The New Hudson Shakespeare: Julius Caesar Part 19

[Note 145: /opinion:/ reputation. So in _The Merchant of Venice_, I, i, 91.]

[Note 150: /break with him:/ broach the matter to him. This bit of dialogue is very charming. Brutus knows full well that Cicero is not the man to take a subordinate position; that if he have anything to do with the enterprise it must be as the leader of it; and that is just what Brutus wants to be himself. Merivale thinks it a great honor to Cicero that the conspirators did not venture to propose the matter to him. In Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_, the att.i.tude of the conspirators to Cicero is described thus: "For this cause they durst not acquaint Cicero with their conspiracy, although he was a man whom they loved dearly and trusted best; for they were afraid that he, being a coward by nature, and age also having increased his fear, he would quite turn and alter all their purpose, and quench the heat of their enterprise (the which specially required hot and earnest execution), seeking by persuasion to bring all things to such safety, as there should be no peril."]

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Ca.s.sIUS. Decius, well urg'd: I think it is not meet, 155 Mark Antony, so well belov'd of Caesar, Should outlive Caesar: 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.

BRUTUS. Our course will seem too b.l.o.o.d.y, Caius Ca.s.sius, 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. 165 Let's 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: O, 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 wrathfully; Let's carve him as a dish fit for the G.o.ds, Not hew him as a carca.s.s 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 call'd purgers, not murderers. 180

[Note 166: /Let's/ Ff Let us Theobald.]

[Note 168: /men/ Ff man Pope.]

[Note 169: /spirit/ F1 spirits F2 F3 F4.]

[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 s.h.i.+rk 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.]

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And for Mark Antony, think not of him; For he can do no more than Caesar's arm When Caesar's head is off.

Ca.s.sIUS. Yet I fear him, For in the ingrafted love he bears to Caesar--

BRUTUS. Alas, good Ca.s.sius, 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. 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.

Ca.s.sIUS. 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 c.u.mberland and Roxburghs.h.i.+re 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 n.o.blemen (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.]

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Ca.s.sIUS. But it is doubtful yet Whether Caesar will come forth to-day or no; For he is superst.i.tious 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.' Caesar 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 superst.i.tious 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.]

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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 gla.s.ses, 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.

Ca.s.sIUS. 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 Caesar 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 a.s.sault 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-gla.s.ses 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 Caesar 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 Caesar for taking part with Pompey, and Caesar discharged him. But Ligarius thanked not Caesar 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_.]

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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 fas.h.i.+on him. 220

Ca.s.sIUS. 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.