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Please see the bottom of the page for commentary.
Next: Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 2 _________ Explanatory Notes for Act 3, Scene 1 From Julius Caesar. Ed. Henry Norman Hudson. New York: Ginn and Co., 1908. 8. us ourself: The plural of modern English royalty transferred to ancient Rome. Another of the famous anachronisms. 12. As already indicated (see note, p. 39, l. 126), the murder of Cæsar did not take place in the Capitol, but Shakespeare, departing from Plutarch, followed a famous literary tradition. So in Chaucer, The Monkes Tale, ll. 713-720. Cf. the speech of Polonius, Hamlet, III, ii, 108-109: "I did enact Julius Cæsar; I was kill'd i' the Capitol; Brutus kill'd me." See Introduction, Sources, p. xv. 13. This is mainly Steevens's (1773) stage direction. Capell's (1768) is interesting: "Artemidorus is push'd back. Cæsar, and the rest, enter the Senate: The Senate rises. Popilius presses forward to speak to Cæsar; and passing Cassius, says, ..." 18. makes to: advances to, presses towards.--mark. No necessity to pronounce this as dissyllabic. The pause has the effect of a syllable. 23-26. So in Plutarch, Marcus Brutus: "Another senator called Popilius Læna after he had saluted Brutus and Cassius more friendly than he was wont to do, he rounded softly in their ears, and told them, 'I pray the gods you may go through with that you have taken in hand; but, withal, dispatch, I read[B] you, for your enterprise is bewrayed.' When he had said, he presently departed from them, and left them both afraid that their conspiracy would out.... When Cæsar came out of his litter, Popilius Læna went ... and kept him a long time with a talk. Cæsar gave good ear unto him; wherefore the conspirators ... conjecturing ... that his talk was none other but the very discovery of their conspiracy, they were afraid every man of them; and one looking in another's face, it was easy to see that they all were of a mind, that it was no tarrying for them till they were apprehended, but rather that they should kill themselves with their own hands. And when Cassius and certain other clapped their hands on their swords under their gowns, to draw them, Brutus marking the countenance and gesture of Læna, and considering that he did use himself rather like an humble and earnest suitor than like an accuser, he said nothing to his companion (because there were many amongst them that were not of the conspiracy), but with a pleasant countenance encouraged Cassius; and immediately after, Læna went from Cæsar, and kissed his hand.... Trebonius on the other side drew Antonius aside, as he came into the house where the Senate sat, and held him with a long talk without." In the Julius Cæsar Plutarch makes Decius detain Antony in talk. 35. [Kneeling] Rowe | Ff omit. 28. presently: immediately, at once. So Shakespeare and other Elizabethan writers always use the word. See l. 143; IV, i, 45. 29. address'd: prepared. Often so in sixteenth century literature. Cf. As You Like It, V, iv, 162; Henry V, III, iii, 58; 2 Henry IV, IV, iv, 5. This old meaning survives in a well-known golf term. 36.: couchings: stoopings. 'Couch' is used in the sense of 'bend' or 'stoop' as under a burden, in Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III, i, 4:
An aged Squire there rode, So in Genesis, xlix, 14: "Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens." The verb occurs six times in the Bible (King James version). In Roister Doister, I, iv, 90, we have "Couche! On your marybones ... Down to the ground!" 38. pre-ordinance and first decree: the ruling and enactment of the highest authority in the state. "What has been pre-ordained and decreed from the beginning."--Clar. 39. law: This is one of the textual cruces of the play. 'Law' is Johnson's conjecture for the 'lane' of the Folios. It was adopted by Malone. In previous editions of Hudson's Shakespeare, Mason's conjecture, 'play,' was adopted. 'Line,' 'bane,' 'vane' have each been proposed. Fleay defends the Folio reading and interprets 'lane' in the sense of 'narrow conceits.' 'Law of children' would mean 'law at the mercy of whim or caprice.' 39-40. Be not fond, To think: be not so foolish as to think. 47-48. In previous editions of Hudson's Shakespeare was adopted, with a slight change, Tyrwhitt's suggested restoration of these lines to the form indicated by Ben Jonson in the famous passage in his Discoveries, when, speaking of Shakespeare, he says: "Many times he fell into those things could not escape laughter: as when he said in the person of Cæsar, one speaking to him, 'Cæsar, thou dost me wrong,' he replied, 'Cæsar did never wrong but with just cause,' and such like; which were ridiculous." Based upon this note the Tyrwhitt restoration of the text was:
