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Please see the bottom of the page for commentary.
Next: Julius Caesar, Act 2, Scene 1 _________ Explanatory Notes for Act 1, Scene 3 From Julius Caesar. Ed. Henry Norman Hudson. New York: Ginn and Co., 1908.
SCENE III. Rowe added "with his sword drawn" to the
Folio stage direction, basing the note on l. 19.
1. brought: accompanied. Cf. Richard II, I, iv, 2. 3-4. sway of earth: established order. "The balanced swing of earth."--Craik. "The whole weight or momentum of this globe."--Johnson. In such a raging of the elements, it seems as if the whole world were going to pieces, or as if the earth's steadfastness were growing 'unfirm.' "'Unfirm' is not firm; while 'infirm' is weak."--Clar. 11-13: Either the gods are fighting among themselves, or else they are making war on the world for being overbearing in its attitude towards them. For Shakespeare's use of 'saucy,' see Century. 13. destruction: Must be pronounced as a quadrisyllable. 14. any thing more wonderful: This may be interpreted as 'anything that was more wonderful,' or 'anything more that was wonderful.' The former seems the true interpretation. For the 'wonderful' things that Casca describes, Shakespeare was indebted to the following passage from Plutarch's Julius Cęsar, which North in the margin entitles "Predictions and foreshews of Cęsar's death": "Certainly destiny may easier be foreseen than avoided, considering the strange and wonderful signs that were said to be seen before Cęsar's death. For, touching the fires in the element, and spirits running up and down in the night, and also the solitary birds to be seen at noondays sitting in the great market-place, are not all these signs perhaps worth the noting, in such a wonderful chance as happened? But Strabo the philosopher writeth, that divers men were seen going up and down in fire, and furthermore, that there was a slave of the soldiers that did cast a marvellous burning flame out of his hand, insomuch as they that saw it thought he had been burnt; but when the fire was out, it was found he had no hurt. Cęsar self also, doing sacrifice unto the gods, found that one of the beasts which was sacrificed had no heart: and that was a strange thing in nature, how a beast could live without a heart." This passage is worth special attention, as Shakespeare uses many of the details again in II, ii, 17-24, 39-40. Cf. Hamlet, I, i, 113-125. 21. Who: See Abbott, § 264.--glaz'd. Rowe's change to 'glar'd' is usually adopted as the reading here, but 'glaze' is used intransitively in Middle English in the sense of 'shine brilliantly,' and Dr. Wright (Clar) says: "I am informed by a correspondent that the word 'glaze' in the sense of 'stare' is common in some parts of Devonshire, and that 'glazing like a conger' is a familiar expression in Cornwall." See Murray for additional examples.
23. Upon a heap: together in a crowd. 'Heap' is often used in this sense in Middle English as it is colloquially to-day. The Anglo-Saxon héap almost always refers to persons. In Richard III, II, i, 53, occurs "princely heap." So "Let us on heaps go offer up our lives" in Henry V, IV, v, 18. 26. the bird of night: The old Roman horror of the owl is well shown in this passage (spelling modernized) of Holland's Pliny, quoted by Dr. Wright (Clar): "The screech-owl betokeneth always some heavy news, and is most execrable ... in the presages of public affairs.... In sum, he is the very monster of the night.... There fortuned one of them to enter the very sanctuary of the Capitol, in that year when Sextus Papellio Ister and Lucius Pedanius were Consuls; whereupon, at the Nones of March, the city of Rome that year made general processions, to appease the wrath of the gods, and was solemnly purged by sacrifices." 30. These: such and such. Cf. "these and these" in II, i, 31. Casca refers to the doctrine of the Epicureans, who were slow to believe that such pranks of the elements had any moral significance in them, or that moral causes had anything to do with them, and held that the explanation of them was to be sought for in the simple working of natural laws and forces. Shakespeare deals humorously with these views in All's Well that Ends Well, II, iii, 1-6. 32. climate: region, country. So Richard II, IV, i, 130. Cf. Hamlet, I, i, 125: "Unto our climatures and countrymen." 35. Clean: quite, completely. From the fourteenth century to the seventeenth 'clean' was often used in this sense, usually with verbs of removal and the like, and so it is still used colloquially. For 'from' without a verb of motion, see Abbott, § 158. 42. what: what a. For the omission of the indefinite article, common in Shakespeare, see Abbott, § 86. In the Folios the interrogation mark and the exclamation mark are often interchanged. 49. thunder-stone: thunder-bolt. It is still a common belief in Scotland and Ireland that a stone or bolt falls with lightning. Cf. Cymbeline, IV, ii, 271: "Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone." 50. cross: zigzag. So in King Lear, IV, vii, 33-35:
