The melting spirits of women; then, countrymen,
What need we any spur but our own cause,
To prick us to redress? what other bond,
Than secret Romans, that have spoke the word,
And will not palter 15? and what other oath,
Than honesty to honesty engag'd,

That this shall be, or we will fall for it?

Swear priests, and cowards, and men cautelous 16,
Old feeble carrions, and such suffering souls
That welcome wrongs; unto bad causes swear
Such creatures as men doubt: but do not stain
The even virtue of our enterprize,

Nor the insuppressive mettle of our spirits,
To think, that, or our cause, or our performance,
Did need an oath; when every drop of blood,
That every Roman bears, and nobly bears,
Is guilty of a several bastardy,

If he do break the smallest particle

Of any promise that hath pass'd from him.

Cas. But what of Cicero? Shall we sound him?

I think, he will stand very strong with us.

Casca. Let us not leave him out.

Cin.

No, by no means.

Met. O let us have him; for his silver hairs Will purchase us a good opinion 17,

17

And buy men's voices to commend our deeds:
It shall be said, his judgment rul'd our hands;
Our youths, and wildness, shall no whit appear,
But all be buried in his gravity.

15 To palter is to shuffle, to equivocate; to go from engage

ments once made.

16 Though cautelous is often used for wary, circumspect, by old writers, the context plainly shows that Shakspeare uses it here for artful, insidious; opposed to honesty. It is used in Coriolanus, Act iv. Sc. 1, in the same sense.

17 i. e. character. Thus in King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 4:

Thou hast redeem'd thy lost opinion.'

Bru. O, name him not; let us not break 18 with him; For he will never follow any thing

That other men begin.

Cas.

Then leave him out.

Casca. Indeed, he is not fit.

Dec. Shall no man else be touch'd but only Cæsar? Cas. Decius, well urg'd:-I think it is not meet, Mark Antony, so well belov'd of Cæsar,

Should outlive Cæsar: We shall find of him
A shrewd contriver; and, you know, his means,
If he improves them, may well stretch so far,
As to annoy us all: which to prevent,

Let Antony, and Cæsar, fall together.

Bru. Our course will seem too bloody, Caius
Cassius,

To cut the head off, and then hack the limbs;
Like wrath in death, and envy 19 afterwards:
For Antony is but a limb of Cæsar.

Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius.
We all stand up against the spirit of Cæsar;
And in the spirit of men there is no blood:
O, that we then could come by Cæsar's spirit,
And not dismember Cæsar! But, alas,
Cæsar must bleed for it! And, gentle friends,
Let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully;
Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods,
Not hew him as a carcase fit for hounds 20:

18 Let us not break the matter to him.

19 Envy here, as almost always by Shakspeare, is used for

malice.

20

'Gradive, dedisti,

Ne qua manus vatem, ne quid mortalia bello

Lædere tela queant, sanctum et venerabile Diti
Funus erat.'
Statius Theb. vii. 1. 696.

The following passage of the old translation of Plutarch was probably in the poet's thoughts: Cæsar turned himself nowhere but he was stricken at by some, and still naked swords in his face, and was hacked and mangled among them as a wild beast taken of hunters.'

And let our hearts, as subtle masters do,
Stir up their servants to an act of rage,

And after seem to chide them. This shall make
Our purpose necessary, and not envious:
Which so appearing to the common eyes,
We shall be call'd purgers, not murderers.
And for Mark Antony, think not of him;
For he can do no more than Cæsar's arm,
When Cæsar's head is off.

Cas.

Yet I do fear him: For in the ingrafted love he bears to Cæsar,

Bru. Alas, good Cassius, do not think of him : If he love Cæsar, all that he can do

Is to himself; take thought 21, and die for Cæsar: And that were much he should; for he is given To sports, to wildness, and much company.

Treb. There is no fear in him; let him not die; For he will live, and laugh at this hereafter.