METELLUS. Cæsar, thou dost me wrong. 59. If I could seek to move, or change, others by prayers, then I were capable of being myself moved by the prayers of others. 67. apprehensive: capable of apprehending, intelligent. 72-73. All through this scene, Cæsar is made to speak quite out of character, and in a strain of hateful arrogance, in order, apparently, to soften the enormity of his murder, and to grind the daggers of the assassins to a sharper point. Perhaps, also, it is a part of the irony which so marks this play, to put the haughtiest words in Cæsar's mouth just before his fall. 75. The 'Do not' of the three later Folios was adopted by Johnson because Marcus Brutus would not have knelt. 76. The simple stage direction of the Folios is retained. That of the Cambridge and the Globe editions is, "Casca first, then the other Conspirators and Marcus Brutus stab Cæsar." 77. Et tu, Brute? There is no classical authority for putting this phrase into the mouth of Cæsar. It seems to have been an Elizabethan proverb or 'gag,' and it is found in at least three works published earlier than Julius Cæsar. (See Introduction, Sources, p. xvi.) Cæsar had been as a father to Brutus, who was fifteen years his junior; and the Greek, [Greek: kai sy teknon] "and thou, my son!" which Dion and Suetonius put into his mouth, though probably unauthentic, is good enough to be true. In Plutarch are two detailed accounts of the assassination, that in Marcus Brutus differing somewhat from that in Julius Cæsar with regard to the nomenclature of the persons involved. The following is from Marcus Brutus: "Trebonius on the other side drew Antonius aside, as he came into the house where the Senate sat, and held him with a long talk without. When Cæsar was come into the house, all the Senate rose to honour him at his coming in. So when he was set, the conspirators flocked about him, and amongst them they presented one Tullius Cimber, who made humble suit for the calling home again of his brother that was banished. They all made as though they were intercessors for him, and took Cæsar by the hands, and kissed his head and breast. Cæsar at the first simply refused their kindness and entreaties; but afterwards, perceiving they still pressed on him, he violently thrust them from him. Then Cimber with both his hands plucked Cæsar's gown over his shoulders, and Casca, that stood behind him, drew his dagger first and strake Cæsar upon the shoulder, but gave him no great wound. Cæsar, feeling himself hurt, took him straight by the hand he held his dagger in, and cried out in Latin: 'O traitor Casca, what dost thou?' Casca on the other side cried in Greek, and called his brother to help him. So divers running on a heap together to fly upon Cæsar, he, looking about him to have fled, saw Brutus with a sword drawn in his hand ready to strike at him: then he let Casca's hand go, and casting his gown over his face, suffered every man to strike at him that would. Then the conspirators thronging one upon another, because every man was desirous to have a cut at him, so many swords and daggers lighting upon one body, one of them hurt another, and among them Brutus caught a blow on his hand, because he would make one in murthering of him, and all the rest also were every man of them bloodied." 80. common pulpits: rostra, the public platforms in the Forum. 81. This is somewhat in the style of Caliban, when he gets glorious with "celestial liquor," The Tempest, II, ii, 190, 191: "Freedom, hey-day! hey-day, freedom! freedom, hey-day, freedom!" 82-83. "Cæsar being slain in this manner, Brutus, standing in the middest of the house, would have spoken, and stayed the other Senators that were not of the conspiracy, to have told them the reason why they had done this fact. But they, as men both afraid and amazed, fled one upon another's neck in haste to get out at the door, and no man followed them."--Plutarch, Marcus Brutus. 95. abide: pay for, suffer for. So in III, ii, 114. "Through confusion of form with 'abye,' when that verb was becoming archaic, and through association of sense between abye (pay for) a deed, and abide the consequences of a deed, 'abide' has been erroneously used for 'abye' = pay for, atone for, suffer for."