PERSONS REPRESENTED. Julius Cæsar. triumvirs, after the death of Julius Cæsar. Sconspirators against Julius Cæsar. friends to Brutus and Cassius. Varro, Clitus, Claudius, Strato, Lucius, Dardanius; ser vants to Brutus. Pindarus, servant to Cassius. Calphurnia, wife to Cæsar. Senators, citizens, guards, attendants, &c. SCENE, During a great part of the play, at Rome: afterwards at Sardis; and near Philippi. JULIUS CAESAR. ACT 1....SCENE I. Rome. A Street. Enter FLAVIUS, MARULLUS, and a Rabble of Citizens.. Flav. Hence; home, you idle creatures, get you home; Is this a holiday? What! know you not, Being mechanical, you ought not walk, Upon a labouring day, without the sign Of your profession ?--Speak, what trade art thou? i Cit. Why, sir, a carpenter. Mar. Where is thy leather apron, and thy rule? 2 Cit. Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I ain but, as you would say, a cobler. Mar. But what trade art thou? Answer me directly. 2 Cit. A trade, sir, that, I hope, I may use with a safe conscience; which is, indeed, sir, a mender of bad soals.2 Mar. What trade, thou knave? thou naughty knave, what trade ?3 2 Cit. Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me: yet, if you be out, sir, I can mend you. 1 Marullus,] Old copy-Murellus. I have, upon the authority of Plutarch, &c. given to this tribune his right naine, Marullus. Theobald. a mender of bad soals.] Fletcher has the same quibble in his Women Pleas'd: mark me, thou serious sowter, “ If thou dost this, there shall be no inore shoe-mending; “ Every man shall have a special care of his own soul, “ And carry in his pocket his two confessors.” Malone. 3 Mar. What trade, &c.] This speech in the old copy is given to Flavius. The next speech but one shows that it belongs to Marullus, to whom it was attributed, I think, properly, by Mr. Capell. Malone. Mar. What meanest thou by that ?4 Mend me, thou saucy fellow? 2 Cit. Why, sir, cobble you. 2 Cit. Truly, sir, all that I live by is, with the awl: I meddle with no tradesman's matters, nor women's matters, but with awl. I am, indeed, sir, a surgeon to old shoes; when they are in great danger, I re-cover them. As proper men as ever trod upon neats-leather, have gone upon my handy-work. Flav. But wherefore art not in thy shop to-day? Why dost thou lead these men about the streets ? 2 Cit. Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes, to get myself into more work. But, indeed, sir, we make holiday, to see Cæsar, and to rejoice in his triumph. Mar. Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home? \Vhat tributaries follow him to Rome, 4 Mar. What meanest thou by that?] As the Cobler, in the preceding speech, replies to Flavius, not to Marullus, 'tis plain, I think, this speech inust be given to Flavius. Theobald. I have replaced Marullus, who might properly enough reply to a saucy sentence directed to his colleague, and to whom the speech was probably given, that he might not stand too long unemployed upon the stage. Johnson. I would give the first speech to Marullus, instead of transferring the last to Flavius. Ritson. 5 I meddle with no tradesman's matters, nor women's matters, but with awl.] This should be: “ I meddle with no trade,-man’s matters, nor woman's matters, but with awl." Farmer. Shakspeare might have adopted this quibble from the ancient bal. lad, intitled, The Three Merry Coblers : “ We have awle at our command, “ And still we are on the mending hand.” Steevens. I have already observed in a note on Love's Labour's Lost, Vol. IV, p. 61, n. 7, that where our author uses words equivocally, he imposes some dificulty on his editor with respect to the mode of exhibiting them in print. Shakspeare, who wrote for the stage, not for the closet, was contented if his quibble satisfied the ear. I have, with the other modern editors, printed here—with aw!, though in the first folio, we find withal; as in the preceding page, bad soals, instead of bad souls, the reading of the original copy. The allusion contained in the second clause of this sentence, is again repeated in Coriolanus, Act IV, sc. V:--- 3 Serov. How, sir, do you meddle with my master ? Cor. Ay, 'tis an honester service than to me:ddle with thy mistress." Malone. To grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels ? Be gone; Run to your houses, fall upon your knees, Flav. Go, go, good conntrymen, and, for this fault, lier banks,] As Tyber is always represented by the figure of a man, the feminine gender is iinproper. Milton says, that the river of bliss “ Rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber stream." But he is speaking of the water, and not of its presiding power or genius. Steevens. Drayton, in his Polyolbion, frequently describes the rivers of England as females, even when he speaks of the presiding power of the stream. Spenser on the other hand, represents them more classically, as males. Malone. The presiding power of some of Drayton's rivers were females ; like Sabrinu, &c. Steevens. 7 See, whe'r- ] Whether, thus abbreviated, is used by Ben Jonson: “ Who shall d: ubt, Donne, whe'r I a poet be, " When I dare send my epigrams to thee." Steedens. See Vol. VII, p. 310, n. 6. Malone. Go you down that way towards the Capitol ; This way will I : Disrobe the images, If you du find them deck'd with ceremonies.8 Mar. May we do so ? You know, it is the feast of Lupercal. Flav. It is no matter; let no images Be hung with Cæsar's trophies. I'll about, And drive away the vulgar from the streets : So do you too, where you perceive them thick. These growing feathers pluck'd from Cæsar's wing, Will make him fly an ordinary pitch; Who else would soar above the view of men, And keep us all in servile fearfulness. [Exeunt. SCENE II. The same. A publick Place. Enter, in Procession, with Musick, CÆSAR ; ANTONY, for the course ; CALPHURNIAS PORTIA, DECIUS, CICERO, Brutus, Cassius, and Casca, a great Crowd following ; umong them a Soothsayer. Ces. Calphurnia, Casca. Peace, ho! Cæsar speaks. [Musick ceases. Cæs. Calplıurnia, 8 ments. deck'd with ceremonies.] Ceremonies. for religious orna. Thus afterwards he explains them by Cæsar's trophies; i. e, such as he had dedicated to the gods. Warburton. Ceremonies are honorary ornaments; tokens of respect. Malone. 9 Be hung with Cæsar's trophies.] Cæsar's trophies, are, I believe, the crowns which were placed on his statues. So, in Sir Thomas North's translation : “ — There were set up images of Cæsar in the city with diadems on their heads, like kings. Those the two tribunes went and pulled down.” Steevens. What these trophies really were, is explained by a passage in the next scene, where Casca informs Cassius, that “ Marullus and Flavius, for pulling scarfs off Cæsar's images, are put to silence. M. Mason. 1 This person was not Decius, but Decimus Brutus. The poet (as Voltaire has done since) confounds the characters of Marcus and Decimus. Decimus Brutus was the most cherished by Cæsur of all his friends, while Marcus kept aloof, and declined so large a share of his favours and honours, as the other had constantly accepted. Velleius Paterculus, speaking of Decimus Brutus, says:~"ab iis, quos miserat Antonius, jugulatus est; justissimasque optimè de se merito viro C. Cæsari ponas dedit. Cujus cum primus omnium |
