The New Hudson Shakespeare · William Shakespeare
SCENE II. _A public place_
_Enter_ CÆSAR; ANTONY, _for the course_; CALPURNIA, PORTIA, DECIUS, CICERO, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, _and_ CASCA; _a great crowd following, among them a_ Soothsayer. CÆSAR. Calpurnia! CASCA. Peace, ho! Cæsar speaks. CÆSAR. Calpurnia! CALPURNIA. Here, my lord. CÆSAR. Stand you directly in Antonius' way, When he doth run his course. Antonius! ANTONY. Cæsar, my lord? 5 CÆSAR. Forget not, in your speed, Antonius, To touch Calpurnia; for our elders say, The barren, touched in this holy chase, Shake off their sterile curse. ANTONY. I shall remember: When Cæsar says 'Do this,' it is perform'd. 10 [Note: SCENE ... _place_ | Ff omit.] [Note 3: /Antonius'/ Pope | Antonio's Ff.] [Note 4, 6: /Antonius/ Pope | Antonio Ff (and so elsewhere).] [Note 3: /Antonius'./ The 'Antonio's' of the Folios is the Italian form with which both actors and audience would be more familiar. So in IV, iii, 102, the Folios read "dearer than Pluto's (i.e. Plutus') mine." Antonius was at this time Consul, as Cæsar himself also was. Each Roman _gens_ had its own priesthood, and also its peculiar religious rites. The priests of the Julian gens (so named from Iulus the son of Æneas) had lately been advanced to the same rank with those of the god Lupercus; and Antony was at this time at their head. It was probably as chief of the Julian Luperci that he officiated on this occasion, stripped, as the old stage direction has it, "for the course."]
CASSIUS. Will you go see the order of the course? 25 [Note 11: [Flourish] Ff omit.] [Note 25: Scene III Pope.] [Note 18: /the Ides of March:/ March 15th.] [Note 19: Coleridge has a remark on this line, which, whether true to the subject or not, is very characteristic of the writer: "If my ear does not deceive me, the metre of this line was meant to express that sort of mild philosophic contempt, characterizing Brutus even in his first casual speech."--/soothsayer./ By derivation, 'truth teller.'] [Note 24: /Sennet./ This is an expression occurring repeatedly in old stage directions. It is of uncertain origin (but cf. 'signature' in musical notation) and denotes a peculiar succession of notes on a trumpet, used, as here, to signal the march of a procession.] [Page 11] BRUTUS. Not I. CASSIUS. I pray you, do. BRUTUS. I am not gamesome: I do lack some part Of that quick spirit that is in Antony. Let me not hinder, Cassius, your desires; 30 I'll leave you. CASSIUS. Brutus, I do observe you now of late: I have not from your eyes that gentleness And show of love as I was wont to have: You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand 35 Over your friend that loves you. [Note 36: /friend/ F1 | Friends F2 F3.]
CASSIUS. Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your passion; By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations. 50 Tell me, good Brutus, can you see your face? BRUTUS. No, Cassius; for the eye sees not itself But by reflection, by some other things. [Note 52-53: Three irregular lines in Ff.] [Note 52: /itself/ | it selfe F1 | himselfe F2 | himself, F3 | himself: F4.] [Note 53: /by some/ Ff | from some Pope.] [Note 39: /Merely:/ altogether, entirely. So in _The Tempest_, I, i, 59.] [Note 40: /passions of some difference:/ conflicting emotions.] [Note 41: /only proper to myself:/ belonging exclusively to myself.] [Note 42: /give some soil to:/ to a certain extent tarnish.--/behaviours./ Shakespeare often uses abstract nouns in the plural. This usage is common in Carlyle. Here, however, and elsewhere in Shakespeare, as in _Much Ado about Nothing_, II, iii, 100, the plural 'behaviours' may be regarded as denoting the particular acts which make up what we call 'behavior.' See Clar.] [Note 48: /mistook./ The _en_ of the termination of the past participle of strong verbs is often dropped, and when the resulting word might be mistaken for the infinitive, the form of the past tense is frequently substituted.--/passion./ Shakespeare uses 'passion' for any feeling, sentiment, or emotion, whether painful or pleasant. So in _Henry V_, II, ii. 132: "Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger."]
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 115 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 120 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 125 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 130 And bear the palm alone. [_Shout. Flourish_] BRUTUS. Another general shout! I do believe that these applauses are For some new honours that are heap'd on Cæsar. [Note 94: /for/ F1 | omitted in F2 F3 F4.] [Note 101: /chafing/ F1 F4 | chasing F2 F3.] [Note 102: /said/ | saide F1 | saies F2 F3.]
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.