Bru. I am not gamesome.1 I do lack some part
Of that quick spirit that is in Antony..
Let me not hinder, Cassius, your desires;
I'll leave you.

Cas. Brutus, I do observe you now of late,

Bru.

I have not from your eyes that gentleness
And show of love as I was wont 2 to have.
You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand
Over your friend that loves you.

Cassius,
Be not deceiv'd. If I have veil'd my look,
I turn the trouble of my countenance
Merely upon myself. Vexèd I am
Of late with passions of some difference,°
Conceptions only proper to myself,°

40

Which give some soil3 perhaps to my behaviors;
But let not therefore my good friends be grieved—
Among which number, Cassius, be you one—
Nor construe any further my neglect

Than that poor Brutus with himself at war
Forgets the shows of love to other men.1

Cas. Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your passion;°
By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried
Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations. 50
Tell me, good Brutus, can you see your face?
Bru. No, Cassius; for the eye sees not itself
But by reflection, by some other things.

Look up gamesome in the dictionary.

2 The word wont is an adjective. Consult the dictionary if you do not know its meaning.

We say ground. The figure of speech is the same- -that is, metaphor. Another reading makes the word soil equivalent to stain.

In reading this passage aloud what words in the last two lines need to be emphasized to make the meaning clear? What is the accent of the word construe, line 45? How do you know?

Cas. 'Tis just :°

And it is very much lamented, Brutus,

That you have no such mirrors as will turn
Your hidden worthiness into your eye,

That you might see your shadow. I have heard Where many of the best respect° in Rome, (Except immortal Cæsar), speaking of Brutus, 60 And groaning underneath this age's yoke,1 Have wish'd that noble Brutus had his eyes. Bru. Into what dangers would you lead me, Cassius, That you would have me seek into myself

For that which is not in me?

Cas. Therefore, good Brutus, be prepared to hear;
And since you know you cannot see yourself
So well as by reflection, I, your glass,2
Will modestly discover to yourself

That of yourself which you yet know not of.
And be not jealous on me, gentle Brutus.
Were I a common laughter, or did use
To stale with ordinary oaths my love
To every new protester; if you know
That I do fawn° on men and hug them hard,
And after scandal° them; or if you know
That I profess myself in banqueting
To all the rout," then hold me dangerous.3

70

Flourish and shout. Bru. What means this shouting? I do fear the people Choose Cæsar for their king.

Cas.

1 Look up yoke in the dictionary.

Ay, do you fear it? 80

2 Glass is Shakespeare's word for mirror. The mirror is still sometimes known as the "looking-glass."

• Whom is Cassius referring to here? Scandal is an excellent example of Shakespeare's use of one part of speech for another. Why not the three-syllable verb scandalize?

Then must I think you would not have it so. Bru. I would not, Cassius, yet I love him well. But wherefore do you hold me here so long? What is it that you would impart to me? If it be aught toward the general good, Set honor in one eye and death i' the other, And I will look on both indifferently; For let the gods so speed me as I love

The name of honor more than I fear death.
Cas. I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,

As well as I do know your outward favor.1
Well, honor is the subject of my story.
I cannot tell what you and other men
Think of this life, but, for my single self,
I had as lief not be as live to be

In awe of such a thing as I myself.

I was born free as Cæsar; so were you.
We both have fed as well, and we can both
Endure the winter's cold as well as he.
For once, upon a raw and gusty day,
The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores,
Cæsar said to me, 'Darest thou, Cassius, now
Leap in with me into this angry flood,
And swim to yonder point?' Upon the word,
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in

2

And bade him follow. So indeed he did.
The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it
With lusty sinews, throwing it aside

90

100

And stemming it with hearts of controversy;° But ere we could arrive the point proposed,3 110 1 Consult the dictionary with regard to the word favor. (Webster's, 8th meaning: Standard, 12th.)

2 What is the antecedent of it? 'Why not use the preposition at? posed."

"Arrive at the point pro

Cæsar cried, 'Help me, Cassius, or I sink!'

I, as Æneas our great ancestor

Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder
The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber
Did I the tired Cæsar; and this man

Is now become a god, and Cassius is
A wretched creature, and must bend his body
If Cæsar carelessly but nod on him!

120

He had a fever when he was in Spain,
And when the fit was on him, I did mark
How he did shake. 'Tis true, this god did shake;
His coward lips did from their color fly,1
And that same eye whose bend° doth awe the world
Did lose his 2 lustre. I did hear him groan;
Ay, and that tongue of his that bade the Romans
Mark him and write his speeches in their books,
Alas, it cried, 'Give me some drink, Titinius,'
As a sick girl, Ye gods! it doth amaze me
A man of such a feeble temper should
So get the start of the majestic world
And bear the palm alone. Shout. Flourish.

Bru. Another general shout!

I do believe that these applauses are

130

For some new honors that are heap'd on Cæsar. Cas. Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus, and we petty men

Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.

Men at some time are masters of their fates.

1 The meaning is rather, "The color flew from his coward lips." Such an interchange of adjectives is called prolepsis. (See APPENDIX, Figures of Speech, p. 118.)

2 His is frequently so used for its, a new word in Shakespeare's day.

'What trait seems to be uppermost in Cassius's character?

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, 140
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.1
Brutus, and Cæsar: what should be in that Cæsar?
Why should that name be soundedmore than yours?
Write them together, yours is as fair a name;
Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well;
Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure 2 with 'em,
Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Cæsar.
Now, in the names of all the gods at once,
Upon what meat doth this our Cæsar feed,
That he is grown so great? Age, thou art shamed!
Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods! 151
When went there by an age, since the great flood,3
But it was famed with more than with one man?
When could they say till now that talk'd of Rome
That her wide walks encompass'd but one man?
Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough,
When there is in it but one only man.

4

O, you and I have heard our fathers say

160

There was a Brutus once that would have brook'd
The eternal devil to keep his state in Rome
As easily as a king.

Bru. That you do love me, I am nothing jealous;

What you would work me to, I have some aim.
How I have thought of this and of these times,5
I shall recount hereafter; for this present,

i Underlings. Consult the dictionary.

2 This refers to the practice of the necromancers of the Middle Ages who pretended to be able to raise the spirits of the dead.

This, of course, is the great flood of Noah. (Genesis vii.) Shakespeare was familiar with the Bible, either in the Bishop's or the Geneva translation. His audience, too, knew the story of the Flood through having seen it acted by the guilds, or trade-unions, on fair days.

Another pun. Evidently Rome and room were pronounced alike. 5 That is, these present-day evils.