Part 6

MARULLUS. Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home? What tributaries follow him to Rome, 35 To grace in captive bonds his chariot-wheels? You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things! O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome, Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements, 40 To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops, Your infants in your arms, and there have sat The live-long day, with patient expectation, To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome: And when you saw his chariot but appear, 45 Have you not made an universal shout, That Tiber trembled underneath her banks To hear the replication of your sounds Made in her concave shores? And do you now put on your best attire? 50 And do you now cull out a holiday? And do you now strew flowers in his way That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood? Be gone! Run to your houses, fall upon your knees, 55 Pray to the gods to intermit the plague That needs must light on this ingratitude.

[Note 39: /Many a time and oft/. This form of emphasis occurs also in _The Merchant of Venice_, I, iii, 107. Cf. _Timon of Athens_, III, i, 25.]

[Note 41: /windows/, Rowe | Windowes? Ff.]

[Note 44: /Rome/: Ff | Rome? Rowe.]

[Note 47, 49: /her/ | his Rowe.]

[Note 47: /That/: so that. For the omission of 'so' before 'that,' see Abbott, § 283.--/her/. In Latin usage rivers are masculine, and 'Father' is a common appellation of 'Tiber.' In Elizabethan literature Drayton generally makes rivers feminine, while Spenser tends to make them masculine.]

[Note 48: /To hear/: at hearing. A gerundive use of the infinitive.--/replication/: echo, repetition (Lat. _replicare_, to roll back).]

[Note 51: Is this a day to pick out for a holiday?]

[Note 53: The reference is to the great battle of Munda, in Spain, which took place in March of the preceding year, B.C. 45. Cæsar was now celebrating his fifth triumph, which was in honor of his final victory over the Pompeian, or conservative, faction. Cnæus and Sextus, the two sons of Pompey the Great, were leaders in that battle, and Cnæus perished. "And because he had plucked up his race by the roots, men did not think it meet for him to triumph so for the calamities of his country."--Plutarch, _Julius Cæsar_.]

[Note 57: "It is evident from the opening scene, that Shakespeare, even in dealing with classical subjects, laughed at the classic fear of putting the ludicrous and sublime into juxtaposition. After the low and farcical jests of the saucy cobbler, the eloquence of Marullus 'springs upwards like a pyramid of fire.'"--Campbell.]

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FLAVIUS. Go, go, good countrymen, and, for this fault, Assemble all the poor men of your sort; Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears 60 Into the channel, till the lowest stream Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.

[_Exeunt all the_ Commoners]

See, where their basest metal be not mov'd! They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness. Go you down that way towards the Capitol; 65 This way will I: disrobe the images, If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies.

[Note 62: [_Exeunt_ ... ] Ff | Exeunt Citizens Capell.]

[Note 63: /where/ Ff | whe're Theobald | whêr Dyce | whether Camb.]

[Note 61-62: Till the river rises from the extreme low-water mark to the extreme high-water mark.]

[Note 63: /where:/ whether. As in V, iv, 30, the 'where' of the Folios represents the monosyllabic pronunciation of this word common in the sixteenth century. In Shakespeare's verse the 'th' between two vowels, as in 'brother,' 'other,' 'whither,' is frequently mute.--/basest metal./--The Folio spelling is 'mettle,' and the word here may connote 'spirit,' 'temper.' If it be taken literally, the reference may be to 'lead.' Cf. 'base lead,' _The Merchant of Venice_, II, ix, 19. In this case the meaning may be that even these men, though as dull and heavy as lead, have yet the sense to be tongue-tied with shame at their conduct. 'Mettle' occurs again in I, ii, 293; 'metal' (First Folio, 'mettle') in I, ii, 306.]

[Note 66: /images./ These images were the busts and statues of Cæsar, ceremoniously decked with scarfs and badges in honor of his triumph.]

[Note 67: /ceremonies:/ ceremonial symbols, festal ornaments. Cf. 'trophies' in l. 71 and 'scarfs' in I, ii, 282. Shakespeare employs the word in the same way, as an abstract term used for the concrete thing, in _Henry V_, IV, i, 109; and, in the singular, in _Measure for Measure_, II, ii, 59. "After that, there were set up images of Cæsar in the city, with diadems on their heads like kings. Those the two tribunes, Flavius and Marullus, went and pulled down."--Plutarch, _Julius Cæsar_.]

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MARULLUS. May we do so? You know it is the feast of Lupercal.

