and to grind the daggers of the assassins to a sharper point.
Perhaps, also, it is a part of the irony which so marks this
play, to put the haughtiest words in Caesar's mouth just
before his fall.]

[Page 85]

CINNA. O Caesar,--

CAESAR. Hence! wilt thou lift up Olympus?

DECIUS. Great Caesar,--

CAESAR. Doth not Brutus bootless kneel?

CASCA. Speak, hands, for me! [_They stab Caesar_]

CAESAR. Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar! [_Dies_]

[Note 75: /Doth not/ F1 | Do not F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 77: [_Dies_] _Dyes_ F1 | F2 F3 F4 omit.]

[Note 75: The 'Do not' of the three later Folios was adopted
by Johnson because Marcus Brutus would not have knelt.]

[Note 76: The simple stage direction of the Folios is
retained. That of the Cambridge and the Globe editions is,
"Casca first, then the other Conspirators and Marcus Brutus
stab Caesar."]

[Note 77: /Et tu, Brute?/ There is no classical authority for
putting this phrase into the mouth of Caesar. It seems to have
been an Elizabethan proverb or 'gag,' and it is found in at
least three works published earlier than _Julius Caesar_. (See
Introduction, Sources, p. xvi.) Caesar had been as a father to
Brutus, who was fifteen years his junior; and the Greek,
[Greek: kai sy teknon] "and thou, my son!" which Dion and
Suetonius put into his mouth, though probably unauthentic, is
good enough to be true. In Plutarch are two detailed accounts
of the assassination, that in _Marcus Brutus_ differing
somewhat from that in _Julius Caesar_ with regard to the
nomenclature of the persons involved. The following is from
_Marcus Brutus_: "Trebonius on the other side drew Antonius
aside, as he came into the house where the Senate sat, and
held him with a long talk without. When Caesar was come into
the house, all the Senate rose to honour him at his coming in.
So when he was set, the conspirators flocked about him, and
amongst them they presented one Tullius Cimber, who made
humble suit for the calling home again of his brother that was
banished. They all made as though they were intercessors for
him, and took Caesar by the hands, and kissed his head and
breast. Caesar at the first simply refused their kindness and
entreaties; but afterwards, perceiving they still pressed on
him, he violently thrust them from him. Then Cimber with both
his hands plucked Caesar's gown over his shoulders, and Casca,
that stood behind h