I'll not endure it: you forget yourself, BRU. CAS. I am. Go to; you're not, Cassius. BRU. I say, you are not.5 CAS. Urge me no more, I shall forget myself; Have mind upon your health, tempt me no further. "Do I come home so seldom, and that seldom "Am I thus baited?" The reading of the old copy, which I have restored, is likewise supported by a passage in King Richard III: "To be so baited, scorn'd, and storm'd at." MALONE. The second folio, on both occasions, has-bait; and the spirit of the reply will, in my judgment, be diminished, unless a repetition of the one or the other word be admitted. I therefore continue to read with Mr. Theobald. Bay, in our author, may be as frequently exemplified as bait. It occurs again in the play before us, as well as in A Midsummer-Night's Dream, Cymbeline, King Henry IV. P. II. &c. &c. STEEVENS. To hedge me in ;] That is, to limit my authority by your direction or censure. JOHNSON. Older in practice, &c.] Thus the ancient copies; but the modern editors, instead of I, have read ay, because the vowel I sometimes stands for ay the affirmative adverb. I have replaced the old reading, on the authority of the following line: "And I am Brutus; Marcus Brutus I." STEEVENS. See Vol. XII. p. 85, n. 6. MALone. * To make conditions.] That is, to know on what terms it is fit to confer the offices which are at my disposal. JOHNSON. 5 Cas. I am. Bru. I say, you are not.] This passage may easily be restored to metre, if we read: Brutus, I am. Cassius, I say, you are not. STEEVENS. BRU. Away, slight man! CAS. Is't possible? BRU. Hear me, for I will speak. Must I give way and room to your rash choler? Shall I be frighted, when a madman stares? CAS. O ye gods! ye gods! Must I endure all this? BRU. All this? ay, more: Fret, till your proud Go, show your slaves how cholerick you are, CAS. Is it come to this? BRU. You say, you are a better soldier: Let it appear so; make your vaunting true, And it shall please me well: For mine own part, I shall be glad to learn of noble men. CAS. You wrong me every way, you wrong me, Brutus ; I said, an elder soldier, not a better: Did I say, better? BRU. If you did, I care not. CAS. When Cæsar liv'd, he durst not thus have mov'd me. I'll use you for my mirth,] Mr. Rowe has transplanted this insult into the mouth of Lothario: "And use his sacred friendship for our mirth." STEEVENS. I BRU. Peace, peace; you durst not so have tempted him. CAS. I durst not? BRU. No. CAS. What? durst not tempt him? BRU. For your life you durst not. CAS. Do not presume too much upon my love, do that I shall be sorry for. may BRU. You have done that you should be sorry for. There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats; For I am arm'd so strong in honesty, That they pass by me, as the idle wind, Which I respect not. I did send to you For certain sums of gold, which you denied me;For I can raise no money by vile means: By heaven, I had rather coin my heart, And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash,7 By any indirection. I did send To you for gold to pay my legions, than to wring From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash,] This is a noble sentiment, altogether in character, and expressed in a manner inimitably happy. For to wring, implies both to get unjustly, and to use force in getting: and hard hands signify both the peasant's great labour and pains in acquiring, and his great unwillingness to quit his hold. WARBURTON. I do not believe that Shakspeare, when he wrote hard hands in this place, had any deeper meaning than in the following line in A Midsummer-Night's Dream : "Hard-handed men that work in Athens here." HOLT WHITE. Mr. H. White might have supported his opinion, (with which I perfectly concur) by another instance, from Cymbeline: hands "Made hourly hard with falsehood as with labour.” STEEVENS. Which you denied me: Was that done like Cassius? CAS. BRU. You did. CAS. I did not :-he was but a fool, That brought my answer back.-Brutus hath riv'd my heart: A friend should bear his friend's infirmities, BRU. I do not like your faults. CAS. A friendly eye could never see such faults. BRU. A flatterer's would not, though they do appear As huge as high Olympus. CAS. Come, Antony, and young Octavius, come, Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius, For Cassius is aweary of the world: Hated by one he loves; brav'd by his brother; Check'd like a bondman; all his faults observ'd, Set in a note-book, learn'd, and conn'd by rote, To cast into my teeth. O, I could weep 8 my answer back.] The word back is unnecessary to the sense, and spoils the measure. STEEVENS. 9 Bru. I do not, till you practise them on me.] The meaning is this: I do not look for your faults, I only see them, and mention them with vehemence, when you force them into my notice, by practising them on me. JOHNSON. My spirit from mine eyes!-There is my dagger, Than ever thou lov'dst Cassius. BRU. Sheath your dagger: Be angry when you will, it shall have scope; Do what you will, dishonour shall be humour. O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb That carries anger, as the flint bears fire; Who, much enforced, shows a hasty spark, And straight is cold again. CAS. Hath Cassius liv'd To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus, When grief, and blood ill-temper'd, vexeth him? BRU. When I spoke that, I was ill-temper'd too. CAS. Do you confess so much? Give me your hand. BRU. And my heart too. CAS. BRU. O Brutus ! What's the matter? 1 If that thou be'st a Roman, take it forth;] I think he means only, that he is so far from avarice, when the cause of his country requires liberality, that if any man would wish for his heart, he would not need enforce his desire any otherwise, than by showing that he was a Roman. JOHNSON. This seems only a form of adjuration like that of Brutus, p. 387: "Now, as you are a Roman, tell me true." BLACKSTONE. |