The New Hudson Shakespeare: Julius Caesar Part 16

BRUTUS. What, Lucius, ho!

I cannot, by the progress of the stars, Give guess how near to day. Lucius, I say!

I would it were my fault to sleep so soundly.

When, Lucius, when? awake, I say! what, Lucius!

_Enter_ LUCIUS

LUCIUS. Call'd you, my lord?

BRUTUS. Get me a taper in my study, Lucius: When it is lighted, come and call me here.

LUCIUS. I will, my lord. [_Exit_]

[Note: _Rome ... Enter_ BRUTUS Malone Enter Brutus in his Orchard Ff.]

[Note 5: /when?/ Ff when! Delius.--/what, Lucius!/ what Lucius? Ff.]

[Note: _orchard._ Shakespeare generally uses 'orchard' in its original sense of 'garden' (literally 'herb-garden,'

Anglo-Saxon _ort-geard_).]

[Note 1: /What./ A common exclamation frequent in Shakespeare.

So in V, iii, 72. The 'when' of l. 5 shows increasing impatience.]

[Page 43]

BRUTUS. It must be by his death: and, for my part, 10 I know no personal cause to spurn at him, But for the general. He would be crown'd: How that might change his nature, there's the question.

It is the bright day that brings forth the adder, And that craves wary walking. Crown him?--that;-- 15 And then, I grant, we put a sting in him, That at his will he may do danger with.

Th' abuse of greatness is when it disjoins Remorse from power; and, to speak truth of Caesar, I have not known when his affections sway'd 20 More than his reason. But 'tis a common proof, That lowliness is young ambition's ladder, Whereto the climber upward turns his face; But when he once attains the upmost round, He then unto the ladder turns his back, 25 Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees By which he did ascend. So Caesar may; Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since the quarrel Will bear no colour for the thing he is, Fas.h.i.+on it thus; that what he is, augmented, 30 Would run to these and these extremities; And therefore think him as a serpent's egg Which, hatch'd, would, as his kind, grow mischievous, And kill him in the sh.e.l.l.

[Note 15: /him?--that;/--Camb Globe him that, Ff him--that--Rowe.]

[Note 23: /climber upward/ Ff climber-upward Warburton.]

[Note 28: /lest/ F2 F3 F4 least F1.]

[Note 10: Brutus has been casting about on all sides to find some means to prevent Caesar's being king, and here admits that it can be done only by killing him. Thus the soliloquy opens in just the right way to throw us back upon his antecedent meditations. In expression and in feeling it antic.i.p.ates _Hamlet_, III, i, 56-88. From now onwards the speeches of Brutus strangely adumbrate those of Hamlet.]

[Note 12: /the general/: the general public, the community at large. Cf. _Hamlet_, II, ii, 457, "pleas'd not the million; 't was caviare to the general." See III, ii, 89, and V, v, 71-72.]

[Note 14: The suns.h.i.+ne of royalty will kindle the serpent in Caesar. The figure in 32-34 suggests that 'bring forth' may here mean 'hatch.']

[Note 17: /do danger with/: do mischief with, prove dangerous.

Cf. _Romeo and Juliet_, V, ii, 20: "neglecting it May do much danger."]

[Note 19: /Remorse./ Constantly in Shakespeare 'remorse' is used for 'pity' or 'compa.s.sion.' Here it seems to mean something more, 'conscience,' 'conscientiousness.' So in _Oth.e.l.lo_, III, iii, 468:

Let him command, And to obey shall be in me remorse, What b.l.o.o.d.y business ever.

The possession of dictatorial power is apt to stifle or sear the conscience, so as to make a man literally remorseless.]

[Note 20: /affections sway'd/ pa.s.sions (inclinations) governed.]

[Note 21: /proof:/ experience. So in _Twelfth Night_, III, i, 135.]

[Note 23: Warburton put a hyphen between 'climber' and 'upward.' Delius, however, would connect 'upward' with 'whereto' and 'turns.']

[Note 26: /base degrees/: lower steps. 'Degrees' is here used in its original, literal sense for the rounds, or steps, of the ladder.]

[Note 28: /prevent/: antic.i.p.ate.--/quarrel/: cause of complaint.]

[Note 29-34: /colour/: pretext, plausible appearance. The general meaning of this somewhat obscure pa.s.sage is, Since we have no show or pretext of a cause, no a.s.signable ground or apparent ground of complaint, against Caesar, in what he is, or in anything he has yet done, let us a.s.sume that the further addition of a crown will quite upset his nature, and metamorphose him into a serpent. The strain of casuistry used in this speech is very remarkable. Coleridge found it perplexing. On the supposition that Shakespeare meant Brutus for a wise and good man, the speech seems unintelligible. But Shakespeare must have regarded him simply as a well-meaning but conceited and shallow idealist; and such men are always cheating and puffing themselves with the thinnest of sophisms, feeding on air and conceiving themselves inspired, or "mistaking the giddiness of the head for the illumination of the Spirit."]

[Page 44-45]

_Re-enter_ LUCIUS

LUCIUS. The taper burneth in your closet, sir. 35 Searching the window for a flint, I found This paper, thus seal'd up; and I am sure It did not lie there when I went to bed.

[_Gives him the letter_]

BRUTUS. Get you to bed again; it is not day.

Is not to-morrow, boy, the first of March? 40

LUCIUS. I know not, sir.

BRUTUS. Look in the calendar, and bring me word.

LUCIUS. I will, sir. [_Exit_]

BRUTUS. The exhalations whizzing in the air Give so much light that I may read by them. 45

[_Opens the letter and reads_]

Brutus, thou sleep'st: awake, and see thyself.

Shall Rome, etc. Speak, strike, redress!

Brutus, thou sleep'st: awake!

Such instigations have been often dropp'd Where I have took them up. 50 'Shall Rome, etc.' Thus must I piece it out: Shall Rome stand under one man's awe? What, Rome?

My ancestors did from the streets of Rome The Tarquin drive, when he was call'd a king.

'Speak, strike, redress!' Am I entreated 55 To speak and strike? O Rome, I make thee promise, If the redress will follow, thou receivest Thy full pet.i.tion at the hand of Brutus!

[Note 35, 59, 70: _Re-enter_ Enter Ff.]

[Note 40: /first/ Ff Ides Theobald.]

[Note 49: /dropp'd/ dropt, F1 F2.]

[Note 52: /What, Rome?/ Rowe What Rome Ff.]

[Note 53: /ancestors/ Ff ancestor Dyce.]