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!"

III.20 courtesies F₁ | curtsies F₄.

III.21 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.

III.22 law | lane Ff.

III.23 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.'

III.24 Be not fond, To think: be not so foolish as to think.

III.25 Low-crooked curtsies | Low-crooked-curtsies Ff.

III.26 spaniel-fawning Johnson | Spaniell fawning F₁.

III.27 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:

In the old Hudson Shakespeare text the first line of Cæsar's reply was: "Cæsar did never wrong but with just cause." Jonson has another gird at what he deemed Shakespeare's blunder, for in the Induction to The Staple of News is, "Prologue. Cry you mercy, you never did wrong, but with just cause." Either Jonson must have misquoted what he heard at the theater, or the passage was altered to the form in the text of the Folios on his remonstrance. This way of conveying meanings by suggestion rather than direct expression was intolerable to Jonson. Jonson must have known that 'wrong' could mean 'injury' and 'punishment' as well as 'wrong-doing.' 'Wrong' meaning 'harm' occurs below, l. 243. See note, p. 105, l. 110.

III.28 repealing: recall. So 'repeal' in l. 54. Often so in Shakespeare.

III.29 If I could seek to move, or change, others by prayers, then I were capable of being myself moved by the prayers of others.

III.30 true-fix'd | true fixt Ff.

III.31 apprehensive: capable of apprehending, intelligent.

III.32 ll. 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.

III.33 Doth not F₁ | Do not F₂F₃F₄.

III.34 The 'Do not' of the three later Folios was adopted by Johnson because Marcus Brutus would not have knelt.

III.35 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."

III.36 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, καὶ σὺ, καὶ σὺ, τέκνον "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."

III.37 [Dies] Dyes F₁ | F₂F₃F₄ omit.

III.38 common pulpits: rostra, the public platforms in the Forum.

III.39 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!"

III.40 "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.

III.41 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.

III.42 Scene II Pope.—Re-enter ... Capell | Enter ... Ff.

III.43 "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.

III.44 "When the murder was newly done, there were sudden outcries of people that ran up and down."—Plutarch, Marcus Brutus.

III.45 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.

III.46 Casca | Cask. Ff | Cas. Pope Camb Globe.

III.47 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.

III.48 states F₂F₃F₄ | State F₁.

III.49 Brutus | Casc. Pope.

III.50 "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.

III.51 lies F₃F₄ | lye F₁.

III.52 Cassius | Bru. Pope.

III.53 ll. 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."

III.54 most boldest. See Abbott, § 11. So in III, ii, 182.

III.55 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.

III.56 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.

III.57 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.

III.58 so please him come: provided that it please him to come. 'So' is used with the future and subjunctive to denote 'provided that.'

III.59 still Falls shrewdly to the purpose: always comes cleverly near the mark. See Skeat under 'shrewd' and 'shrew.'

III.60 l. 148 Scene III Pope.—Two lines in Ff.

III.61 be let blood: be put to death. So in Richard III, III, i, 183.

III.62 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."

III.63 Live: if I live. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, III, ii, 61.

III.64 l. 163 In this line 'by' is used (1) in the sense of 'near,' 'beside,' and (2) in its ordinary sense to denote agency.

III.65 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.

III.66 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.

III.67 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.

III.68 "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.

III.69 struck | strooke F₁F₂ | strook F₃F₄.

III.70 wisdom F₃F₄ | Wisedome F₁F₂.

III.71 conceit: conceive of, think of. So in I, iii, 162.

III.72 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.

III.73 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.

III.74 hart F₁ | Heart F₂F₃F₄.

III.75 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.

III.76 lethe | Lethe F₂F₃F₄ | Lethee F₁ | death Pope.

III.77 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.'

III.78 heart Theobald | hart Ff.

III.79 strucken Steevens | stroken F₁ | stricken F₂F₃F₄.

III.80 modesty: moderation. So in Henry VIII, V, iii, 64. This is the original meaning of the word. See illustrative quotation from Sir T. Elyot's The Governour, 1531, in Century.

III.81 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.'

III.82 full of good regard: the result of noble considerations.

III.83 you, Antony Theobald | you Antony Ff.

III.84 'Produce' here implies 'motion towards'—the original Latin sense. Hence the preposition 'to.'

