1. JULIUS CÆSAR. [The play of Julius Cæsar, written about 1600, is the noblest of that series of historical dramas in which Shakespeare so marvelously reproduced the ancient Roman world. The historical facts are taken throughout from Plutarch's Lives, in an English translation published during Shakespeare's time, and of which the poet is known to have possessed a copy. In order to bind together the scenes here given, they are framed in a brief prose narrative.] PART I. It was high holiday in Rome (44 B.C.), and the streets were filled with crowds eager to welcome Julius Cæsar, who was to make his triumphal entry into the city, on his return from a victorious campaign. Cæsar was the most famous soldier of his time. He had conquered Gaul (now France); and he had twice visited Britain with an army, and had made it known to the civilized world. He had now returned from Spain, where he had crushed a rebellion raised by the sons of Pompey, his late rival; and the Roman senate and Roman people vied with each other in heaping honors on him. He had been made Consul (or head of the Republic) for ten years, and then Dictator for life; and all Rome had turned out into the streets to applaud the conquering hero. But there were some among the foremost men in the state who were jealous of Cæsar's great power. He had all the authority of an emperor, and many suspected him of desiring the title also. Among the leading men, the one most jealous of him was a general named Caius Cassius, a man of an envious and fiery spirit. He formed a conspiracy against Cæsar, and was anxious to draw the noble Brutus into it. While Cæsar is passing in triumph through the crowded streets, Cassius takes the opportunity to talk with Brutus, in order to sound him. While they stand together in conversation, a noise of shouting is heard. This attracts the attention of Brutus. BRUTUS. What means this shouting? I do fear, the people Choose Cæsar for their king. CASSIUS. Ay, do you fear it? Then must I think you would not have it so. BRUTUS. I would not, Cassius; yet I love him well. But wherefore do you hold me here so long? For let the gods so speed 3 me as I love The name of honor more than I fear death. I can not tell what you and other men I was born free as Cæsar; so were you: And bade him follow: so indeed he did. Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder Is now become a god, and Cassius is A wretched creature, and must bend his body 1 Accoutered. Meaning? 2 lusty. Give a synonym. 3 with controversy, with courage that opposed and contended with the violence of the stream. 4 arrive the point proposed. "Arrive," now usually followed by at, was formerly employed transitively. So in Milton: "Ere he arrive the happy isle." 5 I, as Eneas.. Cæsar. Eneas, the Trojan hero, son of Anchises and Venus, was believed to have come to Italy after the fall of Troy, and then to have married Lavinia, daughter of Latinus. Their son, Eneas Sylvius, was the reputed founder of the Roman power. How are the two "I's" in this sentence to be disposed of grammatically? If Cæsar carelessly but nod on him! 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! And that same eye whose bend2 doth awe the world BRUTUS, Another general shout! I do believe that these applauses are [Cheering is heard. For some new honors that are heaped on Cæsar. CASSIUS. Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world 3 his luster: his=its. In early The 6 bear the palm alone. figure is taken from a race in which a palm was the prize. 7 a colossus. "Colossus" was English, his was the possessive of the general name for any gigantic the neuter (hit) as well as of the statue; but the name was specialmasculine (he); and in Shake-ly applied to the famous Colossus speare's time its had not come into of Apollo at Rhodes, which was general use. the entrance to the harbor, so that seventy cubits high, and spanned large ships could sail "under his Hence the English Titinius was one of the friends of Cassius. 5 temper temperament, dispo- huge legs." sition, organization. word colossal. Walk under his huge legs, and peep about Men at some time are masters of their fates: Brutus, and Cæsar: what should be in that "Cæsar"? 3 When there is in it but one only man. Oh, you and I have heard our fathers say, 1 underlings, inferiors, serfs. The termination -ling marks a contemptuous diminutive. The 5 There was a Brutus. reference here skillfully made is to the ancestor of Marcus Brutus, What is the mod- viz., Lucius Junius Brutus, who 2 is grown. ern form of the verb? brought about the expulsion of the Tarquins. Cassius' aim is, by recalling the memory of the Elder, to induce the Younger Brutus to emulate the patriotism of his an cestor. |