SCENE II. 369. For Cit. here the original edition has Ple.; and afterwards for 1 Cit., 2 Cit., 3 Cit., it has 1 Ple., 2, 3; and for Cit. at 375, etc., it has All.

370. And part the numbers. Divide the multi

tude.

"She

370. And public reasons shall be rendered. -- To render is to give back or in return for. Thus in 348, as we have seen, Antony asks Brutus and his confederates to render him their hands in return for his own. Here the act which had been done, the slaughter of Cæsar, is that in return or compensation for which, as it were, the reasons are to be given. - For the prosody of the present line, see the note on dreamt to-night she saw my statue" in 246. It may be observed that in the First Folio, where the elision of the e in the verbal affix -ed is usually marked, the spelling is here rendred; but this may leave it still doubtful whether the word was intended to be represented as of two or of three syllables. It is the same in 372.

372. Exit Cassius, etc. Brutus goes into the Rostrum. This stage direction is all modern. The Rostrum is the same that is called "the public chair" in 388, and "the pulpit" elsewhere. See 317, 319, 354, 357, 359. Rostrum is not a word which Shakespeare anywhere uses. Nor, indeed, is it a legitimate formation. It ought to be Rostra, in the plural, as it always is in Latin.

- Even still

373. The noble Brutus is ascended. we commonly say is come, is become, is gone, is arrived, is fled, is escaped, etc. In the freer condition of the language formerly such a mode of expression was carried a good deal farther. Thus, in the present Play, we have in 328, "[Antony is] fled

to his house amazed;" in 398, "O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts;" in 458, "Brutus and Cassius Are rid like madmen through the gates of Rome;" in 509, "Hark, he is arrived;" in 623, "The deep of night is crept upon our talk; in 703, "This morning are they fled away and gone;" in 721, "Time is come round;" and "My life is run his compass."

[I am come, he is gone, etc., are equivalent to I have come, he has gone, etc. The former are the earlier and natural forms, and are still in good use, though decidedly less common than the latter. The writers on English grammar have generally either ignored these obsolescent forms, or have attempted to explain them as passive.* In French, Italian, German, and other languages, this conjugation with be is the regular one for certain verbs. It is not found in the Spanish. In Italian and German, as in Anglo-Saxon, the verb to be can be conjugated only in this way: io sono stato, ich bin gewesen, etc. Of course, forms like I have been, j'ai été, yo he sido, etc., are illogical, according to the commonly received explanation of the use of have as an auxiliary. See Latham, English Language, Fifth Ed. § 717.]

374. Romans, countrymen, and lovers.- See 259. 374. Have respect to mine honor. - That is, merely, look to (not look up to). We still employ

* [One of the most popular, and on the whole one of the least objectionable, of the school "Grammars" of the day states the matter thus: "Most intransitive verbs do not admit of the passive form. . . . But the verbs come and go, and perhaps a few others, may, in some cases, properly assume the passive form; as The time is come. Verbs of this description are usually denominated neuter passive verbs." Of course, is come is really no more passive" than is black.]

66

such words as respect and regard in different senses, according to circumstances. I look with regard, or with respect, upon this man, or upon that institution. With regard, or with respect, to another man or institution I have nothing to say but what is condemnatory, or nothing to say at all.

374. Censure me. That is, merely, pass judg ment upon me. See 328.

374. Any dear friend of Cæsar's, to him I say. It is "to them I say" in the Second Folio.

374. Not that I loved Cæsar less. - Less than he (the "dear friend") loved Cæsar.

374. But that I loved Rome more. - More than he (the "dear friend of Cæsar ") loved Rome. 374. Had you rather. See note on Had as lief, in 54.

374. To live all freemen. — It is commonly printed "free men," in two words. But the writer cannot have intended that such prominence should be given to the term men, the notion conveyed by which is equally contained in slaves; for which, indeed, we might have had bondmen, with no difference of effect. If it ought to be "free men" here, it should be "Who is here so base that would be a bond man?" a few lines farther on. In the original edition it is "freemen."

374. There is tears, etc. - In many modern editions this is changed into "There are." But the tears, joy, etc., are regarded as making one thing. Instead of "There is," it might have been "This is," or "That is." [See page 382.]

375. The stage direction is modern.

376. The question of his death. The word question is here used in a somewhat peculiar sense It seems to mean the statement of the reasons.

Ir

a note on the expression in Hamlet, ii. 2, "Little eyases, that cry out on the top of question," Steevens gives it as his opinion that question "in this place, as in many others, signifies conversation, dialogue." And he quotes in corroboration Antonio's remark, in The Merchant of Venice, iv. I, "I pray you, think you question with the Jew." But in that passage the meaning of the word is merely the ordinary one, you debate, argue, hold controversy, with. The following may perhaps be adduced as an instance of the use of the word in a somewhat larger sense, involving little or nothing of the notion of a doubt or dispute: "Thou shalt accompany us to the place, where we will, not appearing what we are, have some question with the shepherd." Winter's Tale, iv. 1.

We find which

376. Nor his offences enforced. — Dwelt upon and pressed, or more than simply stated. In the same sense in Coriolanus, ii. 3, the tribune Sicinius exhorts the populace touching Marcius-"Enforce his pride, And his old hate unto you." 376. As which of you shall not? in the Saxon forms hwilc, hwylc, and hwelc forms which have been supposed to arise out of the combination of the relative hwa with lic (like), the annexation being designed to give greater generalization or indefiniteness of meaning to the pronoun. At all events, the word is used with reference to nouns of all genders, as is also its representative the whilk, or quhilk, of the old Scottish dialect, and as the English which, too, formerly was even when an ordinary relative (as we have it in the time-honored formula "Our Father which art in heaven"), and still is both whenever it is interrogative and likewise when the antecedent to which it is relative is either

suppressed or joined with it in the same concord and government. Thus, we say of persons as well as of things, "Which was it?" and "I do not know which of them it was," as Brutus, addressing his fellow-citizens, has here "Which of you;" and it is even allowable to say "Louis XVI., which king it was in whose reign- or, in the reign of which king it was that the French Revolution broke

The stage direction in the original edition is, "Enter Mark Antony, with Cæsar's body." 376. My besi lover. See 259.

381. Shall now be crowned in Brutus. The now is not in the old texts, but was supplied by Pope, and has been retained by Malone and Boswell, as well as by Steevens. [So Collier, Hudson, and White. Dyce follows the old text, but doubts its integrity.] It may not be the true word, but that some word is wanting is certain. The dialogue here is evidently intended to be metrical, and "Shall be crowned in Brutus" is not a possible commencement of a verse.

386. Do grace to Cæsar's corpse. - We have lost this idiom, though we still say "to do honor to." [Compare 407: "do him reverence."]

389. I am beholden to you. Both here and also in 391 the first three Folios have all beholding, which may possibly have been the way in which Shakespeare wrote the word (as it is that in which it was often written in his day), but may nevertheless be rectified on the same principle as other similar improprieties with which all modern editors have. taken that liberty. Yet beholding is, I believe, always Bacon's word; as in his Tenth Essay"The stage is more beholding to love than the life