III.85 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.

III.86 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,[1] 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.

III.86[1] i.e. in secrecy. Ascham has the form 'huddermother' and Skelton 'hoder-moder.' Cf. "In hugger-mugger to inter him," Hamlet, IV, v, 84.

III.87 [Aside to Brutus] Ff omit.

III.88 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).

III.89 [Exeunt ...] Capell | Exeunt. Manet Antony Ff.

III.90 Scene IV Pope.

III.91 ll. 257–258: Cf. Antony's eulogy of Brutus, V, v, 68–75.

III.92 limbs F₃F₄ | limbes F₁F₂.

III.93 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."

III.94 with: by. So in III, ii, 196. See Abbott, § 193.

III.95 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.

III.96 '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:

III.97 Enter ... | Enter Octavio's Servant Ff.

III.98 [Seeing the body] Rowe | Ff omit.

III.99 catching; for F₂F₃F₄ | catching from F₁.

III.100 A pun may lurk in this 'Rome.' See note, p. 19, l. 156.

III.101 awhile F₄ | a-while F₁F₂.

III.102 corse Pope | course F₁F₂ | coarse F₃F₄.

III.103 [Exeunt ...] Exeunt. Ff.

III.104 Scene II Rowe | Scene V Pope.—The Forum Rowe | Ff omit.

III.105 Enter Brutus ... Citizens Malone | Enter Brutus and goes into the Pulpit, and Cassius, with the Plebeians Ff.

III.106 Citizens Capell | Ple. (Plebeians) Ff.

III.107 rendered Pope | rendred Ff.

III.108 [Exit ... pulpit] Ff omit.

III.109 "The rest followed in troupe, but Brutus went foremost, very honourably compassed in round about with the noblest men of the city, which brought him from the Capitol, through the market-place, to the pulpit for orations. When the people saw him in the pulpit, although they were a multitude of rakehels of all sorts, and had a good will to make some stir; yet, being ashamed to do it, for the reverence they bare unto Brutus, they kept silence to hear what he would say. When Brutus began to speak, they gave him quiet audience: howbeit, immediately after, they shewed that they were not all contented with the murther."—Plutarch, Marcus Brutus.

III.110 lovers. Pope changed this to 'friends.' But in the sixteenth century 'lover' and 'friend' were synonymous. In l. 44 Brutus speaks of Cæsar as 'my best lover.' So 'Thy lover' in II, iii, 8.

III.111 censure: judge. The word may have been chosen for the euphuistic jingle it makes here with 'senses.'

III.112 is Ff | are Pope.

III.113 There is tears. So in I, iii, 138. See Abbott, § 335.

III.114 ll. 36–39 The reason of his death is made a matter of solemn official record in the books of the Senate, as showing that the act of killing him was done for public ends, and not from private hate. His fame is not lessened or whittled down in those points wherein he was worthy. 'Enforc'd' is in antithesis to 'extenuated.' Exactly the same antithesis is found in Antony and Cleopatra, V, ii, 125.

III.115 Enter Antony ... body Malone | Enter Mark Antony with Cæsar's body Ff.

III.116 ll. 43–46 In this speech Shakespeare seems to have aimed at imitating the manner actually ascribed to Brutus. "In some of his Epistles, he counterfeited that brief compendious manner of speech of the Lacedæmonians."—Plutarch, Marcus Brutus. Shakespeare's idea is sustained by the Dialogus de Oratoribus, ascribed to Tacitus, wherein it is said that Brutus's style of eloquence was censured as otiosum et disjunctum. Verplanck remarks, "the disjunctum, the broken-up style, without oratorical continuity, is precisely that assumed by the dramatist." Gollancz finds a probable original of this speech in Belleforest's Histoires Tragiques (Hamlet); Dowden thinks Shakespeare received hints from the English version (1578) of Appian's Roman Wars.

III.117 ll. 47, 72, etc. All Ff | Cit. (Citizens) Capell.

III.118 ll. 48, 49, etc. Citizen | Ff omit.

III.119 l. 52 Two lines in Ff.

III.120 Scene VI Pope.

III.121 beholding. This Elizabethan corruption of 'beholden' occurs constantly in the Folios of 1623, 1632, and 1664. The Fourth Folio usually has 'beholden.' Here Camb has 'Goes into the pulpit.'

III.122 blest F₁ | glad F₂F₃F₄.

III.123 "Afterwards when Cæsar's body was brought into the market-place, Antonius making his funeral oration in praise of the dead, according to the ancient custom of Rome, and perceiving that his words moved the common people to compassion, he framed his eloquence to make their hearts yearn the more; and taking Cæsar's gown all bloody in his hand, he laid it open to the sight of them all, shewing what a number of cuts and holes it had upon it. Therewithal the people fell presently into such a rage and mutiny, that there was no more order kept amongst the common people."—Plutarch, Marcus Brutus.[1] How Shakespeare elaborates this!

III.123[1] There is a similar passage in Plutarch, Marcus Antonius.

III.124 bury. A characteristic anachronism. Cf. 'coffin' in l. 106.

III.125 So in Henry VIII, IV, ii, 45: "Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues We write in water."

III.126 Cæsar's campaigns in Gaul put vast sums of money into his hands, a large part of which he kept to his own use, as he might have kept it all; but he did also, in fact, make over much of it to the public treasury. This was a very popular act, as it lightened the taxation of the city.

III.127 on the Lupercal: at the festival of the Lupercal.

III.128 These repetitions of 'honourable man' are intensely ironical; and for that very reason the irony should be studiously kept out of the voice in pronouncing them. Speakers and readers utterly spoil the effect of the speech by specially emphasizing the irony. For, from the extreme delicacy of his position, Antony is obliged to proceed with the utmost caution, until he gets the audience thoroughly in his power. The consummate adroitness which he uses to this end is one of the greatest charms of this oration.

III.129 to mourn: from mourning. The gerundive use of the infinitive.

III.130 art F₂F₃F₄ | are F₁.

III.131 'Brutish' is by no means tautological here, the antithetic sense of human brutes being most artfully implied.

III.132 It was here, as the first words of the reply of the Third Citizen, that Pope would have inserted the quotation preserved in Jonson's Discoveries, discussed in note, p. 83, ll. 47–48. Pope's note is:

If ever there was such a line written by Shakespeare, I should fancy it might have its place here, and very humorously in the character of a Plebeian." Craik inserted 'not' after 'Has he.'

III.133 Has he, | Ha's hee F₁.

III.134 abide it: suffer for it, pay for it. See note, p. 87, l. 95.

III.135 And there are none so humble but that the great Cæsar is now beneath their reverence, or too low for their regard.

III.136 napkins: handkerchiefs. In the third scene of the third act of Othello the two words are used interchangeably.

III.137 o'ershot myself to tell: gone too far in telling. Another example of the infinitive used as a gerund. Cf. l. 103 and II, i, 135.

III.138 Antony now sees that he has the people wholly with him, so that he is perfectly safe in stabbing the stabbers with these words.

III.139 [Antony comes ...] Ff omit.

III.140 far: farther. The old comparative of 'far' is 'farrer' (sometimes 'ferrar') still heard in dialect, and the final -er will naturally tend to be slurred. So The Winter's Tale, IV, iv, 441, "Far than Deucalion off." So 'near' for 'nearer' in Richard II, III, ii, 64.

III.141 This is the artfullest and most telling stroke in Antony's speech. The Romans prided themselves most of all upon their military virtue and renown: Cæsar was their greatest military hero; and his victory over the Nervii was his most noted military exploit. It occurred during his second campaign in Gaul, in the summer of the year b.c. 57, and is narrated with surpassing vividness in the second book of his Gallic War. Plutarch, in his Julius Cæsar, gives graphic details of this famous victory and the effect upon the Roman people of the news of Cæsar's personal prowess, when "flying in amongst the barbarous people," he "made a lane through them that fought before him." Of course the matter about the 'mantle' is purely fictitious: Cæsar had on the civic gown, not the military cloak, when killed; and it was, in fact, the mangled toga that Antony displayed on this occasion; but the fiction has the effect of making the allusion to the victory seem perfectly artless and incidental.

III.142 envious: malicious. See note on 'envy,' p. 54, l. 164.

III.143 resolv'd: informed, assured. See note, p. 90, l. 132.

