Do kisse the most exalted Shores of all. Exeunt all the Commoners. 70. all the] Ff, Cam.+, Om. Rowe 70 74 wher Dyce, Sta. whether Cam.+. 71. their] that Quincy MS. bark, her sighs are the wind. Laertes does not weep over drowned Ophelia: 'Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears.' Romeo roams abroad before sunrise: 'With tears augmenting the fresh morning's dew, Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs.' The habit is a settled one; the poet reverts to it almost mechanically; his heroes feel they have never said enough, they try to outdo each other; Richard II. proposes a competition in weeping: To drop them [tears] still upon one place, Till they have fretted us a pair of graves Within the earth.' Mere child's play, thinks Queen Elizabeth in Rich. III.; as for herself, she will 'send forth plenteous tears to drown the world.' It may be appropriate to recall that such exaggerations were frequent in the romances then in vogue. In the Diana of Montemayor a shepherd causes the grass to grow in a meadow, and the water surrounding an island to rise, by the abundance of his tears. 69. Do kisse] CRAIK (p. 142): In this we have a common archaism, the retention of the auxiliary, now come to be regarded, when it is not emphatic, as a pleonasm enfeebling the expression, and consequently denied alike to the writer of prose and to the writer of verse. It is thus in even a worse predicament than the separate pronunciation of the final ed in the preterite indicative or past participle passive. In the age of Shakespeare they were both, though beginning to be abandoned, still part and parcel of the living language, and instances of both are numerous in the present play. The modern forms probably were as yet completely established only in the spoken language, which commonly goes before that which is written and read, in such economical innovations. 71. where] GUEST (p. 58): We have one of the best proofs of the elision [of the final syllable] in the further corruptions such words have undergone, ov'r became o'er, ev'r ere, oth'r or, wheth'r whe'r; and in those dialects which are so intimately connected with our own, as almost to make part of the same language, we find these letters similarly affected. Thus, in the Frisic faer is father, moar is mother, broer is brother, foer is fodder. With a slight change in the orthography, we find the same words in the Dutch. This seems to point clearly to a similar cause of corruption in all these dialects. The elision of the vowel I believe to have been the first step. [Compare also V, iv, 35: 'And see where Brutus be alive or dead. '] 74. Disrobe the Images] According to Plutarch, '—there were set up images of Cæsar in the city, with diadems upon their heads like kings. Those the two tribunes, Flavius and Marullus, went and pulled down'-ed. Skeat, p. 96. Suetonius says: -one of the crowd put upon a statue of him a laurel crown, with If you do finde them deckt with Ceremonies. 75 Mur. May we do fo? You know it is the Feaft of Lupercall. Fla. It is no matter, let no Images Be hung with Cæfars Trophees: Ile about, So do you too, where you perceiue them thicke. 80 Who else would foare aboue the view of men, 75. Ceremonies] ceremony Wh. i. a white ribbon tied round it, and the tribunes of the commons, Epidius Marullus and Cæsetius Flavius, ordered the ribbon to be taken away, and the man to be carried to prison.'-Cap. lxxix. 75. deckt with Ceremonies] R. G. WHITE: It can hardly be necessary to remark, ceremoniously or pompously decorated. [See Text. Note.] The Folio has 'with ceremonies,' which has been hitherto retained, with the explanation that 'ceremonies' means here religious ornaments or decorations [thus Warburton and Malone]. But such a use of the word is illogical and unprecedented. The word in the Folio is merely ceremonie with the superfluous s so constantly added in books of its period.-CRAIK (143): By ceremonies must here be meant what are afterwards in l. 79 called 'Cæsar's trophies,' and are described in I, ii, 306 as 'scarfs' which were hung on Cæsar's images. No other instance of this use of the word, however, is produced by the commentators.-WRIGHT, after citing the two passages, also referred to by Craik, in which mention is made of 'Cæsar's trophies' and the 'scarfs,' thinks, with Malone, that 'ceremonies' must here be 'regarded as denoting marks of ceremonious respect'; and compares: 'His ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man,' Hen. V: IV, i, 109. Wright adds to this: 'In a passage from Hakluyt's Voyages, i, 114, given in Richardson's Dictionary, "ceremony" is used loosely, not only of outward observance, but of the things whereby such observance was shown. "And I asked him, Why therfore haue you not the crosse with the image Jesu Christ therupon? And he answered: We haue no such custome. Wherupon I coniectured that they were indeede Christians: but, that for lacke of instruction, they omitted the foresaide ceremonie. . . . For the Saracens doe onely inuite men thither, but they will not haue them speake of their religion. And therfore, when I enquired of the Saracens concerning such ceremonies, they were offended thereat." In Du Cange one of the meanings given to "Ceremonia" is Victima hostia, showing that the concrete sense had become attached to the word.'