Your hidden worthiness into your eye, That you might see your shadow. I have heard, Cas. Therefore, good Brutus, be prepar'd to hear: That of yourself which you yet know not of. [Flourish, and Shout. Bru. What means this shouting? I do fear, the people Choose Cæsar for their king. Cas. Bru. I would not, Cassius; yet I love him well:- What is it that you would impart to me? If it be aught toward the general good, Set honour in one eye, and death i' the other, 9 — a common laugher,] Old copy-laughter. Corrected by Mr. Pope. Malone. 1 To stale with ordinary oaths my love &c.] To invite every new protester to my affection by the stale or allurement of customary oaths. Johnson. 2 And I will look on both indifferently:] Dr. Warburton has a long note on this occasion, which is very trifling. When Brutus first names honour and death, he calmly declares them indifferent; but as the image kindles in his mind, he sets honour above life. Is not this natural? Johnson. For, let the gods so speed me, as I love In awe of such a thing as I myself. I was born free as Cæsar; so were you: The troubled Tyber chafing with her shores, And bade him follow: so, indeed, he did, I, as Æneas, our great ancestor, asilovey' Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder Is now become a god; and Cassius is A wretched creature, and must bend his body, Leap in with me into this angry flood,] Shakspeare probably recollected the story which Suetonius has told of Cæsar's leaping into the sea, when he was in danger by a boat's being overladen, and swimming to the next ship with his Commentaries in his left hand. Holland's translation of Suetonius, 1606, p. 26. So also, ibid. p. 24: “Were rivers in his way to hinder his passage, cross over thein he would, either swimming, or else bearing himself upon blowed leather bottles." Malone. But ere we could arrive the point propos'd,] The verb arrive is used, without the preposition at, by Milton in the second Book of Paradise Lost, as well as by Shakspeare in The Third Part of King Henry VI, Act V, sc. iii: 66 those powers, that the queen "Hath rais'd in Gallia, have arriv'd our coast." Steevens. If Cæsar carelessly but nod on him. And that same eye, whose bend doth awe the world, Ay, and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans Bru. Another general shout! I do believe, that these applauses are [Shout. Flourish. For some new honours that are heap'd on Cæsar. Walk under his huge legs, and peep about Men at some time are masters of their fates: 5 His coward lips did from their colour fly ;] A plain man would have said, the colour fled from his lips, and not his lips from their colour. But the false expression was for the sake of as false a piece of wit: a poor quibble, alluding to a coward flying from his colours. Warburton. 6 -feeble temper -] i. e. temperament, constitution. Steevens. 7— get the start of the majestick world, &c.] This image is extremely noble: it is taken from the Olympic games. The majestick world is a fine periphrasis for the Roman empire: their citizens set themselves on a footing with kings, and they called their dominion Orbis Romanus. But the particular allusion seems to be to the known story of Cæsar's great pattern, Alexander, who being asked, Whether he would run the course at he Olympic games, replied, Yes, if the racers were kings. Warburton. That the allusion is to the prize allotted in games to the foremost in the race, is very clear. All the rest existed, I apprehend, only in Dr. Warburton's imagination. Malone. 8 and we petty men Walk under his huge legs.] So, as an anonymous writer has observed, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. IV, c. x: "But I the meanest man of many more, The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, [Shout. Brutus and Cæsar: What should be in that Cæsar? O! you and I have heard our fathers say, Bru. That you do love me, I am nothing jealous; 9 Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well;] A similar thought occurs in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630: "What diapason's more in Tarquin's name, "Than in a subject's? or what 's Tullia "More in the sound, than should become the name 1 Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Cæsar.] Dr. Young, in his Busiris, appears to have imitated this passage: "Nay, stamp not, tyrant; I can stamp as loud, "And raise as many dæmons with the sound." Steevens. 2 There was a Brutus once,] i. e. Lucius Junius Brutus. Steevens. eternal devil-] I should think that our author wrote rather, infernal devil. Johnson. 3 I would continue to read eternal devil. L. J. Brutus (says Cassius) would as soon have submitted to the perpetual dominion of a dæmon, as to the lasting government of a king. Steevens. ―aim:] i. e. guess. So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona : "But, fearing lest my jealous aim might err, -.' Steevens I would not, so with love I might entreat you, I will with patience hear: and find a time Than to repute himself a son of Rome Is like to lay upon us.6 Cas. I am glad, that my weak words? Have struck but thus much show of fire from Brutus. Re-enter CESAR, and his Train. Bru. The games are done, and Cæsar is returning. Bru. I will do so :-But, look you, Cassius, Ant. Cæsar. Cas. Let me have men about me that are fat; Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights: 5 chew upon this;] Consider this at leisure; ruminate on this. 6 Under these hard conditions as this time Johnson. Is like to lay upon us.] As, in our author's age, was frequently used in the sense of that. So, in North's translation of Plutarch, 1579: "insomuch as they that saw it, thought he had been burnt." Malone. 7 I am glad, that my weak words-] For the sake of regular measure, Mr. Ritson would read: 8 Cas. Have struck &c. Steevens. I am glad, my words - ferret-] A ferret has red eyes. Johnson. 9 Sleek-headed men, &c.] So, in Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch, 1579: "When Cæsar's friends complained unto him of |