The New Hudson Shakespeare: Julius Caesar Part 32

ANTONY. But yesterday the word of Caesar might Have stood against the world: now lies he there, And none so poor to do him reverence. 120 O masters, if I were dispos'd to stir Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage, I should do Brutus wrong and Ca.s.sius wrong, Who, you all know, are honourable men: I will not do them wrong; I rather choose 125 To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you, Than I will wrong such honourable men.

But here's a parchment with the seal of Caesar; I found it in his closet; 'tis his will: Let but the commons hear this testament-- 130 Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read-- And they would go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds, And dip their napkins in his sacred blood, Yea, beg a hair of him for memory, And, dying, mention it within their wills, 135 Bequeathing it as a rich legacy Unto their issue.

[Note 114: /abide it:/ suffer for it, pay for it. See note, p.

87, l. 95.]

[Note 120: And there are none so humble but that the great Caesar is now beneath their reverence, or too low for their regard.]

[Note 133: /napkins:/ handkerchiefs. In the third scene of the third act of _Oth.e.l.lo_ the two words are used interchangeably.]

[Page 107]

4 CITIZEN. We'll hear the will: read it, Mark Antony.

ALL. The will, the will! we will hear Caesar's will.

ANTONY. Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it; It is not meet you know how Caesar lov'd you. 141 You are not wood, you are not stones, but men; And, being men, hearing the will of Caesar, It will inflame you, it will make you mad.

'T is good you know not that you are his heirs; 145 For if you should, O, what would come of it!

4 CITIZEN. Read the will; we'll hear it, Antony; You shall read us the will, Caesar's will.

ANTONY. Will you be patient? will you stay awhile?

I have o'ershot myself to tell you of it: 150 I fear I wrong the honourable men Whose daggers have stabb'd Caesar; I do fear it.

4 CITIZEN. They were traitors: honourable men!

ALL. The will! the testament!

2 CITIZEN. They were villains, murderers: the will! read the will. 155

ANTONY. You will compel me, then, to read the will?

Then make a ring about the corpse of Caesar, And let me show you him that made the will.

Shall I descend? and will you give me leave?

[Note 150: /o'ershot myself to tell:/ gone too far in telling.

Another example of the infinitive used as a gerund. Cf. l. 103 and II, i, 135.]

[Note 152: Antony now sees that he has the people wholly with him, so that he is perfectly safe in stabbing the stabbers with these words.]

[Page 108]

ALL. Come down. 160

2 CITIZEN. Descend.

3 CITIZEN. You shall have leave.

[ANTONY _comes down from the pulpit_]

4 CITIZEN. A ring, stand round.

1 CITIZEN. Stand from the hea.r.s.e, stand from the body.

2 CITIZEN. Room for Antony, most n.o.ble Antony. 165

ANTONY. Nay, press not so upon me: stand far off.

ALL. Stand back; room; bear back!

[Note 162: [ANTONY _comes_ ...] Ff omit.]

[Note 166: /far:/ farther. The old comparative of 'far' is 'farrer' (sometimes 'ferrar') still heard in dialect, and the final _-er_ will naturally tend to be slurred. So _The Winter's Tale_, IV, iv, 441, "Far than Deucalion off." So 'near' for 'nearer' in _Richard II_, III, ii, 64.]

[Page 109]

ANTONY. If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.

You all do know this mantle: I remember The first time ever Caesar put it on; 170 'Twas on a summer's evening, in his tent, That day he overcame the Nervii.

Look, in this place ran Ca.s.sius' dagger through: See what a rent the envious Casca made: Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabb'd; 175 And, as he pluck'd his cursed steel away, Mark how the blood of Caesar follow'd it, As rus.h.i.+ng out of doors, to be resolv'd If Brutus so unkindly knock'd, or no; For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel: 180 Judge, O you G.o.ds, how dearly Caesar lov'd him!

This was the most unkindest cut of all; For when the n.o.ble Caesar saw him stab, Ingrat.i.tude, more strong than traitors' arms, Quite vanquish'd him: then burst his mighty heart; 185 And, in his mantle m.u.f.fling up his face, Even at the base of Pompey's statue, Which all the while ran blood, great Caesar fell.

O, what a fall was there, my countrymen!

Then I, and you, and all of us fell down, 190 Whilst b.l.o.o.d.y treason flourish'd over us.

O, now you weep; and I perceive you feel The dint of pity: these are gracious drops.

Kind souls, what, weep you when you but behold Our Caesar's vesture wounded? Look you here, 195 Here is himself, marr'd, as you see, with traitors.

[Note 187: /statue/ Ff statua Steevens Globe statue Camb.]

[Note 174: /envious:/ malicious. See note on 'envy,' p. 54, l.

164.]

[Note 178: /resolv'd:/ informed, a.s.sured. See note, p. 90, l.

132.]

[Note 172: This is the artfullest and most telling stroke in Antony's speech. The Romans prided themselves most of all upon their military virtue and renown: Caesar was their greatest military hero; and his victory over the Nervii was his most noted military exploit. It occurred during his second campaign in Gaul, in the summer of the year B.C. 57, and is narrated with surpa.s.sing vividness in the second book of his _Gallic War_. Plutarch, in his _Julius Caesar_, gives graphic details of this famous victory and the effect upon the Roman people of the news of Caesar's personal prowess, when "flying in amongst the barbarous people," he "made a lane through them that fought before him." Of course the matter about the 'mantle' is purely fict.i.tious: Caesar had on the civic gown, not the military cloak, when killed; and it was, in fact, the mangled toga that Antony displayed on this occasion; but the fiction has the effect of making the allusion to the victory seem perfectly artless and incidental.]

[Note 180: 'Angel' here seems to mean his counterpart, his good genius, or a kind of better and dearer self. See note, p.

47, l. 66.]

[Note 193: 'Dint' (Anglo-Saxon _dynt_; cf. provincial 'dunt') originally means 'blow'; the text has it in the secondary meaning of 'impression' made by a blow. Shakespeare uses the word in both senses.]

[Page 110]

1 CITIZEN. O piteous spectacle!

2 CITIZEN. O n.o.ble Caesar!

3 CITIZEN. O woful day!

4 CITIZEN. O traitors, villains! 200

1 CITIZEN. O most b.l.o.o.d.y sight!