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35

Good morrow to you. Here the street is narrow: The throng that follows Cæsar at the heels, Of senators, of prætors, common suitors, Will crowd a feeble man almost to death: I'll get me to a place more void, and there Speak to great Cæsar as he comes along. Por. I must go in. Ay me! how weak a thing The heart of woman is. O Brutus ! The heavens speed thee in thine enterprise. [Aside.] Sure, the boy heard me. Brutus hath a suit That Cæsar will not grant. [Aside.] O! I grow faint. Run, Lucius, and commend me to my lord; Say I am merry: come to me again,

And bring me word what he doth say to thee.

37. more void] less crowded.

42. Sure, the boy heard me] She fears that Lucius may have overheard her remark and guessed her secret, and therefore makes mention of Brutus's suit to Cæsar to explain her anxiety.

45. Say I am merry] She sends this message in order that her husband's

[Exit.

40

45

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ACT III

SCENE I.-Rome. Before the Capitol; the Senate sitting above.

A crowd of People; among them ARTEMIDORUS and the Soothsayer. Flourish. Enter CESAR, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, CASCA, DECIUS, METELLUS, TREBONIUS, CINNA, ANTONY, LEPIDUS, POPILIUS, PUBLIUS, and Others.

Cæs. [To the Soothsayer.] The ides of March are come. Sooth. Ay, Cæsar; but not gone.

Art. Hail, Cæsar! Read this schedule.

Dec. Trebonius doth desire you to o'er-read,

At your best leisure, this his humble suit. Art. O Cæsar! read mine first; for mine's a suit

5

That touches Cæsar nearer. Read it, great Cæsar. Cas. What touches us ourself, shall be last serv'd. Art. Delay not, Cæsar; read it instantly.

Cæs. What is the fellow mad?

Pub.

Sirrah, give place.

ΙΟ

Cas. What! urge you your petitions in the street?

Come to the Capitol.

1. The ides of March] a reference to the soothsayer's warning in I. ii. 18.

8. ourself] A king in Shakespeare speaking of himself in the plural number employs the singular "self" -e.g., Richard II. I. iv. 42: "We will ourself in person to this war. But Tennyson in the Princess makes a king say, "We remember love ourselves in our sweet youth."

وو

8. serv'd] attended to. As the verb " serve " in this sense properly governs persons, Craik adopts here the correction of Collier's MS. : "That touches us? Ourself shall be last served," which is supported by its similarity to Timon, 1. ii. 183:

"Flav. Vouchsafe me a word; it

doth concern you near. Tim. Near? Why then another time I'll hear thee."

CÆSAR goes up to the Senate-House, the rest following. All the Senators rise.

Pop. I wish your enterprise to-day may thrive.

Cas. What enterprise, Popilius ?

Pop.

Fare you well.

[Advances to Cæsar.

15

Bru. What said Popilius Lena?

Cas. He wish'd to-day our enterprise might thrive.
I fear our purpose is discovered.

Bru. Look, how he makes to Cæsar: mark him.
Cas. Casca, be sudden, for we fear prevention.

Bru.

Brutus, what shall be done?

If this be known, 20

Cassius or Cæsar never shall turn back,
For I will slay myself.

Cassius, be constant:

Popilius Lena speaks not of our purposes;

For, look, he smiles, and Cæsar doth not change. Cas. Trebonius knows his time; for, look you, Brutus, 25 He draws Mark Antony out of the way.

[Exeunt Antony and Trebonius.

Cæsar

and the Senators take their seats.

Dec. Where is Metellus Cimber?

Let him go,

And presently prefer his suit to Cæsar.

20. done? If... known,] Ff, done, if

15. Lena] He is called Læna by Plutarch. His real name was Lænas. 18. makes to] goes towards. Compare v. i. 25 and the quotation from Tennyson on I. ii. 15.

21. turn back] return from the Capitol.

22. constant] See note on II. i. 227. 24. doth not change] sc. his counten.

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known? Theobald.

ance, i.e. he shows that he is not deeply affected by what he has just heard from Popilius Lena.

26. He draws, etc.] This is in accordance with Plutarch's Life of Brutus. In the Life of Cæsar it is Decius Brutus who keeps Antony out of the way.

28. presently] immediately.

Bru. He is address'd; press near and second him.
Cin. Casca, you are the first that rears your hand.
Cæs. Are we all ready? What is now amiss

That Cæsar and his senate must redress?

30

Met. Most high, most mighty, and most puissant Cæsar, Metellus Cimber throws before thy seat

Cæs.

An humble heart,

[Kneeling.

