III Pope.--Two lines in Ff.]

[Note 153: /be let blood:/ be put to death. So in _Richard
III_, III, i, 183.--/is rank:/ has grown grossly full-blooded.
The idea is of one who has overtopped his equals, and grown
too high for the public safety. So in the speech of Oliver in
_As You Like It_, I, i, 90, when incensed at the high bearing
of Orlando: "Is it even so? begin you to grow upon me? I will
physic your rankness."]

[Note 160: /Live:/ if I live. Cf. _The Merchant of Venice_,
III, ii, 61.]

[Note 163: In this line /'by'/ is used (1) in the sense of
'near,' 'beside,' and (2) in its ordinary sense to denote
agency.]

[Page 92]

BRUTUS. O Antony, beg not your death of us. 165
Though now we must appear bloody and cruel,
As, by our hands and this our present act,
You see we do; yet see you but our hands
And this the bleeding business they have done:
Our hearts you see not; they are pitiful; 170
And pity to the general wrong of Rome--
As fire drives out fire, so pity pity--
Hath done this deed on Caesar. For your part,
To you our swords have leaden points, Mark Antony:
Our arms in strength of malice, and our hearts 175
Of brothers' temper, do receive you in
With all kind love, good thoughts, and reverence.

CASSIUS. Your voice shall be as strong as any man's
In the disposing of new dignities.

[Note 172: The first 'fire' is dissyllabic. The allusion is to
the old notion that if a burn be held to the fire the pain
will be drawn or driven out. Shakespeare has four other very
similar allusions to this belief--_Romeo and Juliet_, I, ii,
46; _Coriolanus_, IV, vii, 54; _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_,
II, iv, 192; _King John_, III, i, 277.]

[Note 175: /in strength of malice:/ strong as they have shown
themselves to be in malice towards tyranny. Though the Folio
text may be corrupt, and at least twelve emendations have been
suggested, the figure as it stands is intelligible, though
elliptically obscure. Grant White has indicated how thoroughly
the expression is in the spirit of what Brutus has just said.
In previous editions of Hudson's Shakespeare, Singer's
conjecture of 'amity' for 'malice' was adopted. What makes
this conjecture plausible is Shakespeare's frequent use of
'amity,' and "strength of their amity" occurs in _Antony and
Cleopatra_, II, vi, 137.]

[Note 178-179: Brutus has been talking about "our hearts," and
"kind