Thou seest the world, Volumnius, how it goes;

Our enemies have beat us to the pit: [Low alarums.
It is more worthy to leap in ourselves

Than tarry till they push us.

Good Volumnius, 25

Thou know'st that we two went to school together;
Even for that our love of old, I prithee,

Hold thou my sword-hilts, whilst I run on it.
Vol. That's not an office for a friend, my lord.

[Alarum still.

Cli. Fly, fly, my lord! there is no tarrying here.
Bru. Farewell to you; and you; and you, Volumnius.
Strato, thou hast been all this while asleep;
Farewell to thee too, Strato. Countrymen,
My heart doth joy that yet in all my life

30

33. thee too,

28. sword-hilts] Sword Hilts F 1, 2; Swords Hilt F 3, 4. Strato. Countrymen] Theobald; thee, to Strato, Countrymen: Ff. in] F 1; omitted in F 2, 3, 4.

22. the world,... how it goes] the present position of affairs. Compare the colloquial question "How goes the world with you?" and As You Like It, 11. vii. 23: "How the world wags." For the construction, compare III. ii. 278.

23. the pit] of destruction. "Gulf" is used in the same sense in Richard III. III. vii. 128:

"the swallowing gulf
Of blind forgetfulness and dark
oblivion,"

and Henry V. iv. iii. 82:
"For certainly thou art so near the
gulf,

Thou needs must be englutted." 26. went to school together] Brutus in Plutarch " prayed him for the studies' sake which brought them acquainted together, that he would help him to put his hand to his sword, to thrust it in him to kill him." Plutarch here refers to the studies of

34.

I found no man but he was true to me.
I shall have glory by this losing day,
More than Octavius and Mark Antony
By this vile conquest shall attain unto.

So fare you well at once; for Brutus' tongue
Hath almost ended his life's history.

35

40

Night hangs upon mine eyes; my bones would

rest,

That have but labour'd to attain this hour.

[Alarum. Cry within, "Fly, fly, fly!"

Cli. Fly, my lord, fly!

Bru.

Hence! I will follow.

[Exeunt Clitus, Dardanius, and Volumnius.

I prithee, Strato, stay thou by thy lord.
Thou art a fellow of a good respect;

Thy life hath had some smatch of honour in it:
Hold then my sword, and turn away thy face,
While I do run upon it.

35. but he] Owing to the common ellipse of the pronominal subject in this construction, "but" has come to be used as a negative relative = "who not." See II. i. 90. Brutus has not this consolation in Plutarch's Life, in which he is related to have been much distressed by the desertion of a valiant soldier called Camulatius just before the second battle. According to Plutarch, what Brutus said on this occasion was, "It rejoiceth my heart that not one of my friends hath failed me at my need," confining his reflection to his friends and to the last scene of his life.

38. vile conquest] Verity well compares Milton's description of Chæronea as a "dishonest victory."

40. Hath almost ended ] This speech will be one of the last facts of his life.

Wilt thou, Strato?

45

42. to attain this hour] It is not easy to determine whether this is an expression of satisfaction that he has crowned a virtuous life by a glorious death (see line 36), or a lament that all his labours for the right have ended in defeat and failure. In Plutarch he tells his friends, "I do not com plain of my fortune but only for my country's sake: for as for me, I think myself happier than they that have overcome, considering that I leave a perpetual fame of virtue and honesty.'

44. stay thou by thy lord] support thy lord, do not fail him. Compare 3 Henry VI. 1. i. 31.

45. of a good respect] respectable in the old sense of the word, worthy of another form ΟΙ

esteem.

46. smatch] "smack."

Stra. Give me your hand first: fare you well, my lord. Bru. Farewell, good Strato. Cæsar, now be still:

I kill'd not thee with half so good a will.

50

[He runs on his sword, and dies.

Alarum. Retreat. Enter OCTAVIUS, ANTONY,
MESSALA, LUCILIUS, and their Army.

Oct. What man is that?

Mes. My master's man. Strato, where is thy master?
Stra. Free from the bondage you are in, Messala;

The conquerors can but make a fire of him;
For Brutus only overcame himself,

55

And no man else hath honour by his death. Lucil. So Brutus should be found. I thank thee, Brutus,

That thou hast prov'd Lucilius' saying true. Oct. All that serv'd Brutus, I will entertain them.

60

Fellow, wilt thou bestow thy time with me?

Stra. Ay, if Messala will prefer me to you.

Oct. Do so, good Messala.

Mes. How died my master, Strato?

Stra. I held the sword, and he did run on it.
Mes. Octavius, then take him to follow thee,

65

That did the latest service to my master.

Ant. This was the noblest Roman of them all :
All the conspirators save only he
Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar;
He only, in a general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle, and the elements

70

So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, "This was a man!"
Oct. According to his virtue let us use him,

With all respect and rites of burial.
Within my tent his bones to-night shall lie,
Most like a soldier, order'd honourably.
So call the field to rest; and let's away,
To part the glories of this happy day.

71. He only, in] He, onely in Ff.

69. save only he] he only being excepted. "He" is a nominative absolute, and "save" is treated as an adjective or participle.

71. in a general honest thought] actuated by honourable regard for the good of the community, Compare II. i: 12. If the punctuation of the Folio is retained, the meaning is that Brutus was actuated by no other more interested motives.

75

80 [Exeunt.

and water, the proportions of which in each person were supposed to determine his character.

74. So mix'd] so harmoniously combined.

75. a man] a true man, a man really worthy of the name. Compare Hamlet, 1. ii. 187, III. iv. 62.

79. Most like a soldier] Compare Hamlet, v. ii. 407. The honourable treatment of his dead body included its being "wrapped up in one of the richest coat-armours that Antony possessed, so that

"He lay like a warrior taking his

rest

With his martial cloak around him."

80. field by metonymy for the soldiers on the field of battle.

APPENDIX

I. iii. 65. The use of "calculate" intransitively in the sense of "prophesy" is so strange and gives such unsatisfactory sense, that I am tempted to conjecture that "why" in line 65 is an emphatic interjectional expletive as it is in line 68. The meaning will then be, " If you would consider why the fires, ghosts, birds, and beasts act in such an extraordinary manner, I may tell you that the significance of these prodigies is so obvious that not only old men, but even fools and children can form an estimate of the reason why these things act contrary to their nature. You will assuredly find that the reason is that they are intended by heaven to point to an unnatural state of affairs, namely, the state of Rome under the dominion of one man grown portentously great." In support of this interpretation, it may be urged that the two preceding lines refer to prodigies already recorded, whereas the folly of old men and the prophesying of fools and children is not among the prodigies related either by Shakespeare or Plutarch, nor are they such prodigies as Shakespeare would be likely to invent and suddenly add to lines referring to prodigies recorded before. Exception may be taken to the use of "why" in a sense different from that in which it is used in the lines immediately preceding and following, but this objection would prove too much, as it would condemn the undoubtedly expletive use of "why" in line 68, where also as in line 65 "why" is not followed by a comma in the Folio.

II. i. 177: seem to chide. Mr. Marshall in Irving's edition of Shakespeare says that here Brutus "is advising a course of deliberate hypocrisy; the conspirators are to try and entrap the sympathies of the people by commit