35

I must prevent thee, Cimber.
These couchings and these lowly courtesies,
Might fire the blood of ordinary men,
And turn pre-ordinance and first decree
Into the law of children.

39. law] Johnson, lane Ff, play Mason.
29. address'd] ready, prepared, as
in Love's Labour's Lost, II. i. 82:
"And he and his competitors in
oath

Were all address'd to meet you,

gentle lady."

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For the confusion of numbers and
persons in relative clauses, compare
Titus Andronicus, IV. ii. 176: "For
it is you that puts us to our shifts,'
and other passages quoted by Abbott
in sec. 247, which justify him in say
ing that
"the relative was often
regarded like a noun by nature third
person singular, and therefore unin-
fluenced by the antecedent."

31. Are we all ready?] can we now proceed to business? Collier's MS. annotator gives this question to Casca, whom it apparently suits better. There is, however, dramatic irony in the remark if uttered by Cæsar, as the conspirators and the audience would apply his words to the preparations for his assassination.

34. Metellus Cimber] See note on I. iii. 134.

36. couchings] altered in Collier's MS. into "crouchings." The altera

Be not fond,

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"couch

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tion seems unnecessary, as
ing" expresses the attitude of humble
supplication as well as crouching
does. Murray quotes from Royster
Doyster, "Couch on your marrow-
bones," and from Campion,
"A lady
of such part, that all estates of the
realm couched unto her." Even if
"couch" necessarily implied "lying
on the ground,' it would be no
stronger than Homer's Tроπрoкʊλɩdo-
pevos (Iliad, xxii. 221).

""first

38. pre- ordinance] and decree" are equivalent terms, expressing a decree already made. See line 44. This is, however, a curious use of "first." Craik plausibly suggests fixed decree."

66

39. the law of children] such variable and capricious laws as children would make, or, perhaps, the variability which is the law of the nature of children, their natural characteristic. If the latter interpretation is right, there is a play on the two meanings of "law" and "ordinance,' "ordinance being used in line 38 in the sense of human law, while in line 39 "law" means "natural quality prescribed by the law of nature' as "ordinance" does in I.

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40

To think that Cæsar bears such rebel blood
That will be thaw'd from the true quality
With that which melteth fools, I mean sweet words,
Low-crooked curt'sies, and base spaniel fawning.
Thy brother by decree is banished:

If thou dost bend and pray and fawn for him, 45
thee like a cur out of my way.

I

spurn

Know, Cæsar doth not wrong, nor without cause
Will he be satisfied.

Met. Is there no voice more worthy than my own,
To sound more sweetly in great Cæsar's ear
For the repealing of my banish'd brother?
Bru. I kiss thy hand, but not in flattery, Cæsar;
Desiring thee that Publius Cimber may
Have an immediate freedom of repeal.

iii. 66. The reading of the Folio
is unintelligible, unless it should be a
reference to the old nursery rhyme of
the "little boy who lives in the lane."
Even Johnson's emendation, "law,"
does not give quite satisfactory sense.
May not the right reading be "lune
of children," i.e. caprice of children?
The word ""lune
is so used in
Winter's Tale, 11. ii. 30, and in
modern French. See Littré's French
Dictionary, where "caprice" is given
as the equivalent of "lune" in one
sense of the word. For the change-
ableness of children compare "varying
childness' " in Winter's Tale, 1. ii.
170, and the "moonish " inconstancy
of most boys and women described by
Rosalind in As You Like It, III. ii.
430-438.

40. rebel blood] Compare II. i. 69.
41. That] See note on I. ii. 33.
43. Low-crooked] Compare "knee-
crooking knave," Othello, I. i. 45.
43. spaniel] For Shakespeare's
opinion of the spaniel, compare Mid-
summer Night's Dream, II. ii. 203:

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"I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,

The more you beat me, I will fawn on you";

and the use of "spaniel" as a verb in Hanmer's emendation of Antony and Cleopatra, IV. xii. 21.

45. If thou dost bend] Compare I. iii. 104, 105.

47. Cæsar doth not wrong] See Appendix.

48. Will he be satisfied] See Appendix.

""

54. repeal] (re, back, and appello, call) recall. The verb is used in this sense in line 51, and in Othello, II. iii. 363. Freedom of repeal means restoration to the enjoyment of the civic rights lost by banishment. "Freedom is here opposed to "banishment" as in As You Like It, 1. iii. 140, Richard II. 1. iii. 273, and Lear, 1. i. 184. "Enfranchisement" in line 57 has the same meaning, so that "immediate freedom here = "enfranchisement immediate" in Richard II. III. iii. 114.

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