ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

To stale with ordinary oaths my love

To every new protester; if you know

That I do fawn on men and hug them hard,
And after scandal them; or if you know
That I profess myself in banqueting
To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.

[blocks in formation]

75

[Flourish and shout.

means this shouting? I do fear the

Choose Cæsar for their king.

Ay, do you fear it?

Then must I think you would not have it so. 80

Bru. I would not, Cassius; yet I love him well.

But wherefore do you hold me here so long?
What is it that you would impart to me?
If it be aught toward the general good,
Set honour in one eye and death i' the other,

Shakespeariana that "talker" is the true reading. "Talker" occurs in three other passages, in all of which it is used as a term of blame, while "laugher" is found nowhere else in Shakespeare's plays. Also a talker ("a fleering tell-tale," iii. 117) would be more dangerous in a conspiracy than a laugher. On the other hand, "He seldom smiles" (line 202), gives some support to the reading "laugher."

72. stale] here, as in IV. i. 38, is a verb meaning "make common or worthless." The adjective "stale" is connected with "stall," a standing place, and expresses the fact that meat or drink kept long standing in one place loses its savour. "Stale" meaning "a decoy" is a different word connected with "steal." 73. every

new protester] every

85

successive person that solemnly declares his love for me. Compare Troilus and Cressida, III. ii. 182. where lovers' rhymes are described as "Full of protest, of oath and big compare."

"

74. Brutus was not like Casca. See line 2.

75. after scandal] afterwards defame.

76. profess myself] make profession of friendship. Compare Othello, I. iii. 342, "I have professed me thy friend."

77. then] in that case, if these conditions are fulfilled. Cassius means that, as these conditions are not fulfilled, he is not to be considered dangerous.

85. Set honour, etc.] Honour requires him to promote the public good, and the fear of death will not

And I will look on both indifferently;
For let the gods so speed me as I love
The name of honour more than I fear death.
Cas. I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,

As well as I do know your outward favour.
Well, honour is the subject of my story.
I cannot tell what you and other men
Think of this life; but for my single self,
I had as lief not be as live to be
In awe of such a thing as I myself.

I was born free as Cæsar; so were you :
We both have fed as well, and we can both
Endure the winter's cold as well as he:

For once, upon a raw and gusty day,
The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores,
Cæsar said to me, "Dar'st thou, Cassius, now
Leap in with me into this angry flood,

[blocks in formation]

00

95

100

Upon the

86. both] Ff, death Theobald.

F 4.

101. said] saide F 1; saies F 2, 3; says

deter him from following honour. He can contemplate indifferently (i.e. composedly, with equanimity) "an enterprise of honourable-dangerous consequence" (iii. 124), because his love of honour is stronger than his fear of death.

86. both] honour and death_together, a course of action prescribed by honour and leading to death.

90. outward favour] looks. Compare "ill-favoured," ""well-favoured" and the provincial use of "favour" for "resemble in appearance."

95. such a thing as I myself]namely, Cæsar, who was only a man as Cassius

himself was. "Thing" has a contemptuous sense when applied to persons.

99. once] This incident is not to be found in Plutarch or Suetonius; but both these writers relate how Cæsar saved his life and his Commentaries by swimming in the harbour of Alexandria, from which it is clear that he was a good swimmer.

100. chafing] Compare pontem indignatus Araxes, Eneid, viii. 728.

100. her] See note on i. 50.

Accoutred as I was, I plunged in

And bade him follow; so indeed he did.
The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it
With lusty sinews, throwing it aside
And stemming it with hearts of controversy;
But ere we could arrive the point propos'd,
Cæsar cried "Help me, Cassius, or I sink."

I, as Æneas, our great ancestor,

Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder

105

110

The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber
Did I the tired Cæsar. And this man

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

115

How he did shake; 'tis true, this god did shake; 120
His coward lips did from their colour fly,

104. accoutred] F 1; accounted F 2, 3, 4.

104. In like manner Horatius in Macaulay's lay:

"With his harness on his back

Plunged headlong in the tide." 108. hearts of controversy] emulous, combative hearts. Compare "man of valour" (valiant man). They had to contend not only against each other, but also against the strong current.

