THE TRAGEDY OF JULIUS CÆSAR

FLAVIUS and MARULLUS, tribunes

ARTEMIDORUS of Cnidos, a teacher of Rhetoric

SCENE: Rome; the neighborhood of Sardis; the neighborhood of

Philippi

THE TRAGEDY OF

JULIUS CAESAR

ACT FIRST

SCENE I

Rome. A street.

Enter Flavius, Marullus, and certain Commoners.

Flav. Hence! home, you idle creatures, get you home:

Is this a holiday? what! know you not,
Being mechanical, you ought not walk
Upon a laboring day without the sign

Of your profession? Speak, what trade art

thou?

First Com. Why, sir, a carpenter.

Mar. Where is thy leather apron and thy rule?
What dost thou with thy best apparel on?
You, sir, what trade are you?

9

Sec. Com. Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but, as you would say, a cobbler.

Mar. But what trade art thou? answer me directly.

3. "you ought not walk,” etc.; a regulation borrowed from English trade-guilds.-C. H. H.

1

Sec. Com. A trade, sir, that, I hope, I may use with a safe conscience; which is indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles.

Mar. What trade, thou knave? thou naughty knave, what trade?

Sec. Com. Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me: yet, if you be out, sir, I can mend you.

Mar. What mean'st thou by that? mend me, 20 thou saucy fellow!

Sec. Com. Why, sir, cobble you.

Flav. Thou art a cobbler, art thou?

Sec. Com. Truly, sir, all that I live by is with
the awl: I meddle with no tradesman's mat-
ters, nor women's matters, but with awl. I
am indeed, sir, a surgeon to old shoes; when
they are in great danger, I re-cover them.
As proper men as ever trod upon neats-
leather have gone upon my handiwork.
Flav. But wherefore art not in thy shop to-day?
Why dost thou lead these men about the
streets?

Sec. Com. Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes, to
get myself into more work. But indeed, sir,
we make holiday, to see Cæsar and to rejoice
in his triumph.

Mar. Wherefore rejoice?

he home?

30

What conquest brings

What tributaries follow him to Rome,

26. "with awl. I"; Ff., "withal I"; the correction was made by Farmer.-I. G.

38-61. Campbell makes a brief criticism on this passage, so just and so genial, that it ought always to go with the play: "It is evi