ACT III. SCENE I. Rome. Before the Capitol; the Senate sitting. A crowd of People in the street leading to the Capitol; among them ARTEMIDORUS, and the Soothsayer. Flourish. Enter CÆSAR, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, CASCA, DECIUS, METELLUS, TREBONIUS, CINNA, ANTONY, LEPIDUS, POPILIUS, PUBLIUS, and Others. Cæs. The Ides of March are come. Sooth. Ay, Cæsar; but not gone.1 Artem. Hail, Cæsar! read this schedule. Dec. Trebonius doth desire you to o'er-read, At your best leisure, this his humble suit. Artem. O Cæsar, read mine first; for mine's a suit Cæs. What touches us ourself shall be last served. 1 There was a certain soothsayer, that had given Cæsar warning long time afore, to take heed of the day of the Ides of March, which is the 15th of the month; for on that day he should be in great danger. That day being come, Cæsar, going into the Senate-house, and speaking merrily unto the soothsayer, told him "the Ides of March be come." "So they be," softly answered the soothsayer, "but yet are they not past." — PLUTARCH. 2 One Artemidorus also, born in the isle of Cnidos, a doctor of rhetoric in the Greek tongue, who by means of his profession was very familiar with certain of Brutus's confederates, and therefore knew the most part of all their practices against Cæsar, came and brought him a little bill, written with his own hand, of all that he meant to tell him. He, marking how Cæsar received all the supplications that were offered him, and that he gave them straight to his men that were about him, pressed nearer to him, and said: "Cæsar, read this memorial to yourself, and that quickly, for they be Cæs. What, is the fellow mad? Pub. Sirrah, give place. Cass. What, urge you your petitions in the street? Come to the Capitol.3 CÆSAR enters the Capitol, the rest following. All the Senators rise. Pop. I wish your enterprise to-day may thrive. Cass. What enterprise, Popilius? Pop. Fare you well. Bru. What said Popilius Lena? Cass. He wish'd to-day our enterprise might thrive. I fear our purpose is discovered. Bru. Look, how he makes to Cæsar: mark him. Cass. Casca, be sudden, for we fear prevention. Brutus, what shall be done? If this be known, Cassius or Cæsar never shall turn back, For I will slay myself.4 Bru. Cassius, be constant : Popilius Lena speaks not of our purpose; For, look, he smiles, and Cæsar doth not change.5 matters of great weight, and touch you nearly. Cæsar took it of him, but could never read it, though he many times attempted it, for the number of people that did salute him, but holding it still in his hand, keeping it to himself, went on withal to the Senate-house. - PLUTARCH. 8 The murder of Cæsar did not, in fact, take place in the Capitol, as is here represented, but in a hall or Curia adjoining Pompey's theatre, where a statue of Pompey had been erected. The Senate had various places of meeting; generally in the Capitol, occasionally in some one of the Temples, at other times in one of the Curiæ, of which there were several in and about the city. 4 The meaning evidently is, "either Cassius or Cæsar shall never return alive; for, if I do not kill him, I will slay myself." 5 A senator called Popilius Lena after he had saluted Brutus and Cas Cass. Trebonius knows his time; for, look you, Brutus, He draws Mark Antony out of the way. [Exeunt ANTONY and TREBONIUS. CÆSAR and the Senators take their seats. Dec. Where is Metellus Cimber? And presently prefer his suit to Cæsar. Let him go, Bru. He is address'd:6 press near and second him. Cæs. What is now amiss That Cæsar and his Senate must redress? Met. Most high, most mighty, and most puissant Cæsar, Metellus Cimber throws before thy seat [Kneeling. sius more friendly than he was wont to do, he rounded softly in their ears, and told them, "I pray the gods you may go through with that you have taken in hand; but, withal, dispatch, I read you, for your enterprise is bewrayed." When he had said, he presently departed from them, and left them both afraid that their conspiracy would out. When Cæsar came out of the litter, Popilius Lena went unto him, and kept him a long time with talk. Cæsar gave good ear unto him; wherefore the conspirators, not hearing what he said, but conjecturing that his talk was none other but the very discovery of their conspiracy, they were afraid every man of them; and one looking in another's face, it was easy to see that they all were of a mind that it was no tarrying for them till they were apprehended, but rather that they should kill themselves with their own hands. And when Cassius and certain other clapped their hands on their swords under their gowns, to draw them, Brutus marking the countenance and gesture of Lena, and considering that he did use himself rather like an humble and earnest suitor than like an accuser, he said nothing to his companions, (because there were many amongst them that were not of the conspiracy,) but with a pleasant countenance encouraged Cassius; and immediately after, Lena went from Cæsar, and kissed his hand, which showed plainly that it was for some matter concerning himself that he had held him so long in talk.PLUTARCH. 6 Address'd is ready, prepared. Often so. See Macbeth, page 75, note 10, Cæs. I must prevent thee, Cimber. And turn pre-ordinance and first decree With that which melteth fools; I mean, sweet words, If thou dost bend, and pray, and fawn for him, Met. Cæsar, thou dost me wrong. Cæs. Cæsar did never wrong but with just cause, 10 Nor without cause will he be satisfied. Met. Is there no voice more worthy than my own, To sound more sweetly in great Cæsar's ear For the repealing 11 of my banish'd brother? 7 Among the proper senses of to couch, Richardson gives "to lower, to stoop, to bend down"; and he says that "to couch and to lower have similar applications, and probably the same origin." 8" Pre-ordinance and first decree" is, I take it, the ruling or enactment of the highest authority in the State. "The play of children" here referred to is, as soon as they have done a thing, to turn round and undo it, or to build a house of blocks or cobs for the mere fun of knocking it over. 9 "Be not so fond as to think," is the language in full. The Poet often omits the adverbs in such cases. Fond, here, is foolish; which was its ordinary sense in Shakespeare's time. 10 Metellus and Cæsar here use wrong in different senses. But to hurt, to offend, to cause pain were among its legitimate meanings in Shakespeare's time. So he has it afterwards in this play: "It shall advantage more than do us wrong." And so in several other places; as in Othello, ii. 3: "I persuade myself, to speak the truth shall nothing wrong him." To wring and to wrest are from the same root as wrong. See Critical Notes. 11 To repeal from banishment is, in old English, to recall by repealing the sentence. See Richard the Second, page 84, note 8. Bru. I kiss thy hand, but not in flattery, Cæsar; Desiring thee that Publius Cimber may Have an immediate freedom of repeal. Cæs. What, Brutus ! Pardon, Cæsar; Cæsar, pardon: As low as to thy foot doth Cassius fall, To beg enfranchisement for Publius Cimber. Cas. I could be well moved, if I were as you; 12 The skies are painted with unnumber'd sparks, That unassailable holds on his rank, Unshaked of motion : 14 and that I am he, Let me a little show it even in this, That I was constant Cimber should be banish'd, And constant do remain to keep him so.15 12 "If I could seek to move others by prayers, then I were capable of being myself moved by the prayers of others." 18 Apprehensive is intelligent, capable of apprehending. 14 "Unshaked of motion" is simply unmoved, or not subject to motion. Undisturbed by the motion of others. As all readers of the Bible know, of was continually used, with passive verbs, to denote the agent, 15 All through this scene, Cæsar is made to speak quite out of character, and in a strain of hateful arrogance, in order, apparently, to soften the enormity of his murder, and to grind the daggers of the assassins to a sharper point. Perhaps, also, it is a part of the irony which so marks this play, to put the haughtiest words in Cæsar's mouth just before his fall. It |