109. arrive] used transitively as in P. L. ii. 409.

111. as Eneas] See Eneid, ii. 721. This comparison occurs also in 2 Henry VI. v. ii. 63. Æneas was considered to be the ancestor of the Romans generally, on which account they were poetically called Æneade, descendants of Æneas. The Julian Gens especially claimed descent from Iulus or Julus, the son of Æneas.

121. coward] used adjectivally. Compare I. i. 63, and for the inversion compare

[ocr errors]

The eyes fly from their lights." Lucrece, 461. "To wring the widow from her customed right."

2 Henry VI. v. i. 188. "This Gloster should be quickly rid this world."

2 Henry VI. III. i. 233. "You to your former honour I bequeath."

As You Like It, v. iv. 192; and other instances collected in the Appendix to Schmidt's Lexicon. Many such inversions will be found pointed out in Conington's Virgil, e.g. Eneid, vi. 229. Compare also Electra, 119, Medea, 35. No doubt, in this

Bru.

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
Mark him and write his speeches in their books, 125
"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,
And bear the palm alone.

[Shout. Flourish. Another general shout! 130

I do believe that these applauses are

For some new honours that are heap'd on Cæsar. Cas. Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus; and we petty men

instance, as suggested by Steevens, the inversion is prompted by the desire to play on the word "colour," which in the plural means a flag. This enables Shakespeare by a conceit to compare the eyes to cowardly soldiers deserting their colours. The same play upon words is found in Lucrece,476-481, and in Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond: "And nought-respecting death, the

last of pains,

[ocr errors]

Placed his pale colours, the ensign of his might, Upon his new-got spoil before his right. 122. bend] look, glance, as in Antony and Cleopatra, II. ii. 213: "made their bends adornings.' "Bent" is used in this sense in Henry V. v. ii. 16 and Troilus and Cressida, IV. v. 282. In Hamlet, v. i. 238, dead Cæsar is called "earth which kept the world in awe."

123. his] the neuter possessive. See Abbott, 228. "Its" is rare in Shakespeare, occurs thrice in Milton's poetry, and never in the Authorised Version of the Bible.

124. that tongue of his] This doubly marked genitive appears to be due to the confusion of two constructions, "that his tongue" and "that tongue of him."

125. books] writing tablets.

126. Alas] had best be put in inverted commas as Cæsar's exclamasion of distress and weakness. If it is not reported speech, then it expresses Cassius' ironical affectation of sorrowful surprise at Cæsar's weak

ness.

129. get the start of ] outstrip in the competition for power, honour, and glory.

133. Why, man] Here Cassius in his excitement adopts a tone of familiar expostulation.

133. narrow] is proleptic. Cæsar makes the world seem narrow by bestriding it.

134. a Colossus] Shakespeare is thinking of the famous Colossus at Rhodes, which was popularly sup posed to bestride the entrance of the harbour so that ships could sail under its huge legs.

Walk under his huge legs, and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates:

135

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

Brutus and Cæsar: what should be in that

"Cæsar"?

140

Why should that name be sounded more than

yours?

Write them together, yours is as fair a name;

Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well;
Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with 'em,
"Brutus " will start a spirit as soon as " Cæsar." 145
Now, in the names of all the gods at once,

Upon what meat doth this our Cæsar feed,
That he is grown so great? Age, thou art sham'd!

137. masters of their fates] Compare IV. iii. 217, and the song of Fortune in Enid: "For man is man and master of his fate."

138. The fault, etc.] Compare Edmund's reflections in Lear, 1. ii.: "This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune (often the surfeit of our own behaviour) we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars"; and Odyssey, i. 32-34. The use of "ill-starred" and "disastrous" in the sense of "unfortunate" gives evidence of the prevalence of this tendency.

139. underlings] in a position of inferiority. "Underling" is formed by adding the diminutive termination "ling" to "under."

140. what should be] This is the interrogative use of the inferential "should," which we find in such sentences as Othello, IV. i. 148: "By

[blocks in formation]
« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »