The New Hudson Shakespeare: Julius Caesar Part 27

CINNA. Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!

Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets.

Ca.s.sIUS. Some to the common pulpits, and cry out, 80 'Liberty, freedom, and enfranchis.e.m.e.nt!'

[Note 80: /common pulpits:/ rostra, the public platforms in the Forum.]

[Note 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!"]

[Page 87]

BRUTUS. People, and senators, be not affrighted; Fly not; stand still: ambition's debt is paid.

CASCA. Go to the pulpit, Brutus.

DECIUS. And Ca.s.sius too. 85

BRUTUS. Where's Publius?

CINNA. Here, quite confounded with this mutiny.

METELLUS. Stand fast together, lest some friend of Caesar's Should chance--

BRUTUS. Talk not of standing. Publius, good cheer; 90 There is no harm intended to your person, Nor to no Roman else: so tell them, Publius.

Ca.s.sIUS. And leave us, Publius; lest that the people, Rushing on us, should do your age some mischief.

BRUTUS. Do so; and let no man abide this deed 95 But we the doers.

_Re-enter_ TREBONIUS

Ca.s.sIUS. Where is Antony?

TREBONIUS. Fled to his house amaz'd.

Men, wives, and children stare, cry out, and run As it were doomsday.

[Note 97: Scene II Pope.--_Re-enter_ ... Capell Enter ...

Ff.]

[Note 82-83: "Caesar 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_.]

[Note 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 a.s.sociation 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.]

[Note 97: "But Antonius and Lepidus, which were two of Caesar's chiefest friends, secretly conveying themselves away, fled into other men's houses and forsook their own."--Plutarch, _Julius Caesar_.]

[Note 98: "When the murder was newly done, there were sudden outcries of people that ran up and down."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Page 88]

BRUTUS. Fates, we will know your pleasures: That we shall die, we know; 'tis but the time, 100 And drawing days out, that men stand upon.

CASCA. Why, he that cuts off twenty years of life Cuts off so many years of fearing death.

BRUTUS. Grant that, and then is death a benefit: So we are Caesar's friends, that have abridg'd 105 His time of fearing death. Stoop, Romans, stoop, And let us bathe our hands in Caesar's blood Up to the elbows, and besmear our swords: Then walk we forth, even to the market-place, And, waving our red weapons o'er our heads, 110 Let's all cry 'Peace, freedom, and liberty!'

Ca.s.sIUS. Stoop, then, and wash. How many ages hence Shall this our lofty scene be acted over In states unborn and accents yet unknown!

[Note 102: CASCA Cask. Ff Cas. Pope Camb Globe.]

[Note 114: /states/ F2 F3 F4 State F1.]

[Note 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.]

[Note 102-103: Many modern editors have followed Pope and given this speech to Ca.s.sius. 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 Ca.s.sius. Pope also gave Casca ll. 106-111.]

[Page 89]

BRUTUS. How many times shall Caesar bleed in sport, 115 That now on Pompey's basis lies along No worthier than the dust!

Ca.s.sIUS. So oft as that shall be, So often shall the knot of us be call'd The men that gave their country liberty.

DECIUS. What, shall we forth?

Ca.s.sIUS. Ay, every man away: 120 Brutus shall lead; and we will grace his heels With the most boldest and best hearts of Rome.

_Enter a_ Servant

BRUTUS. Soft! who comes here? A friend of Antony's.

[Note 115: BRUTUS Casc. Pope.]

[Note 116: /lies/ F3 F4 lye F1.]

[Note 117: /Ca.s.sIUS/ Bru. Pope.]

[Note 116: "Caesar ... 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 Caesar_.]

[Note 117-119: This speech and the two preceding, vaingloriously antic.i.p.ating 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."]

[Note 122: /most boldest./ See Abbott, -- 11. So in III, ii, 182.]

[Note 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.]

[Page 90]

SERVANT. Thus, Brutus, did my master bid me kneel; Thus did Mark Antony bid me fall down; 125 And, being prostrate, thus he bade me say: Brutus is n.o.ble, wise, valiant, and honest; Caesar was mighty, bold, royal, and loving: Say I love Brutus and I honour him; Say I fear'd Caesar, honour'd him, and lov'd him. 130 If Brutus will vouchsafe that Antony May safely come to him, and be resolv'd How Caesar hath deserv'd to lie in death, Mark Antony shall not love Caesar dead So well as Brutus living; but will follow 135 The fortunes and affairs of n.o.ble Brutus Thorough the hazards of this untrod state With all true faith. So says my master Antony.

BRUTUS. Thy master is a wise and valiant Roman; I never thought him worse. 140 Tell him, so please him come unto this place, He shall be satisfied, and, by my honour, Depart untouch'd.