The New Hudson Shakespeare · William Shakespeare
SCENE I. _The plains of Philippi_
_Enter_ OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, _and their_ Army OCTAVIUS. Now, Antony, our hopes are answered: You said the enemy would not come down, But keep the hills and upper regions. It proves not so: their battles are at hand; They mean to warn us at Philippi here, 5 Answering before we do demand of them. ANTONY. Tut, I am in their bosoms, and I know Wherefore they do it: they could be content To visit other places, and come down With fearful bravery, thinking by this face 10 To fasten in our thoughts that they have courage; But 'tis not so. [Note _The plains of Philippi_: Capell | The Fields of Philippi, with the two Camps Rowe | Ff omit.] [Note 4: /battles:/ troops, battalions. 'Battle' was used for an 'army,' especially an army embattled, or ordered in battle array. The plural is here used with historical correctness, as Brutus and Cassius had each an army; the two armies of course coöperating, and acting together as one. Cf. 'battle' in l. 16 and 'battles' in V, iii, 108.] [Note 5: /warn:/ summon to fight. Cf. _King John_, II, i, 201. In _Richard III_, I, iii, 39, we have "warn them to his royal presence."] [Note 7: /am in their bosoms:/ am familiar with their intention.] [Note 10: /bravery:/ bravado, defiance. The epithet 'fearful' probably means that fear is behind the attempt to intimidate by display and brag. Dr. Wright interprets 'bravery' as 'ostentation,' 'display.']
ANTONY. No, Cæsar, we will answer on their charge. Make forth; the generals would have some words. 25 OCTAVIUS. Stir not until the signal. BRUTUS. Words before blows: is it so, countrymen? OCTAVIUS. Not that we love words better, as you do. 28 BRUTUS. Good words are better than bad strokes, Octavius. ANTONY. In your bad strokes, Brutus, you give good words. Witness the hole you made in Cæsar's heart, Crying, 'Long live! hail, Cæsar!' CASSIUS. Antony, The posture of your blows are yet unknown; But, for your words, they rob the Hybla bees, And leave them honeyless. 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, TITINIUS ... | 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.]
CASSIUS. Then, if we lose this battle, You are contented to be led in triumph Thorough the streets of Rome? 110 [Note 102: /By/ F1 | Be F2.] [Note 110: /Thorough/ | Thorow F1 F2 | Through F3 F4 | Along Pope.--/Rome?/ Theobald | Rome Ff.] [Note 111: Two lines in Ff.] [Note 105-106: /prevent The time:/ anticipate the full, natural period. To the understanding of this speech, it must be observed that the sense of the words, 'arming myself,' etc., follows next after the words, 'which he did give himself.' In this passage, as Dr. Wright (Clar.) has pointed out, Shakespeare was misled by an error in North's version of Amyot's Plutarch, where we have _feis_ (= _fis_) translated as if it were from _fier_: "Brutus answered him, being yet but a young man, and not over greatly experienced in the world; 'I trust (I know not how) a certain rule of philosophy, by the which I did greatly blame ... Cato for killing himself, as being no lawful nor godly act, touching the gods; nor, concerning men, valiant: but, being now in the midst of the danger, I am of a contrary mind.'"--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_. Wright, in his note on this passage, shows how the true meaning is obscured by bad printing and punctuation. Brutus's answer begins really with, 'Being yet but a young man'; and 'I trust' is evidently a past tense (Old English 'truste') which must have been read by Shakespeare as the present.]
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.