Bru. Lucius, do you the like; and let no man Come to our tent, till we have done our conference. Lucilius and Titinius, guard our door.

SCENE IIL Within the Tent of BRUTUS.
Enter BRUTUS and CASSIUS.

Cass. That you have wrong'd me doth appear in this⚫
You have condemn'd and noted Lucius Pella1
For taking bribes here of the Sardians;
Wherein my letters,2 praying on his side
Because I knew the man, were slighted off.

8

Bru. You wrong'd yourself to write in such a case.
Cass. In such a time as this it is not meet
That every nice offence should bear his comment.
Bru. Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself
Are much condemn'd to have an itching palm;
To sell and mart your offices for gold

You know that you are Brutus that speak this,
Or, by the gods, this speech were else your last.
Bru. The name of Cassius honours this corruption,
And chastisement doth therefore hide his head.

Cass. Chastisement!

Bru. Remember March, the ides of March remember!
Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake?

What villain touch'd his body, that did stab,
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

1 Disgraced him, set a mark or stigma upon him.-The Poet read in Plutarch that "Brutus, upon complaint of the Sardians, did condemn and note Lucius Pella, who had been a Prætor of the Romans, for that he was convicted of robbery and pilfery in his office."

2 Wherein refers to the stigma set upon Pella, and is equivalent to by which act or proceeding.. Cassius naturally thinks that "the honourable men whose daggers have stabb'd Cæsar" should not peril their cause by moral squeamishness. And it is a very noteworthy point, that the digesting of that act seems to have entailed upon Brutus a sort of moral dyspepsia.

3 That every petty or trifling offence should be scrutinized and passed upon. Nice was often used in that sense. -- In the foregoing plays, I have repeatedly noted the Poet's use of his for its. Mr. W. J. Rolfe, of Cambridge, bas ascertained, by a very close inspection, that Shakespeare has its ten times, but in nine of these it is printed with an apostrophe, it's; and that he has it, used as the possessive case, sixteen times; as in Hamlet i. 2: "It lifted up it head." As I have stated before, its does not occur in our Fnglish Bible; where we have, instead, such expressions as, "if the salt have lost kas savour," and, "to every seed his own body."

Contaminate our fingers with base bribes,
And sell the mighty space of our large honours
For so much trash as may be grasped thus?

I had rather be a dog, and bay the Moon,

Than such a Roman.

Cass.
Brutus, bait not me,
I'll not endure it: you forget yourself,
To hedge me in; I am a soldier, ay,5
Older in practice, abler than yourself
To make conditions.

Bru.

Cass. I am.

Go to; you are not, Cassius.

Bru. I say you are not.

Cass. Urge me no more, I shall forget myself; Have mind upon your health, tempt me no further. Bru. Away, slight man!

Cass. Is't possible?

Bru.

Hear me, for I will speak.

Must I give way and room to your rash choler?

Shall I be frighted when a madman stares?

Cass. O ye gods, ye gods! must I endure all this?

Bru. 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
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.

Cass.
Is it come to this?
Bru. 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 abler men.'

4 So in the original; but commonly changed to bay in modern editions, the repeating of the word being thought to add spirit to the dialogue. think otherwise. To bait is to worry or harass with violent attacks. Richardson says it is formed regularly from bay, to bark at, thus,-bayed, bay'd, bayt, bait. In The Winter's Tale ii. 3, Leontes says of Paulina,-"A callat, of boundless tongue, who late hath beat her husband, and now baits me'"' 5 The original and, I believe, all modern editions, have I instead of ay here. It has long seemed to me that it should be ay, and I now venture to give it so. In the Poet's time, the pronoun / and the affirmative ay were printed alike.

6 To do the business, or manage the diplomacy of an army.

7 The original has noble instead of abler. Noble does not fit the place, and the use of abler by Cassius, a little before, points that out as the right word: accordingly it is adopted by Mr. Dyce.

Cass. You wrong me every way, you wrong me, Brutus ; I said an elder soldier, not a better:

Did I say better?

Bru.

If you did, I care not.

Cass. When Cæsar liv'd he durst not thus have mov'd me.

Bru. Peace, peace! you durst not so have tempted him.

Cass. I durst not?

Bru. No.

Cass. What, durst not tempt him?

Bru.

For your life you durst not.

Cass. Do not presume too much upon my love

I may do that I shall be sorry for.

denied me;

Bru. You have done that you should be sorry for.
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
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

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,
Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts,
Dash him to pieces!

