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what could scarcely make the commencement of any kind of line. I cannot doubt that, whatever we are to do with “Yes, you are,”—whether we make these comparatively unimportant words the completion of the line of which Cassius's question forms the beginning, or take them along with what follows, which would give us a line wanting only the first syllable (and deriving, perhaps, from that mutilation an abruptness suitable to the occasion)— the close of the rhythmic flow must be as I have given it:

"O Cassius, if you could

But win the noble Brutus to our party."

138. Where Brutus may but find it.—If but be the true word (and be not a misprint for best), the meaning must be, Be sure you lay it in the prætor's chair, only taking care to place it so that Brutus may be sure to find it.

138. Upon old Brutus' statue.--Lucius Brutus, who expelled the Tarquins, the reputed ancestor of Marcus Lucius Brutus; also alluded to in 56, "There was a Brutus once," etc.

139. I will hie.-To hie (meaning to hasten) is used reflectively, as well as intransitively, but not otherwise as an active verb. Its root appears to be the Original English hyge, meaning mind, study, earnest application; whence the various verbal forms hyggan, hygian, hiegan, higgan, higian, hogian, hugian, and perhaps others. Hug is probably another modern derivative from the same root.

139. And so bestow these papers.-This use of bestow (for to place, or dispose of) is now gone out; though something of it still remains in stow.

140. Pompey's theatre.-The same famous structure of Pompey's, opened with shows and games of unparalleled cost and magnificence some ten or twelve years before the present date, which has been alluded to in 130 and 138.

142. You have right well conceited.-To conceit is an

other form of our still familiar to conceive. And the noun conceit, which survives with a limited meaning (the conception of a man by himself, which is so apt to be one of over-estimation), is also frequent in Shakespeare with the sense, nearly, of what we now call conception, in general. So in 349. Sometimes it is used in a sense which might almost be said to be the opposite of what it now means; as when Juliet (in Romeo and Juliet, ii. 5) employs it as the term to denote her all-absorbing affection for Romeo:"Conceit, more rich in matter than in words,

Brags of his substance, not of ornament:

They are but beggars that can count their worth;
But my true love is grown to such excess,

I cannot sum the sum of half my wealth."

Or as when Gratiano, in The Merchant of Venice, i. 1, speaks of a sort of men who

"do a wilful stillness entertain,

With purpose to be dressed in an opinion
Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit ”-

that is, deep thought.

So, again, when Rosaline, in Love's Labour's Lost, ii. 1, speaking of Biron, describes his "fair tongue" as "conceit's expositor," all that she means is that speech is the expounder of thought. The scriptural expression, still in familiar use, "wise in his own conceit means merely wise in his own thought, or in his own eyes, as we are told in the margin the Hebrew literally signifies. In the New Testament, where we have "in their own conceits," the Greek is simply παρ' ἑαυτοῖς (in or with themselves).

ACT II.

SCENE I.-The same.

BRUTUS'S Orchard.

Enter BRUTUS.

143. Bru. What, Lucius! ho!

I cannot, by the progress of the stars,

Give guess how near to day.-Lucius, I say!—

I would it were my fault to sleep so soundly.-
When, Lucius? when? Awake, I say: What, Lucius!
Enter LUCIUS.

Luc. Called you, my Lord?

Bru. Get me a taper in my study, Lucius:

. When it is lighted, come and call me here.

Luc. I will, my lord.

147. Bru. It must be by his death: and, for my part,
I know no personal cause to spurn at him,
But for the general. He would be crowned :-

How that might change his nature, there's the question.
It is the bright day that brings forth the adder;

And that craves wary walking. Crown him?-That ;—
And then, I grant, we put a sting in him,
That at his will he may do danger with.
The abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins
Remorse from power; and, to speak truth of Cæsar,
I have not known when his affections swayed
More than his reason. But 'tis a common proof,
That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,
Whereto the climber upward turns his face:
But when he once attains the upmost round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend. So Cæsar may.

Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since the quarrel
Will bear no colour for the thing he is,
Fashion it thus; that what he is, augmented,
Would run to these and these extremities:

And therefore think him as a serpent's egg,

Which, hatched, would, as his kind, grow mischievous;
And kill him in the shell.

Re-enter LUCIUS.

148. Luc. The taper burneth in your closet, Sir.
Searching the window for a flint, I found
This paper, thus sealed up; and, I am sure,
It did not lie there when I went to bed.

149. Bru. Get you to bed again; it is not day.
Is not to-morrow, boy, the ides of March?
Luc. I know not, Sir.

[Exit.

[Gives him the letter.

Bru. Look in the calendar, and bring me word.

[Exit.

Luc. I will, Sir.

153. Bru. The exhalations, whizzing in the air, Give so much light, that I may read by them.

[Opens the letter, and reads.

"6 Brutus, thou sleep'st; awake, and see thyself.
Shall Rome, &c. Speak, strike, redress!”.
Brutus, thou sleep'st; awake.

Such instigations have been often dropped
Where I have took them up.

-

Shall Rome, &c. Thus must I piece it out:

Shall Rome stand under one man's awe? What! Rome?

My ancestors did from the streets of Rome

The Tarquin drive, when he was called a king.
Speak, strike, redress!

Am I entreated

To speak, and strike? O Rome! I make thee promise,

If the redress will follow, thou receivest

Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus.

Re-enter LUCIUS.

154. Luc. Sir, March is wasted fourteen days.

[Knock within.

[Exit LUCIUS.

155. Bru. 'Tis good. Go to the gate; somebody knocks.

Since Cassius first did whet me against Cæsar,

I have not slept.

Between the acting of a dreadful thing

And the first motion, all the interim is

Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream:
The genius, and the mortal instruments,
Are then in council; and the state of a man,
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then

The nature of an insurrection.

Re-enter LUCIUS.

156. Luc. Sir, 'tis your brother Cassius at the door,

Who doth desire to see you.

Bru. Is he alone?

158. Luc. No, Sir, there are moe with him.

Bru. Do you know them?

160. Luc. No, Sir; their hats are pluckt about their ears,

And half their faces buried in their cloaks,

That by no means I may discover them

By any mark of favour.

161. Bru. Let 'em enter.

[Exit LUCIUS

They are the faction. O Conspiracy!

Sham'st thou to show thy dangerous brow by night,
When evils are most free! O, then, by day,

Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough

To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, Conspiracy;
Hide it in smiles, and affability:

For, if thou path, thy native semblance on,

Not Erebus itself were dim enough

To hide thee from prevention.

Enter CASSIUS, CASCA, DECIUS, CINNA, METELLUS CIMBER, and TREBONIUS.

162. Cas. I think we are too bold upon your rest:

Good morrow, Brutus; Do we trouble you?

Bru. I have been up this hour; awake, all night.
Know I these men that come along with you?

Cas. Yes, every man of them; and no man here
But honours you; and every one doth wish
You had but that opinion of yourself

Which every noble Roman bears of you.

This is Trebonius.

Bru. He is welcome hither.

Cas. This, Decius Brutus.

Bru. He is welcome too.

168. Cas. This, Casca; this, Cinna; and this, Metellus Cimber.

Bru. They are all welcome.

What watchful cares do interpose themselves
Betwixt your eyes and night?

Cas. Shall I entreat a word?

[They whisper.

Dec. Here lies the east: Doth not the day break here?

Casca. No.

173. Cin. O, pardon, Sir, it doth; and yon grey lines, That fret the clouds, are messengers of day.

174. Casca. You shall confess, that you are both deceived.
Here, as I point my sword, the sun arises;

Which is a great way growing on the south,
Weighing the youthful season of the year.

Some two months hence, up higher toward the north
He first presents his fire; and the high east
Stands, as the Capitol, directly here.

175. Bru. Give me your hands all over, one by one.
Cas. And let us swear our resolution.

177. Bru. No, not an oath: If not the face of men,

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