III.144 'Angel' here seems to mean his counterpart, his good genius, or a kind of better and dearer self. See note, p. 47, l. 66.

III.145 statue Ff | statua Steevens Globe | statuë Camb.

III.146 'Dint' (Anglo-Saxon dynt; cf. provincial 'dunt') originally means 'blow'; the text has it in the secondary meaning of 'impression' made by a blow. Shakespeare uses the word in both senses.

III.147 ll. 203–204 All Globe Camb (White Delius conj.) | Ff continue to 2 Citizen and print as verse.

III.148 The Folios give this speech like that in 203–204 to 'Second Citizen,' but it should surely be given to 'All.'

III.149 gave F₁ | give F₂F₃F₄.

III.150 wit F₂F₃F₄ | writ F₂.

III.151 Johnson suggests that the 'writ' of the First Folio may not be a printer's slip but used in the sense of a 'penned or premeditated oration.' Malone adopted and defended the First Folio reading.

III.152 "For first of all, when Cæsar's testament was openly read among them, whereby it appeared that he bequeathed unto every citizen of Rome seventy-five drachmas a man; and that he left his gardens and arbors unto the people, which he had on this side of the river Tiber, in the place where now the temple of Fortune is built: the people then loved him, and were marvellous sorry for him."—Plutarch, Marcus Brutus.

III.153 The drachma (lit. 'what can be grasped in the hand') was the principal silver coin of the ancient Greeks, and while the nominal value of it was about that of the modern drachma (by law of the same value as the French franc) its purchasing power was much greater. Cæsar left to each citizen three hundred sesterces; Plutarch gives seventy-five drachmas as the Greek equivalent.

III.154 As this scene lies in the Forum, near the Capitol, Cæsar's gardens are, in fact, on the other side of the Tiber. But Shakespeare wrote as he read in Plutarch. See quotation, p. 111, l. 239.

III.155 "Therewithal the people fell presently into such a rage and mutiny, that there was no more order kept amongst the common people. For some of them cried out 'Kill the murderers'; others plucked up forms, tables, and stalls about the market-place, as they had done before at the funerals of Clodius, and having laid them all on a heap together, they set them on fire, and thereupon did put the body of Cæsar, and burnt it in the midst of the most holy places. When the fire was throughly kindled, some took burning firebrands, and ran with them to the murderers' houses that killed him, to set them on fire."—Plutarch, Marcus Brutus.

III.156 fire. Cf. III, i, 172. Monosyllables ending in 'r' or 're,' preceded by a long vowel or diphthong, are often pronounced as dissyllabic.

III.157 the F₁ | all the F₂F₃F₄.

III.158 forms: benches. The word used in preceding quotation from Plutarch. The Old Fr. forme, mediæval Lat. forma, was sometimes applied to choir-stalls, with back, and book-rest. "For the origin of this use of the word, cf. Old French s'asseoir en forme, to sit in a row or in fixed order."—Murray.

III.159 Nowhere in literature is there a more realistic study and interpretation of the temper of a mob (a word that has come into use since Shakespeare's time) than in this scene and the short one which follows. Here is the true mob-spirit, fickle, inflammable, to be worked on by any demagogue with promises in his mouth.

III.160 [Exeunt Citizens...] | Exit Plebeians Ff.

III.161 upon a wish: as soon as wished for. Cf. I, ii, 104.

III.162 rid: ridden. So 'writ' for 'written,' IV, iii, 183.

III.163 Scene III | Scene VII Pope.

III.164 Enter ... | Ff add and after him the Plebeians.

III.165 "There was one of Cæsar's friends called Cinna, that had a marvellous strange and terrible dream the night before. He dreamed that Cæsar bad him to supper, and that he refused and would not go: then that Cæsar took him by the hand, and led him against his will. Now Cinna, hearing at that time that they burnt Cæsar's body in the market-place, notwithstanding that he feared his dream, and had an ague on him besides, he went into the market-place to honour his funerals. When he came thither, one of the mean sort asked him what his name was? He was straight called by his name. The first man told it to another, and that other unto another, so that it ran straight through them all, that he was one of them that murthered Cæsar: (for indeed one of the traitors to Cæsar was also called Cinna as himself) wherefore taking him for Cinna the murtherer, they fell upon him with such fury that they presently dispatched him in the market-place."—Plutarch, Julius Cæsar.