-MURRAY (N. E. D., s. v. Ceremony. †4. concr.): An external accessory or symbolical 'attribute' of worship, state, or pomp. [Besides the present line Murray quotes] 1581 Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 47: Aeneas . . . carrying away his religious ceremonies. Meas. for Meas., II, ii, 59: 'No ceremony that to great ones 'longs, Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword, The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe Become them with one half so good a grace As mercy does.' 77. the Feast of Lupercall] For a description of the rites attending this [Scene II.] Enter Cæfar, Antony for the Course, Calphurnia, Portia, De- 1 cius, Cicero, Brutus, Caffius, Caska,a Soothsayer:af ter them Murellus and Flauius. SCENE II.] Pope et seq. The Same. A publick Place. Rowe. 1. Enter Cæfar...] Enter in solemn procession, with Musick, &c., Cæsar... Rowe. Enter in procession with trumpets and other music, Cæsar... Coll. ii, iii (MS). 1, 2. Decius] Decimus Hanmer, Ran. 1, 4, 6, 12. Calphurnia] Calpurnia Wh. Cam.+, Rolfe. 3 2. Caska, a...] Casca and a... Hanmer. Casca, &c., a great crowd following; Soothsayer in the Crowd. Capell et seq. (subs.) 2, 3. after...Flauius] Ff, Rowe, Pope, Jen. Var. '78, '85. Om. Theob. et cet. 3. Murellus] Ff, Rowe, Pope, Cap. Marullus Theob. et cet. Roman festival, see Smith: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, s. v. Lupercalia. The time of its celebration was the 15th of February. 83. Will make him flye, etc.] CRAIK (p. 144): A modern sentence constructed in this fashion would constitute the 'him' the antecedent to the 'who,' and give it the meaning of the person generally who (in this instance) 'else would soar,' etc., or whoever would. But it will be more accordant with the style of Shakespeare's day to leave the 'him' unemphatic, and to regard 'Cæsar' as being the antecedent to 'who.' Compare: 'Two mighty eagles fell, and there they perched, Gorging and feeding from our soldiers' hands; Who to Philippi here consorted us.'-—V, i, 94. 83. pitch] That is, the highest flight of a hawk or falcon. 1. Antony for the Course] '-that day [the Feast of Lupercal] there are divers noblemen's sons, young men (and some of them magistrates themselves that govern them), which run naked through the city, striking in sport them they meet in their way with leather thongs, hair and all on, to make them give place. And many noblewomen and gentlewomen also go of purpose to stand in their way, and do put forth their hands to be stricken, as scholars hold them out to their schoolmaster to be stricken with the ferula: persuading themselves that, being with child, they shall have good delivery; and so, being barren, that it will make them to conceive with child. . . . Antonius, consul at that time, was one of them that ran this holy course.'-Plutarch: Cæsar, cap. xli (p. 96, ed. SKEAT). 1. Calphurnia] R. G. WHITE: The Folio has Calphurnia here and wherever the name occurs; yet the needful correction has not hitherto been made, although the name of Cæsar's wife was Calpurnia, and it is correctly spelled throughout North's Plutarch, and although no one has hesitated to change the strangely perverse 'Varrus' and 'Claudio' of the Folio to 'Varro' and 'Claudius', or its 'Anthony' to 'Antony' in this play and in Ant. & Cleo. I am convinced that in both 'Anthony' and 'Calphurnia' h was silent to Shakespeare and his readers.— [ELLIS, speaking of the pronunciation during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, says (pt i, p. 316): 'There is no reason for supposing p, ph, qu to have been anything but p, f, and kw.'-ED.]—WRIGHT: Calpurnia was the daughter of L. Calpurnius Piso, married to Cæsar B. C. 59. She was his fourth wife, the other three being Cossutia, Cornelia, and Pompeia. 1, 2. Decius] STEEVENS: This person was not Decius, but Decimus Brutus. Caf. Stand you directly in Antonio's way, When he doth run his course. Ant. Cæfar, my Lord. Antonio. Caf. Forget not in your speed Antonio, To touch Calphurnia: for our Elders fay, The Barren touched in this holy chace, Shake off their fterrile curse. 5. [Musick ceases. Cap. Mal. Steev. Varr. 8. Antonio's] Ff, Rowe, Ktly. Antonius' Pope et cet. 9, 11. Antonio] Ff, Rowe, Ktly. Antonius Pope et cet. 5 10 14 sterile 10. Cæfar] Om. anon. ap. Cam. 13. touched] touchèd Dyce. 14. flerrile] F2. ferril F3. Dyce, Sta. Cam.