Cass.

Bru. You did.
Cass.

I denied you not.

I did not: he was but a fool
That brought my answer back. — Brutus hath riv'd
A friend should bear his friend's infirmities,
But Brutus makes mine greater than they are.
Bru. I do not, till you practise them on me.
Cass. You love me not.

8 This mistake of Brutus is very 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. Long before this time, 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; as he also did for some time after that, in the military administration of Syria.

9 Rascal counters is a term of contempt for the "vile trash," gold. Counters were false pieces of money, used in reckoning and keeping accounts. See page 50, note 8.

I do not like your

faults.

Bru.
Cass. A friendly eye could never see such faults.
Bru. A flatterer's would not, though they do appear
As huge as high Olympus.

Cass. Come, Antony and young Octavius, come,
Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius,

For Cassius is a-weary of the world;

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,
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,

When thou didst hate him worst, thou lov'dst him better
Than ever thou lov'dst Cassius.

Bru.

Sheath your dagger.

Be angry when you will, it shall have scope;
Do what you will, dishonour shall be humour.10
O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb
That carries anger as the flint bears fire;
Who, much enforced, shows a hasty spark,
And straight is cold again."

Cass.
Hath Cassius liv'd
To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus,

When grief, and blood ill-temper'd, vexeth him?
Bru. When I spoke that, I was ill-temper'd too.
Cass. Do you confess so much? Give me your hand.
Bru. And my heart too.

Cass.

Bru.

Cass.

--

O Brutus,

What's the matter?

·Have you not love enough to bear with me,

When that rash humour which my mother gave me
Makes me forgetful?

Bru.
When you are over earnest with your Brutus,
He'll think your mother chides, and leave you so.

Yes, Cassius; and from henceforth,

[Noise within.

10 Whatever dishonourable thing you may do, I will set it down to the humour or infirmity of the moment.

11 In my boyhood, the idea was common, of fire sleeping in the flint, and being awaked by the stroke of the steel. I am not sure whether it was known in the Poet's time, that in fact the flint cuts off microscopic bits of steel, which are ignited by the friction.

Poet. [Within.] Let me go in to see the generals:
There is some grudge between 'em; 'tis not meet
They be alone.

Lucil. [Within.] You shall not come to them.
Poet. [Within.] Nothing but death shall stay me.

Enter Poet, followed by LUCILIUS and TITINIUS.
Cass. How now! What's the matter?

Poet. For shame, you generals! what do you mean?
Love, and be friends, as two such men should be;
For I have seen more years, I'm sure, than ye.

Cass. Ha, ha! how vilely doth this cynic rhyme!
Bru. Get you hence, sirrah; saucy fellow, hence!
Cass. Bear with him, Brutus; 'tis his fashion.
Bru. I'll know his humour, when he knows his time.
What should the wars do with these jigging fools?
Companion, hence! 12

Cass.

Away, away, be gone!
Bru. Lucilius and Titinius, bid the commanders
Prepare to lodge their companies to-night.

[Exit Poet

Cass. And come yourselves, and bring Messala with you Immediately to us. [Exeunt LUCIL. and TITIN.

If

Bru.

Lucius, a bowl of wine!

Cass. I did not think you could have been so angry.

Bru. O Cassius, I am sick of many griefs.

Cass. Of your philosophy you make no use,

you give place to accidental evils.13

Bru. No man bears sorrow better. Portia is dead.

Cass. Ha! Portia!

Bru. She is dead.

Cass. How scap'd I killing, when I cross'd you so? O, insupportable and touching loss! —

Upon what sickness?

Bru.

Impatient of my absence,
And grief that young Octavius with Mark Antony
Have made themselves so strong;· for with her death
That tidings came; - with this she fell distract,

And, her attendants absent, swallow'd fire.14

12 Jig signified a ballad or ditty, as well as a dance. Companion is here a term of contempt, as we now use fellow.

18 In his philosophy, Brutus was a mixture of the Stoic and the Platonist. What he says of Portia's death is among the best things in the play, and is in Shakespeare's noblest style. Deep grief loves not many words.

14 It appears something uncertain whether Portia's death was before or after her husband's. Plutarch represents it as occurring before; but Merivale follows those who place it after. Plutarch's account. as rendered by North, is, that she "took hot burning coals and cast them into her mouth and kept her mouth so close that she choked herself."