lue. It
is now dead midnight. Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling
flesh."]

[Note 277: /this monstrous apparition./ "Above all, the ghost
that appeared unto Brutus shewed plainly that the gods were
offended with the murder of Caesar. The vision was thus:
Brutus ... thought he heard a noise at his tent-door, and,
looking towards the light of the lamp that waxed very dim, he
saw a horrible vision of a man, of a wonderful greatness and
dreadful look, which at the first made him marvellously
afraid. But when he saw that it did no hurt, but stood at his
bedside and said nothing; at length he asked him what he was.
The image answered him: 'I am thy ill angel, Brutus, and thou
shalt see me by the city of Philippes.' Then Brutus replied
again, and said, 'Well, I shall see thee then.' Therewithal
the spirit presently vanished from him."--Plutarch, _Julius
Caesar_.]

[Note 280: /stare:/ stand on end. 'To be stiff, rigid, fixed'
is the primary idea. Cf. _The Tempest_, I, ii, 213; _Hamlet_,
I, v, 16-20.]

[Page 142]

GHOST. Thy evil spirit, Brutus.

BRUTUS. Why com'st thou?

GHOST. To tell thee thou shalt see me at Philippi.

BRUTUS. Well; then I shall see thee again?

GHOST. Ay, at Philippi. 285

BRUTUS. Why, I will see thee at Philippi then.

[_Exit_ Ghost]

Now I have taken heart thou vanishest:
Ill spirit, I would hold more talk with thee.
Boy, Lucius! Varro! Claudius! Sirs, awake!
Claudius! 290

[Note 286: [_Exit_ Ghost] Ff omit.]

[Note 287: This strongly, though quietly, marks the Ghost as
subjective; as soon as Brutus recovers his firmness, the
illusion is broken. The order of things is highly judicious
here, in bringing the "horrible vision" upon Brutus just after
he has heard of Portia's shocking death. With that great
sorrow weighing upon him, he might well see ghosts. The
thickening of calamities upon him, growing out of the
assassination of Caesar, naturally awakens remorse.]

[Page 143]

LUCIUS. The strings, my lord, are false.

BRUTUS. He thinks he still is at his instrument.
Lucius, awake!

LUCIUS. My lord?

BRUTUS. Didst thou dream, Lucius, that thou so criedst out? 295

LUCIUS. My lord, I do not know that I did cry.

BRUTUS. Yes, that thou didst: didst thou see any thing?

LUCIUS. Nothing, my lord.

BRUTUS. Sleep agai