If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies.

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.

70

[Exeunt. so

SCENE II. A public place.

Flourish. Enter CÆSAR; ANTONY, for the course;
CALPURNIA, PORTIA, DECIUS, Cicero, Brutus,
CASSIUS, and CASCA; a great crowd following,
among them a Soothsayer.

Cas. Stand you directly in Antonius' way,

70. ceremonies, festal ornaments, the 'scarfs' of the next scene (v. 289); Plutarch says 'diadems.' In Plutarch's narrative, however, the offer of the ⚫ diadem to Cæsar, which Shakespeare places in the following scene, has already occurred. With him, the crowning of the images was a second attempt to sound the popular disposition after the collapse of the first :

Shakespeare treats it as preliminary to this.

72. the feast of Lupercal, a feast of purification annually celebrated on the 15th of February, the month deriving its name from the purifying rite (februare).

78. pitch, height (a term in falconry for the height of the falcon's flight).

When he doth run his course.

Antonius!

Ant. Cæsar, my lord?

Cæs. Forget not, in your speed, Antonius,
To touch Calpurnia; for our elders say,
The barren, touched in this holy chase,
Shake off their sterile curse.

I shall remember:

Ant.
When Cæsar says 'do this,' it is perform'd.
Cas. Set on; and leave no ceremony out.

Sooth. Cæsar !

Cæs. Ha! who calls?

[Flourish.

Casca. Bid every noise be still: peace yet again! Cas. Who is it in the press that calls on me? I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music, Cry 'Cæsar!' Speak; Cæsar is turn'd to hear. Sooth. Beware the ides of March.

Cæs.

What man is that? Bru. A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.

Cas. Set him before me; let me see his face. Cas. Fellow, come from the throng; look upon Cæsar.

Cæs. What say'st thou to me now? speak once again.

4. run his course; the course of the Luperci, or priests of Lupercus, the god of fertility, at the Lupercalia, through the streets of the city. Plutarch's description (translated by North) is: That day there are divers noble men's sons, young men (and some of them magistrates themselves that govern them), which run naked through the city, striking in sport them they meet in their way, with leather thongs, hair and all on, to

make them give place. And many noble women and gentlewomen also, go of purpose to stand in their way, and do put forth their hands to be stricken,

...

persuading themselves that being with child they shall have good delivery, and also being barren, that it will make them to conceive with child.'

9. sterile curse, curse of sterility. 18. the ides of March, March

15.

Sooth. Beware the ides of March.

Cæs. He is a dreamer; let us leave him: pass. [Sennet. Exeunt all except

Brutus and Cassius.

Cas. Will you go see the order of the course?

Bru. Not I.

Cas. I pray you, do.

Bru. I am not gamesome: I do lack some part

Of that quick spirit that is in Antony.

Let me not hinder, Cassius, your desires;

I'll leave you.

Cas. Brutus, I do observe you now of late:
I have not from your eyes that gentleness
And show of love as I was wont to have:
You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand
Over your friend that loves you.

Bru.
Cassius,
Be not deceived: if I have veil'd my look,

I turn the trouble of my countenance
Merely upon myself. Vexed I am

Of late with passions of some difference,
Conceptions only proper to myself,

Which give some soil perhaps to my behaviours;
But let not therefore my good friends be grieved—
Among which number, Cassius, be you one-
Nor construe any further my neglect,

Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war,
Forgets the shows of love to other men.

Cas. Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your passion;

By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried

35. bear too stubborn and too strange a hand over, keep (like a restive horse) too severely and unkindly in check.

30

40. passions of some difference conflicting emotions.

42. soil, blemish

Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations.
Tell me, good Brutus, can you see your face?
Bru. No, Cassius; for the eye sees not itself,
But by reflection by some other things.

Cas. 'Tis just :

I have heard

And it is very much lamented, Brutus,
That you have no such mirrors as will turn
Your hidden worthiness into your eye,
That you might see your shadow.
Where many of the best respect in Rome,
Except immortal Cæsar, speaking of Brutus,
And groaning underneath this age's yoke,
Have wish'd that noble Brutus had his eyes.
Bru. Into what dangers would you

Cassius,

lead me,

That you would have me seek into myself
For that which is not in me?

Cas. Therefore, good Brutus, be prepared to
hear:

And since you know you cannot see yourself
So well as by reflection, I, your glass,
Will modestly discover to yourself

That of yourself which you yet know not of.
And be not jealous on me, gentle Brutus:
Were I a common laugher, or did use
To stale with ordinary oaths my love
To every new protester; if you know

That I do fawn on men and hug them hard
And after scandal them, or if you

know

That I profess myself in banqueting

To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.

58. shadow, image. 69. discover, disclose. 71. jealous on, suspicious of. 72. laugher, jester. Rowe's emendation of Ff 'laughter.'

[Flourish, and shout.

73. stale, make vulgar.
76. scandal, slander.

50

60

77. profess myself, make professions of friendship.

Bru. What means this shouting? I do fear,

the people

Choose Cæsar for their king.

Cas.
Ay, do you fear it? 80
Then must I think you would not have it so.

Bru. I would not, Cassius; yet I love him well.
But wherefore do you hold me here so long?
What is it that you would impart to me?
If it be aught toward the general good,
Set honour in one eye and death i' the other,
And I will look on both indifferently;
For let the gods so speed me as I love

The name of honour more than I fear death.
Cas. I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,
As well as I do know your outward favour.
Well, honour is the subject of my story.
I cannot tell what you and other men
Think of this life; but, for my single self,
I had as lief not be as live to be

In awe of such a thing as I myself.

I was born free as Cæsar; so were you:
We both have fed as well, and we can both
Endure the winter's cold as well as he:
For once, upon a raw and gusty day,
The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores,
Cæsar said to me 'Darest thou, Cassius, now
Leap in with me into this angry flood,

And swim to yonder point?' Upon the word,
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in

And bade him follow; so indeed he did.
The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it
With lusty sinews, throwing it aside
And stemming it with hearts of controversy;
But ere we could arrive the point proposed,
Cæsar cried 'Help me, Cassius, or I sink!'

91. favour, countenance.

IIO. arrive, reach.

90