w. Or there may be a quibble
involved in connection with 'mettle' in the next line. Brutus
alludes to the 'tardy form' (l. 296) Casca has just 'put on'
in winding so long about the matter before coming to the
point.]

[Note 293: /quick mettle:/ lively spirit. Collier conjectured
'quick-mettl'd.' 'Mettlesome' is still used of spirited
horses. Cf. I, i, 63.]

[Note 296: /However:/ notwithstanding. Cf. _Troilus and
Cressida_, I, iii, 322.--/tardy form:/ appearance of
tardiness. The construction in this expression is common in
Shakespeare, as 'shady stealth' for 'stealing shadow,' in
_Sonnets_, LXXVII, 7; 'negligent danger' for 'danger from
negligence,' in _Antony and Cleopatra_, III, v, 81.]

[Page 29]

CASSIUS. I will do so: till then, think of the world.

[_Exit_ BRUTUS]

Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see, 305
Thy honourable metal may be wrought
From that it is dispos'd: therefore it is meet
That noble minds keep ever with their likes;
For who so firm that cannot be seduc'd?
Caesar doth bear me hard, but he loves Brutus: 310
If I were Brutus now and he were Cassius,
He should not humour me. I will this night,
In several hands, in at his windows throw,
As if they came from several citizens,
Writings, all tending to the great opinion 315
That Rome holds of his name; wherein obscurely
Caesar's ambition shall be glanced at:
And after this let Caesar seat him sure;
For we will shake him, or worse days endure. [_Exit_]

[Note 306: /metal/ F3 F4 | mettle F1 | mettall F2.]

[Note 307: /that it is dispos'd:/ that which it is disposed
to. For the omission of prepositions in Shakespeare, see
Abbott, Sect. 198-202. Cassius in this speech is chuckling
over the effect his talk has had upon Brutus.]

[Note 310: /bear me hard:/ has a grudge against me. This
remarkable expression occurs three times in this play, but
nowhere else in Shakespeare. Professor Hales quotes an example
of it from Ben Jonson's _Catiline_, IV, v. It seems to have
been borrowed from horsemanship, and to mean 'carries tight
rein,' or 'reins hard,' like one who distrusts his horse. So
before, ll. 35, 36:

You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand
Over your friend that loves you.]

[Note 312: /humour./ To 'humor' a man, as the word is here
used, is to turn and wind and manage him b