Re-enter LUCIUS. Luc. Sir, March is wasted fourteen days. [Knocking within. [Exit LUCIUS. Bru. 'Tis good. Go to the gate; somebody knocks.— Since Cassius first did whet me against Cæsar, I have not slept. Between the acting of a dreadful thing 14 Motion for impulse, or the first budding of thought into purpose. 15 A phantasma is a phantom; something imagined or fancied; a vision of things that are not, as in a nightmare. 46 16 Commentators differ about genius here; some taking it for the conscience, others for the anti-conscience. Shakespeare uses genius, spirit, and demon as synonymous, and all three, apparently, both in a good sense and in a bad; as every man was supposed to have a good and a bad angel. So, in this play, we have "thy evil spirit"; in The Tempest, our worser genius"; in Troilus and Cressida, "Some say the genius so cries Come! to him that instantly must die"; in Antony and Cleopatra, "Thy demon, that's thy spirit which keeps thee"; where, as often, keeps is guards. In these and some other cases, the words have some epithet or context that determines their meaning; but not so with genius in the text. But, in all such cases, the words, I think, mean the directive power of the mind. And so we often speak of a man's better self, or a man's worser self, according as one is in fact directed or drawn to good or to evil. — The sense of mortal, here, is also somewhat in question. The Poet sometimes uses it for perishable, or that which dies; but oftener for deadly, or that which kills. Mortal instruments may well be held to mean the same as when Macbeth says, “I'm settled, and bend up each corporal agent to this terrible feat.” — As Brutus is speaking with reference to his own case, he probably intends genius in a good sense; for the spiritual or immortal part of himself. If so, then he would naturally mean, by mortal, his perishable part, or his ministerial faculties, which shrink from executing what the directive power is urging them to. Like to a little kingdom, suffers then Re-enter LUCIUS. Luc. Sir, 'tis your brother Cassius at the door, Who doth desire to see you. Bru. Is he alone? Luc. No, sir, there are more with him. Do you know them? Luc. No, sir: their hats are pluck'd about their ears, That by no means I may discover them Bru. [Exit LUCIUS. They are the faction. O conspiracy, Shamest thou to show thy dangerous brow by night, Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, conspiracy; For if thou pass, thy native semblance on,19 Not Erebus itself were dim enough To hide thee from prevention.20 The late Professor Ferrier, however, of Aberdeen, seems to take a somewhat different view of the passage. "Shakespeare," says he," has a fine description of the unsettled state of the mind when the will is hesitating about the perpetration of a great crime, and when the passions are threatening to overpower, and eventually do overpower, the reason and the conscience." 17 That is, a kind of insurrection. or something like an insurrection. 18 When crimes and mischiefs, or rather when evil and mischievous men are most free from the restraints of law, or of shame. So Hamlet speaks of night as the time "when Hell itself breathes out contagion to this world." 19" Thy native semblance being on." Ablative absolute again. 20 "To hide thee from discovery," which would lead to prevention. - Of Enter CASSIUS, CASCA, DECIUS, CINNA, METELLUS CIMBER, and TREBONIUS. Cass. I think we are too bold upon your rest: Good morrow, Brutus; do we trouble you? Bru. I have been up this hour, awake all night. Cass. Yes, every man of them; and no man here Which every noble Roman bears of you. Bru. Cass. This Decius 21 Brutus. Bru. He is welcome hither. He is welcome too. Cass. This, Casca; this, Cinna; and this Metellus Cimber. Bru. They are all welcome. What watchful cares do interpose themselves Betwixt your eyes and night? Cass. Shall I entreat a word? [BRUTUS and CASSIUS whisper apart Dec. Here lies the East: doth not the day break here? Casca. No. Cin. O, pardon, sir, it doth; and yon gray lines. the five divisions of Hades, Erebus was, properly, the third. Shakespear however, seems to identify it with Tartarus, the lowest deep of the infernal world, the horrible pit where Dante locates Brutus and Cassius along with Judas Iscariot. 21 Shakespeare found the name thus in Plutarch. In fact, however, it was Decimus, not Decius. The man is said to have been cousin to the other Brutus of the play. He had been one of Cæsar's ablest, most favoured, and most trusted lieutenants, and had particularly distinguished himself in his naval service at Venetia and Massilia. After the murder of Cæsar, he was found to be written down in his will as second heir. That fret the clouds are messengers of day. Casca. You shall confess that you are both deceived. Which is a great way growing on the South, Bru. Give me your hands all over, one by one. Bru. No, not an oath: if not the face of men,24 Till each man drop by lottery.25 But if these, To kindle cowards, and to steel with valour The melting spirits of women; then, countrymen, 22 That is, verging or inclining towards the South, in accordance with the early time of the year. Weighing is considering. 28 "The high East" is the perfect East. So the Poet has "high morning" for morning full-blown. — This little side-talk on an indifferent theme is very finely conceived, and aptly marks the men as seeking to divert off the anxious thoughts of the moment by any casual chat. It also serves the double purpose of showing that they are not listening, and of preventing suspicion, if any were listening to them. 24 Meaning, probably, the shame and self-reproach with which Romans must now look each other in the face, under the consciousness of having fallen away from the republican spirit of their forefathers.— The change in the construction of the sentence gives it a more colloquial cast, without causing any real obscurity. 25 Brutus seems to have in mind the capriciousness of a high-looking and heaven-daring oriental tyranny, where men's lives hung upon the nod and whim of the tyrant, as on the hazards of a lottery. What 26 need we any spur but our own cause That this shall be, or we will fall for it? Nor th' insuppressive 32 mettle of our spirits, If he do break the smallest particle Of any promise that hath pass'd from him. 26 What for why. The Poet often has it so. And so in St. Mark, xiv. 63: "What need we any further witnesses?" 27 To palter is to equivocate, to shuffle, as in making a promise with what is called "a mental reservation." 28 Engaged is pledged, or put in pawn. A frequent usage. 29 Cautelous is here used in the sense of deceit or fraud; though its original meaning is wary, circumspect, the same as cautious. The word is said to have caught a bad sense in passing through French hands. But, as the Clarendon edition notes, "the transition from caution to suspicion, and from suspicion to craft and deceit, is not very abrupt." 30 Carrions for carcasses, or men as good as dead. Repeatedly so. 31 Meaning the virtue that holds an equable and uniform tenour, always keeping the same high level. 32 Insuppressive for insuppressible; the active form with the passive sense. So the Poet has unexpressive for inexpressible. See, also, Hamlet, page 77. note 9. 33 Or- or for either- or occurs very often in all English poetry; as also nor-nor for neither-nor.— To think is by thinking. |