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. A public place.

[Exeunt.

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

Caes. Stand you directly in Antonius' way, When he doth run his course. Antonius!

Ant. Cæsar, my lord?

Cæs. Forget not, in your speed, Antonius,
To touch Calpurnia; for our elders say,
The barren, touched in this holy chase,
Shake off their sterile curse.

Ant.

I shall remember:

When Cæsar says "do this," it is perform'd.

10

Caes. Set on; and leave no ceremony out. [Flourish.

72. [vulgar. The adjective, used here as a noun, remains in use in its unobjectionable sense in the phrases the "vulgar tongue," and "vulgar fractions."]

75. [pitch. Used of a falcon's flight "which flies the higher pitch." King Henry VI. First Part, Act II., Sc. 4, 1. 11.]

Enter... Decius. This is Decimus Junius Brutus Albanus, called Decius by mistake in North's Plutarch, whence Shakespeare took the name, which the rhythm of his verse forbids to be changed. It was this Decimus (Decius) Brutus, and not Marcus, who was Cæsar's favorite.

Sooth. Cæsar!

Caes. Ha! who calls?

Casca. Bid every noise be still: peace yet again! Caes. Who is it in the press that calls on me? I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music, Cry "Cæsar!" Speak; Cæsar is turn'd to hear. Sooth. Beware the ides of March.

Cœs.

What man is that?

Bru. A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.

Cæs. Set him before me; let me see his face.

20

Cas. Fellow, come from the throng; look upon

Cæsar.

Caes. What say'st thou to me now? speak once again.

Sooth. Beware the ides of March.

Caes. He is a dreamer; let us leave him: pass.
[Sennet. Exeunt all except Brutus and Cassius.
Cas. Will you go see the order of the course?
Bru. Not I.

Cas. I pray you, do.

Bru. I am not gamesome: I do lack some part Of that quick spirit that is in Antony.

Let me not hinder, Cassius, your desires;

I'll leave you.

Cas. Brutus, I do observe you now of late:
I have not from your eyes that gentleness
And show of love as I was wont to have:
You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand
Over your friend that loves you.

18. [ides, i. e. the fifteenth day.]

30

21. [Fellow. Rarely used in contemptuous sense, and prob

Bru.

Cassius,

Be not deceiv'd: if I have veil'd my look,

I turn the trouble of

my countenance

Merely upon myself. Vexed I am

Of late with passions of some difference,
Conceptions only proper to myself,

Which give some soil perhaps to my behaviour;
But let not therefore my good friends be griev'd —
Among which number, Cassius, be you one-
Nor construe any further my neglect,

Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war,
Forgets the shows of love to other men.

40

Cas. Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your passion;

By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried
Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations.
Tell me, good Brutus, can you see your face?

Bru. No, Cassius; for the eye sees not itself
But by reflection, by some other thing.

Cas. 'Tis just:

-

And it is very much lamented, Brutus,

That you have no such mirrors as will turn
Your hidden worthiness into your eye,
That you might see your shadow. I have heard,
Where many of the best respect in Rome,
Except immortal Cæsar, speaking of Brutus
And groaning underneath this age's yoke,
Have wish'd that noble Brutus had his eyes.

50

60

Bru. Into what dangers would you lead me, Cas

sius,

That you would have me seek into myself

For that which is not in me?

Cas. Therefore, good Brutus, be prepar'd to hear: And since you know you cannot see yourself

So well as by reflection, I, your glass,
Will modestly discover to yourself

That of yourself which you yet know not of.
And be not jealous on me, gentle Brutus :
Were I a common laugher, or did use
To stale with ordinary oaths my love.
To every new protester; if you know
That I do fawn on men and hug them hard
And after scandal them, or if you know
That I profess myself in banqueting

To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.

70

[Flourish, and shout. Bru. What means this shouting? I do fear, the

people

Choose Cæsar for their king.

Cas.

Ay, do you fear it? 80 Then must I think you would not have it so.

Bru. I would not, Cassius; yet I love him well.
But wherefore do you hold me here so long?
What is it that you would impart to me?
If it be aught toward the general good,
Set honour in one eye and death i' th' other,
And I will look on both indifferently,
For let the gods so speed me as I love

The name of honour more than I fear death.

Cas. I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus, 90

As well as I do know your outward favour.

71. jealous on me: a use of "on" for "of " hardly obsolete in New England. [Jealous suspicious. See 1. 162 below.] 88. [When we wish one "Godspeed," we wish that God favor him.]

91. [When we say that a boy favors his father, we mean that his face is like his father's; and the favor given in the german has its meaning also in Shakespeare's time of a token of favor. The double meaning is cleverly shown in Love's Labour 's Lost, Act V., Sc. 2, 1. 30-33.]

Well, honour is the subject of my story.
I cannot tell what you and other men
Think of this life; but, for my single self,
I had as lief not be as live to be

In awe of such a thing as I myself.

I was born free as Cæsar; so were you:
We both have fed as well, and we can both
Endure the winter's cold as well as he:
For once, upon a raw and gusty day,
The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores,
Cæsar said to me "Dar'st thou, Cassius, now
Leap in with me into this angry flood,

And swim to yonder point?" Upon the word,
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in

And bade him follow; so indeed he did.
The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it
With lusty sinews, throwing it aside
And stemming it with hearts of controversy;
But ere we could arrive the point propos'd,
Cæsar cried, "Help me, Cassius, or I sink!”
I, as Eneas, our great ancestor,

Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder

The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber Did I the tired Cæsar. And this man

Is now become a god, and Cassius is

A wretched creature and must bend his body,
If Cæsar carelessly but nod on him.

He had a fever when he was in Spain,

100

110

95. [Words are so alive to Shakespeare that he is forever playing with them on very slight pretexts. Lief and live are pronounced alike.]

109. controversy: loosely used for contention, resistance. 110. arrive the point: a use of "arrive " without "at" frequently found in our old writers.