swounded and fell down at it: and for mine own part,
I durst not laugh, for fear of opening my lips and receiving
the bad air. 248

[Note 222: /a-shouting/ Dyce | a shouting Ff | a' shouting
Capell.]

[Note 235: /it was/ F1 | it were F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 242: /hooted/ Johnson | howted F1 F2 F3 | houted F4.]

[Note 243: /chopp'd/ | chopt Ff.]

[Note 246: /swounded/ | swoonded Ff | swooned Rowe.]

[Note 220: /there was a crown offer'd him./ In the _Life of
Marcus Antonius_ Plutarch gives a detailed and vivid
description of this scene.]

[Page 25]

CASSIUS. But, soft! I pray you: what, did Caesar swound?

CASCA. He fell down in the market-place, and foam'd at
mouth, and was speechless.

BRUTUS. 'Tis very like; he hath the falling-sickness.

CASSIUS. No, Caesar hath it not; but you, and I,
And honest Casca, we have the falling-sickness. 254

CASCA. I know not what you mean by that, but I am sure Caesar
fell down. If the tag-rag people did not clap him and hiss
him, according as he pleas'd and displeas'd them, as they
use to do the players in the theatre, I am no true man.

BRUTUS. What said he when he came unto himself? 260

[Note 249: /swound/ Ff | swoon Rowe.]

[Note 252: /like; he/ Theobald | like he Ff.]

[Note 249: /soft!/ This is an elliptical use of the adverb
'soft' and was much used as an exclamation for arresting or
retarding the speed of a person or thing; meaning about the
same as 'hold!' 'stay!' or 'not too fast!' So in _Othello_, V,
ii, 338: "Soft you; a word or two before you go"; and _The
Merchant of Venice_, IV, i, 320: "Soft! The Jew shall have all
justice; soft! no haste."]

[Note 252: /falling-sickness./ An old English name for
epilepsy (Lat. _morbus caducus_, German _fallende Sucht_) used
by North in translating Plutarch. Another form of the word is
'falling-evil,' also used by North (see quotation, p. 26, l.
268). It is an interesting fact that the best authorities
allow that Napoleon suffered from epileptic seizures towards
the close of his life.]

[Note 256: /tag-rag people:/ Cf. 'the tag' in _Coriolanus_,
III, i, 248.]

[Note 259: /true:/ honest. Shakespeare frequently uses 'true'
in this sense, especially as opposed to 'thief.' Cf.
_Cymbeline_, II, iii, 76; _Venus and Adonis_, 724: "Rich preys
make true men thieves."]

[Page 26]

CASCA. Marry, before he fell down,