traitors. 55

[Note 41: Two lines in Ff.--/teeth/ F3 F4 | teethes F1 F2.]

[Note 44: /Struck/ F3 F4 | Strooke F1 F2.]

[Note 50-51: One line in Ff.]

[Note 39-44: These graphic details are from Plutarch's two
accounts (in _Julius Caesar_ and _Marcus Brutus_) of the
assassination of Caesar.]

[Note 48: Octavius has been a standing puzzle and enigma to
the historians, from the seeming contradictions of his
character. Merivale declares that the one principle that gave
unity to his life and reconciled those contradictions, was a
steadfast, inflexible purpose to avenge the murder of his
illustrious uncle and adoptive father.]

[Note 52: /goes up:/ is put into its sheath. Cf. _John_,
XVIII, 11.]

[Note 53: The number of Caesar's wounds, according to
Plutarch, was three and twenty, and to 'three and twenty'
Theobald, craving historical accuracy, changed the 'three and
thirty' of the text.]

[Note 55: Till you, traitors as you are, have added the
slaughtering of me, another Caesar, to that of Julius. See
note, p. 145, l. 20.]

[Page 148]

BRUTUS. Caesar, thou canst not die by traitors' hands,
Unless thou bring'st them with thee.

OCTAVIUS. So I hope;
I was not born to die on Brutus' sword.

BRUTUS. O, if thou wert the noblest of thy strain,
Young man, thou couldst not die more honourable. 60

CASSIUS. A peevish schoolboy, worthless of such honour,
Join'd with a masker and a reveller!

ANTONY. Old Cassius still!

OCTAVIUS. Come, Antony; away!
Defiance, traitors, hurl we in your teeth;
If you dare fight to-day, come to the field; 65
If not, when you have stomachs.

[_Exeunt_ OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, _and their_ Army]

CASSIUS. Why, now, blow wind, swell billow, and swim bark!
The storm is up, and all is on the hazard.

BRUTUS. Ho, Lucilius! hark, a word with you.

LUCILIUS. [_Standing forth_] My lord? 70

[BRUTUS _and_ LUCILIUS _converse apart_]

[Note 66: [_Exeunt ... their_ Army] | Exit ... Army Ff.]

[Note 67: Scene III Pope.]

[Note 70: [_Standing forth_] Camb | Lucillius and Messala
stand forth Ff.--[BRUTUS _and_ ...] Ff omit.]

[Note 59. /strain:/ stock, lineage, race. So in _Henry V_, II,
iv, 51:

And he is bred out of that bloody strain
That haunted us in our familiar paths.]

[Note 61: Shakespeare often uses 'peevish' in