III.166 to-night: last night. So in II, ii, 76, and The Merchant of Venice, II, v, 18.

III.167 Things that forbode evil fortune burden my imagination.

III.168 Enter Citizens | Ff omit.

III.169 Whither F₃F₄ | Whether F₁ F₂.

III.170 you were best: it were best for you. See Abbott, § 230.

III.171 you'll bear me: I'll give you. For 'me' see note, p. 26, l. 263.

Act IV

IV.1 Scene I. The Folios give no indication of place, but that Shakespeare intended the scene to be in Rome is clear from ll. 10, 11, where Lepidus is sent to Cæsar's house and told that he will find his confederates "or here, or at the Capitol." In fact, however, the triumvirs, Octavius, Antonius, and Lepidus, met in November, b.c. 43, some nineteen months after the assassination of Cæsar, on a small island in the river Rhenus (now the Reno), near Bononia (Bologna). "All three met together in an island environed round about with a little river, and there remained three days together. Now, as touching all other matters they were easily agreed, and did divide all the empire of Rome between them, as if it had been their own inheritance. But yet they could hardly agree whom they would put to death: for every one of them would kill their enemies, and save their kinsmen and friends. Yet, at length, giving place to their greedy desire to be revenged of their enemies, they spurned all reverence of blood and holiness of friendship at their feet. For Cæsar left Cicero to Antonius's will; Antonius also forsook Lucius Cæsar, who was his uncle by his mother; and both of them together suffered Lepidus to kill his own brother Paulus. Yet some writers affirm that Cæsar and Antonius requested Paulus might be slain, and that Lepidus was contented with it."—Plutarch, Marcus Antonius.

IV.2 Rome. A room ... house Ff omit.—Antony, Octavius ... table Malone | Enter Antony, Octawius, and Lepidus. Ff.

IV.3 prick'd. So in III, i. 217. See note, p. 95, l. 217.

IV.4 According to Plutarch, as quoted above, this was Lucius Cæsar, not Publius; nor was he Antony's nephew, but his uncle by the mother's side. His name in full was Antonius Lucius Cæsar.

IV.5 with a spot I damn him: with a mark I condemn him.

IV.6 What, Johnson | What? Ff.

IV.7 slight unmeritable: insignificant, undeserving. In Shakespeare many adjectives, especially those ending in -ful, -less, -ble, and -ive, have both an active and a passive meaning. See Abbott, § 3.

IV.8 point F₁ | print F₂F₃F₄.

IV.9 commons. This is a thoroughly English allusion to such pasture-lands as are not owned by individuals, but occupied by a given neighborhood in common. In 1614 Shakespeare protested against the inclosure of such 'common fields' at Stratford-on-Avon.

IV.10 wind: wheel, turn. We have 'wind' as an active verb in 1 Henry IV, IV, i, 109: "To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus."

IV.11 in some taste: to some small extent. This meaning comes from 'taste' in the sense of 'a small portion given as a sample.'

IV.12 objects, arts | Objects, Arts Ff | abject orts Theobald | abjects, orts Staunton Camb Globe.

IV.13 imitations, Rowe | Imitations. Ff.

IV.14 stal'd F₃ | stal'de F₁F₂ | stall'd F₄.

IV.15 ll. 37–39 As the textual notes show, modern editors have not been content with the reading of the Folios. The serious trouble with the old text is the period at the close of l. 37. If a comma be substituted the meaning becomes obvious: Lepidus is one who is always interested in, and talking about, such things—books, works of art, etc.—as everybody else has got tired of and thrown aside. Cf. Falstaff's account of Shallow, 2 Henry IV, III, ii, 340: "'a came ever in the rearward of the fashion; and sung those tunes to the over-scutch'd huswives that he heard the carmen whistle, and sware they were his fancies or his good-nights." 'Stal'd' is 'outworn,' or 'grown stale'; and the reference is not to objects, etc., generally, but only to those which have lost the interest of freshness. 'Abjects' in the Staunton-Cambridge reading, is 'things thrown away'; 'orts,' 'broken fragments.'

IV.16 a property: a tool, an accessory. The reference is to a 'stage property.' Cf. Fletcher and Massinger, The False One, V, iii: