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A Street.

2 CIT. Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but, as you would say, a cobbler. MAR. But what trade art thou? Answer me directly.b

2 CIT. A trade, sir, that I hope I may use with a safe conscience; which is, indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles.

MAR. What trade, thou knave? thou naughty knave, what trade?

2 CIT. Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me: yet if you be out, sir, I can mend you.

MAR. What meanest thou by that? Mend me, thou saucy fellow ?

2 CIT. Why, sir, cobble you.

c What trade, thou knave? &c.] In the old copies this speech

is erroneously assigned to Flavius.

FLAV. Thou art a cobbler, art thou?

2 CIT. Truly, sir, all that I live by is with the awl: I meddle with no tradesman's matters, nor women's matters, but with awl. I am, indeed, sir, a surgeon to old shoes; when they are in great danger, I re-cover them. As proper men as ever trod upon neat's-leather have gone upon my handiwork.

FLAV. But wherefore art not in thy shop today?

Why dost thou lead these men about the streets? 2 CIT. Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes, to get myself into more work. But, indeed, sir, we make holiday, to see Cæsar, and to rejoice in his triumph.

MAR. Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home?

What tributaries follow him to Rome,
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,
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,
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?
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,
Pray to the gods to intermit the plague
That needs must light on this ingratitude.

FLAV. 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
Into the channel, till the lowest stream
Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.-

[Exeunt Citizens. See, whêr their basest metal be not mov'd; They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.

a I meddle with no tradesman's matters, &c.] Farmer conjectured that the true reading is, "I meddle with no trade, man's matters," &c.; and, substituting trades for trade, we incline to his opinion.

b Wherefore rejoice? &c.] "This was in the beginning of B. C. 44 (A. U. c. 709), when Cæsar. having returned from Spain in the preceding October, after defeating the sons of Pompey at the Battle of Munda (fought 17 March, B. c. 45), had been appointed Consul for the next ten years, and Dictator for life. The festival of the Lupercalia, at which he was offered and declined the crown,

Go you down that way towards the Capitol;
This way will I: disrobe the images,
If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies.*
MAR. May we do so?

You know it is the feast of Lupercal.

FLAV. It is no matter; let no images
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;
Who else would soar above the view of men,
And keep us all in servile fearfulness.

SCENE II.-The same.

[Exeunt.

A public Place.

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was celebrated 13th February, B. c. 44, and he was assassinate 15th March following, being then in his fifty-sixth year."— CRAIK'S English of Shakespeare, p. 71.

cwith ceremonies.] See note (c), p. 23, Vol. II.

d Bid every noise be still:-peace yet again!] If this did not originally form a continuation of Cæsar's previous speech, the regulation we presume to have been :

"CASCA. Bid every noise be still:-peace yet!

CES. Who is it," &c.

Again!

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look,

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

CAS. Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your passion;

By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried
Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations.
Tell me, good Brutus, can you see your face?
BRU. No, Cassius: for the eye sees not itself,
But by reflection by some other things.
CAS. 'Tis just:

And it is very much lamented, Brutus,
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,
And groaning underneath this age's yoke,
Have wish'd that noble Brutus had his eyes.
BRU. Into what dangers would you lead me,
Cassius,

a The Ides of March.] The Ides (Idus) fell on the 15th of March, May, July, and October, and on the 13th of the remaining months.

b Merely-] Purely, solely, entirely.

But by reflection by some other things.] Here, not improbably, the poet wrote,

of some other things,"

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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.
And be not jealous on me, gentle Brutus:
Were I a common laugher, 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,
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. BRU. What means this shouting? I do fear the people

Choose Cæsar for their king.

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

CAS. I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,
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
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,
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,

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,

or,

"-from some other things,"

the second "by" in the o.d text being an accidental repetition of the compositor.

d Were I a common laugher,-] Rowe's correction; the old copy having, "Laughter." As Mr. Craik remarks, neither word seems to be quite satisfactory.

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

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

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
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,

And bear the palm alone. [Flourish, and shout.
BRU. Another general shout!

I do believe that these applauses are

For some new honours that are heap'd on Cæsar. CAS. Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world

Like a Colossus; and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs, and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves.

Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Brutus, and Caesar: what should be in that
Cæsar?

Why should that name be sounded more than yours?

Write them together, yours is as fair a name;
Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well;
Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with 'em,
Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Cæsar.
Now, in the names of all the gods at once,
Upon what meat does this our Cæsar feed,
That he is grown so great? Age, thou art
sham'd!

Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!
When went there by an age, since the great flood,
But it was fam'd with more than with one man?
When could they say, till now, that talk'd of
Rome,

wide walks-] Modern editors nearly all adopt the emendation, wide walls, proposed by Rowe, but the original, "wide walks," i.e. "spacious bounds," ought not to be displaced. "In, the time of civill warres the souldiers of the Castell and chanons of Old Sarum fell at ods, insomuch that after other bralles they fell at last to sad blowes. It happened therefore in a rogation weeke that the clergie going in solemne procession a controversie fell betweene them about certeine walkes and limits which the one side claimed and the other denied. Such also was the hot entertainment on ech part, that at the last the Castellanes espieng their time, gate betweene the cleargie and the towne, and so cotled them as they returned homeward, that they feared anie

a

That her wide walks encompass'd but one man?
Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough
When there is in it but one only man.

O, you and I have heard our fathers say,

There was a Brutus once that would have brook'd
The eternal devil to keep his state in Rome,
As easily as a king!

BRU. That you do love me, I am nothing jealous;

What you would work me to, I have some aim;
How I have thought of this, and of these times,
I shall recount hereafter; for this present,
I would not, so with love I might entreat you,
Be any further mov'd. What you have said,
I will consider; what you have to say,

I will with patience hear; and find a time
Both meet to hear and answer such high things.
Till then, my noble friend, chew upon this;
Brutus had rather be a villager,

Than to repute himself a son of Rome
Under these hard conditions as this time
Is like to lay upon us.

CAS. I am glad that my weak words Have struck but thus much show of fire from [turning.

Brutus.

BRU. The games are done, and Cæsar is reCAS. As they pass by, pluck Casca by the

sleeve;

And he will, after his sour fashion, tell you What has proceeded worthy note to-day.

Re-enter CESAR and his Train.

BRU. I will do so:-but, look you, Cassius, The angry spot doth glow on Cæsar's brow, And all the rest look like a chidden train : Calphurnia's cheek is pale; and Cicero Looks with such ferret and such fiery eyes, As we have seen him in the Capitol, Being cross'd in conference by some senators. CAS. Casca will tell us what the matter is. CES. Antonius,

ANT. Cæsar.

CAS. Let me have men about me that are fat; Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights: Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous." ANT. Fear him not, Cæsar, he's not dangerous; He is a noble Roman, and well given.

more to gang about their bounds for a yeare.-HOLINSHED's Description of Britaine, p. 57.

b Let me have men about me that are fat; " &c.] So in North's translation of Plutarch's Life of Julius Cæsar:-"Cæsar also had Cassius in great jealousie, and suspected him much: whereupon he said on a time to his friends, what wil Cassius do, thinke ye I like not his pale lookes. Another time when Cæsars friends complained unto him of Antonius and Dolabella, that they pretended some mischiefe towards him, he answered them again, As for those fat men and smooth combed heads, quoth he, I never reckon of them; but these pale visaged and carion leane people, I feare them most, meaning Brutus and Cassius."

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CES. Would he were fatter!-but I fear him not: Yet if my name were liable to fear,

I do not know the man I should avoid
So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much;
He is a great observer, and he looks

Quite through the deeds of men: he loves no plays,

As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music:
Seldom he smiles; and smiles in such a sort
As if he mock'd himself, and scorn'd his spirit
That could be mov'd to smile at any-thing.
Such men as he be never at heart's ease
Whiles they behold a greater than themselves;
And therefore are they very dangerous.
I rather tell thee what is to be fear'd
Than what I fear,-for always I am Cæsar.
Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf,
And tell me truly what thou think'st of him.

[Exeunt CESAR and his Train. CASCA
stays behind.

CASCA. You pull'd me by the cloak; would you speak with me?

BRU. Ay, Casea; tell us what hath chanc'd today,

That Cæsar looks so sad?

CASCA. Why, you were with him, were you not? BRU. I should not, then, ask Casca what had chanc'd.

CASCA. Why, there was a crown offered him: and being offered him, he put it by with the back

of his hand, thus; and then the people fell a shouting.

BRU. What was the second noise for?
CASCA. Why, for that too.

CAS. They shouted thrice: what was the last cry for?

CASCA. Why, for that too.

BRU. Was the crown offered him thrice? CASCA. Ay, marry, was't, and he put it by thrice, every time gentler than other; and at every putting-by, mine honest neighbours shouted.

CAS. Who offered him the crown?
CASCA. Why, Antony.

BRU. Tell us the manner of it, gentle Casca. CASCA. I can as well be hanged as tell the manner of it: it was mere foolery; I did not mark it. I saw Mark Antony offer him a crown ;-yet 't was not a crown neither, 'twas one of these coronets; and, as I told you, he put it by once; but for all that, to my thinking, he would fain have had it. Then he offered it to him again; then he put it by again: but, to my thinking, he was very loth to lay his fingers off it. And then he offered it the third time; he put it the third time by: and still as he refused it, the rabblement shouted," and clapped their chapped hands, and threw up their

the rabblement shouted,-] This emendation is due to Hanmer, the first three folios having howted, and the fourth houted.

EE

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