Bru. He is addressed1: press near, and second him.
Cin. Casca, you are the first that rears your hand.2
Casca. Are we all ready?3

Cæs.

What is now amiss,

That Cæsar, and his senate, must redress?

Met. Most high, most mighty, and most puissant Cæsar, Metellus Cimber throws before thy seat

An humble heart:

Cæs.

I must prevent thee, Cimber.
These couchings, and these lowly courtesies,
Might fire the blood of ordinary men 5;
And turn pre-ordinance and first decree

Into the law of children.

1 Addressed.] Ready, just tarch, 30.

Be not fond",

going to do so. See Extr. from Plu

2 That rears your hand.] Your is here perhaps a grammatical mistake for his; but it is not improper rhetorically, being attracted by the speaker's natural desire to use words of direct address. So in Milton, P. L. i. 84, 'If thou beest he who didst outshine.' Some suggest as another mode of grammatical correction, 'You are the first that rear your hand;' this, however, is only another form of error, unless the meaning were, 'You that rear your hand are the first;' (see note 1, p. 104;) for the word first, and all nouns or pronouns similarly following the expression you are, must be regarded as of the third person. See the Editor's 'Text-book of Gram.' p. 107, § 9.

3 Are we all ready?] In some editions these words are assigned to Cæsar; in others, the following words of Cæsar are made a continuation of this speech of Casca.

* Couchings.] Appearances of tameness, as shown by animals couching or lying down. The supposition that Shakspeare wrote crouchings is needless.

Might fire the blood.] Stimulate the temper, excite the feelings, stir the heart.

And turn pre-ordinance.] And make what has been previously arranged and decreed no better than the determination of a child; as uncertain as the wills, unsettled as the minds, of children.

"Be not fond.] Do not fondly or weakly imagine that Cæsar's

To think that Cæsar bears such rebel blood,
That will be thawed from the true quality

With that which melteth fools; I mean sweet words,
Low crooked curtsies1, and base spaniel fawning.
Thy brother by decree is banished :

If thou dost bend2, and pray, and fawn, for him,
I spurn thee like a cur out of my way.

Know, Cæsar doth not wrong3: nor without cause
Will he be satisfied.

Met. Is there no voice more worthy than my own,
To sound more sweetly in great Cæsar's ear,
For the repealing4 of my banished brother?

Bru. I kiss thy hand, but not in flattery 5, Cæsar;
Desiring thee that Publius Cimber may

Have an immediate freedom of repeal.6

Caes. What, Brutus ! 7

Cas.

Pardon, Cæsar; Cæsar, pardon :

disposition is so ready to turn against what it has once approved, that it may be relaxed from the proper temper by that which softens the hearts of fools.

1 Crooked curtsies.] Bendings of the knee. So in Hamlet, iii. 2, 'Let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, and crook the pregnant hinges of the knee, where thrift may follow fawning.' The correction crouched, for crooked, is unnecessary.

2 If thou dost bend.] If your present suppliant posture is in be

half of him.

3 Cæsar doth not wrong.] Cæsar wrongs no one, nor will anything but a just cause, any entreaties when the cause is not in itself a just one, satisfy his mind.

Repealing.] Here used in its original sense of recalling.

5 But not in flattery.] This is said because of Cæsar's previous denouncement of flattery.

6 Freedom of repeal. The adjective phrase of repeal is meant to describe the freedom as consisting in the brother's recall.

"What, Brutus!] For shame, Brutus !

As low as to thy foot doth Cassius fall,

To beg enfranchisement for Publius Cimber.

Cæs. I could be well moved, if I were as you;
If I could pray to move, prayers would move me1;
But I am constant? as the northern star,
Of whose true-fixed and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.3

The skies are painted with unnumbered sparks,
They are all fire, and every one doth shine;
But there's but one in all doth hold his place1:
So, in the world: 'Tis furnished well with men 5,
And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive";
Yet, in the number, I do know but one
That unassailable holds on his rank,

Unshaked of motion": and, that I am he,

Let me a little show it,

even in this,

That I was constant Cimber should be banished,
And constant do remain to keep him so.8

1 If I could pray to move:] If I could feel so dependent as to beg any one to yield to me, I myself might be disposed to yield to the solicitations of others.

