Mar. What trade, thou knave? thou naughty knave,

what trade?

Second Com. Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me: yet, if you be out, sir, I can mend you. Mar. What meanest thou by that? Mend me, thou saucy fellow!

Second Com. Why, sir, cobble you.

Flav. Thou art a cobbler, art thou?
Second Com. Truly, sir, all that I live by is with the

awl: I meddle with no tradesman's matters, nor
woman's matters: but withal I am, indeed, sir, a
surgeon to old shoes; when they are in great

20

25

16. Mar.] Fla. Ff. 26. woman's] womens F I; womans F 2, 3, 4; withal ] F 1; withall I F 2, 3; withal, IF 4.

think that the citizen is speaking of souls. Shakespeare makes the same play upon words in Romeo and Juliet, I. iv. 15, and in the Merchant of Venice, IV. i. 123:

"Not on thy sole, but on thy soul, harsh Jew,

Thou makest thy knife clean," where some difference of pronunciation is required to make the meaning intelligible to the audience.

16. What trade, etc.] The Folios assign this question to Flavius, and the next question to Marullus. But the word 66 me" in line 20 shows that the two questions must be assigned to the same speaker, whether that speaker be Flavius or Marullus.

16. naughty] wicked or worthless. In Shakespeare's time the term was applied to inanimate objects and grown-up men, and not, as now, confined to children. Compare Lear, III. vii. 37, Merchant of Venice, v. i. 91, Prov. vi. 12, and Jer. xxiv. 2, "very naughty figs."

18, 19. out with] angry with. Immediately afterwards the cobbler uses

"out" in the sense of " worn out," "torn," which sense still survives in the expression, out at the elbows." Compare the pun in Measure for Measure, II. i. 59.

66

be

26. woman's] for "tradeswoman's," the prefix "trades" being carried on from "tradesman's" to "woman's," as in Othello, I. i. 30, where lee'd and calm'd” = "be-lee'd and becalm'd," and Lear, III. iv. 135, "The wall-newt and the water," i.e. "water-newt."

26. withal] (= with all, i.e. in addi. tion to all) is here an adverb meaning "moreover," and introduces additional information. The sound also suggests "with awl." Most of the later editors follow Steevens, who reads "with awl," and puts a full stop after "awl" and a comma before "but." In this case the secondary meaning suggested by the play upon words is "with all," i.e. "with everything," so that in one sense the sound of the words expresses an apparent contradiction, namely, that he meddles with everything, but with no kind of trade.

danger, I recover them. As proper men as
ever trod upon neat's-leather have gone upon
my handiwork.

Flav. But wherefore art not in thy shop to-day?

Why dost thou lead these men about the streets? Second Com. Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes, to

get myself into more work. But, indeed, sir,

30

we make holiday to see Cæsar and to rejoice 35 in his triumph.

Mar. Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he

home?

What tributaries follow him to Rome

To grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels?

You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!

40

O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,
Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and

oft

Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements, To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops, 42. Pompey?] Pompey Ff; oft] oft? Ff. 44. windows,] windowes? Ff.

28. recover] keeps up the metaphor, as it means to "restore to health," as well as to "mend by covering the rents with patches," although there is a slight difference between the pronunciation of the verb in these two

the second person singular, because the number and person are sufficiently indicated by the suffix. The suffix "t" is etymologically equivalent to "thou."

34. indeed] introduces the direct (see line 12), plain, serious answer.

38. What tributaries] This is a rhetorical question expecting a negative answer.

39. captive bonds] Compare "sterile curse," ii. 9.

40. stones] See note on III. ii. 147. 41. hard hearts] For the metonymy compare "slow bellies," Epistle to Titus i. 12.

Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The livelong day, with patient expectation,
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome :
And when you saw his chariot but appear,
Have you not made an universal shout,
That Tiber trembled underneath her banks,
To hear the replication of your sounds
Made in her concave shores?

And do you now put on your best attire?
And do you now cull out a holiday?
And do you now strew flowers in his way,

45

50

55

That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood?

Be gone!

Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,

Pray to the gods to intermit the plague
That needs must light on this ingratitude.
Flav. Go, go, good countrymen, and for this fault
Assemble all the poor men of your sort;

48. but appear] only appear, before it actually came near and passed them. Abbott, sec. 139, takes "but " with "chariot," in which case the meaning would be "only his chariot," Pompey himself being too distant to be distinctly visible. His interpretation of the passage is supported by III. ii. 196.

50. her banks] It is strange to find the river, whom the Romans adored as Father Tiber, personified in the feminine gender here and in line 52. Although all rivers are masculine in Latin, even Milton in Comus personi fies the Severn as a female goddess under the name of Sabrina.

56. That] has for antecedent the possessive "his" in the preceding line. This construction is still common in poetry, e.g. Marmion, Int. i. 71:

60

"Say to your sons-Lo, here his grave

Who victor died on Gadite

wave.

56. blood] offspring.

Compare

1 Henry VI. IV. v. 16:
"The world will say he is not
Talbot's blood,

That basely fled when noble
Talbot stood."

Cæsar's last triumph here referred to
celebrated his victory over the sons of
Pompey in Spain.
Plutarch says
that this triumph "did as much
offend the Romans and more than
anything that he had ever done before;
because he had not overcome captains
that were strangers, nor barbarous
kings, but had destroyed the sons of
the noblest man of Rome, whom
fortune had overthrown."

Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears
Into the channel, till the lowest stream
Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.

65

[Exeunt all the Commoners. See whether their basest mettle be not mov'd; They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness. Go you down that way towards the Capitol; This way will I. Disrobe the images If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies. Mar. May we do so?

You know it is the feast of Lupercal.

Flav. It is no matter; let no images

66. whether] where Ff; mettle] Ff, metal Johnson and later editors.

66. whether] is spelt "where" in the Folios, which indicates that it must be pronounced as a monosyllable. Abbott compares the contraction of "other" into "or."

66. basest mettle] their disposition base though it be. "Metal" and "mettle" are etymologically the same word, although the latter spelling is now preferred to express "courage." The two spellings appear to have been used indiscriminately in Shakespeare's time. Here "basest" indicates that the speaker is consciously using metaphorical language.

69. Disrobe the images] "There were set up images of Cæsar in the city, with diadems upon their heads like kings. Those the two tribunes,

70

Flavius and Marullus, went and pulled down" (Plutarch).

70. ceremonies] symbols of honour and majesty, namely, the diadems mentioned in the above quotation from Plutarch, which are called trophies in line 74, and scarfs in ii. 289. For this concrete use of "ceremony,' compare Measure for Measure, 11. ii. 59:

"No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,

Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,

The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,

Become them with one half so

good a grace As mercy does."

72. the feast of Lupercal] the Lupercalia, a festival celebrated at Rome on 15th February in honour of Lupercus, the god who defended sheep against wolves. Shakespeare probably Anglicises the name of the feast in this short form for metrical convenience. In Latin lupercal meant a cavern on the Palatine hill sacred to Lupercus.

Be hung with Cæsar's trophies. I'll about
And drive away the vulgar from the streets:

So do you too where you perceive them thick.
These growing feathers pluck'd from Cæsar's wing
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch,

Who else would soar above the view of men

And keep us all in servile fearfulness.

SCENE II.-The Same. A public Place.

Enter, in procession, with music, CÆSAR; ANTONY, for the course; CALPURNIA, PORTIA, DECIUS, CICERO, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, and CASCA; a great crowd following, among them a Soothsayer.

Peace, ho! Cæsar speaks.

1, 7, 183. Calpurnia] Calphurnia Ff.