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 with all. 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 neat's-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! with a man is to be at odds with him; to be out at the toes is to need a mending of one's shoes. 7 Proper for handsome, goodly, or fine. Commonly so in Shakespeare; at least when used of persons. And so, in Hebrews, xi. 23, it is said that the parents of Moses hid him "because they saw he was a proper child." 8 Neat's-leather is what we call cowhide or calfskin. Neat was applied to all cattle of the bovine genus. So in The Winter's Tale, i. 2: "The steer, the heifer, and the calf, are all call'd neat." And the word is still so used in 'neat's-foot oil." 66 9 "Your infants being in your arms." Ablative absolute. The live-long day, with patient expectation, To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome : And do you now put on your best attire? And do you now strew flowers 14 in his way Run to your houses, fall upon your knees, Pray to the gods to intermit 16 the plague That needs must light on this ingratitude.17 10 That with the force of so that or insomuch that. Often so used by the writers of Shakespeare's time, and in all sorts of writing. 11 In classical usage the divinities of rivers were gods, and not goddesses. Old English usage, however, varies; Drayton making them mostly feminine; Spenser, masculine. 12 Replication for echo or reverberation. — Here, as often, the infinitive to hear is used gerundively, or like the Latin gerund, and so is equivalent to at hearing. 13 "Do you cull out this time for a holiday?" is the meaning. 14 Flowers is here a dissyllable. This and various similar words, as bower, dower, hour, and power, the Poet uses as one or two syllables, according as his verse requires. The same with fire, hire, tire, year, and divers others. 15 The reference is to the great battle of Munda, in Spain, which took place in the Fall of the preceding year. Cæsar was now celebrating his fifth triumph, which was in honour of his final victory over the Pompeian faction. Cnæus and Sextus, the two sons of Pompey the Great, were leaders in that battle, and Cnæus perished. 16 Intermit is here equivalent to remit; that is, avert, or turn back. 17 It is evident from the opening scene, that Shakespeare, even in dealing with classical subjects, laughed at the classic fear of putting the ludicrous 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 [Exeunt Citizens. Into the channel, till the lowest stream You know it is the feast of Lupercal.21 Flav. It is no matter; let no images and sublime into juxtaposition. After the low and farcical jests of the saucy cobbler, the eloquence of Marullus "springs upwards like a pyramid of fire." - CAmpbell. 18 The meaning is, "till your tears swell the river from the extreme lowwater mark to the extreme high-water mark.” 19 Wher for whether. Thus the Poet often contracts whether into one syllable. The contraction occurs repeatedly in this play. — In basest metal Shakespeare probably had lead in his thought. So that the meaning is, that even these men, though as dull and heavy as lead, have yet the sense to be tongue-tied with shame at their conduct. 20 These images were the busts and statues of Cæsar, ceremoniously decked with scarfs and badges in honour of his triumph. 21 This festival, held in honour of Lupercus, the Roman Pan, fell on the 13th of February, which month was so named from Februus, a surname of the god. Lupercus was, primarily, the god of shepherds, said to have been so called because he kept off the wolves. His wife Luperca was the deified she-wolf that suckled Romulus. The festival, in its original idea, was meant for religious expiation and purification, February being at that time the last month of the year. 22" Cæsar's trophies" are the scarfs and badges mentioned in note 20; as appears in the next scene, where it is said that the Tribunes "are put to silence for pulling scarfs off Cæsar's images." And drive away the vulgar 23 from the streets : Who else would soar above the view of men, And keep us all in servile fearfulness. SCENE II. The Same. A Public Place. [Exeunt. 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. Cæs. Stand you directly in Antonius' way, When he doth run his course.1 Antonius, [Music ceases. 23 The Poet often uses vulgar in its Latin sense of common. Here it means the common people. 24 Pitch is here a technical term in falconry, and means the highest flight of a hawk or falcon. 1 Marcus Antonius was at this time Consul, as Cæsar himself also was. Each Roman gens had its own priesthood, and also its peculiar religious rites. The priests of the Julian gens (so named from Iulus the son of Æneas) had lately been advanced to the same rank with those of the god Lupercus; and Antony was at this time at their head. It was probably as chief of the Julian Luperci that he officiated on this occasion in "the holy course." It may be well to add, here, that in old Roman society the gens was much the same as the Scottish clan in modern times; and that all the individuals, both male and female, of a given gens inherited what is called the gentilitial name; as Julius and Julia, Antonius and Antonia, Calpurnius and Calpurnia, Octavius and Octavia, Junius and Junia, Portius and Portia, Cassius and Cassia, Tullius and Tullia, &c. Ant. Cæsar, my lord? Cas. Forget not, in your speed, Antonius, Anto. I shall remember: When Cæsar says Do this, it is perform'd. Cæs. Set on; and leave no ceremony out. [Music. Cæs. Ha! who calls? Casca. Bid every noise be still. — Peace yet again! [Music ceases. Cæs. Who is it in the press that calls on me? Sooth. Beware the Ides of March. What man is that? Cæs. 2 It was an old custom at these festivals for the priests, all naked except a girdle about the loins, to run through the streets of the city, waving in the hand a thong of goat's hide, and striking with it such women as offered themselves for the blow, in the belief that this would prevent or avert "the sterile curse." - Cæsar was at this time childless; his only daughter, Julia, married to Pompey the Great, having died some years before, upon the birth of her first child, who also died soon after. The Poet justly ascribes to Cæsar the natural desire of children to inherit his vast fame and honours; and this desire is aptly signified in the play, as such an ambition to be the founder of a royal or imperial line would be an additional motive for the conspiracy against him. 3 Coleridge has a remark on this line, which, whether true to the subject or not, is very characteristic of the writer: "If my ear does not deceive me, the metre of this line was meant to express that sort of mild philosophic contempt, characterizing Brutus even in his first casual speech." The metrical analysis of the line is, an lamb, two Anapests, and two Iambs. |