--Murray. 97. "But Antonius and Lepidus, which were two of Cæsar's chiefest friends, secretly conveying themselves away, fled into other men's houses and forsook their own."--Plutarch, Julius Cæsar. 98. "When the murder was newly done, there were sudden outcries of people that ran up and down."--Plutarch, Marcus Brutus. 101. stand upon: concern themselves with. Cf. II, ii, 13. What men are chiefly concerned about is how long they can draw out their little period of mortal life. Cf. Sophocles, Ajax, 475-476: "What joy is there in day following day, as each but draws us on towards or keeps us back from death?"--J. Churton Collins. 102-103. Many modern editors have followed Pope and given this speech to Cassius. But there is no valid reason for this change from the text of the Folios. In the light of Casca's sentiments expressed in I, iii, 100-102, this speech is more characteristic of him than of Cassius. Pope also gave Casca ll. 106-111. 116. "Cæsar ... was driven ... by the counsel of the conspirators, against the base whereupon Pompey's image stood, which ran all of a gore-blood till he was slain."--Plutarch, Julius Cæsar. 117-119. This speech and the two preceding, vaingloriously anticipating the stage celebrity of the deed, are very strange; and, unless there be a shrewd irony lurking in them, it is hard to understand the purpose of them. Their effect is to give a very ambitious air to the work of these professional patriots, and to cast a highly theatrical color on their alleged virtue, as if they had sought to immortalize themselves by "striking the foremost man of all this world." 122. most boldest: See Abbott, § 11. So in III, ii, 182. 123. Enter a Servant: "This simple stage direction is the ... turning-round of the whole action; the arch has reached its apex and the Re-action has begun."--Moulton. 132. resolv'd: informed. This meaning is probably connected with the primary one of 'loosen,' 'set free,' through the idea of setting free from perplexity. 'Resolve' continued to be used in the sense of 'inform' and 'answer' until the beginning of the nineteenth century. Shakespeare uses the word in the three main senses of (1) 'relax,' 'dissolve,' Hamlet, I, ii, 130; (2) 'inform,' as here; and (3) 'determine,' 3 Henry VI, III, iii, 219. 137. Thorough: Shakespeare uses 'through' or 'thorough' indifferently, as suits his verse. The two are but different forms of the same word. 'Thorough,' the adjective, is later than the preposition. 141. so please him come: provided that it please him to come. 'So' is used with the future and subjunctive to denote 'provided that.' 146-147. still Falls shrewdly to the purpose: always comes cleverly near the mark. See Skeat under 'shrewd' and 'shrew.' 153. be let blood: be put to death. So in Richard III, III, i, 183.--is rank: has grown grossly full-blooded. The idea is of one who has overtopped his equals, and grown too high for the public safety. So in the speech of Oliver in As You Like It, I, i, 90, when incensed at the high bearing of Orlando: "Is it even so? begin you to grow upon me? I will physic your rankness." 160. Live: if I live. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, III, ii, 61. 163. In this line 'by' is used (1) in the sense of 'near,' 'beside,' and (2) in its ordinary sense to denote agency. 172. The first 'fire' is dissyllabic. The allusion is to the old notion that if a burn be held to the fire the pain will be drawn or driven out. Shakespeare has four other very similar allusions to this belief--Romeo and Juliet, I, ii, 46; Coriolanus, IV, vii, 54; The Two Gentlemen of Verona, II, iv, 192; King John, III, i, 277. 175. in strength of malice: strong as they have shown themselves to be in malice towards tyranny. Though the Folio text may be corrupt, and at least twelve emendations have been suggested, the figure as it stands is intelligible, though elliptically obscure. Grant White has indicated how thoroughly the expression is in the spirit of what Brutus has just said. In previous editions of Hudson's Shakespeare, Singer's conjecture of 'amity' for 'malice' was adopted. What makes this conjecture plausible is Shakespeare's frequent use of 'amity,' and "strength of their amity" occurs in Antony and Cleopatra, II, vi, 137. 