This expression occurs three times in this play (see II, i, 215 and III, i, 158), and nowhere else in Shakespeare.

ACT I. SCENE III

1 brought you Caesar home? did you accompany Cæsar to his home? The natural impression produced upon us by this question is that Scene III falls upon the evening following Scene II. This false impression is probably intended by Shakespeare. He thus conceals from view, for the moment, an interval of one month which is empty of any action that concerns us. It is more dramatic and interesting if the action seems to hurry forward. In reality, the last scene took

place upon February 15; while this one falls upon the evening of March 14.

3 all the sway of earth: "all the government and established order of the earth" (Schmidt).

14 anything more wonderful? Is more an adjective qualifying anything? or an adverb qualifying wonderful?

21 glar'd. The Folio has glaz❜d.

22 annoying: molesting, injuring. The meaning is very much weaker in present usage. Compare naughty, I, i, 15.

30 These are their reasons. What is the exact force of these? the climate that they point upon: the region, or country, that they point at.

32

This use of clean is very common Bible, but is now considered in

35 Clean entirely, completely. in Shakespeare and the elegant. "Is his mercy clean gone forever?" (Psalms, lxxvii. 8.)

42 what night is this This means "What a night is this!" Shakespeare frequently uses what in this way.

48 unbraced unbuttoned. Again Shakespeare is thinking of the English doublet of his own time.

49 the thunder-stone. The bolt, or stone, which was believed to fall with the lightning was identified with the belemnite, or finger-stone, a kind of fossil cuttle-fish. The damage was thought to be done by this stone. Othello asks:

"Are there no stones in heaven

But what serve for the thunder?" V, ii, 234-235.

"Let me have men about me that are fat, Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights "

50 cross: zig-zag.

60 cast yourself in wonder: "into wonder, as we speak of 'throwing' a person into confusion or amazement" (Innes). 63-64 What ideas need to be understood to fill out the sense of these lines? Is it fitting that Cassius should speak here in

this incomplete, broken way?

65 Why old men fool and children calculate. The line reads thus in the Folio: "Why Old men Fooles, and Children calculate." Calculate means "forecast, speculate about the future." It is the technical term for forecasting the future from the position of the heavenly bodies at the time of one's birth, etc.

67 preformed faculties: faculties originally designed for definite

purposes.

71 some monstrous state: some unnatural condition of things. 75 As doth the lion in the Capitol.

76

as doth the lion" (Craik).

"That is, roars in the Capitol

Wright thinks that Shake

speare has the Tower of London in mind when he speaks of
the Capitol. There were lions in the Tower.

* than thyself or me. Parse me and show that the form should
be I in our present usage. The omission of the verb makes
the mistake an easy one. Perhaps Shakespeare felt than
vaguely as a preposition; but we must bear in mind that
his use of the case forms of the pronouns is decidedly incorrect
according to modern standards. Modern speech inherits
from the Elizabethan time many expressions to which
grammarians object, such as: "between you and I,” “It
is me,
"Who did you see?" How many of those who
read this note say "Whom did you see"? In general, the
best modern usage discriminates sharply between the nomi-
native and objective cases of the pronouns; Elizabethan
English did not do this.

77 prodigious: portentous.

81 thews: muscles and sinews, bodily strength.

82 woe the while! This abbreviated expression may spring either from "Woe [be to] the while!" or from "Woe (sad) [is] the while!"

102 cancel implies a play upon the bond contained in bondman. 117 fleering: grinning, sneering.

118 factious active in forming a faction, or party.

123 undergo: undertake.

126 Pompey's porch: the portico of Pompey's theater (see 1. 152). The Theater and Curia of Pompey were in the Campus Martius. It was here, according to Plutarch, that the meeting of the Senate and the assassination of Cæsar took place. Here stood the statue of Pompey. Shakespeare transfers this statue and the assassination with it to the Capitol; but makes Pompey's theater the place where the conspirators met.

128 the complexion of the element: the appearance of the sky. The four elements were earth, air, fire, and water. The air, in which man lives, naturally came to be looked upon as the element.

129 In favour's like. The Folio reads "Is Fauors."

135

The text is usually printed as given here, but "Is feverous" has been suggested.

* incorporate. This participle takes no -d partly because it is felt to come from a Latin participle in -atus, and partly because of the many native English verbs in -d or -t which take no ending in the past participle, such as set, meet, etc. Situate, not situated, is still the accepted form in legal documents.

See note to I, ii, 71.

137 on't. 138, 148, 155 We have in these lines three cases in which Shakespeare uses a singular verb with a plural subject. In two of them the subject follows the verb; it may therefore be looked upon as still undetermined when the verb is used. This idiom is very common in Shakespeare. In the third case, "three parts of him is ours," the subject may be regarded as singular in sense.

148 Decius Brutus: really Decimus Brutus. Shakespeare copied the erroneous form from the Life of Julius Cæsar in North's Plutarch. In the Life of Octavius the name is printed correctly. It was Decimus Brutus who was the particular

friend and favorite of Cæsar, and not Marcus Junius Brutus, as represented in this play.

159 alchemy: the art of changing base metals to gold. 162 conceited: conceived, judged.