[Note 54: /'Tis just:/ that's so, exactly so. Cf. _All's Well
that Ends Well_, II, iii, 21; _As You Like It_, III, ii, 281;
_2 Henry IV_, III, ii, 89.]

[Note 59: /Where./ The adverb is here used of occasion, not of
place.--/of the best respect:/ held in the highest
estimation.]

[Note 60: /Except immortal Caesar./ Keen, double-edged irony.]

[Note 71: /jealous on:/ suspicious of. In Shakespeare we find
'on' and 'of' used indifferently, even in the same sentence,
as in _Hamlet_, IV, v, 200. Cf. _Macbeth_, I, iii, 84;
_Sonnets_, LXXXIV, 14. See Abbott, Sect. 181.]

[Note 72: /laughter:/ laughing-stock. Although most modern
editors have adopted Rowe's emendation, 'laugher,' the reading
of the Folios is perfectly intelligible and thoroughly
Shakespearian. Cf. IV, iii, 114.]

[Note 73: /To stale:/ to make common by frequent repetition,
to cheapen. So again in IV, i, 38. Cf. _Antony and Cleopatra_,
II, ii, 240.]

[Note 74: 'To protest' is used by Shakespeare in the sense of
'to profess,' 'to declare,' 'to vow,' as in _All's Well that
Ends Well_, IV, ii, 28, and _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, I, i,
89. The best commentary on ll. 72-74 is _Hamlet_, I, iii,
64-65: "But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each
new-hatch'd, unfledged comrade."]

[Page 14]

BRUTUS. What means this shouting? I do fear, the people
Choose Caesar for their king.

CASSIUS. Ay, do you fear it? 80
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?
What is it that you would impart to me?
If it be aught toward the general good, 85
Set honour in one eye and death i' the other,
And I will look on both indifferently;
For let the gods so speed me as I love
The name of honour more than I fear death.

[Note 79-80: Three irregular lines in Ff.]

[Note 85: /aught/ Theobald | ought Ff.]

[Note 87: /both/ Ff | death Theobald (Warburton).]

[Note 76-78: If you know that, when banqueting, I make
professions of friendship to all the crowd.]

[Note 87: "Warburton would read 'death' for 'both'; but I
prefer the old text. There are here three things, the public
good, the individual Brutus' honour, and his death. The latter
two so balanced each other, that he could decide for the first
by equipoise; nay--the thought growing--that honour had more
weight than death."--Coleri