Cas. Be factious for redress of all these griefs, There's a bargain made. 120 Of honourable-dangerous consequence; And I do know, by this they stay for me 125 In Pompey's porch: for now, this fearful night, And the complexion of the element In favour's like the work we have in hand, 130 124. honourable-dangerous] honourable dangerous Ff. 129. In favour's like] Johnson; Is Fauors, like F 1, 2; Is Favours, like F 3, 4; Is feav'rous like Rowe; Is favour'd like Capell; It favours like Steevens; Is Mavors, like Browning. 130. bloody, fiery] Ff, bloody-fiery Dyce following Walker. 118. Be factious] form a party. Johnson takes "factious" to mean "active." 120. who] relative with antecedent understood. 124. honourable dangerous] See note on ii. 85. 126. Pompey's porch] Plutarch relates that "Pompey's porch," one of the porches round the great stone theatre built by Pompey, B.C. 55, was the place where the Senate met, and where Cæsar was assassinated on the Ides of March. Shakespeare, however, makes the Capitol the scene of Cæsar's assassination, and utilises Pompey's porch as a meeting-place for the conspirators on the stormy night. 128. element] sky, as in Twelfth Night, I. i. 26. 129. favour] See note on ii. 90. Hunter's reading "it favours like" has a double redundancy, "it" being a redundant subject, and the resemblance being expressed by "like,” as well as by "favours." Reed's conjecture is supported by the parallel passage in Macbeth (II. iii. 66), in which we find the line: 'Some say the earth was feverous and did shake." Perring, in his Hard Knots in Shakespeare, ingeniously suggests that "h" has been dropped before "is." We should then read "his favour's like," "his" being neuter, as in ii. 123, and referring either to "complexion" or "element," and take "complexion as a noun left absolute owing to change of construction, like Marmion, II. xix. 18-23, and 1. xv. 21: "His bosom-when he sigh'd The russet doublet's rugged fold Could scarce repel its pride." The poet Browning suggested "Is Mavors, like," i.e. is red and threatening like the planet Mars. Casca. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste. Cas. 'Tis Cinna; I do know him by his gait: There's two or three of us have seen strange sights. Cas. Am I not stay'd for? Cin. O Cassius! if you could Tell me. Yes, you are. 140 But win the noble Brutus to our party— Cas. Be you content. Good Cinna, take this paper, 144. but] Ff, best Hudson. 131. Stand close] keep yourselves concealed, as in 3 Henry VI. IV. V. 17: "Stand you thus close to steal the bishop's deer?" 134. Metellus Cimber] This conspirator is so called in North's translation of the Life of Brutus. His real name was Tillius Cimber. 138. there's] For the plural in "s," which appears to be a relic of the plural of the old northern dialect in English, see 111. ii. 30, Abbott, secs. 333, 335, 336. It is, as might be expected, common in Dunbar and Burns. Compare at the end of the Twa Dogs: "There's some excep. tions, man and woman." In old 145 Scotch marriage contracts provision was usually made for children "gif ony beis" (if there are any). Skeat asks in Notes and Queries, "What had a Warwickshire man to do with a northern plural?" To this it may be replied that the boundaries of the dialects were not fixed by hard-andfast lines. Even at the present day, Scotticisms and northern peculiarities of speech may be found farther south than Warwickshire. 144. Where Brutus may but find it] "only taking care to place it so that Brutus may be sure to find it " (Craik). But see Abbott, sec. 128, where different interpretations are given. Upon old Brutus' statue: all this done, Repair to Pompey's porch, where you shall find us. Cin. All but Metellus Cimber, and he's gone To seek you at your house. Well, I will hie, 150 And so bestow these papers as you bade me. Cas. That done, repair to Pompey's theatre. [Exit Cinna. Come, Casca, you and I will yet ere day His countenance, like richest alchemy, Will change to virtue and to worthiness. 155 160 Cas. Him and his worth and our great need of him Let us go, [Exeunt. 156. yields] the present used to express certainty of the future. Compare P. L. iv. 965, and Othello, 11. iii. 276: "Sue to him again, and he's yours." This usage may be accounted for by the fact that in A.S. there was no distinct form for the future, so that the present was used in a future sense. 