The New Grant White Shakespeare: Julius Caesar ; Macbeth

Enter FLAVIUS, MARULLUS, and a rabble of Citizens.

FLAVIUS. 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?
1 Citizen. Why, sir, a carpenter.

Marullus. Where is thy leather apron, and thy

rule?

What dost thou with thy best apparel on ?—
You, sir; what trade are you?

2 Cit. Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I 10 am but, as you would say, a cobbler.

Mar. But what trade art thou? Answer me di

rectly.

2 Cit. A trade, sir, that, I hope, I may use with a safe conscience; which is, indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles.

Mar. What trade, thou knave? thou naughty knave, what trade?

2 Cit. Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me: yet, if you be out, sir, I can mend you.

Mar. What mean'st thou by that? Mend me, thou saucy fellow?

2 Cit. Why, sir, cobble you.

Flav. Thou art a cobbler, art thou?

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 withal 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 handiwork.

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?

What tributaries follow him to Rome,

To grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels?
You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless
things!

O, you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,
Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft
Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The livelong day, with patient expectation,
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome :
And when you saw his chariot but appear,
Have you not made an universal shout,
That Tiber trembled underneath her banks,
To hear the replication of your sounds
Made in her concave shores?

And do you now put on your best attire ?
And do you now cull out a holiday?
And do you now strew flowers in his
That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood?
Begone!

Run to your houses, fall upon

32 indeed, indicating the change to a serious tone. (R)

47 her. The usual English personification of a stream, due probably to Celtic influence. With

way

your knees,

the Romans "Father Tiber" was masculine. (R)

53 Pompey's blood. Cæsar's "triumph" was in celebration of the victory over Pompey's sons in Spain. (R)

Pray to the gods to intermit the plague

That needs must light on this ingratitude.

Flav. Go, go, good countrymen; and for this fault

Assemble all the poor men of your sort:

Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears
Into the channel, till the lowest stream
Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.

[Exeunt Citizens.

See, whe'r their basest metal be not mov'd;
They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.
Go you down that way towards the Capitol :
This way will I. Disrobe the images,
If you do find them deck'd with ceremony.
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

62 most exalted shores, i. e. highest banks. (R)

63 whe'r, i. e. whether. The folio, where, also a contraction of whether. [basest metal, i. e. base disposition, with a play on words. The folios, mettle. "Metal" and "mettle" were originally one and the same word with the two meanings.]

66 Disrobe the images. Plutarch tells how the two tribunes, Flavius and Marullus, pulled down "images" of Cæsar that had been set up in the city. (R)

67 with ceremony, i. e. ceremoni

ously or pompously. The folio has with ceremonies, which has been retained with the explanation that ceremonies means here religious ornaments or decorations. But such use of the word is illogical and unprecedented. (w)

69 feast of Lupercal, a festival on February 15 in honour of Lupercus, a god who protected sheep against wolves. (R)

71 Cæsar's trophies, i. e. ornaments and decorations of "images" in Cæsar's honour. Cf. 1. 66 above and ii. 285-6, "pulling scarfs off Cæsar's images." (R)

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 Public Place.

Enter, in procession, with music, CESAR; ANTONY, for the course; CALPURNIA, PORTIA, DECIUS, CICERO, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, and CASCA; a great crowd following, among them a Soothsayer.