taper_

BRUTUS. Speak no more of her. Give me a bowl of wine.
In this I bury all unkindness, Cassius. [_Drinks_]

CASSIUS. My heart is thirsty for that noble pledge. 160
Fill Lucius, till the wine o'erswell the cup;
I cannot drink too much of Brutus' love. [_Drinks_]

BRUTUS. Come in, Titinius! [_Exit_ LUCIUS]

_Re-enter_ TITINIUS, _with_ MESSALA

Welcome, good Messala.
Now sit we close about this taper here,
And call in question our necessities. 165

CASSIUS. Portia, art thou gone?

BRUTUS. No more, I pray you.
Messala, I have here received letters,
That young Octavius and Mark Antony
Come down upon us with a mighty power,
Bending their expedition toward Philippi. 170

MESSALA. Myself have letters of the selfsame tenour.

BRUTUS. With what addition?

[Note 158: _Re-enter_ LUCIUS, ... _taper_ Camb | Enter Boy ...
Tapers Ff.]

[Note 162: [_Drinks_] Capell | Ff omit.]

[Note 163: [_Exit_ LUCIUS] Camb | Ff omit.--Scene V
Pope.--_Re-enter_ TITINIUS, _with_ ... Dyce | Enter Titinius
and ... Ff (after l. 162)]

[Note 171: /tenour/ Theobald | tenure Ff.]

[Note 173: /outlawry/ F4 | Outlarie F1 | Outlary F2 F3.]

[Note 165: /call in question:/ bring up for discussion.
'Question,' both noun and verb, is constantly found in
Shakespeare in the sense of 'talk.' So "in question more" in
_Romeo and Juliet_, I, i, 235.]

[Note 170: /Bending their expedition:/ directing their march.
Cf. 'expedition' in this sense in _Richard III_, IV, iv, 136.]

[Page 135]

MESSALA. That by proscription and bills of outlawry,
Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus,
Have put to death an hundred senators. 175

BRUTUS. Therein our letters do not well agree;
Mine speak of seventy senators that died
By their proscriptions, Cicero being one.

CASSIUS. Cicero one!

MESSALA. Cicero is dead,
And by that order of proscription 180
Had you your letters from your wife, my lord?

BRUTUS. No, Messala.

MESSALA. Nor nothing in your letters writ of her?

BRUTUS. Nothing, Messala.

MESSALA. That, methinks, is strange.

BRUTUS. Why ask you? hear you aught of her in yours?

MESSALA. No, my lord.