To stand against the deep, dread-bolted thunder? 63-68. The construction here is involved, and the grammar confused, but the meaning is clear enough. The general idea is that of elements and animals, and even human beings, acting in a manner out of or against their nature, or changing their natures and original faculties from the course in which they were ordained to move, to monstrous or unnatural modes of action. 64. from quality and kind: turn from their disposition and nature. Emerson and Browning use 'quality' (cf. l. 68) in this old sense of 'disposition.' 'Kind,' meaning 'nature,' is common in Shakespeare. 65. There seems no necessity for changing the reading of the Folios. This conjunction of old men, fools, and children is found in country sayings in England to-day. So in a Scottish proverb: "Auld fowks, fules, and bairns should never see wark half dune," White's reading was first suggested by Mitford. 67. preformed: originally created for some special purpose. 71. monstrous state: abnormal condition of things. 'Enormous state' occurs with probably the same general meaning in King Lear, II, ii, 176. As Cassius is an avowed Epicurean, it may seem out of character to make him speak thus. But he is here talking for effect, his aim being to kindle and instigate Casca into the conspiracy; and to this end he does not hesitate to say what he does not himself believe. 75. This reads as if a lion were kept in the Capitol. But the meaning probably is that Cęsar roars in the Capitol, like a lion. Perhaps Cassius has the idea of Cęsar's claiming or aspiring to be among men what the lion is among beasts. Dr. Wright suggests that Shakespeare had in mind the lions kept in the Tower of London, "which there is reason to believe from indications in the play represented the Capitol to Shakespeare's mind." It is possible, too, that we have here a reference to the lion described by Casca in ll. 20-22. 77. prodigious: portentous. As in A Midsummer Night's Dream, V, i, 419: "Never mole, hare lip, nor scar, Nor mark prodigious." 81. thews: muscles. So in Hamlet, I, iii, 12, and 2 Henry IV, III, ii, 276. In Chaucer and Middle English the word means 'manners,' though in Layamon's Brut (l. 6361), in the singular, it seems to mean 'sinew' or 'strength.' See Skeat for a suggestive discussion. 83. with: by. So in III, ii, 196. See Abbott, § 193. 107-108. The idea seems to be that, as men start a huge fire with worthless straws or shavings, so Cęsar is using the degenerate Romans of the time to set the whole world a-blaze with his own glory. Cassius's enthusiastic hatred of "the mightiest Julius" is irresistibly delightful. For a good hater is the next best thing to a true friend; and Cassius's honest gushing malice is surely better than Brutus's stabbing sentimentalism. 112-115. The meaning is, Perhaps you will go and tell Cęsar all I have said about him, and then he will call me to account for it. Very well; go tell him; and let him do his worst. I care not. 117. Fleering: This word of Scandinavian origin seems to unite the senses of 'grinning,' 'flattering' (see Love's Labour's Lost, V, ii, 109, and Ben Jonson's "fawn and fleer" in Volpone, III, i, 20), and 'sneering,' and so is just the right epithet for a telltale, who flatters you into saying that of another which you ought not to say, and then mocks you by going to that other and telling what you have said.--Hold, my hand: stay! here is my hand. As men clasp hands in sealing a bargain. In Rowe's text the comma is omitted. 118. Be factious: be active. Or it may mean, 'form a party,' 'join a conspiracy.'--griefs: grievances. The effect put for the cause. A common Shakespearian metonymy. Cf. III, ii, 211; IV, ii, 42, 46. 123. undergo: undertake. So in 2 Henry IV, I, iii, 54; The Winter's Tale, II, iii, 164; IV, iv, 554. 125. by this: by this time. So in King Lear, IV, vi, 45. 126. Pompey's porch: This was a spacious adjunct to the huge theater that Pompey had built in the Campus Martius, outside of the city proper; and there, as Plutarch says in Marcus Brutus, "was set up the image of Pompey, which the city had made and consecrated in honour of him, when he did beautify that part of the city with the theatre he built, with divers porches about it." Here it was that Cęsar was stabbed to death; and though Shakespeare transfers the assassination to the Capitol, he makes Cęsar's blood stain the statue of Pompey. See III, ii, 187, 188. 128. element: sky. Twice Shakespeare seems to poke fun at the way in which the Elizabethans overdid the use of 'element' in this sense, in Twelfth Night, III, i, 65, and in 2 Henry IV, IV, iii, 58. 129. favour: appearance. So in I, ii, 91. Johnson's emendation, though pleonastic, makes least change upon the text of the Folios. 135. incorporate: closely united. Shakespeare uses this word nine times,--four times as an adjective and five times as a verb. With regard to the omission of -ed in participial forms, see Abbott, § 342. 143. in the prętor's chair: "But for Brutus, his friends and countrymen, both by divers procurements and sundry rumours of the city, and by many bills[A] also, did openly call and procure him to do that he did. For under the image of his ancestor Junius Brutus, (that drave the kings out of Rome) they wrote: 'O, that it pleased the gods thou wert now alive, Brutus!' and again, 'that thou wert here among us now!' His tribunal or chair, where he gave audience during the time he was Prętor, was full of such bills: 'Brutus, thou art asleep, and art not Brutus indeed.'"--Plutarch, Marcus Brutus. 144. Brutus may but find it: only Brutus may find it. 148. For a discussion of singular verbs with plural subjects, see Abbott, § 333. Cf. l. 138, l. 155; III, ii, 26.--Decius Brutus. As indicated in the notes to the Dramatis Personę, this should be 'Decimus Brutus.' Shakespeare found the form 'Decius' in North's Plutarch, who translated from Amyot, in whose French version the blunder was originally made. Decimus Brutus is said to have been cousin to the other Brutus of the play. He had been one of Cęsar's ablest, most favored, and most trusted lieutenants, and had particularly distinguished himself in his naval service at Venetia and Massilia. After the murder of Cęsar, he was found to be written down in his will as second heir. 159. countenance: support.--alchemy: the old ideal art of turning base metals into gold. So in Sonnets, XXXIII, 4: "Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy." Cf. King John, III, i, 78. 162. conceited: formed an idea of, conceived, judged. 'Conceit' as a verb occurs again in III, i, 193, and in Othello, III, iii, 149.
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