FLAVIUS. It is no matter; let no images 70 Be hung with Cæsar's trophies. I'll about, And drive away the vulgar from the streets: So do you too, where you perceive them thick. These growing feathers pluck'd from Cæsar's wing Will make him fly an ordinary pitch, 75 Who else would soar above the view of men, And keep us all in servile fearfulness. [_Exeunt_]

[Note 69: /Lupercal./ The _Lupercalia_, originally a shepherd festival, were held in honor of Lupercus, the Roman Pan, on the 15th of February, the month being named from _Februus_, a surname of the god. Lupercus was, primarily, the god of shepherds, said to have been so called because he protected the flocks from wolves. His wife Luperca was the deified she-wolf that suckled Romulus. The festival, in its original idea, was concerned with purification and fertilization.]

[Note 71: /Cæsar's trophies./ These are the scarfs and badges mentioned in note on l. 66, as appears from ll. 281-282 in the next scene, where it is said that the Tribunes "for pulling scarfs off Cæsar's images, are put to silence."]

[Note 72: /the vulgar:/ the common people. So in _Love's Labour's Lost_, I, ii, 51; _Henry V_, IV, vii, 80.]

[Note 75: /pitch./ A technical term in falconry, denoting the height to which a hawk or falcon flies. Cf. _I Henry VI_, II, iv, 11: "Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch."]

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## SCENE II. _A public place_

_Enter_ CÆSAR; ANTONY, _for the course_; CALPURNIA, PORTIA, DECIUS, CICERO, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, _and_ CASCA; _a great crowd following, among them a_ Soothsayer.

CÆSAR. Calpurnia!

CASCA. Peace, ho! Cæsar speaks.

CÆSAR. Calpurnia!

CALPURNIA. Here, my lord.

CÆSAR. Stand you directly in Antonius' way, When he doth run his course. Antonius!

ANTONY. Cæsar, my lord? 5

CÆSAR. Forget not, in your speed, Antonius, To touch Calpurnia; for our elders say, The barren, touched in this holy chase, Shake off their sterile curse.

ANTONY. I shall remember: When Cæsar says 'Do this,' it is perform'd. 10

[Note: SCENE ... _place_ | Ff omit.]

[Note 3: /Antonius'/ Pope | Antonio's Ff.]

[Note 4, 6: /Antonius/ Pope | Antonio Ff (and so elsewhere).]

[Note 3: /Antonius'./ The 'Antonio's' of the Folios is the Italian form with which both actors and audience would be more familiar. So in IV, iii, 102, the Folios read "dearer than Pluto's (i.e. Plutus') mine." Antonius was at this time Consul, as Cæsar himself also was. Each Roman _gens_ had its own priesthood, and also its peculiar religious rites. The priests of the Julian gens (so named from Iulus the son of Æneas) had lately been advanced to the same rank with those of the god Lupercus; and Antony was at this time at their head. It was probably as chief of the Julian Luperci that he officiated on this occasion, stripped, as the old stage direction has it, "for the course."]

[Note 8-9: It was an old custom at these festivals for the priests, naked except for a girdle about the loins, to run through the streets of the city, waving in the hand a thong of goat's hide, and striking with it such women as offered themselves for the blow, in the belief that this would prevent or avert "the sterile curse." Cæsar was at this time childless; his only daughter, Julia, married to Pompey the Great, having died some years before, upon the birth of her first child, who also died soon after.]

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CÆSAR. Set on; and leave no ceremony out. [_Flourish_]

SOOTHSAYER. Cæsar!

CÆSAR. Ha! who calls?

CASCA. Bid every noise be still. Peace yet again!

CÆSAR. Who is it in the press that calls on me? 15 I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music, Cry 'Cæsar!' Speak; Cæsar is turn'd to hear.

SOOTHSAYER. Beware the Ides of March.

CÆSAR. What man is that?

BRUTUS. A soothsayer bids you beware the Ides of March.

CÆSAR. Set him before me; let me see his face. 20

CASSIUS. Fellow, come from the throng; look upon Cæsar.

CÆSAR. What say'st thou to me now? speak once again.

SOOTHSAYER. Beware the Ides of March.

CÆSAR. He is a dreamer; let us leave him. Pass.

[_Sennet. Exeunt all but_ BRUTUS _and_ CASSIUS]

CASSIUS. Will you go see the order of the course? 25

[Note 11: [Flourish] Ff omit.]

[Note 25: Scene III Pope.]

