Bru. Lucius, a bowl of wine. [Exit Lucius. Cas. I did not think you could have been so angry. Cas. Of your philosophy you make no use If you give place to accidental evils. 145 Bru. No man bears sorrow better: Portia is dead. Cas. Ha! Portia ! Bru. She is dead. Cas. How 'scap'd I killing when I cross'd you so? 150 Upon what sickness? Bru. Impatient of my absence, And grief that young Octavius with Mark Antony Have made themselves so strong; for with her death 151. Impatient] Ff, Impatience Capell. 144. your philosophy] Brutus, being a philosopher, should not have been moved by any accidental evil. Compare what the prince says to the philosopher in the eighteenth chapter of Rasselas: "Have you then forgot the precepts which you so powerfully enforced? Has wisdom no strength to arm the heart against calamity?" In both cases the precepts of philosophy are disregarded under the stress of a great domestic calamity. 145. give place] yield. 149. How 'scap'd I killing] A contributor (C. Forbes) to Notes and Queries, 28th September 1850, finds in this line recognition of the fact that a man may be, in the words of Petronius, "dolore in rabiem efferatus." He well compares Romeo and Juliet, v. iii. 33-39, 59-67, and the mad fury with which Mucklebackit flings the hammer at his boat in Scott's Antiquary, chapter xxxiv. To these illustrations we may add Taming of the Shrew, Ind. ii. 135: "And melancholy is the nurse of frenzy." 151.] The emotion of Brutus is indicated by the confusion of the syntax. The adjective "impatient" is coupled with "grief," as if it had been the abstract term "impatience," which it suggests. Compare Cymbeline, v. v. 343, "Beaten for loyalty excited me to treason,' "where the participle is regarded as equivalent to the fact of having been beaten and is made the subject of the verb "excited." "Grief" is left absolute owing to a change of construction after the parenthesis. Compare note on I. iii. 128. 153. Have] because in sense the subject is plural. Compare line 114. 153. with her death] with the tidings of her death. That tidings came; with this she fell distract, 155 Bru. Even so. Cas. O ye immortal gods! Re-enter LUCIUS with wine and tapers. Bru. Speak no more of her. Give me a bowl of wine: In this I bury all unkindness, Cassius. Cas. My heart is thirsty for that noble pledge. 160 [Exit Lucius. Re-enter TITINIUS with MESSALA. Welcome, good Messala. Now sit we close about this taper here, And call in question our necessities. Cas. Portia, art thou gone? Bru. No more, I pray you. 165 Messala, I have here received letters, That young Octavius and Mark Antony Come down upon us with a mighty power, Bending their expedition toward Philippi. Mes. Myself have letters of the self-same tenour. 154. tidings] though really a plural, is here treated as a singular noun. Compare the use of "news," which has almost lost its plural signification. "Tidings" is plural in v. iii. 54. 154. with this] sums up the double cause of her distraction, which might not be clearly remembered after the interruption of the parenthesis. 170 161. of Brutus' love] Compare the term "loving cup." Cassius, in the language of Burns, wished to "tak' a richt guid willie waught." 164. call in question] inquire into, discuss. We still speak of the subject of inquiry as being "in question." Bru. With what addition? Mes. That by proscription and bills of outlawry, Have put to death an hundred senators. Bru. Therein our letters do not well agree; By their proscriptions, Cicero being one. Cas. Cicero one! Mes. Cicero is dead, And by that order of proscription. 175 Had you your letters from your wife, my lord? 180 Bru. No, Messala. Mes. Nor nothing in your letters writ of her? Bru. Nothing, Messala. Mes. Bru. Why ask you? Mes. No, my lord. That, methinks, is strange. Hear you aught of her in yours? 185 Bru. Now, as you are a Roman, tell me true. For certain she is dead, and by strange manner. I have the patience to endure it now. Mes. Even so great men great losses should endure. 176. seventy senators] This discrepancy gives verisimilitude to the scene. Compare the conflicting tidings of the number of the Turkish fleet that came to the different senators in Othello, I. iii. 177. Cicero being one] "and among that number Cicero was one" (North's Plutarch). Skeat points this out as a remarkable instance of Shakespeare's verbal adherence to his original. 190 182. Nor nothing] It is almost impossible to account for this lie, by which Brutus makes Messala think that he had not already heard of his wife's death, and so gets more credit for stoicism than he really deserves. See Appendix. 190. once] some time. Compare Merry Wives, 111. iv. 103: "I pray thee, once to-night Give my sweet Nan this ring.' Cas. I have as much of this in art as you, But yet my nature could not bear it so. Bru. Well, to our work alive. What do you think 195 Of marching to Philippi presently? So shall he waste his means, weary his soldiers, Bru. Good reasons must, of force, give place to better. Do stand but in a forc'd affection; For they have grudg'd us contribution: 205 The enemy, marching along by them, By them shall make a fuller number up, Come on refresh'd, new-added, and encourag'd; From which advantage shall we cut him off, 210 208. new-added] Capell, new added Ff, new aided Singer, new-aided Dyce. 193. this] philosophic self-restraint and mastery of the feelings. 193. in art] theoretically as opposed to "in practice." For the way in which nature in the excitement of passion and action refuses to obey the conclusions arrived at by the intellect in hours of calm meditation, compare Portia's remark in the Merchant of Venice, I. ii. 20: "The brain may devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper o'erleaps a cold decree," and Horace's "Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret." 195. to our work alive] "let us proceed to our living business, to that These people at our back. Cas. Hear me, good brother. Our legions are brim-full, our cause is ripe : 215 We, at the height, are ready to decline. There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Cas. Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat; And we must take the current when it serves, 220 Then, with your will, go on; 225 We'll along ourselves, and meet them at Philippi. Bru. The deep of night is crept upon our talk, And nature must obey necessity, 212. Under your pardon] excuse me, allow me to proceed. 217. There is a tide] The idea without the metaphor appears in Beaumont and Fletcher's Custom of the Country: taken in their due time are seldom recovered." 219. Omitted] if the opportunity is neglected. 220. in shallows and in miseries] in shallows, that is to say, miseries. "There is an hour in each man's For the close combination of meta life appointed To make his happiness, if then he Skeat compares Chaucer's Troilus "For to every wight some good Some time is shape, if he can it which is again traceable to Boccaccio's phorical and non-metaphorical terms, compare I. ii. 34. 223. ventures] merchandise risked in trade, as in Merchant of Venice, I. i. 15, 21, 42. 223. with your will, go on] let us go on as you wish. Cassius yields rather than risk a second quarrel with Brutus. 226. necessity] For the necessity of rest, compare Henry VIII. v. i. 2: "These should be hours for necessities, not for delights; times to repair our nature with comforting repose, and not for us to waste those times." |