The New Hudson Shakespeare: Julius Caesar Part 44

ANTONY. Not stingless too. 35

BRUTUS. O, yes, and soundless too; For you have stol'n their buzzing, Antony, And very wisely threat before you sting.

[Note 21: Scene II Pope.--LUCILIUS, t.i.tINIUS ... Ff omit.]

[Note 33: /The posture of your blows:/ where your blows are to fall.--/are./ The verb is attracted into the plural by the nearest substantive. Cf. 'was,' IV, iii, 5. Abbott calls this idiom 'confusion of proximity.']

[Note 34: Hybla, a hill in Sicily, was noted for its thyme and its honey. So Vergil, _Eclogues_, I, 54-55: "the hedge whose willow bloom is quaffed by Hybla's bees." Cf. _1 Henry IV_, I, ii, 47: "As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle."

Antony could not be so 'honey-tongued' unless he had quite exhausted thyme-flavored Hybla.]

[Page 147]

ANTONY. Villains, you did not so, when your vile daggers Hack'd one another in the sides of Caesar: 40 You show'd your teeth like apes, and fawn'd like hounds, And bow'd like bondmen, kissing Caesar's feet; Whilst d.a.m.ned Casca, like a cur, behind Struck Caesar on the neck. O you flatterers!

Ca.s.sIUS. Flatterers! Now, Brutus, thank yourself: 45 This tongue had not offended so to-day, If Ca.s.sius might have rul'd.

OCTAVIUS. 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 aveng'd; or till another Caesar Have added slaughter to the sword of traitors. 55

[Note 41: Two lines in Ff.--/teeth/ F3 F4 teethes F1 F2.]

[Note 44: /Struck/ F3 F4 Strooke F1 F2.]

[Note 50-51: One line in Ff.]

[Note 39-44: These graphic details are from Plutarch's two accounts (in _Julius Caesar_ and _Marcus Brutus_) of the a.s.sa.s.sination of Caesar.]

[Note 48: Octavius has been a standing puzzle and enigma to the historians, from the seeming contradictions of his character. Merivale declares that the one principle that gave unity to his life and reconciled those contradictions, was a steadfast, inflexible purpose to avenge the murder of his ill.u.s.trious uncle and adoptive father.]

[Note 52: /goes up:/ is put into its sheath. Cf. _John_, XVIII, 11.]

[Note 53: The number of Caesar's wounds, according to Plutarch, was three and twenty, and to 'three and twenty' Theobald, craving historical accuracy, changed the 'three and thirty' of the text.]

[Note 55: Till you, traitors as you are, have added the slaughtering of me, another Caesar, to that of Julius. See note, p. 145, l. 20.]

[Page 148]

BRUTUS. Caesar, thou canst not die by traitors' hands, Unless thou bring'st them with thee.

OCTAVIUS. So I hope; I was not born to die on Brutus' sword.

BRUTUS. O, if thou wert the n.o.blest of thy strain, Young man, thou couldst not die more honourable. 60

Ca.s.sIUS. A peevish schoolboy, worthless of such honour, Join'd with a masker and a reveller!

ANTONY. Old Ca.s.sius still!

OCTAVIUS. Come, Antony; away!

Defiance, traitors, hurl we in your teeth; If you dare fight to-day, come to the field; 65 If not, when you have stomachs.

[_Exeunt_ OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, _and their_ Army]

Ca.s.sIUS. Why, now, blow wind, swell billow, and swim bark!

The storm is up, and all is on the hazard.

BRUTUS. Ho, Lucilius! hark, a word with you.

LUCILIUS. [_Standing forth_] My lord? 70

[BRUTUS _and_ LUCILIUS _converse apart_]

[Note 66: [_Exeunt ... their_ Army] Exit ... Army Ff.]

[Note 67: Scene III Pope.]

[Note 70: [_Standing forth_] Camb Lucillius and Messala stand forth Ff.--[BRUTUS _and_ ...] Ff omit.]

[Note 59. /strain:/ stock, lineage, race. So in _Henry V_, II, iv, 51:

And he is bred out of that b.l.o.o.d.y strain That haunted us in our familiar paths.]

[Note 61: Shakespeare often uses 'peevish' in the sense of 'silly,' 'foolish.' So in _The Comedy of Errors_, IV, i, 93. A foolish schoolboy, joined with a masker and reveler (for Antony's reputation, see I, ii, 204; II, i, 188, 189; II, ii, 116), and unworthy even of that honor.]

[Note 66: /stomachs:/ appet.i.te, inclination, courage. So in _Henry V_, IV, iii, 35: "He which hath no stomach to this fight."]

[Page 149]

Ca.s.sIUS. Messala!

MESSALA. What says my general?

Ca.s.sIUS. Messala, This is my birth-day; as this very day Was Ca.s.sius born. Give me thy hand, Messala: Be thou my witness that, against my will, As Pompey was, am I compell'd to set 75 Upon one battle all our liberties.

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 80 Two mighty eagles fell, and there they perch'd, 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, 85 Fly o'er our heads and downward look on us, As we were sickly prey: their shadows seem A canopy most fatal, under which Our army lies, ready to give up the ghost.

[Note 71: /Messala/, Ff add to l. 72.]

[Note 80: /former/ Ff foremost Rowe.]

[Note 85: /steads/ F3 F4 steeds F1 F2.]

[Note 72: 'As' is often used redundantly with definitions of time. This is still a provincialism. See Abbott, -- 114.

"Messala writeth, that Ca.s.sius having spoken these last words unto him, he bade him farewell, and willed him to come to supper to him the next night following, because it was his birthday."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Note 75: Alluding to the battle of Pharsalia, which took place in the year B.C. 48. Pompey was forced into that battle, against his better judgment, by the inexperienced and impatient men about him, who, inasmuch as they had more than twice Caesar's number of troops, fancied they could easily defeat him if they could but meet him. So they tried it, and he quickly defeated them.]

[Note 77: I was strongly attached to the doctrines of Epicurus. "Ca.s.sius being in opinion an Epicurean, and reasoning thereon with Brutus, spake to him touching the vision thus: 'In our sect, Brutus, we have an opinion, that we do not always feel or see that which we suppose we do both see and feel, but that our senses, being credulous and therefore easily abused ... imagine they see and conjecture that which in truth they do not.'"--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]