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Drawn Upon a heap. Crowded together. Cf. Hen. V. iv. 5. 18: “Let us on heaps go offer up our lives;” Rich. III. ii. 1. 53: “Among this princely heap," etc.

30. These are their reasons.

Such and such are their reasons. Cf. ii.

1. 31 below: "Would run to these and these extremities." The Coll. MS. has "seasons," which H. adopts.

32. Climate. Region, clime. Cf. Rich. II. iv. 1. 130: "in a Christian climate;" and Bacon, Adv. of L. i. 6. 10: "the southern stars were in that climate unseen. The word is used as a verb in W. T. v. I. 170': "whilst you Do climate here."

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35. Clean from. Quite away from. Cf. Oth. i. 3. 366: "clean out of the way," etc. See also Ps. lxxvii. 8, Isa. xxiv. 19, etc. On from, see Gr. 158, and cf. 64 below.

40. Not to walk in. That is, not fit to walk in. See Gr. 405.

42. What night is this! Craik reads "What a night," but this is a needless marring of the metre. Cf. T. G. of V. i. 2. 53:

"What fool is she that knows I am a maid,
And would not force the letter to my view!"

and T. N. ii. 5. 123:

"Fabian. What dish o' poison has she dressed him!

Sir Toby. And with what wing the staniel checks at it!" For other examples, see Gr. 86.

47. Submitting me. Exposing myself. Gr. 223.

49. The thunder-stone. "The imaginary product of the thunder, which the ancients called Brontia, mentioned by Pliny (N. H. xxxvii. 10) as a species of gem, and as that which, falling with the lightning, does the mischief. It is the fossil commonly called the Belemnite, or Finger-stone, and now

known to be a shell. We still talk of the thunder-bolt, which, however, is commonly confounded with the lightning. The thunder-stone was held to be quite distinct from the lightning, as may be seen from Cymb. iv. 2. 270: "Guiderius. Fear no more the lightning-flash.

Arviragus. Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone.'

It is also alluded to in Oth. v. 2. 235:

"Are there no stones in heaven

But what serve for the thunder?'" (Craik)

60. Case yourself in wonder. The folio has "cast your selfe in wonder," which is retained by Coll., C., St., and the Camb. ed. D., W., and H. have case, which was independently suggested by Swynfen Jervis and M. W. Williams. Cf. Much Ado, iv. I. 146: "attir'd in wonder." Wr. ́explains "cast yourself in" as="hastily dress yourself in."

64. Why birds and beasts, etc. That is, why they change their natures. See on 35 above. Cf. Lear, ii. 2. 104: "Quite from his nature." For kind nature, see A. and C. p. 216, note on 262.

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65. Why old men fool, etc. Why old men become fools, and children prudent" (W.). The folio reads, "Why Old men, Fooles, and Children calculate ;" and so K. and Craik. Coll. and St. have "Why old men fools"—that is, why we have old men fools. D., W., the Camb. editors, and H. read Why old men fool, which was suggested by Mitford. On fool, see Gr. 290.

66. Their ordinance. What they were ordained to be.

71. Some monstrous state. Some monstrous or unnatural state of things. Cf. Lear, ii. 2. 176: "this enormous state ;" and see our ed. p. 206.

74. As doth the lion in the Capitol. "That is, roars in the Capitol as doth the lion" (Craik). Wr. thinks that S. imagined lions kept in the Capitol, as in the Tower of London.

75. Than thyself or me.

On me, see Gr. 210.

76. Prodigious. Portentous; as always in S. except in T. G. of V. ii. 3.4: "the prodigious son" (Launce's blunder for "prodigal son"). Cf. B. and F., Philaster, v. I: “like a prodigious meteor;" and see Gr. p. 13. 80. Thews and limbs. Here thews means muscular powers, as in the two other instances (2 Hen. IV. iii. 2. 276, and Ham. i. 3. 12) in which S. uses the word. It is from the A. S. theow or theoh, whence also thigh, and must not be confounded with the obsolete thews = manners, or qualities of mind, from the A. S. theaw. This latter thews is common in Chaucer, Spenser, and other early writers; the former is found very rarely before S.'s day.