159. countenance] approval. 159. alchemy] Compare ii. 314. 162. conceited] thought. Compare "horrible conceit," Othello, III. iii. 115. The meaning has become specialised in a bad Shakespeare's time. sense since ACT II SCENE I.—Rome. Brutus's Orchard. Enter BRUTUS. Bru. What, Lucius! ho! I cannot, by the progress of the stars, Give guess how near to day. Lucius, I say! When, Lucius, when! Awake, I say! What, Lucius ! 5 Enter LUCIUS. Luc. Call'd you, my lord? Bru. Get me a taper in my study, Lucius: When it is lighted, come and call me here. Luc. I will, my lord. Bru. It must be by his death: and for my part, Orchard] is by derivation an ortgeard or enclosure for worts (herbs). In Shakespeare's time the word was not, as it now is, confined to the meaning of fruit garden, but used in a more general sense. Compare III. ii. 255, where "orchards corresponds to "gardens" in North's Plutarch. Here, also, "orchard" means "garden.' 1. What, ho!] a shout used to rouse any one. "What" is used alone in the same sense in v. iii. 72. 5. When] elliptical for "When are you coming?" expresses impatience. Compare "Come thou tortoise when,' Tempest, 1. ii. 316, and Jacob and Esau, IV. iii. 7, "Come forth: when [Exit. ΙΟ Abra! What, Abra, I say!" which combines "when" and "what" as exclamations of impatience. 8. come and call me here] come here and call me. An adverbial phrase is similarly misplaced in P. L. ii. 917. 11. no personal cause] no "private grief" (III. ii. 220). On the contrary, he had a strong personal cause for gratitude, as Cæsar spared his life after Pharsalia and made him Governor of Cisalpine Gaul in 46 and city Prætor in 44 B.C. 11. spurn] which by derivation means kick, usually implies contempt, as here and in III. i. 46. Here it expresses angry opposition under the But for the general. He would be crown'd: It is the bright day that brings forth the adder; And then, I grant, we put a sting in him, The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins 15 Remorse from power; and, to speak truth of I have not known when his affections sway'd 20 15. Crown him! that!] Crown him that, Ff. image of a refractory horse, as in King John, III. i. 141: "Why thou against the church, our holy mother, So wilfully dost spurn." 12. for the general] for the sake of the general public, for "public reasons" (III. ii. 7). Compare 1. i. 75, and Hamlet, II. ii. 457, "Caviare to the general." The sentence is concluded as if it had begun "I know no cause to spurn at him." For this common form of sense construction compare notes on 125, 127, and III. i. 47. 14. brings forth] out of its hole. 15. that craves wary walking] the fact that adders are about makes it necessary to guide our footsteps warily. 15. Crown] the uninflected form of the verb, merely presents the idea for consideration. "That" is in apposition to the idea of crowning, and indicates that the speaker is dwelling on the idea. Perring, however, in his Hard Knots in Shakespeare compares III. i. 103: "Grant that and then is death a benefit," which indicates that "that" may be governed by "grant understood. 16. we put a sting] Brutus talks as if the practically absolute power that Cæsar already possessed could not do any harm unless he had the title of king. "What is singular enough," Plutarch remarks, "while the Romans endured everything that regal power could impose, they dreaded the name of king as destructive of their liberty." 17. do danger] work mischief. Compare Romeo and Juliet, v. ii. 20: "the neglecting it May do much danger." 19. Remorse] pity, as often in Shakespeare, e.g. Macbeth, I. v. 44: "Stop up the access and passage to remorse. Thus 20. affections] is here used in a wider sense than that in which we now use the term. It means the feelings, as opposed to the reason. In this sense the word is used by Hobbes, who speaks of "anger, envy, fear, pity, and other affections," and by Bishop Butler in his Sermons. Brutus means that he does not remember any occasion on which Cæsar allowed himself to be ruled by his feelings rather than by reason. the wider sense of the term compare 1 Henry IV. III. ii. 30, Henry V. IV. i. 110, and Spenser, F. Q. 11. iv. 34: For |