The New Hudson Shakespeare: Julius Caesar Part 26

CaeSAR. Are we all ready? What is now amiss That Caesar and his senate must redress?

METELLUS. Most high, most mighty, and most puissant Caesar, Metellus Cimber throws before thy seat An humble heart,-- [_Kneeling_]

[Note 31: /Are ... ready?/ Dyce gives to Casca; Ritson (conj.) to Cinna.]

[Note 35: [_Kneeling_] Rowe Ff omit.]

[Note 28: /presently:/ immediately, at once. So Shakespeare and other Elizabethan writers always use the word. See l. 143; IV, i, 45.]

[Note 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.]

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CaeSAR. I must prevent thee, Cimber. 35 These couchings and these lowly courtesies Might fire the blood of ordinary men, And turn pre-ordinance and first decree Into the law of children. Be not fond, To think that Caesar bears such rebel blood 40 That will be thaw'd from the true quality With that which melteth fools, I mean, sweet words, Low-crooked curtsies, and base spaniel-fawning.

Thy brother by decree is banished: If thou dost bend and pray and fawn for him, 45 I spurn thee like a cur out of my way.

Know, Caesar doth not wrong, nor without cause Will he be satisfied.

[Note 36: /courtesies/ F1 curtsies F4.]

[Note 39: /law/ lane Ff.]

[Note 43: /Low-crooked curtsies/ Low-crooked-curtsies Ff.--/spaniel-fawning/ Johnson Spaniell fawning F1.]

[Note 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, That seemd to couch under his shield three-square.

So in _Genesis_, xlix, 14: "Issachar is a strong a.s.s 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!"]

[Note 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.]

[Note 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.']

[Note 39-40: /Be not fond, To think:/ be not so foolish as to think.]

[Note 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 pa.s.sage 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 Caesar, one speaking to him, 'Caesar, thou dost me wrong,' he replied, 'Caesar 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. Caesar, thou dost me wrong.

CaeSAR. Know, Caesar doth not wrong, but with just cause, Nor without cause will he be satisfied.

In the old Hudson Shakespeare text the first line of Caesar's reply was: "Caesar 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 pa.s.sage 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.]

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METELLUS. Is there no voice more worthy than my own, To sound more sweetly in great Caesar's ear 50 For the repealing of my banish'd brother?

BRUTUS. I kiss thy hand, but not in flattery, Caesar, Desiring thee that Publius Cimber may Have an immediate freedom of repeal.

CaeSAR. What, Brutus!

Ca.s.sIUS. Pardon, Caesar; Caesar, pardon: As low as to thy foot doth Ca.s.sius fall, 56 To beg enfranchis.e.m.e.nt for Publius Cimber.

CaeSAR. I could be well mov'd, if I were as you; If I could pray to move, prayers would move me: But I am constant as the northern star, 60 Of whose true-fix'd and resting quality There is no fellow in the firmament.

The skies are painted with unnumber'd sparks; They are all fire and every one doth shine; But there's but one in all doth hold his place: 65 So in the world; 'tis furnish'd well with men, And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive; Yet in the number I do know but one That una.s.sailable holds on his rank, Unshak'd of motion: and that I am he, 70 Let me a little show it, even in this; That I was constant Cimber should be banish'd, And constant do remain to keep him so. 73

[Note 61: /true-fix'd/ true fixt Ff.]

[Note 51: /repealing:/ recall. So 'repeal' in l. 54. Often so in Shakespeare.]

[Note 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.]

[Note 67: /apprehensive:/ capable of apprehending, intelligent.]

[Note 72-73: All through this scene, Caesar 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 a.s.sa.s.sins to a sharper point.

Perhaps, also, it is a part of the irony which so marks this play, to put the haughtiest words in Caesar's mouth just before his fall.]

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CINNA. O Caesar,--

CaeSAR. Hence! wilt thou lift up Olympus?

DECIUS. Great Caesar,--

CaeSAR. Doth not Brutus bootless kneel?

CASCA. Speak, hands, for me! [_They stab Caesar_]

CaeSAR. Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar! [_Dies_]

[Note 75: /Doth not/ F1 Do not F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 77: [_Dies_] _Dyes_ F1 F2 F3 F4 omit.]

[Note 75: The 'Do not' of the three later Folios was adopted by Johnson because Marcus Brutus would not have knelt.]

[Note 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 Caesar."]

[Note 77: /Et tu, Brute?/ There is no cla.s.sical authority for putting this phrase into the mouth of Caesar. It seems to have been an Elizabethan proverb or 'gag,' and it is found in at least three works published earlier than _Julius Caesar_. (See Introduction, Sources, p. xvi.) Caesar had been as a father to Brutus, who was fifteen years his junior; and the Greek, ?a?

s?, t????? "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 a.s.sa.s.sination, that in _Marcus Brutus_ differing somewhat from that in _Julius Caesar_ 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 Caesar 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 Caesar by the hands, and kissed his head and breast. Caesar 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 Caesar's gown over his shoulders, and Casca, that stood behind him, drew his dagger first and strake Caesar upon the shoulder, but gave him no great wound. Caesar, 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 Caesar, 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."]

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