2 But I am constant.] But I am ever the same. 'Always I am Cæsar.' Act i. sc. 2.

3 Of whose true-fixed, &c.] There is no other having such a determinate position and stationary character as the polar star.

▲ Hold his place.] His for its; not personification. There is but one that always occupies the same position.

• Furnished well.] Amply stocked with men, as the sky with

stars.

• Flesh and blood.] As the stars are all fire, so men have all one general nature; they are flesh and blood, and endowed with reason. "Holds on his rank.] Maintains his station, resisting all attempts to move him.

8 I was constant.] I was firm in the determination that Cimber should be banished, and continue firm in the determination, &c.

JULIUS CESAR.

Hence! wilt thou lift up Olympus?

Dec. Great Cæsar,

Cœs.

73

Doth not Brutus bootless kneel?1

Casca. Speak, hands, for me.2

[CASCA stabs CESAR in the neck. CESAR catches hold of his arm. He is then stabbed by several other Conspirators, and at last by MARCUS BRUTUS.

Cæs. Et tu, Brute ? 3- Then, fall, Cæsar!

[Dies. The senators and people retire in confusion. Cin. Liberty! Freedom ! 4-Tyranny is dead! Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets. Cas. Some to the common pulpits, and cry out, Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement!

Bru. People, and senators!5 be not affrighted; Fly not; stand still: -ambition's debt is paid. Casca. Go to the pulpit, Brutus.

Dec.

Bru. Where's Publius?

And Cassius, too.

Cin. Here, quite confounded with this mutiny.

Met. Stand fast together, lest some friend of Cæsar's Should chance

1 Bootless kneel.] Doth not even Brutus kneel in vain? How then can you expect to prevail?

2 Speak, hands.] Their tongues have no power to prevail; let my hands speak instead of my tongue.

3 Et tu, Brute?] These Latin words mean 'Thou too, Brutus ? ' The exclamation has no direct authority in ancient history, though it is found in some dramatic productions of the sixteenth century. There is, however, a Greek exclamation, somewhat similar, recorded by Suetonius as said to have been uttered by Cæsar on this occasion, 'Kai su, teknon,' Thou too, my son.

4 Liberty, freedom.]

the thought.

5

A synonymous reiteration, to enforce

People, and senators.] See Extracts from Plutarch, 32.

E

Bru. Talk not of standing;- Publius, good cheer1; There is no harm intended to your person,

Nor to no Roman else: so tell them, Publius.

Cas. And leave us, Publius; lest that the people, Rushing on us, should do your age some mischief. and let no man abide this deed 2

Bru. Do so; But we the doers.

Tre. Fled to his house amazed:

Men, wives, and children stare, cry out, and run,
As it were doomsday.

Bru. Fates! we will know your pleasures 4:-
That we shall die, we know: 't is but the time,
And drawing days out, that men stand upon.5

Casca. Why, he that cuts off twenty years of life Cuts off so many years of fearing death.

Bru. Grant that, and then is death a benefit :

1 Publius, good cheer.] Cheer from the Italian ciéra, (c pronounced as tsh,) originally means look or countenance; and to be of good cheer is to look pleasant, or, as we say, cheerful. In Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2, Oberon says, 'All fancy-sick she is, and pale of cheer.' Publius Silicius was afterwards proscribed by Octavius, for shedding tears on hearing judicial process issued against Brutus.

2 Abide this deed.] Stand or incur the consequences, the penalty of this deed. See Extracts from Plutarch, 36.

3 Where is Antony?] Cassius asks this of Trebonius, who had drawn Antony out of the way.

We will know.] We will make you show what you have decreed

for us.

5 The time.] It is only the time of death's arrival, and the prolongation of life, that men are solicitous about.

6 Grant that.] Grant that a man's life is made unhappy by fear of death. Brutus means that this in many instances is not the case. See Cæsar's Speech, Act ii. sc. 2, 'Cowards die many times,' &c.