Whe'r 22 Cæsar will come forth to-day, or no:

For he is superstitious grown of late;
Quite from the main opinion he held once
Of fantasy, of dreams, and ceremonies 23

21 To take thought is to grieve, to be troubled in mind. See note on Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. 5; and Antony and Cleopatra, Act iii. Sc. 2. My bodie surely is well, or in good case; but I take thought, or my minde is full of fancies and trouble.'—Baret. 22 Whether.

23

Quite from the main opinion he held once

Of fantasy, of dreams, and ceremonies.'

Main opinion is fixed opinion, general estimation. Thus in Troilus and Cressida :

Why then should we our main opinion crush

In taint of our best man?'

Fantasy was used for imagination or conceit in Shakspeare's

It may be, these apparent prodigies,
The unaccustom'd terror of this night,
And the persuasion of his augurers,
May hold him from the Capitol to-day.
Dec. Never fear that: If he be so resolv'd,
I can o'ersway him: for he loves to hear,
That unicorns may be betray'd with trees,
And bears with glasses, elephants with holes 24,
Lions with toils, and men with flatterers:
But, when I tell him, he hates flatterers,
He says, he does; being then most flattered.
Let me work:

For I can give his humour the true bent;
And I will bring him to the Capitol.

Cas. Nay, we will all of us be there to fetch him. Bru. By the eighth hour: Is that the uttermost? Cin. Be that the uttermost, and fail not then. Met. Caius Ligarius doth bear Cæsar hard,

time; but the following passage from Lavaterus on Ghostes and Spirites, 1572, may elucidate its meaning in the present instance:

Suidas maketh a difference between phantasma and phantasia, saying that phantasma is an imagination or appearance of a sight or thing which is not, as are those sights which men in their sleepe do thinke they see; but that phantasia is the seeing of that only which is in very deede.' Ceremonies signify omens or signs deduced from sacrifices or other ceremonial rites. Thus in a subsequent passage:

Cæsar, I never stood on ceremonies,
Yet now they fright me.'

24 Unicorns are said to have been taken by one, who, running behind a tree, eluded the violent push the animal was making at him, so that his horn spent its force on the trunk, and stuck fast, detaining the animal till he was despatched by the hunter. This is alluded to by Spenser, F. Q. b. ii. c. 5; and by Chapman, in his Bussy D'Ambois, 1607. Bears are reported to have been surprised by means of a mirror, which they would gaze on, affording their pursuers an opportunity of taking the surer aim. This circumstance is mentioned by Claudian. Elephants were seduced into pitfalls, lightly covered with hurdles and turf, on which a proper bait to tempt them was placed. See Pliny's Natural History, b. viii.

Who rated him for speaking well of Pompey;
I wonder, none of you have thought of him.

Bru. Now, good Metellus, go along by him 25: He loves me well, and I have given him reasons; Send him but hither, and I'll fashion him.

Cas. The morning comes upon us: We'll leave you, Brutus:

And, friends, disperse yourselves: but all remember What you have said, and show yourselves true Romans.

Bru. Good gentlemen, look fresh and merrily; Let not our looks put on 26 our purposes; But bear it as our Roman actors do, With untir'd spirits, and formal constancy: And so, good-morrow to you every one.

[Exeunt all but BRUTUS.

Boy! Lucius!-Fast asleep?—It is no matter;
Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber:
Thou hast no figures 27, nor no fantasies,
Which busy care draws in the brains of men;
Therefore thou sleep'st so sound.

Por.

Enter PORTIA.

Brutus, my lord!

Bru. Portia, what mean you? Wherefore rise

you now?

It is not for your health, thus to commit

Your weak condition to the raw-cold morning.
Por. Nor for yours neither. You have ungently,
Brutus,

Stole from my bed: And yesternight, at supper,
You suddenly arose, and walk'd about,
Musing, and sighing, with your arms across:

25 i.e. by his house; make that your way home.

26Let not our faces put on; that is, wear or show our designs.' 27 Shapes created by imagination.