SCENE, during a great part of the Play, at Rome; afterwards at Sardis; and near Philippi. ACT I. SCENE I. Rome. A Street. Enter FLAVIUS, MARULLUS, and a Throng of Citizens. Flav. HENCE! home, you idle creatures, get you home! Is this a holiday? What! know you not, Being mechanical, you ought not walk 2 Upon a labouring-day without the sign. Of your profession?-Speak, what trade art thou? 1 Cit. Why, sir, a carpenter. Mar. Where is thy leather apron and thy rule? What dost thou with thy best apparel on? You, sir; what trade are you? 2 Cit. Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but. as you would say, a cobbler. Mar. But what trade art thou? Answer me directly. 1 Shakespeare uses certain adjectives in the singular with the sense of the plural noun; as mechanical here for mechanics. So, in Hamlet, ii. 2: "Twas caviare to the general." The sense in the text is, "Know you not that, being mechanics, you ought not," &c. 2 In infinitive verbs the Poet sometimes omits the to, where the verse so carries it. Thus, in The Merchant of Venice, i. 3: "Whose own hard dealing teaches them suspect the thoughts of others." 8 Cobbler, it seems, was used of a coarse workman, or a botcher, in any mechanical trade. So that the Cobbler's answer does not give the informa tion required. 2 Cit. A trade, sir, that I hope I may use with a safe conscience; which is indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles. Mar. What trade, thou knave? thou naughty knave, what trade? 2 Cit. Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me: yet, if you be out, sir, I can mend you.* Mar. What mean'st thou by that? fellow ! 2 Cit. Why, sir, cobble you. Flav. Thou art a cobbler, art thou? Mend me, thou saucy 2 Cit. Truly, sir, all that I live by is with the awl: I meddle with no tradesman's matters, nor women's matters, but with all. I am indeed, sir, a surgeon to old shoes; when they are in great danger, I re-cover them. As proper men as ever trod upon neat's-leather have gone upon my handywork.6 Flav. But wherefore art not in thy shop to-day? Why dost thou lead these men about the streets? 2 Cit. Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes, to get myself into more work. But indeed, sir, we make holiday, to see Cæsar, and to rejoice in his triumph. Mar. Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home? What tributaries follow him to Rome, To grace in captive bonds his chariot-wheels? You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things! 4 Of course there is a play upon the two senses of out here. To be out with a man is to be at odds with him; to be out at the toes is to need a mending of one's shoes. 6 The original reads, "but withal;" which modern editions generally change into with awl. In Shakespeare's quibbles, it is often difficult to tell which word should be used; and, as they were meant rather for the ear than the eye, it makes little difference. 6 Proper is commonly used by Shakespeare for handsome or goodly. See page 194, note 5. So in Hebrews xi. 23, it is said that the parents of Moses hid him because they saw he was a proper child."- Neat was applied to all ca tle of the bovine genus, such as bulls, cows, and oxen. So, in The Winter's Tale, i. 2: "The steer, the heifer, and the calf, are all call'd neat." 7 What is called the nominative independent: "Your infants being in your arms." That Tyber trembled underneath her banks, And do you now put on your best attire? Run to your houses, fall upon your knees, Flav. Go, go, good countrymen; and, for this fault, [Exeunt Citizens Draw them to Tyber banks, and weep your tears Go you Mar. May we do so? You know it is the feast of Lupercal.18 8 The Tyber being always personified as a god, the feminine gender 19 here, strictly speaking, improper. Milton says: "The river of bliss rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber streams." But he is speaking of the water, and not of its presiding power or genius. Drayton describes the presiding powers of the rivers of England as females; Spenser more classically represents them as males. 9 The reference is to the great battle of Munda, in Spain, which took place in the Fall of the preceding year. Cæsar was now celebrating his fifth triumph, which was in honour of his final victory over the Pompeian faction. Cnæus and Sextus, the two sons of Pompey the Great, were leaders in that battle, and Cnæus perished. Flowers, in the preceding line, is a dissyllable. The Poet uses this, and also various other words of like form, power, dower, bower, &c., as one or two syllables indifferently, to suit his verse. 10 It is evident from the opening scene, that Shakespeare, even in dealing with classical subjects, laughed at the classic fear of putting the ludicrous and sublime into juxtaposition. After the low and farcical jests of the saucy cobbler, the eloquence of Marullus "springs upwards like a pyramid of fire." Campbell. 11 Whe'r is occasionally used by the Poet as a contraction of whether. The idea is, that even such stupid souls as these have yet the grace to be ashamed of their conduct. 12 These images were the busts and statues of Cæsar, ceremoniously decked with scarfs and badges in honour of his triumph. 13 This festival, held in honour of Lupercus, the Roman Pan, fell on the 15th of February, which month was so named from Februus, a surname of the god. Lupercus was, primarily, the god of the shepherds, said to have been so called because he kept off the wolves. His wife Luperca was the deified she-wolf that suckled Romulus. The festival, in its original idea, was meant for religious expiation and purification, February being at that time the last month of the year. Flav. It is no matter; let no images Be hung with Cæsar's trophies.14 I'll about, Who else would soar above the view of men, And keep us all in servile fearfulness. SCENE II. The Same. A Public Place. [Exeunt. Enter, in Procession with Music, CESAR; ANTONY, for the Course; CALPURNIA, PORTIA, DECIUS, CICERO, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, and CASCA; a great Crowd following, among them a Soothsayer. Cæs. Calpurnia, Casca. Peace, ho! Cæsar speaks. Cæs. Calpurnia,— Cal. Here, my lord. Cæs. Stand you directly in Antonius' way, When he doth run his course.1 Ant. Cæsar, my lord? Antonius, Cæs. Forget not, in your speed, Antonius, To touch Calpurnia; for our elders say, [Music ceases. I shall remember: [Music. Ant. Sooth. Cæsar! Cæs. Ha! who calls? Casca. Bid every noise be still.-Peace yet again! Cas. Who is it in the press that calls on me? [Music ceases. 14"Cæsar's trophies" are the scarfs and badges mentioned in note 12; as appears in the next scene, where it is said that the Tribunes "are put to silence for pulling scarfs off Cæsar's images." 1 Marcus Antonius was at this time Consul, as Cæsar himself also was. Each Roman gens had its own priesthood, and also its peculiar religious rites. The flamens, or priests, of the Julian gens (so named from Iulus the son of Eneas) had lately been advanced to the same rank with those of the god Lupercus; and Antony was at this time at their head. It was probably as chief flamen of the Julian house that he officiated on this occasion in "the holy course." 2 It was an old custom at these festivals for the flamens, all naked except a girdle about the loins, to run through the streets of the city, waving in the hand a thong of goat's hide, and striking with it such women as offered themselves for the blow, in the belief that this would prevent or avert the sterile curse." I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music, Cæs. Cass. Fellow, come from the throng; look upon Cæsar. Caes. He is a dreamer; let us leave him:- Pass. [Sennet. Exeunt all but BRUTUS and CASSIUS. Cass. Will you go see the order of the course? Bru. Not I. Cass. I pray you, do. Bru. I am not gamesome: I do lack some part Let me not hinder, Cassius, your desires; Cass. Brutus, I do observe you now of late: Bru. Cassius, Be not deceiv'd: if I have veil'd my look, I turn the trouble of my countenance entrally Merely upon myself. Vexed I am entelyy Which give some soil, perhaps, to my behaviours 8 Coleridge has a remark on this line, which, whether true to the subject or not, is very characteristic of the writer: "If my ear does not deceive me, the metre of this line was meant to express that sort of mild philosophic contempt, characterising Brutus even in his first casual speech." The metrical analysis of the line is, an lamb, two Anapests, and two lambs. The demonstratives this, that, and such, and also the relatives which, that and as, had not become fully differentiated in the Poet's time, and so were often used interchangeably. So, a little later in this scene: "Under these hard conditions as this time is like to lay upon us." See page 224, note 20. This man, Caius Cassius Longinus, had married Junia, a sister of Brutus. Both had lately stood for the chief Prætorship of the city, and Brutus, through Cæsar's favour, had won it; though Cassius was at the same time elected one of the sixteen Prætors or judges of the city. This is said to have produced a coldness between Brutus and Cassius, so that they did not speak to each other, till this extraordinary flight of patriotism brought them together. 5 Construe is, I believe, always used by Shakespeare with the first sylla ble long. |