The New Hudson Shakespeare: Julius Caesar Part 40

BRUTUS. Come in, t.i.tinius! [_Exit_ LUCIUS]

_Re-enter_ t.i.tINIUS, _with_ MESSALA

Welcome, good Messala.

Now sit we close about this taper here, And call in question our necessities. 165

Ca.s.sIUS. Portia, art thou gone?

BRUTUS. No more, I pray you.

Messala, I have here received letters, That young Octavius and Mark Antony Come down upon us with a mighty power, Bending their expedition toward Philippi. 170

MESSALA. Myself have letters of the selfsame tenour.

BRUTUS. With what addition?

[Note 158: _Re-enter_ LUCIUS, ... _taper_ Camb Enter Boy ...

Tapers Ff.]

[Note 162: [_Drinks_] Capell Ff omit.]

[Note 163: [_Exit_ LUCIUS] Camb Ff omit.--Scene V Pope.--_Re-enter_ t.i.tINIUS, _with_ ... Dyce Enter t.i.tinius and ... Ff (after l. 162)]

[Note 171: /tenour/ Theobald tenure Ff.]

[Note 173: /outlawry/ F4 Outlarie F1 Outlary F2 F3.]

[Note 165: /call in question:/ bring up for discussion.

'Question,' both noun and verb, is constantly found in Shakespeare in the sense of 'talk.' So "in question more" in _Romeo and Juliet_, I, i, 235.]

[Note 170: /Bending their expedition:/ directing their march.

Cf. 'expedition' in this sense in _Richard III_, IV, iv, 136.]

[Page 135]

MESSALA. That by proscription and bills of outlawry, Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus, Have put to death an hundred senators. 175

BRUTUS. Therein our letters do not well agree; Mine speak of seventy senators that died By their proscriptions, Cicero being one.

Ca.s.sIUS. Cicero one!

MESSALA. Cicero is dead, And by that order of proscription 180 Had you your letters from your wife, my lord?

BRUTUS. No, Messala.

MESSALA. Nor nothing in your letters writ of her?

BRUTUS. Nothing, Messala.

MESSALA. That, methinks, is strange.

BRUTUS. Why ask you? hear you aught of her in yours?

MESSALA. No, my lord. 186

BRUTUS. Now, as you are a Roman, tell me true.

MESSALA. Then like a Roman bear the truth I tell: For certain she is dead, and by strange manner.

[Note 179-180: Cicero is ... proscription One line in Ff.]

[Note 185: Two lines in Ff.--/aught/ Theobald ought Ff.]

[Note 179: "These three, Octavius Caesar, Antonius, and Lepidus, made an agreement between themselves, and by those articles divided the provinces belonging to the empire of Rome among themselves, and did set up bills of proscription and outlawry, condemning two hundred of the n.o.blest men of Rome to suffer death, and among that number Cicero was one."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Note 183: Both 'nor nothing' and 'writ' survive to-day as vulgarisms.]

[Note 184: /Nothing, Messala./ This may seem inconsistent with what has gone before (see more particularly ll. 154-155), but we are to suppose that Brutus's friends at Rome did not write to him directly of Portia's death, as they feared the news might unnerve him, but wrote to some common friends in the army, directing them to break the news to him, as they should deem it safe and prudent to do so.]

[Page 136]

BRUTUS. Why, farewell, Portia. We must die, Messala: With meditating that she must die once, 191 I have the patience to endure it now.

MESSALA. Even so great men great losses should endure.

Ca.s.sIUS. I have as much of this in art as you, But yet my nature could not bear it so. 195

BRUTUS. Well, to our work alive. What do you think Of marching to Philippi presently?

Ca.s.sIUS. I do not think it good.

BRUTUS. Your reason?

Ca.s.sIUS. This it is: 'Tis better that the enemy seek us: So shall he waste his means, weary his soldiers, 200 Doing himself offence; whilst we, lying still, Are full of rest, defence, and nimbleness.

[Note 191: /once/: at some time or other. So in _The Merry Wives of Windsor_, III, iv, 103:

I thank thee; and I pray thee, once to-night Give my sweet Nan this ring.]

[Note 194: /art:/ theory. This speech may be paraphrased, I am as much a Stoic by profession and theory as you are, but my natural strength is weak when it comes to putting the doctrines into practice.]

[Note 196: /work alive:/ work in which we have to do with the living.]

[Note 197: /presently:/ at once. See note, p. 82, l. 28.]

[Page 137]

BRUTUS. Good reasons must of force give place to better.

The people 'twixt Philippi and this ground Do stand but in a forc'd affection, 205 For they have grudg'd us contribution: The enemy, marching along by them, By them shall make a fuller number up, Come on refresh'd, new-added, and encourag'd; From which advantage shall we cut him off 210 If at Philippi we do face him there, These people at our back.