The New Hudson Shakespeare: Julius Caesar Part 6

[Footnote 1: DRAMATIS PERSONae. Rowe was the first to give a list of Dramatis Personae. His list was imperfect and Theobald enlarged it.]

[Footnote 2: ANTONIUS. In I, ii, 3, 4, 6, the First Folio gives the name in the Italian form, 'Antonio.' See note, p. 9, l. 3.]

[Footnote 3: DECIUS BRUTUS. The true cla.s.sical name was Decimus Brutus.

In Amyot's _Les Vies des hommes ill.u.s.tres grecs et latins_ (1559) and in North's Plutarch (1579) the name is given as in Shakespeare.]

[Footnote 4: MARULLUS. Theobald's emendation for the Murellus (Murrellus, I, ii, 281) of the First Folio. Marullus is the spelling in North's Plutarch.]

[Footnote 5: ARTEMIDORUS. Rowe (1709) had 'Artimedorus (Artemidorus, 1714) a Soothsayer.' This Theobald altered to 'Artemidorus, a Sophist of Cnidos,' and made the Soothsayer a separate character].

[Footnote 6: CALPURNIA. Occasionally in North's Plutarch (twice in _Julius Caesar_) and always in the First Folio the name is given as 'Calphurnia.']

[Page 3]

ACT I

SCENE I. _Rome. A street_

_Enter_ FLAVIUS, MARULLUS, _and certain_ Commoners _over the stage_

FLAVIUS. Hence! home, you idle creatures, get you home: Is this a holiday? what! know you not, Being mechanical, you ought not walk Upon a labouring day without the sign Of your profession? Speak, what trade art thou? 5

CARPENTER. Why, sir, a carpenter.

MARULLUS. Where is thy leather ap.r.o.n and thy rule?

What dost thou with thy best apparel on?

You, sir, what trade are you? 9

[Note: ACT I, SCENE I Actus Primus. Scna Prima Ff.--_Rome. A street_ Capell Rome Rowe Ff omit.--Commoners Ff Plebeians Hanmer.]

[Note 6: CARPENTER Car. Ff First Com. Camb 1 Pleb.

Hanmer.]

[Note: ACT I. In the First Folio _The Tragedie of Julius Caesar_ is divided into acts but not into scenes, though 'Scna (so spelled in the Folios) Prima' is given here after 'Actus Primus.'--_over the stage_. This, the Folio stage direction, suggests a mob.]

[Note 3: /Being mechanical:/ being mechanics. Shakespeare often uses adjectives with the sense of plural substantives.

Cf. 'subject' in _Hamlet_, I, i, 72. Twice in North's Plutarch occurs "base mechanical people."--/ought not walk/. See Abbott, -- 349.]

[Note 4-5: Shakespeare transfers to ancient Rome the English customs and usages of his own time. In Porter and Clarke's 'First Folio' _Julius Caesar_, it is mentioned that Shakespeare's uncle Henry, a farmer in Snitterfield, according to a court order of October 25, 1583, was fined "viii d for not havinge and wearinge cappes on Sondayes and hollydayes."]

[Note 9: /You./ On 'you' as distinct from 'thou,' see Abbott, -- 232.]

[Page 4]

COBBLER. Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but, as you would say, a cobbler. 11

MARULLUS. But what trade art thou? answer me directly.

COBBLER. A trade, sir, that I hope I may use with a safe conscience; which is, indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles. 15

FLAVIUS. What trade, thou knave? thou naughty knave, what trade?

COBBLER. Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me: yet, if you be out, sir, I can mend you. 18

MARULLUS. What mean'st thou by that? mend me, thou saucy fellow?

COBBLER. Why, sir, cobble you.

FLAVIUS. Thou art a cobbler, art thou? 22

[Note 10: COBBLER Cobl. Ff Sec. Com. Camb.]

[Note 15: /soles/ soules F1 F2 soals F4.]

[Note 16: FLAVIUS Fla. Ff Mur. Capell Mar. Globe Camb.]

[Note 19: MARULLUS Mur. Ff.]

[Note 10: /in respect of/: in comparison with. So in _The Psalter_ (Book of Common Prayer), x.x.xix, 6. Cf. _Hamlet_, V, ii, 120.]

[Note 11: /cobbler/. This word was used of a coa.r.s.e workman, or a bungler, in any mechanical trade. So the Cobbler's answer does not give the information required, though it contains a quibble.]

[Note 12: /directly/: in a straightforward manner, without evasion.]

[Note 15: /soles/. The First Folio spelling, 'soules,' brings out the pun. This 'immemorial quibble,' as Craik calls it, is found also in _The Merchant of Venice_, IV, i, 123: "Not on thy sole, but on thy soul."]

[Note 16: Modern editors give this speech to Marullus, but the Folio arrangement is more natural and dramatic, the two Tribunes alternately rating the people, as Knight puts it, like two smiths smiting on the same anvil.]

[Note 17-18: A quibble upon two common meanings of 'out'--(1) 'at variance,' as in "Launcelot and I are out," _The Merchant of Venice_, III, v, 34; and (2) as in 'out at heels,' or 'out at toes.']

[Page 5]

COBBLER. Truly, sir, all that I live by is with the awl: I meddle with no tradesman's matters, nor women's matters, but withal I am, indeed, sir, a surgeon to old shoes; when they are in great danger, I recover them. As proper men as ever trod upon neat's-leather have gone upon my handiwork. 28

FLAVIUS. But wherefore art not in thy shop to-day?

Why dost thou lead these men about the streets?

COBBLER. Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes, to get myself into more work. But, indeed, sir, we make holiday, to see Caesar and to rejoice in his triumph. 33

[Note 25: withal I F1 withall I F2 F3 withawl. I (Farmer's conj.) Camb Globe with all. I Capell.]

[Note 34: Two lines in Ff.]

[Note 39-40: Pompey? Many ... oft Have Rowe Pompey many ...

oft? Have Ff.]