81. Woe the while. Alas for the time! See Gr. 137 (cf. 230). 82. Govern'd with. On with (=by) see Gr. 193.

94. Can be retentive, etc. "Can retain or confine the spirit" (Craik). 96. Power. Here a dissyllable. Gr. 480.

100. So every bondman, etc. There is a play on bond; as in Rich. III. iv. 4. 77: "Cancel his bond of life, dear God, I pray !" Cf. also Cymb. v. 4. 28: "And cancel these cold bonds" (that is, his chains); Macb. iii. 2 49:

"And with thy bloody and invisible hand

Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond
Which keeps me pale!"

113. My answer must be made. "I shall be called to account, and must answer as for seditious words" (Johnson).

...

115. Such a man That is no fleering tell-tale. On such that, see Gr. 279. Fleering-grinning, sneering. Cf. Much Ado, v. 1. 58: "never fleer and jest at me ;" and see our ed. p. 162.

116. Hold, my hand. Here, take my hand. St. omits the comma after "Hold." Craik interprets the passage thus: "Have, receive, take hold (of it); there is my hand." But hold is probably a mere interjection, as often in S., and not an imperative with object "understood." Cf. Mach. ii. 1. 4: "Hold, take my sword;" Rich. II. ii. 2. 92: “Hold, take my ring," etc. This hold is of course identical with the reflexive verb which we have below (v. 3. 85): "But hold thee, take this garland," etc.

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117. Be factions, etc. Factious seems here to mean active" (Johnson). Coleridge says, "I understand it thus: You have spoken as a conspirator; be so in fact, and I will join you." It may, however, have its ordinary meaning (given to faction), as it does in every other instance in S. Griefs here =grievances. Cf. iii. 2. 211 and iv. 2. 42, 46 below.

119. As who goes farthest. On who, see Gr. 257. 122. Undergo. Undertake. Cf. W. T. p. 202. 123. Honourable-dangerous. See Gr. 2.

in 129 below.

Some print "bloody-fiery"

125. Pompey's porch. A large building connected with Pompey's Theatre, in the Campus Martius.

127. The element. The heaven, or sky. Cf. N. (Life of Pompey): "the dust in the element" (that is, in the air); and the quotation in note on 15 above: "the Fires in the Element." See also Milton, Comus, 298:

"I took it for a faery vision

Of some gay creatures of the element,
That in the colours of the rainbow live,
And play in the plighted clouds."

128. In favour's like. In aspect is like. The folio reads, "Is Fauors, like the Worke we haue in hand." Johnson proposed "In favour's," which K., D., W., and the Camb. ed. adopt. Steevens suggested ""It favours,' or 'Is favoured' (so H.);" and Reed, "Is fev'rous," quoting in support of it Macb. ii. 3. 66: "the earth Was feverous, and did shake."

See Gr. 240.

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133. To find out you. To find you out. 134. One incorporate To our attempt. "One united with us in our enterprise" (Craik). Cf. Bacon, Adv. of L. ii. 2. 12: not incorporate into the history." See Gr. 342 and 187. The folio has "To our Attempts," which is retained by K. and the Camb. ed. The correction is Walker's. 137. There's two or three. See Temp. p. 122 (note on There is no more such shapes), or Gr. 335.

143. Where Brutus may but find it. On but, see Gr. 128.

145. Upon old Brutus' statue. Cf. N. (Life of Brutus): “But for Brutus, his friends and Countreymen, both by divers procurements and sundry rumors of the City, and by many bills also, did openly call and procure him to do that he did. For under the image of his ancestor Junius Brutus

(that drave the Kings out of ROME) they wrote: O, that it pleased the gods thou wert now alive, Brutus ! and again, That thou were here among us now! His tribunal or chair, where he gave audience during the time he was Prætor, was full of such bills: Brutus thou art asleep, and art not Brutus indeed."

