Cin. What is my name? Where do I dwell? Whither am I going? 15 or a bachelor? Then, to answer every man Second Cit. That's as much as to say they are fools that marry; you'll bear me a bang for that, I Cin. Directly, I am going to Cæsar's funeral. First Cit. As a friend or an enemy? Cin. As a friend. Second Cit. The matter is answered directly. Fourth Cit. For your dwelling, briefly. Cin. Briefly, I dwell by the Capitol. Third Cit. Your name, sir, truly. Cin. Truly, my name is Cinna. First Cit. Tear him to pieces; he's a conspirator. 20 25 Cin. I am Cinna the poet, I am Cinna the poet. 30 Fourth Cit. Tear him for his bad verses, tear him for his bad verses. Cin. I am not Cinna the conspirator. Second Cit. It is no matter, his name 's Cinna; pluck 16. wisely] is put in such a position that it may express either the wisdom of the answer or the wisdom of being a bachelor. 19. you'll bear me a bang] you'll get a bang. The speaker is evidently a married man who resents Cinna's disparagement of marriage. By the ethical dative "me" (compare 1. ii. 266), he expresses his interest in the matter, and indicates indirectly that he will himself deliver the blow. Or perhaps the meaning is, "You will be having a hit at me because of that re mark," i.e. the remark makes him 21. directly] like wisely in 16, is purposely made ambiguous by its position. It may express either the straightforwardness of the answer or that Cinna is going straight to Cæsar's funeral. but his name out of his heart, and turn him 35 going. Third Cit. Tear him, tear him! firebrands! Some to Decius' house, and some to Casca's; Come, brands, ho! To Brutus, to Cassius; burn all. Away! go! 40 [Exeunt. some to Ligarius'. ACT IV SCENE I.-Rome. A Room in Antony's House. Enter ANTONY, OCTAVIUS, and LEPIDUS. Ant. These many then shall die; their names are prick'd. Oct. Your brother too must die; consent you, Lepidus? Lep. I do consent Oct. Prick him down, Antony. Lep. Upon condition Publius shall not live, Who is your sister's son, Mark Antony. ני 5 Ant. He shall not live; look, with a spot I damn him. 3. consent--] Knight, consent. Ff. 35, 36. turn him going] turn him off (IV. i. 25), and let him go. "Going" is proleptic and expresses the result of the action of the verb, as in the colloquial "Set it going." For the grim irony of the citizen's remark compare the story of the Earl of Douglas, who said to Sir Patrick Gray, "Yonder is your sister's son lying, but he wants the head: take his body and do with it what you will." To which Sir Patrick replied, "My lord, if ye have taken from him his head, dispone upon the body as ye please.' 5. Who is your] Ff, you are his Upton. speare, where no motion is intended, as here, and, probably, at the beginning of Acts I. and II. In this scene the three triumvirs may naturally be supposed to be "discovered" sitting round a table when the curtain rises. Act IV. Scene I. Enter] This stage-direction is often found in the old editions of Shake 1. prick'd] See note on III. i. 216. 4. Publius] This description of Publius is inconsistent with III. i. 92. The nephew of Antony could hardly have been an aged man at this time. Plutarch in his account of the conference says that Antony "forsook Lucius Cæsar, who was his uncle by his mother." 6. damn] condemn, as in Whetstone's Promos and Cassandra: "Vouchsafe to give my damned husband life." But, Lepidus, go you to Cæsar's house; Lep. What! shall I find you here? Ant. This is a slight unmeritable man, Oct. Meet to be sent on errands: is it fit, ΙΟ [Exit Lepidus. The three-fold world divided, he should stand So you thought him; 15 And though we lay these honours on this man, 7. to Cæsar's house] This and line II show that the scene is laid at Rome, although the historical meetingplace of the triumvirs was a small island on the river Rhenus near Bononia. 9. to cut off, etc.] to diminish the expenditure in paying Cæsar's legacies. Antony intended to embezzle some of the money, and use it for his own purposes. 12. a slight unmeritable man] a man of no importance and deserving little consideration. Slight" is so used again in iii. 37. 