178-179. Brutus has been talking about "our hearts," and "kind love, good thoughts, and reverence." To Cassius, all that is mere rose-water humbug, and he knows it is so to Antony too. He hastens to put in such motives as he knows will have weight with Antony, as they also have with himself. And it is remarkable that several of these patriots, especially Cassius, the two Brutuses, and Trebonius, afterwards accepted the governorship of fat provinces for which they had been prospectively named by Cæsar. 181. "When Cæsar was slain, the Senate--though Brutus stood in the middest amongst them, as though he would have said something touching this fact--presently ran out of the house, and, flying, filled all the city with marvellous fear and tumult. Insomuch as some did shut to the doors."--Plutarch, Julius Cæsar. 193. conceit: conceive of, think of. So in I, iii, 162. 197. dearer: more intensely. This emphatic or intensive use of 'dear' is very common in Shakespeare, and is used in the expression of strong emotion, either of pleasure or of pain. 205. bay'd: brought to bay. The expression connotes being barked at and worried as a deer by hounds. Cf. A Midsummer Nights Dream, IV, i, 118. "Cæsar turned him no where but he was stricken at by some ... and was hackled and mangled among them, as a wild beast taken of hunters."--Plutarch, Julius Cæsar. 207. Sign'd in thy spoil: This may have reference to the custom still prevalent in England and Europe of hunters smearing their hands and faces with the blood of the slain deer.--/lethe./ This puzzling term is certainly the reading of the Folios, and may mean either 'violent death' (Lat. letum), as 'lethal' means 'deadly,' or, as White interprets the passage, 'the stream which bears to oblivion.' 217. prick'd: marked on the list. The image is of a list of names written out, and some of them having holes pricked in the paper against them. Cf. IV, i, 1. See Century under 'pricking for sheriffs.' 225. full of good regard: the result of noble considerations. 229. 'Produce' here implies 'motion towards'--the original Latin sense. Hence the preposition 'to.'--market-place. Here, and elsewhere in the play, 'the market-place' is the Forum, and the rostra provided there for the purposes of public speaking Shakespeare calls 'pulpits.' In this, as in so much else, he followed North. 231. the order of his funeral: the course of the funeral ceremonies. "Then Antonius, thinking good ... that his body should be honourably buried, and not in hugger-mugger, lest the people might thereby take occasion to be worse offended if they did otherwise: Cassius stoutly spake against it. But Brutus went with the motion, and agreed unto it."--Plutarch, Marcus Brutus. 243. wrong: harm. Cf. l. 47. Note the high self-appreciation of Brutus here, in supposing that if he can but have a chance to speak to the people, and to air his wisdom before them, all will go right. Here, again, he overbears Cassius, who now begins to find the effects of having stuffed him with flatteries, and served as a mirror to "turn his hidden worthiness into his eye" (I, ii, 57-58). 263. limbs. Thirteen different words ('kind,' 'line,' 'lives,' 'loins,' 'tombs,' 'sons,' 'times,' etc.) have been offered by editors as substitutes for the plain, direct 'limbs' of the Folios. One of Johnson's suggestions was "these lymmes," taking 'lymmes' in the sense of 'lime-hounds,' i.e. 'leash-hounds.' 'Lym' is on the list of dogs in King Lear, III, vi, 72. In defence of the Folio text Dr. Wright quotes Timon's curse on the senators of Athens and says, "Lear's curses were certainly levelled at his daughter's limbs." 269. with: by. So in III, ii, 196. See Abbott, § 193. 272. Ate was the Greek goddess of vengeance, discord, and mischief. Shakespeare refers to her in King John, II, i, 63, as "stirring to blood and strife." In Love's Labour's Lost, V, ii, 694, and Much Ado about Nothing, II, i, 263, the references to her are humorous. 274. 'Havoc' was anciently the word of signal for giving no quarter in a battle. It was a high crime for any one to give the signal without authority from the general in chief; hence the peculiar force of 'monarch's voice.'--To 'let slip' a dog was a term of the chase, for releasing the hounds from the 'slip' or leash of leather whereby they were held in hand till it was time to let them pursue the animal.--The 'dogs of war' are fire, sword, and famine. So in King Henry V, First Chorus, 6-8:
at his heels,
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