Ca.s.sIUS. There's a bargain made. 120 Now know you, Casca, I have mov'd already Some certain of the n.o.blest-minded Romans To undergo with me an enterprise Of honourable-dangerous consequence; And I do know, by this they stay for me 125 In Pompey's porch: for now, this fearful night, There is no stir or walking in the streets, And the complexion of the element In favour's like the work we have in hand, Most b.l.o.o.d.y, fiery, and most terrible. 130

[Note 129: /In favour's like/ Camb

In favour's, like Johnson

Is Favors, like F1 F2

Is Favours, like F3 F4

Is favour'd like Capell

Is feav'rous, like Rowe.]

[Note 130: /b.l.o.o.d.y, fiery/

bloodie, fierie Ff

b.l.o.o.d.y-fiery Dyce.]

[Note 117: /Fleering./ This word of Scandinavian origin seems to unite the senses of 'grinning,' 'flattering' (see _Love's Labour's Lost_, V, ii, 109, and Ben Jonson's "fawn and fleer"

in _Volpone_, III, i, 20), and 'sneering,' and so is just the right epithet for a telltale, who flatters you into saying that of another which you ought not to say, and then mocks you by going to that other and telling what you have said.--/Hold, my hand:/ stay! here is my hand. As men clasp hands in sealing a bargain. In Rowe's text the comma is omitted.]

[Note 118: /Be factious:/ be active. Or it may mean, 'form a party,' 'join a conspiracy.'--/griefs:/ grievances. The effect put for the cause. A common Shakespearian metonymy. Cf. III, ii, 211; IV, ii, 42, 46.]

[Note 123: /undergo:/ undertake. So in _2 Henry IV_, I, iii, 54; _The Winter's Tale_, II, iii, 164; IV, iv, 554.]

[Note 125: /by this:/ by this time. So in _King Lear_, IV, vi, 45.]

[Note 126: /Pompey's porch./ This was a s.p.a.cious adjunct to the huge theater that Pompey had built in the Campus Martius, outside of the city proper; and there, as Plutarch says in _Marcus Brutus_, "was set up the image of Pompey, which the city had made and consecrated in honour of him, when he did beautify that part of the city with the theatre he built, with divers porches about it." Here it was that Caesar was stabbed to death; and though Shakespeare transfers the a.s.sa.s.sination to the Capitol, he makes Caesar's blood stain the statue of Pompey. See III, ii, 187, 188.]

[Note 128: /element:/ sky. Twice Shakespeare seems to poke fun at the way in which the Elizabethans overdid the use of 'element' in this sense, in _Twelfth Night_, III, i, 65, and in _2 Henry IV_, IV, iii, 58.]

[Note 129: /favour:/ appearance. So in I, ii, 91. Johnson's emendation, though pleonastic, makes least change upon the text of the Folios.]

[Page 39]

_Enter_ CINNA.

CASCA. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste.

Ca.s.sIUS. 'Tis Cinna; I do know him by his gait; He is a friend. Cinna, where haste you so?

CINNA. To find out you. Who's that? Metellus Cimber?

Ca.s.sIUS. No, it is Casca; one incorporate 135 To our attempts. Am I not stay'd for, Cinna?

[Note 132: /gait/ Johnson

gate Ff.]

[Note 131: /close:/ hidden. So in _1 Chronicles_, xii, 1: "He yet kept himself close because of Saul the son of Kish."]

[Note 135: /incorporate:/ closely united. Shakespeare uses this word nine times,--four times as an adjective and five times as a verb. With regard to the omission of _-ed_ in participial forms, see Abbott, -- 342.]

[Page 40]

CINNA. I'm glad on't. What a fearful night is this!

There's two or three of us have seen strange sights.

Ca.s.sIUS. Am I not stay'd for? tell me.

CINNA. Yes, you are.

O, Ca.s.sius, if you could 140 But win the n.o.ble Brutus to our party--

Ca.s.sIUS. Be you content. Good Cinna, take this paper, And look you lay it in the praetor's chair, Where Brutus may but find it; and throw this In at his window; set this up with wax 145 Upon old Brutus' statue: all this done, Repair to Pompey's porch, where you shall find us.

Is Decius Brutus and Trebonius there?

[Note 137: Two lines in Ff.]

[Note 140: /O, Ca.s.sius/

Ff print in line 139.]

[Note 141: /the n.o.ble Brutus/

Ff print in line 140.]

[Note 143: /in the praetor's chair./ "But for Brutus, his friends and countrymen, both by divers procurements and sundry rumours of the city, and by many bills[A] also, did openly call and procure him to do that he did. For under the image of his ancestor Junius Brutus, (that drave the kings out of Rome) they wrote: 'O, that it pleased the G.o.ds thou wert now alive, Brutus!' and again, 'that thou wert here among us now!' His tribunal or chair, where he gave audience during the time he was Praetor, was full of such bills: 'Brutus, thou art asleep, and art not Brutus indeed.'"--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Note A: i.e. /scrolls/.]

[Note 144: /Brutus may but find it:/ only Brutus may find it.]

[Note 148: For a discussion of singular verbs with plural subjects, see Abbott, -- 333. Cf. l. 138, l. 155; III, ii, 26.--/Decius Brutus/. As indicated in the notes to the Dramatis Personae, this should be 'Decimus Brutus.'

Shakespeare found the form 'Decius' in North's Plutarch, who translated from Amyot, in whose French version the blunder was originally made. Decimus Brutus is said to have been cousin to the other Brutus of the play. He had been one of Caesar's ablest, most favored, and most trusted lieutenants, and had particularly distinguished himself in his naval service at Venetia and Ma.s.silia. After the murder of Caesar, he was found to be written down in his will as second heir.]

[Page 41]

CINNA. All but Metellus Cimber; and he's gone To seek you at your house. Well, I will hie, 150 And so bestow these papers as you bade me.

Ca.s.sIUS. That done, repair to Pompey's theatre.

[_Exit_ CINNA]

Come, Casca, you and I will yet ere day See Brutus at his house: three parts of him Is ours already, and the man entire 155 Upon the next encounter yields him ours.

CASCA. O, he sits high in all the people's hearts; And that which would appear offence in us, His countenance, like richest alchemy, Will change to virtue and to worthiness. 160

Ca.s.sIUS. Him and his worth and our great need of him, You have right well conceited. Let us go, For it is after midnight, and ere day 163 We will awake him and be sure of him. [_Exeunt_]

[Note 151: /bade/ Rowe

bad Ff.]

[Note 159: /countenance/: support.--/alchemy/: the old ideal art of turning base metals into gold. So in _Sonnets_, x.x.xIII, 4: "Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy." Cf. _King John_, III, i, 78.]

[Note 162: /conceited/: formed an idea of, conceived, judged.

'Conceit' as a verb occurs again in III, i, 193, and in _Oth.e.l.lo_, III, iii, 149.]

[Page 42]

ACT II

SCENE I. _Rome._ BRUTUS'S _orchard_

_Enter_ BRUTUS