[Note 18: /the Ides of March:/ March 15th.]

[Note 19: Coleridge has a remark on this line, which, whether true to the subject or not, is very characteristic of the writer: "If my ear does not deceive me, the metre of this line was meant to express that sort of mild philosophic contempt, characterizing Brutus even in his first casual speech."--/soothsayer./ By derivation, 'truth teller.']

[Note 24: /Sennet./ This is an expression occurring repeatedly in old stage directions. It is of uncertain origin (but cf. 'signature' in musical notation) and denotes a peculiar succession of notes on a trumpet, used, as here, to signal the march of a procession.]

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BRUTUS. Not I.

CASSIUS. I pray you, do.

BRUTUS. I am not gamesome: I do lack some part Of that quick spirit that is in Antony. Let me not hinder, Cassius, your desires; 30 I'll leave you.

CASSIUS. Brutus, I do observe you now of late: I have not from your eyes that gentleness And show of love as I was wont to have: You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand 35 Over your friend that loves you.

[Note 36: /friend/ F1 | Friends F2 F3.]

[Note 28: /gamesome:/ fond of games. Here as in _Cymbeline_, I, vi, 60, the word seems to be used in a literal and restricted sense.]

[Note 29: /quick spirit:/ lively humor. The primary meaning of 'quick' is 'alive,' as in the phrase "the quick and the dead." See Skeat.]

[Note 34: /as./ The three forms 'that,' 'who' ('which'), and 'as' are often interchangeable in Elizabethan usage. So in line 174. See Abbott, §§ 112, 280.]

[Note 35: You hold me too hard on the bit, like a strange rider who is doubtful of his steed, and not like one who confides in his faithful horse, and so rides him with an easy rein. See note on l. 310.]

[Note 36: Caius Cassius Longinus had married Junia, a sister of Brutus. Both had lately stood for the chief prætorship of the city, and Brutus, through Cæsar's favor, had won it; though Cassius was at the same time elected one of the sixteen prætors or judges of the city. This is said to have produced a coldness between Brutus and Cassius, so that they did not speak to each other, till this extraordinary flight of patriotism brought them together.]

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BRUTUS. Cassius, Be not deceiv'd: if I have veil'd my look, I turn the trouble of my countenance Merely upon myself. Vexed I am Of late with passions of some difference, 40 Conceptions only proper to myself, Which give some soil, perhaps, to my behaviours; But let not therefore my good friends be griev'd-- Among which number, Cassius, be you one-- Nor construe any further my neglect, 45 Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war, Forgets the shows of love to other men.

CASSIUS. Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your passion; By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations. 50 Tell me, good Brutus, can you see your face?

BRUTUS. No, Cassius; for the eye sees not itself But by reflection, by some other things.

[Note 52-53: Three irregular lines in Ff.]

[Note 52: /itself/ | it selfe F1 | himselfe F2 | himself, F3 | himself: F4.]

[Note 53: /by some/ Ff | from some Pope.]

[Note 39: /Merely:/ altogether, entirely. So in _The Tempest_, I, i, 59.]

[Note 40: /passions of some difference:/ conflicting emotions.]

[Note 41: /only proper to myself:/ belonging exclusively to myself.]

[Note 42: /give some soil to:/ to a certain extent tarnish.--/behaviours./ Shakespeare often uses abstract nouns in the plural. This usage is common in Carlyle. Here, however, and elsewhere in Shakespeare, as in _Much Ado about Nothing_, II, iii, 100, the plural 'behaviours' may be regarded as denoting the particular acts which make up what we call 'behavior.' See Clar.]

[Note 48: /mistook./ The _en_ of the termination of the past

## participle of strong verbs is often dropped, and when the

resulting word might be mistaken for the infinitive, the form of the past tense is frequently substituted.--/passion./ Shakespeare uses 'passion' for any feeling, sentiment, or emotion, whether painful or pleasant. So in _Henry V_, II, ii. 132: "Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger."]

[Note 49: /By means whereof:/ and because of my mistaking it. 'Means' was sometimes used in the sense of 'cause.']

[Note 53: Except by an image or 'shadow' (l. 68; cf. _Venus and Adonis_, 162) reflected from a mirror, or from water, or some polished surface. Cf. _Troilus and Cressida_, III, iii, 105-111.]

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CASSIUS. 'Tis just: And it is very much lamented, Brutus, 55 That you have no such mirrors as will turn Your hidden worthiness into your eye, That you might see your shadow. I have heard, Where many of the best respect in Rome, Except immortal Cæsar, speaking of Brutus, 60 And groaning underneath this age's yoke, Have wish'd that noble Brutus had his eyes.

