyes! There is my dagger, 100 And here my naked breast; within, a heart Dearer than Plutus' mine, richer than gold: If that thou be'st a Roman, take it forth; I, that denied thee gold, will give my heart: Strike, as thou didst at Cæsar; for I know, 105 When thou didst hate him worst, thou lov'dst him better Than ever thou lov'dst Cassius.
BRUTUS. Sheathe your dagger: Be angry when you will, it shall have scope; Do what you will, dishonour shall be humour. O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb 110 That carries anger as the flint bears fire; Who, much enforced, shows a hasty spark, And straight is cold again.
CASSIUS. Hath Cassius liv'd To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus, When grief and blood ill-temper'd vexeth him? 115
BRUTUS. When I spoke that, I was ill-temper'd too.
CASSIUS. Do you confess so much? Give me your hand.
BRUTUS. And my heart too.
CASSIUS. O Brutus!
BRUTUS. What's the matter?
[Note 102: /Plutus'/ Pope | Pluto's Ff.]
[Note 96: /brav'd:/ defied. The verb connotes bluster and bravado.]
[Note 102: Plutus (for the Folio reading see note on 'Antonio' for Antonius, I, ii, 5) is the old god of riches, who had all the world's gold in his keeping and disposal. Pluto was the lord of Hades.]
[Note 109: Whatever dishonorable thing you may do, I will set it down to the caprice of the moment.--/humour./ See note, p. 60, l. 250.]
[Note 111-113: Cf. the words of Cassius, I, ii, 176-177. See also _Troilus and Cressida_, III, iii, 257. It was long a popular notion that fire slept in the flint and was awaked by the stroke of the steel. "It is not sufficient to carry religion in our hearts, as fire is carried in flintstones, but we are outwardly, visibly, apparently, to serve and honour the living God."--Hooker, _Ecclesiastical Polity_, VII, xxii, 3.]
[Page 131]
CASSIUS. Have not you love enough to bear with me, When that rash humour which my mother gave me 120 Makes me forgetful?
BRUTUS. Yes, Cassius; and from henceforth, When you are over-earnest with your Brutus, He'll think your mother chides, and leave you so.
POET. [_Within_] Let me go in to see the generals; There is some grudge between 'em; 'tis not meet 125 They be alone.
LUCILIUS. [_Within_] You shall not come to them.
POET. [_Within_] Nothing but death shall stay me.
_Enter_ Poet, _followed by_ LUCILIUS, TITINIUS, _and_ LUCIUS
CASSIUS. How now! what's the matter?
POET. For shame, you generals! what do you mean? 130 Love, and be friends, as two such men should be; For I have seen more years, I'm sure, than ye.
CASSIUS. Ha, ha! how vilely doth this cynic rhyme!
[Note 123: _Enter a Poet_ Ff.]
[Note 124, 127, 128: [_Within_] Ff omit.]
[Note 129: _Enter_ Poet ... LUCIUS Camb Globe | Enter Poet, followed by Lucilius and Titinius Dyce | Enter Poet Theobald | Ff omit.]
[Note 133: /vilely/ F4 | vildely F1 F2 | vildly F3.--doth Ff | does Capell.]
[Note 129-133: "One Marcus Phaonius, that ... took upon him to counterfeit a philosopher, not with wisdom and discretion, but with a certain bedlam and frantic motion; he would needs come into the chamber, though the men offered to keep him out. But it was no boot to let Phaonius, when a mad mood or toy took him in the head: for he was an hot hasty man, and sudden in all his doings, and cared for never a senator of them all. Now, though he used this bold manner of speech after the profession of the Cynic philosophers, (as who would say, _Dogs_,) yet his boldness did no hurt many times, because they did but laugh at him to see him so mad. This Phaonius at that time, in spite of the door-keepers, came into the chamber, and with a certain scoffing and mocking gesture, which he counterfeited of purpose, he rehearsed the verses which old Nestor said in Homer:
My lords, I pray you hearken both to me, For I have seen mo years than suchie three.