He was quick mettle when he went to school. Cas. So is he now in execution Of any bold or noble enterprise, However he puts on this tardy form. This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit, Which gives men stomach to digest his words Bru. And so it is. For this time I will leave you: 305 310 [Exit Brutus. Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see, 301. mettle] stands for "of mettle or "mettled," but there is no reason to follow Collier's MS. corrector and alter it into "mettled." This use of the abstract for the concrete, which Masson calls the Miltonic ellipse, is common in Shakespeare and Milton. Compare 1. i. 5, P. L. i. 285, and Othello, v. ii. 253: "It is a sword of Spain, the ice-brook's temper." 304. tardy form] appearance of sluggishness. 306. digest] the spelling of the third and fourth Folio, is to be preferred, as the first Folio also spells the word in this way in IV. iii. 47. 312. the world] sc. and how it is enslaved by Cæsar. Compare 129, 133. 313. thou] Here Cassius uses the familiar "thou" in addressing the absent Brutus, whom he addresses 315 314. mettle] F1; metall F 2 ; metal F 3, 4. when present as "you," except in the rhetorical passage IV. iii. 102-106. 314. Thy honourable mettle] thy noble disposition may by association with those who are not noble be altered so as to act contrary to its nature. Here, as in i. 62, the comparison implied in the application of the term "mettle" or "metal" to the disposition is present to the consciousness of the speaker. Shakespeare is thinking of the attempts of the alchemists to transmute base metals by taking away their natural qualities and superinducing on them the qualities of gold. For the spelling of the word, see note on i. 66. 315. From that it is dispos'd] from that (to which) it is disposed. For the ellipse of the relative compare II. i. 309, IV. iii. 64. For who so firm that cannot be seduc'd ? Cæsar doth bear me hard; but he loves Brutus : He should not humour me. I will this night, 320 In several hands, in at his windows throw, Writings all tending to the great opinion That Rome holds of his name; wherein obscurely Cæsar's ambition shall be glanced at: And after this let Cæsar seat him sure; 325 For we will shake him, or worse days endure. [Exit. 317. who so firm that] a blending of two constructions, "who is there that" and "who so firm that he." 318. doth bear me hard] regards me with ill-will, bears me a grudge. The phrase occurs again in II. i. 215, and in III. i. 157. 319. If I were Brutus, etc.] Johnson is undoubtedly right in his interpretation of this passage. The meaning is that, if Brutus and Cassius were to change places and Cassius became the object of Cæsar's love, then Cassius would not be perverted from his principles by Cæsar's affection as Brutus was. In the Earl of Sterline's Julius Casar Cassius regards Cæsar's favour as likely to pervert Brutus, and says: "Lest of his favour thou the poison prove From swallowing of such baits in time now spare." According to Plutarch, Cassius' friends prayed Brutus to "beware of Cæsar's sweet enticements and to fly his tyrannical favours, the which they said Cæsar gave him, not to honour his virtue, but to weaken his constant mind." Warburton explains the passage as meaning "If I were Brutus and Brutus Cassius, he should not cajole me as I do him." This interpretation, which commends itself to Craik, Aldis Wright, and Verity, is based on a misconception of the character of Cassius. If we adopt it, we should have to regard Cassius in line 314 as cynically contemplating the perversion of the noble disposition of Brutus, and as recognising his own ignobility. Cassius is not so high minded as Brutus. He is somewhat unscrupulous in his use of means, and his conduct is no doubt partly influenced by personal feelings of envy. But he is not a villain conscious of his villainy like Richard III. (Richard III. 1. i. 30) and Iago (Othello, I. iii. 399; II. i. 321). He really has a high opinion of his own uprightness, and regards himself as a true patriot. 321. hands] handwritings, as in Hamlet, IV. vii. 52: "Know you the hand? 'Tis Hamlet's character." 324. his name] because a great deal of the honour paid to Brutus was due to his having the same name as the ancient Brutus. 327 worse days] because, as was generally recognised, the failure of a plot against a tyrant made his rule more tyrannical. Hume remarks in his Principles of Morals that tyrannicide was highly extolled in ancient times, but, history and experience having since convinced us that this 66 SCENE III.