66 14. the three-fold world divided] the world being divided into three parts. The adjective is used proleptically, although it precedes its noun, as in Macbeth, III. iv. 76: "Ere human statute purged the gentle weal." 20 15. So] fit to take a third part of the world. 16. voice] vote, as in III. i. 177, and Othello, I. ii. 13. 17. black sentence] sentence of death. For this sense Murray quotes Habington's Castara (1640): The black edict of a tyrant grave. Compare "black list "list of condemned persons." دو 20. divers slanderous loads] Lepidus was to bear the odium of the most unpopular acts of the triumvirate. 21. as the ass bears gold] Compare Measure for Measure, III. i. 26: "Like an ass whose back with ingots bows, Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey." 22. business] here a trisyllable, as in Richard II, II. i. 217. Oct. And having brought our treasure where we will, Then take we down his load, and turn him off, 25 And graze in commons. You may do your will; But he's a tried and valiant soldier. I do appoint him store of provender. To wind, to stop, to run directly on, His corporal motion govern'd by my spirit. 30 He must be taught, and train'd, and bid go A barren-spirited fellow; one that feeds 37. objects, arts] Ff, abject orts Theobald. 27. commons] In Shakespeare's time most English villages had tracts of public ground on which the villagers could graze their donkeys and other animals. 32. wind] turn about. 33. corporal motion] See note on II. i. 66. 34. in some taste] when tested in some ways, i.e. in some measure. Compare Lear, 1. ii. 47: "He wrote this but as an essay or taste of my virtue," which with other passages indicates that the nouns "test" and "taste" were confused. 36. barren-spirited fellow] a man destitute of originality. 37. objects, arts, and imitations] imitations of objects and arts. Com 35 pare II. ii. 80. Objects are material Which, out of use and stal'd by other men, 40 Are levying powers; we must straight make head; Our best friends made, and our best means stretch'd out; And let us presently go sit in council, How covert matters may be best disclos'd, And open perils surest answered. 45 44. and our best means stretch'd out] F 2, 3, 4; our best means stretch'a F 1. 66 tion of the reading of the Folio. There is no other instance in Shakespeare of "abject" used as a noun in the sense of rejected object," but Mark Hunter quotes one from Ben Jonson's Poetaster. On the whole, it seems better to retain the reading of the Folio, as we find "objects" in a similar context in Love's Labour's Lost, IV. ii. 70: “A foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, motions, and revolutions.' 38. Which, out of use, etc.] which he does not begin to adopt until they have been discarded by others, and become hackneyed. Like Justice Shallow (2 Henry IV. III. ii. 339), he came ever in the rearward of the fashion." 40. property] a tool. Compare Merry Wives, III. iv. 10, and Beaumont and Fletcher's False One, v. iii. "This devil, Photinus, Employs me as a property, and, grown useless, Will shake me off again." 41. Listen] is still used transitively in poetry, e.g. in Heber's verses: "In cool Bengala's leafy grove Listening the nightingale." 42. make head] gather together 44. Our best friends made] those who are likely to be most useful to us made our friends, and our most powerful resources employed to the greatest possible extent. This is how we must interpret the line as enlarged by the later Folios. "Our best friends made" is, however, so incomplete in itself, that it seems likely that what is omitted in the first Folio is an adjective meaning "firm" after "made," or perhaps an infinitive with "to," so that the line would be nearly as follows: "Our best friends made to know our best means stretch'd." 45. go sit] The fact that the infinitive without "to cannot follow the inflected forms of "go" and "come indicates that, when the uninflected form of another verb follows the imperative or infinitive of "go" or 'come," it is a co-ordinate verb with "and" omitted before it. "Go sit" is short for "go and sit.' Compare iii. 43; I. ii. 25. 47. answered] met, encountered, as 2 Henry IV. IV. v. 197: "All these bold fears Thou see'st with peril I have answered." |