+, Huds. Col. iii. fieril F, et cet. curfe] course Rowe ii, Pope, Han. The poet (as Voltaire has done since) confounds the characters of Marcus and Decimus. Decimus Brutus was the most cherished by Cæsar of all his friends, while Marcus kept aloof, and declined so large a share of his favors and honors as the other had constantly accepted. Velleius Paterculus, speaking of Decimus Brutus, says: 'For, though he had been the most intimate of all his [C. Cæsar's] friends, he became his murderer, and threw on his benefactor the odium of that fortune of which he had reaped the benefit. He thought it just that he should retain the favors which he had received from Cæsar, and that Cæsar, who had given them, should perish.-Bk ii, cap. lxiv, [p. 475, trans. WATSON. Steevens quotes also from Thomas May's Supplement to Lucan's Pharsalia two passages in which Decimus Brutus is referred to as among the closest of the friends of Cæsar.]— FARMER: Shakespeare's mistake of Decius for Decimus arose from the old translation of Plutarch.-MALONE: In Holland's translation of Suetonius, 1606, which I believe Shakespeare had read, this person is likewise called Decius Brutus.— R. G. WHITE: This mistake is not in the spelling of a name, but the identity of a person, and is one into which the poet was lead by his authority, North's Plutarch. Therefore it should not be corrected. 8. Antonio's] STEEVENS: The old copy generally reads 'Antonio,' 'Octavio,' 'Flavio.' The players were more accustomed to Italian than Roman terminations, on account of the many versions from Italian novels, and the many Italian characters in dramatic pieces formed on the same originals. [The form Antonio occurs but four times throughout the play. In all other instances the name is given either as Marke Antony or Antony. Octavio occurs twice, and Labio and Flavio but once each.-ED.] 13, 14. The Barren ... sterrile curse] See note on 1. 1; extract from Plutarch.-F. SCHÖNE (p. 17, foot-note): It has been thought that Cæsar here shows himself childishly superstitious. But what Shakespeare wishes clearly to indicate is Cæsar's anxiety for an heir to his power and the establishing of a dynasty. That he was not actually superstitious is shown shortly after by his 15 Ant. I fhall remember, When Cæfar fayes, Do this; it is perform'd. Caf. Set on, and leaue no Ceremony out. Caf. Ha? Who calles? Cask. Bid euery noyse be still: peace yet againe. Br.A Sooth-fayer bids you beware the Ides of March. 16. Do this] As quotation Knt, Coll. Dyce, Wh. Hal. Cam.+, Huds. 17. [Musick; and the procession moves. Capell. 20. [Musick ceases. Capell. 20, 21. againe. Cæf. Who...] Cæs. Again! (as sep. line) Who... or all of 11. 20, 21 continued to Cæsar Sta. conj. 20 25 23. Cæfar: Speake,] Cæsar. Speak; Pope,+, Dyce, Sta. Cæsar! Speak Han. Coll. Wh. Hal. Ktly, Cam.+. Huds. 26. bids you] bids Cap. curt dismissal of the soothsayer, who bids him beware of the Ides of March, calling him merely 'a dreamer.'-[WRIGHT says, however, that Cæsar, 'though a professed free-thinker, was addicted to superstition'; and cites, in support of this, Merivale: History of the Romans, etc., ii, 446, 7; see also note on II, i, 219.] 17. Ceremony] WRIGHT: The scanning of this line shows that Staunton was wrong in maintaining that Shakespeare pronounced the first two syllables of 'ceremony' as cere in cerecloth.-[Although Walker's Criticisms did not appear until 1860, the same date of publication as Staunton's Shakespeare, yet it was written several years before that date, and as Walker has quite an article on the subject of this pronunciation of 'Ceremony' (vol. ii, p. 73), he should, I think, be given the priority; he has furnished many examples of its pronunciation as a trisyllable from Shakespeare and from other writers.-ED.] 18. Sooth. Cæsar] VERITY: This incident strikes the note of mystery. The strangeness of this unknown voice from the crowd, giving its strange warning, creates an impression of danger. In Plutarch the warning is more precise; here the vague sense of undefined peril inspires greater awe. 20. Cask. Bid... againe] WRIGHT: There is no need for any change in the arrangement [see Text. Notes], as the whole suits well with the officious character of Casca. ... 26. A Sooth-sayer. March] COLERIDGE (Notes, etc., p. 131): If my ear does not deceive me, the metre of this line was meant to express that sort of mild philosophic contempt characterizing Brutus even in his first casual speech. The line is a trimeter, each dipodia containing two accented and two unaccented syllables, but variously arranged.—CRAIK (p. 144): That is, It is a sooth-sayer, who bids. It would not otherwise be an answer to Cæsar's question. The omission of the relative in such a construction is still common.-[WRIGHT acknowledges that such omissions are common, but adds that the present line 'does |