That you would have me seek into myself

For that which is not in me?

35

Cassius. Therefore, good Brutus, be prepared 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.
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.

40

45

[Flourish and shout. Brutus. What means this shouting? I do fear, the

people

Choose Cæsar for their King.

Cassius.
Ay, do
Then must I think you would

35 That which I do not
think is to be found in me.
36 Therefore. Very well!

Well then!

39 Modestly. Without exaggeration.

41 Jealous. Suspicious. See 1. 129, where Brutus says, 'That you do love me I am nothing jealous.'

42 A common laugher. A person given to laughing, and therefore one whose word cannot be taken as worth much.

43 Stale, &c. Make my love common by bestowing it upon every new person who protested his love for me. Cf. Cæsar's description of Cassius, 11. 159 and 160.

46 After, i.e. afterwards.

you

fear it?

not have it so.

50

Scandal, i.e. speak evil of them behind their backs. From Lat. scandalum. A scandal' is, first, a cause of sin; then, an imputation of sin.

18 Rout, i.e. mob. Cf. Taming the Shrew, III. ii. 183:

And after me, I know, the rout is coming.

Row is perhaps also from the same root. Hold me dangerous. Consider my advice as likely to lead you into danger.

51 Fear. To be emphasised in reading.

52 Would not do not wish. For this use of the verb will cf. Fr. Voulez-vous? do you. wish? and Ger. Was wollen Sie? what do you want?

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,
Set honour in one eye, and death i' the other,
And I will look on both indifferently,

55

For, let the gods so speed me as I love

The name of honour more than I fear death.

60

Cassius. 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, Darest 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.

56 The general good; the good of the people generally.

58 Indifferently, i.e. without a preference for either.

50-60 Cassius has now succeeded in drawing from Brutus an acknowledgment that he is dissatisfied with Cæsar and is ready to undergo much for his country's good.

62 Favour.

Countenance. See Gen. xxxix. 6, where Joseph is said to be well-favoured.

65

70

75

80

In Macbeth also we have, 'To alter favour ever is to fear,' i.e. to change countenance is commonly considered a sign of fear.

66 I had as lief not be=I would rather not exist. Lief - dear. Cf. the Ger. lieber, e.g. mein lieber Vater my dear father. Lieber also is a German adverb= rather.

80 Hearts of controversy, i.e. hearts ready to battle with

But ere we could arrive the point propos'd,
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: 'tis 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 bis, that bade the Romans
Mark him, and write his speeches in their books,

opposition. Of controversy is a genitive phrase, qualifying 'hearts' like an adjective. Cf. Lat. amor Dei, love of God, i.e. God's love. Cf. also a man of valour,' i.e. a valorous man. See also (Hamlet, VI. vi. 21) Thieves of mercy,' i.e. merciful thieves.

6

SI Arrive; arrive at, reach [contracted from ad ripam appellere].

83-85 The Romans believed that when Troy was destroyed by the Greeks, Æneas, one of the Trojan heroes, escaped, taking with him some of his relatives, and amongst them his father, Anchises, whom he carried on his shoulder. After much wandering, Eneas is said to have landed in Italy, and to have built a city there. In this city his family ruled, and from this family are supposed to have sprung the two brothers, Romulus and Remus, by whom Rome was founded.

85

90

95

86 Did I. In 1. 83 we have 'I,' which is the same nominative as 'I,' 1. 86.

The nominative is repeated because the first one is so far removed from the verb 'did.'

=

89 But is here an adverb, and merely. The line means 'If Cæsar nod upon me in ever so careless a manner.'

90-94 Cæsar was not a man of robust health. Brutus remarks of him

'Tis like enough, he hath the falling sickness.

94 Coward lips, &c. Cassius here likens Cæsar's lips to soldiers deserting their COlours. The comparison is an awkward one, because when Cæsar's lips turned pale, the colour fled from them, not they from the colour. Cassius, however, as is often the case with envious, angry people, here meaning to say a spiteful thing, manages to say a stupid

one.

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.

Brutus.

100

[Shout. Flourish.

Another general shout!

I do believe that these applauses are

105

For some new honours that are heap'd on Cæsar.
Cassius. 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 Cæsar: What should be in that 'Cæsar'?

98 Titinius. One of Cæsar's friends.

81-99 In these lines Cassius spitefully describes Cæsar's bodily infirmities. He dare not yet venture further in his evil speaking; he would fain say other things, but at present he waits prudently to see how Brutus will bear this evil speaking. Note also that just when the mind of Brutus is irritated at the people's ovations to Cæsar, Cassius seizes his opportunity to pour into his ear the spiteful stories we have just read. Truly, the moment was well-chosen.

100 Temper. Constitution. Cf. Fuller, The exquisiteness of the Saviour's bodily temper increased the exquisiteness of His torment.'

101 Get the start. Have 102 The palm. the advantage in a race where the prize was a palm-branch.

107 Colossus. The Colossus

110

was an immense brazen statue bestriding the entrance to a. harbour at Rhodes. Petty. Small, little. Cf. Fr. petit, little.

109 This line="To find dishonourable graves for ourselves.'

110 At some time, i.e. at some time or other. Later in the play the idea of this line recurs to Brutus, for he says.

There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to
fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

11 Stars. It was formerly supposed that the course of a person's life was much influenced by the planet under which he was born. Cassius combats this idea.

112 Underlings. The suffix ling here is a diminutive, showing contempt. Cf. 'worldling.'

115

[Shout.

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 doth 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 famed with more than with one man?
When could they say, till now, that talk'd of Rome,
That her wide walls encompass'd but one man ?
Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough,
When there is in it but one only man.

120

125

130

Brutus. 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 moved. What you have said
I will consider; what you have to say

113 Should = can. That Cæsar. That word Cæsar.'

118 Start a spirit. Cf. 1 Sam. xxviii. 11-14. Witches pretended to have power to call up the spirits of the dead by using certain mysterious words, and Cassius here declares the word Cæsar is not more powerful in this respect than the word Brutus. 121 Age. Among the Romans age was much respected. The Senate was the assembly of the old men; in them the chief authority rested. this line, Age may mean this present age in which the speaker lives; or it may mean 'old age,' 'the age we must

In

135