151. Pompey's theatre. This was the first stone theatre that had been built at Rome, and was modelled after one that Pompey had seen at Mitylene. It was large enough to accommodate forty thousand spectators. At its opening in B.C. 55, the games exhibited by Pompey lasted many days, and consisted of dramatic representations, contests of gymnasts and of gladiators, and fights of wild beasts. Five hundred African lions were killed, and eighteen elephants were brought into the arena, most of which fell before Gætulian huntsmen.

153. Three parts of him Is ours.

See Gr. 333.

158. Alchemy. For the allusion to the art of changing base metals to gold, cf. Sonn. 33. 4: "Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy;" and K. John, iii. 1. 78:

"the glorious sun

Stays in his course and plays the alchemist,
Turning with splendour of his precious eye
The meagre cloddy earth to glittering gold."

161. Conceited. Conceived, imagined; as in iii. 1. 193 below. Cf. Oth. iii. 3. 149: one that so imperfectly conceits," etc.

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POMPEY.

ACT II.

SCENE I.-The heading in the folio is, "Enter Brutus in his Orchard.” Orchard in S. is "generally synonymous with garden" (D.). The word is the A. S. ortgeard, or wyrtgeard (wort-yard or plant-yard), not a tautological compound of the Latin hortus and the A. S. geard, as Earle (Philology of English Tongue, 1871) and others have made it. The "private arbours and new-planted orchards" of iii. 2. 247 below are the "gardens and arbours" of N.

1. What, Lucius! See M. of V. p. 141 (note on What, Jessica!), Temp. p. 119 (on Come, thou tortoise! when ?), and Gr. 73a. Cf. 5 just below. 3. How near to day. How near it is to day. Gr. 403.

10. It must be by his death, etc. Coleridge remarks: "This speech is singular at least, I do not at present see into Shakespeare's motive, his rationale, or in what point of view he meant Brutus's character to appear. For surely-(this, I mean, is what I say to myself, with my present quantum of insight, only modified by my experience in how many instances I have ripened into a perception of beauties where I had before descried faults)-surely nothing can seem more discordant with our historical preconceptions of Brutus, or more lowering to the intellect of the Stoico-Platonic tyrannicide, than the tenets here attributed to him—to him, the stern Roman republican; namely, that he would have no objection to a king, or to Cæsar, a monarch in Rome, would Cæsar but be as good a monarch as he now seems disposed to be! How, too, could Brutus say that he found no personal cause-none in Cæsar's past conduct as a man? Had he not crossed the Rubicon? Had he not entered Rome as a conqueror? Had he not placed his Gauls in the Senate? Shakespeare, it may be said, has not brought these things forward. True—and this is just the ground of my perplexity. What character did Shakespeare mean his Brutus to be?" As Wr. says, "he was a political theorist."

12. For the general. "For the community, or the people" (Craik). Cf. M. for M. ii. 4. 27: "the general subject to a well-wish'd king; Ham. ii. 2. 457: "caviare to the general," etc. Some make for the gen

eral " for the general cause."

15. Crown him?-That. Be that so; suppose that done.

17. Do danger. Do what is dangerous, do mischief. Cf. Gr. 303. 19. Remorse. Mercy, or pity. See M. of V. p. 156, and Temp. p. 140. 21. Common proof. A thing commonly proved, a common experience. Cf. T. N. iii. 1. 135:

"for 't is a vulgar proof

That very oft we pity enemies."

23. Climber-upward. On the "noun-compounds" of S., see Gr. 430. 24. Upmost. Like inmost, outmost, or utmost, etc. Mrs. Clarke does not give the word, but has utmost in this passage, following what is probably a slip of the type in Knight's ed. We find upmost in Dryden (Worc.).

26. The base degrees. The lower steps of the ladder. Cf. Hen. VIII. ii. 4. 112: "You have... Gone slightly o'er low steps, and now are mounted," etc.

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