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Please see the bottom of the page for commentary.
_________ Explanatory Notes for Act 5, Scene 5 From Julius Caesar. Ed. Henry Norman Hudson. New York: Ginn and Co., 1908. 3. "Brutus thought that there was no great number of men slain in battle; and, to know the truth of it, there was one called Statilius that promised to go through his enemies, for otherwise it was impossible to go see their camp; and from thence, if all were well, that he would lift up a torch-light in the air, and then return again with speed to him. The torch-light was lift up as he had promised, for Statilius went thither. Now, Brutus seeing Statilius tarry long after that, and that he came not again, he said, 'If Statilius be alive, he will come again.' But his evil fortune was such that, as he came back, he lighted in his enemies' hands and was slain. Now the night being far spent, Brutus as he sat bowed towards Clitus, one of his men, and told him somewhat in his ear: the other answered him not, but fell a-weeping. Thereupon he proved[A] Dardanus, and said somewhat also to him: at length he came to Volumnius himself, and speaking to him in Greek, prayed him for the studies' sake which brought them acquainted together, that he would help him to put his hand to his sword, to thrust it in him to kill him. Volumnius denied his request, and so did many others."-- Plutarch, Marcus Brutus. A. i.e. tried. Cf. 1 Samuel, XVII, 39. 17. "The second battle being at hand, this spirit appeared again unto him, but spake never a word. Thereupon Brutus, knowing that he should die, did put himself to all hazard in battle, but yet fighting could not be slain."-- Plutarch, Julius Cæsar. Merivale has a strong sentence on this: "The legend that when preparing for the encounter with the triumvirs he was visited by the ghost of Cæsar, which summoned him to meet again at Philippi, marks the conviction of the ancients that in the crisis of his fate he was stung by guilty remorse, and haunted by the presentiment of final retribution." 43. "Amongst the rest, one of them said, there was no tarrying for them there, but that they must needs fly. Then Brutus, rising up, 'We must fly indeed,' said he, 'but it must be with our hands, not with our feet.' Then, taking every man by the hand, he said these words unto them with a cheerful countenance: 'It rejoiceth my heart, that not one of my friends hath failed me at my need, and I do not complain of my fortune, but only for my country's sake: for, as for me, I think myself happier than they that have overcome, considering that I leave a perpetual fame of virtue and honesty, the which our enemies the conquerors shall never attain unto by force or money.' Having so said, he prayed every man to shift for himself, and then he went a little aside with two or three only, among the which Strato was one, with whom he came first acquainted by the study of rhetoric. Strato, at his request, held the sword in his hand, and turned his head aside, and Brutus fell down upon it, and so ran himself through ... and died presently."-- Plutarch, Marcus Brutus. 45. of a good respect: of good reputation, well-esteemed. Cf. I, ii, 59. 46. smatch: smack, taste. "With the forms 'smack' for the verb and 'smatch' for the noun, compare 'ake' and 'ache' as used in the First Folio of Shakespeare."-- Clar. Cf. 2 Henry IV, I, ii, 111. 47. "Scarcely any of those who were accessory to his murder survived him more than three years, or died a natural death. They were all condemned by the Senate: some were taken off by one accident, some by another. Part of them perished at sea, others fell in battle; and some slew themselves with the same poniard with which they had stabbed Cæsar."-- Suetonius, Julius Cæsar. 60. will entertain them: will take them into my service. 62. prefer: recommend. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, II, ii, 155. 68. Cf. Antony's soliloquy on Cæsar, III, i, 257-258. 69-70. "Antonius spake ... that of all them that had slain Cæsar, there was none but Brutus only that was moved ... thinking the act commendable of itself; but that all the other conspirators did conspire his death for some private malice or envy that they otherwise did bear unto him."-- Plutarch, Marcus Brutus. 73-74. This refers to the old doctrine of the four elements, earth, water, air, and fire, a right proportion of which was supposed to be the principle of all excellence in nature. Shakespeare has many allusions to the doctrine, which was a commonplace of the sixteenth century. It is this common property in the idea which invalidates the importance of the argument for the date of Julius Cæsar drawn from a similar passage in Drayton's revised version of his Mortimeriados (1596-1597) published in 1603 under the title of The Barons' Wars. 79. Most like a soldier: Cf. with these words of Octavius the speech of Fortinbras with which Hamlet closes: Let four captains80. call the field to rest: give the signal to cease fighting. 'Field,' by metonymy, is occasionally used in sixteenth century literature as synonymous with 'battle' or 'order of battle.' Cf. the expression 'to gather a field,' meaning 'to collect an armed force.' So in Hall's Chronicles, 1548: "my lorde of Winchester intended to gather any feld or assemble people." Cf., too, 'field' as a hunting term. 81. part: distribute. A specific meaning of 'part' used to be 'share one with another.' This sense is now obsolete or provincial. _________
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