-The Same. A Street. Thunder and lightning. Enter, from opposite sides, Cic. Good even, Casca: brought you Cæsar home? Why are you breathless? and why stare you so? Casca. Are not you mov'd, when all the sway of earth Shakes like a thing unfirm? O Cicero ! I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds Have riv'd the knotty oaks; and I have seen The ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam, To be exalted with the threat'ning clouds: But never till to night, never till now, Did I go through a tempest dropping fire. 10. tempest dropping fire] tempest-dropping-fire Ff. practice increases the jealousy and cruelty of princes, a Timoleon and a Brutus, though treated with indulgence on account of the prejudices of their times, are now considered as very improper models for imitation." Notice the rhymed couplet here at the end of a scene and in v. v. 80, 81 at the end of the play. As Abbott remarks, sec. 515, "Rhyme was often used as an effective termination at the end of the scene. When the scenery was not changed, or the arrangements were so defective that the change was not easily perceptible, it was, perhaps, additionally desirable to mark that a scene was finished." Scene III. 1. brought you] did you conduct? 3. sway of earth] "the balanced swing of earth," according to Craik; "the whole weight or momentum of this globe," according to Johnson. Compare King John, 11. i. 575: "The world who of itself is peised well." Perhaps Shakespeare wrote "this 5 IO weight of earth," and, owing to the 5. scolding winds] This supports 6. knotty] implies hardness. Com. pare Troilus and Cressida, 1. iii. 50, and 316: "Blunt wedges rive hard knots." 10. a tempest dropping fire] "fires in the element," North's Plutarch. The expression vividly suggests showers of meteors such as were seen in England in November 1866. Either there is a civil strife in heaven, Or else the world, too saucy with the gods, Incenses them to send destruction. Cic. Why, saw you any thing more wonderful? Casca. A common slave, you know him well by sight, 15 Who glaz'd upon me, and went surly by, Without annoying me; and there were drawn 20 19. ha'] Ff, have Capell and later editors. 21. glaz'd] Ff, glar'd Rowe, gaz'd Malone. 15. A common slave] in Plutarch "a slave of the soldiers, that did cast a marvellous burning flame out of his hand" and yet was not burnt. A soldier's slave would be a slave of the lowest class. The wonderful character of the portent was increased by the fact that it was manifested by an ordinary slave, not a mysterious stranger, but a man whom Cicero himself happened to know by sight. It has been suggested that Shakespeare meant by common slave" a public slave attending at one of the 66 public offices, whom Cicero as a public man would know well by sight. This is, however, an unnecessary divergence from the meaning indicated by Plutarch's words. 19. ha'] Casca's excitement is indicated not only by the naked sword which he had forgotten to return to the scabbard, but also, as Mark Hunter points out, by the contraction of "have." 20. a lion] is not mentioned in Plutarch's account of the signs and wonders that preceded Cæsar's death. There were at the time in Rome many lions, that had been imported for the sports of the amphitheatre. But what probably suggested to Shakespeare the appearance of a lion against the Capitol was the fact that in the Tower of London, the English Capitol (see note on II. i. 110), lions had been kept since the time of Henry I. These lions were regarded with superstitious awe by the people of London. 21. glaz'd] looked fixedly, stared. "Glaze" is still used in this sense in provincial dialects. The English Dialect Dictionary gives "What be 'ee glazin' at?" 22. annoying] See note on II. i. 160. Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women, Transformed with their fear, who swore they saw Men all in fire walk up and down the streets. 25 And yesterday the bird of night did sit, "These are their reasons, they are natural"; 30 Cic. Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time: But men may construe things after their fashion, Casca. He doth; for he did bid Antonius Send word to you he would be there to-morrow. Casca. Farewell, Cicero. [Exit Cicero. 40 28. Hooting] Johnson; howting F 1, 2, 3; houting F 4. 37. Antonius] Antonio Ff. 25. Men all in fire] "Strabo the philosopher writeth that divers men were seen going up and down in fire" (Plutarch). = 29. Let not men say, etc.] short for "Let not men suggest physical explanations and say such and such are their reasons, etc. "These " "these and these " in II. i. 31. For the general meaning compare Lear, 1. ii. 112: "These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us. Though the wisdom of nature can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself scourged by the sequent effects"; and Othello, IV. i. 40: "Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passion without some instruction." The whole passage is an elaborate instance of what Ruskin calls in his Modern Painters the pathetic fallacy. For other passages in which poets have expressed the sympathy between external nature and human fortune, see P. L. ix. 782-784, 1001-1003. 32. climate] country, as in Richard II. IV. i. 130. 35. Clean from the purpose] in a way entirely opposed to their real meaning. This use of "clean," which is now colloquial, was common in Shakespeare and the Authorised Version of the Bible, e.g., Psalm lxxvii. 8. For "from," see line 64. 40. not to walk in] Compare Lear, III. iv. 116: "A naughty night to swim in." |