BRUTUS. Into what dangers would you lead me, Cassius, That you would have me seek into myself For that which is not in me? 65

CASSIUS. Therefore, good Brutus, be prepar'd to hear: And, since you know you cannot see yourself So well as by reflection, I, your glass, Will modestly discover to yourself That of yourself which you yet know not of. 70 And be not jealous on me, gentle Brutus: Were I a common laughter, or did use To stale with ordinary oaths my love To every new protester; if you know That I do fawn on men and hug them hard, 75 And after scandal them; or if you know That I profess myself in banqueting To all the rout, then hold me dangerous. [_Flourish and shout_]

[Note 58: Two lines in Ff.]

[Note 63: Two lines in Ff.--/Cassius/, Pope Camb Globe | Cassius? Ff.]

[Note 70: /you yet/ F1 F2 | yet you F3 F4.]

[Note 72: /laughter/ | Laughter Ff | laugher Rowe Camb Globe.]

[Note 77: /myself/ | my selfe F1 | omitted in F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 54: /'Tis just:/ that's so, exactly so. Cf. _All's Well that Ends Well_, II, iii, 21; _As You Like It_, III, ii, 281; _2 Henry IV_, III, ii, 89.]

[Note 59: /Where./ The adverb is here used of occasion, not of place.--/of the best respect:/ held in the highest estimation.]

[Note 60: /Except immortal Cæsar./ Keen, double-edged irony.]

[Note 71: /jealous on:/ suspicious of. In Shakespeare we find 'on' and 'of' used indifferently, even in the same sentence, as in _Hamlet_, IV, v, 200. Cf. _Macbeth_, I, iii, 84; _Sonnets_, LXXXIV, 14. See Abbott, § 181.]

[Note 72: /laughter:/ laughing-stock. Although most modern editors have adopted Rowe's emendation, 'laugher,' the reading of the Folios is perfectly intelligible and thoroughly Shakespearian. Cf. IV, iii, 114.]

[Note 73: /To stale:/ to make common by frequent repetition, to cheapen. So again in IV, i, 38. Cf. _Antony and Cleopatra_, II, ii, 240.]

[Note 74: 'To protest' is used by Shakespeare in the sense of 'to profess,' 'to declare,' 'to vow,' as in _All's Well that Ends Well_, IV, ii, 28, and _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, I, i, 89. The best commentary on ll. 72-74 is _Hamlet_, I, iii, 64-65: "But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade."]

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BRUTUS. What means this shouting? I do fear, the people Choose Cæsar for their king.

CASSIUS. Ay, do you fear it? 80 Then must I think you would not have it so.

BRUTUS. I would not, Cassius; yet I love him well. But wherefore do you hold me here so long? What is it that you would impart to me? If it be aught toward the general good, 85 Set honour in one eye and death i' the other, And I will look on both indifferently; For let the gods so speed me as I love The name of honour more than I fear death.

[Note 79-80: Three irregular lines in Ff.]

[Note 85: /aught/ Theobald | ought Ff.]

[Note 87: /both/ Ff | death Theobald (Warburton).]

[Note 76-78: If you know that, when banqueting, I make professions of friendship to all the crowd.]

[Note 87: "Warburton would read 'death' for 'both'; but I prefer the old text. There are here three things, the public good, the individual Brutus' honour, and his death. The latter two so balanced each other, that he could decide for the first by equipoise; nay--the thought growing--that honour had more weight than death."--Coleridge.--/indifferently:/ without emotion. 'Impartially.'--Clar.]

[Note 88: /speed:/ prosper, bless. So in II, iv, 41. "The notion of 'haste' which now belongs to the word is apparently a derived sense. It is thus curiously parallel to the Latin _expedio_, with which some would connect it etymologically.... The proverb 'more haste, worse speed' shows that haste and speed are not the same."--Clar.]

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CASSIUS. I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus, 90 As well as I do know your outward favour. Well, honour is the subject of my story. I cannot tell what you and other men Think of this life; but, for my single self, I had as lief not be as live to be 95 In awe of such a thing as I myself. I was born free as Cæsar; so were you: We both have fed as well; and we can both Endure the winter's cold as well as he: For once, upon a raw and gusty day, 100 The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores, Cæsar said to me, 'Dar'st thou, Cassius, now Leap in with me into this angry flood, And swim to yonder point?' Upon the word, Accoutred as I was, I plunged in, 105 And bade him follow: so indeed he did. The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it With lusty sinews, throwing it aside And stemming it with hearts of controversy; But ere we could arrive the point propos'd, 110 Cæsar cried, 'Help me, Cassius, or I sink!' I, as Æneas, our great ancestor, Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber Did I the tired Cæsar: and this man 115 Is now become a god, and Cassius is A wretched creature, and must bend his body If Cæsar carelessly but nod on him. He had a fever when he was in Spain; And, when the fit was on him, I did mark 120 How he did shake: 't is true, this god did shake: His coward lips did from their colour fly; And that same eye whose bend doth awe the world Did lose his lustre. I did hear him groan: Ay, and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans 125 Mark him and write his speeches in their books, Alas, it cried, 'Give me some drink, Titinius,' As a sick girl. Ye gods, it doth amaze me A man of such a feeble temper should So get the start of the majestic world 130 And bear the palm alone. [_Shout. Flourish_]

BRUTUS. Another general shout! I do believe that these applauses are For some new honours that are heap'd on Cæsar.

[Note 94: /for/ F1 | omitted in F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 101: /chafing/ F1 F4 | chasing F2 F3.]

[Note 102: /said/ | saide F1 | saies F2 F3.]

[Note 105: /Accoutred/ F1 | Accounted F2.]

[Note 124: /lose/ | loose F1.]

[Note 125: /bade/ Theobald | bad Ff.]

[Note 91: /favour:/ appearance. The word has often this meaning in Shakespeare. Cf. 'well-favored,' 'ill-favored,' and such a provincial expression as 'the child favors his father.']

[Note 95: /lief:/ readily. The pronunciation of the _f_ as _v_ brings out the quibble. From the Anglo-Saxon _léof_, 'dear.' See Murray.]

[Note 101: /chafing./ See Skeat for the interesting development of the meanings of the verb 'chafe (Fr. _chauffer_),' which Shakespeare uses twenty times, sometimes transitively, sometimes intransitively.]

[Note 109: /hearts of controversy:/ controversial hearts, emulation. In Shakespeare are many similar constructions and expressions. Cf. 'passions of some difference,' l. 40, and 'mind of love' for 'loving mind,' _The Merchant of Venice_, II, viii, 42.]

[Note 110: /arrive the point./ In sixteenth and early seventeenth century literature the omission of the preposition with verbs of motion is common. Cf. 'pass the streets' in I, i, 44.]

[Note 119: In Elizabethan literature 'fever' is often used for sickness in general as well as for what is now specifically called a fever. Cæsar had three several campaigns in Spain at different periods of his life, and the text does not show which of these Shakespeare had in mind. One passage in Plutarch indicates that Cæsar was first taken with the 'falling-sickness' during his third campaign, which closed with the great battle of Munda, March 17, B.C. 45. See note, p. 25, l. 252, and quotation from Plutarch, p. 26, l. 268.]

[Note 122: The image, very bold, somewhat forced, and not altogether happy, is of a cowardly soldier running away from his flag.]

[Note 123: /bend:/ look. So in _Antony and Cleopatra_, II, ii, 213: "tended her i' the eyes, And made their bends adornings." In Shakespeare the verb 'bend,' when used of the eyes, has usually the sense of 'direct,' as in _Hamlet_, II, i, 100: "bended their light on me"; III, iv, 117: "That you do bend your eye on vacancy."]

[Note 124: /his:/ its. 'Its' was just creeping into use at the close of the sixteenth century. It does not occur once in the King James version of the Bible as originally printed; it occurs ten times in the First Folio, generally in the form 'it's'; it occurs only three times in Milton's poetry. See Masson's _Essay on Milton's English_; Abbott, § 228; Sweet's _New English Grammar_, § 1101.]

[Note 129: /temper:/ temperament, constitution. "The lean and wrinkled Cassius" venting his spite at Cæsar, by ridiculing his liability to sickness and death, is charmingly characteristic. The mighty Cæsar, with all his electric energy of mind and will, was of a rather fragile and delicate make; and his countenance, as we have it in authentic busts, is of almost feminine beauty. Cicero, who did not love him at all, in one of his _Letters_ applies to him the Greek word that is used for 'miracle' or 'wonder' in the New Testament; the English of the passage being, "This miracle (monster?) is a thing of terrible energy, swiftness, diligence."]

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