When you do find him, or alive or dead, He will be found like Brutus, like himself. 25 Ant. This is not Brutus, friend; but, I assure you, A prize no less in worth: keep this man safe, Give him all kindness: I had rather have Such men my friends than enemies. Go on, SCENE V.-Another part of the Field. 30 [Exeunt. Enter BRUTUS, DARDANIUS, CLITUS, STRATO, and Bru. Come, poor remains of friends, rest on this rock. Bru. Sit thee down, Clitus: slaying is the word; 5 [Whispering him. Cli. What, I, my lord? No, not for all the world. Bru. Hark thee, Dardanius! Cli. O Dardanius! Dar. O Clitus! I'll rather kill myself. [Whispers him. Shall I do such a deed? ΙΟ Cli. What ill request did Brutus make to thee? That it runs over even at his eyes. Bru. Come hither, good Volumnius; list a word. Bru. Why, this, Volumnius: The ghost of Cæsar hath appear'd to me Not so, my lord. Vol. 15 20 [Low alarums. Than tarry till they push us. Good Volumnius, 25 [Alarum still. 30 Cli. Fly, fly, my lord; there is no tarrying here. Strato, thou hast been all this while asleep; Farewell to thee too, Strato.-Countrymen, My heart doth joy that yet, in all my life, So, fare you well at once; for Brutus' tongue Night hangs upon mine eyes; my bones would rest, Cli. Fly, my lord, fly. 35 40 [Alarum. Cry within, 'Fly, fly, fly!' Hence! I will follow. [Exeunt CLI., DAR., and VOL. 45 I pr'ythee, Strato, stay thou by thy lord: Hold, then, my sword, and turn away thy face, While I do run upon it. Wilt thou, Strato? Stra. Give me your hand first: fare you well, my lord. 50 I kill'd not thee with half so good a will. [He runs on his sword, and dies. Alarum. Retreat. Enter OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, and Army; MESSALA and LUCILIUS, prisoners. Oct. What man is that? Mes. My master's man.-Strato, where is thy master? The conquerors can but make a fire of him; 55 For Brutus only overcame himself, And no man else hath honour by his death. Lucil. So Brutus should be found.-I thank thee, Brutus, That thou hast prov'd Lucilius' saying true. Oct. All that serv'd Brutus I will entertain them. 60 Fellow, wilt thou bestow thy time with me? Stra. Ay, if Messala will prefer me to you. Mes. How died my master, Strato? Stra. I held the sword, and he did run on it. 65 Mes. Octavius, then take him to follow thee, That did the latest service to my master. Ant. This was the noblest Roman of them all: All the conspirators, save only he, 70 Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar; Oct. According to his virtue, let us use him 75 80 [Exeunt. NOTES. 1. A rabble of citizens. ACT I.-SCENE I. 'Certaine commoners' is the term used by Shakespeare here in the folio 1623. It is thus a correct translation of the term plebs or plebes, which 'was used to denote those members of the community at large whose means were small, and whose station was humble. Hence by the writers who flourished during the last century of the republic and under the empire the name plebs was applied to the whole mass of poor citizens, and is frequently employed disparagingly in the sense of the mob or rabble'—W. Ramsay's Roman Antiquities, p. 66. See Rabble (Coriolanus, I, i, 222) and Rabblement (Julius Cæsar, I, ii, 242). 'It has been objected.... that Shakespeare has painted his Roman mobs like English ones, and not as the Roman people really were. After all, human nature is the same in all countries, and the uninstructed many everywhere present the same grotesque features when in action'-J. A. Heraud's Shakespeare: His Inner Life, p. 368. 2. Holiday. The Roman holidays (Festi dies) were fixed by law. As far as concerned religion and common life, they wereFasti, in which legal business could be done; Nefasti, in which the courts were closed. Fasti, or almanacs of holidays, were set up publicly for general reference, and hence the question of Flavius. 3. Mechanical-handicraftsmen ; working-men. 4. Labouring day-ordinary working day; opposed to holiday. 5. Profession-calling, trade, occupation. 8. Best apparel-holiday clothing (I, i, 49). 15. Naughty-good for nothing, worthless. 17, 18. Out with-offended at; out, worn in the shoes. 27. Neat's-leather-cow-hide. Compare-Any emperor that ever trod on neat's-leather' (Tempest, II, ii, 66). Cotgrave, under Vache, gives a cow; also neat's-leather; and Leontes says: 'The steer, the heifer, and the call, Are all called neat'-Winter's Tale, I, ii, 125, 126. 31. To see Cæsar and to rejoice in his triumph. This, the fifth and last triumph of Caius Julius Cæsar, was celebrated in October B.C. 45, in honour of his victory over Cneius and Sextus Pompey, sons of his great rival, at the battle of Munda, in Baetica, to the west of Malaga in Spain, which was fought on the Feast of Bacchus, 17th March, in that same year. 33. Wherefore rejoice? etc. "The high strain of eloquence, the true pathos, the courageous tone of Marullus' speech to the mob, should not pass unnoticed; the honest tribune does not appear again in the play, but yet these few words display a gifted intellect and a noble heart'-REV. D. MATTHIAS, M. A. 38, 43. Pompey.... great Pompey. Cneius Pompeius Magnus, son of Cneius Pompeius Strabo, was born 30th September 106 B.C.; assassinated 29th September B. C. 48. 52. In triumph over Pompey's blood-Pompey's blood descendants. 58. Sort-kind, class. Acts xvii, 5. 66. Ceremonies. The origin of this Latin word is unknown. Some connect it with curare, to care for or regard. In Latin it always signifies sacred usages, the external acts of religious service. In English it signifies external civility, or the shows of state (I, ii, 11). Here Shakespeare seems to employ it as referring to trophies, scarfs (I, ii, 281). In II, i, 197, and ii, 13, it is employed like superstitions. 68. The feast of Lupercal. The Festival of Faunus commenced on the Ides (13th) of February, and on the 15th the solemnities of the Lupercalia were celebrated. On the lastmentioned day a body of priests [who were of the best Roman families], called Luperci, assembled at the Lupercal, a sacred enclosure on the Palatine, where a sacrifice of goats and dogs was offered up. The Luperci then stripped themselves naked, threw the goat-skins over their shoulders, and, brandishing in their hands thongs cut from the hides, ran through the most frequented streets of the city, smiting all whom they encountered, especially married women, who eagerly offered themselves to receive the lash, since it was supposed to confer fertility.' At this particular Feast of Lupercal' a company of Julian flamens or priests had been raised to a dignity equal to the other priests of Pan, and therefore this festival was, in some measure, in honour of Julius Cæsar, who presided at it, seated in a golden chair set before the rostrum, transferred by him to a corner of the Forum. Hence the fear of Marullus (I, i, 67, 68) to meddle with the trophies at such a special time. 76. ‘As in so many of Shakespeare's plays, so here in a marked degree the opening scene strikes the key-note of the coming drama. We are at once introduced to a conflict of feelings and interests, the crowd sympathising with Cæsar, the tribunes with the aristocratic Pompeian party; and this is an exact representation of the whole drama in miniature-the two parties are balanced, until the decisive battle in the last act. First Cæsar is in the ascendant; then, with his assassina |