Julius Caesar — William Shakespeare
The Tragedy of Julius Cæsar Layout 2 ∵ The Yale Shakespeare ∵ THE TRAGEDY OF JULIUS CÆSAR EDITED BY LAWRENCE MASON NEW HAVEN • YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON • HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS • MCMXIX Copyright , 1919 By Yale University Press First published, May, 1919 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE The Text1 Act I1 Act II22 Act III43 Act IV66 Act V83 Notes99 Appendix A. Sources of the Play112 Appendix B. The History of the Play115 Appendix C. The Text of the Present Edition118 Appendix D. Suggestions for Collateral Reading119 Index of Words Glossed121 The facsimile opposite represents page two in Mr. William A. White's copy of the fifth quarto edition. Three copies of this edition are known to survive . THE YALE SHAKESPEARE Edited by Wilbur L. Cross Tucker Brooke Willard Higley Durham Published under the Direction of the Department of English, Yale University, on the Fund Given to the Yale University Press in 1917 by the Members of the Kingsley Trust Association To Commemorate the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the Founding of the Society PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA The Text Layout 2 The Tragedy of Julius Cæsar [DRAMATIS PERSONÆ Julius Cæsar Octavius Cæsar, Triumvirs after the Death of Julius Cæsar Marcus Antonius, M. Æmilius Lepidus, Cicero, Senators Publius, Popilius Lena, Marcus Brutus, Conspirators against Julius Cæsar Caius Cassius, Casca, Trebonius, Ligarius, Decius Brutus, Metellus Cimber, Cinna, Flavius and Marullus , Tribunes Artemidorus , a Sophist of Cnidos A Soothsayer Cinna , a Poet Another Poet Lucilius, Friends to Brutus and Cassius Titinius, Messala, Young Cato, Volumnius, Varro, Servants to Brutus Clitus, Claudius, Strato, Lucius, Dardanius, Pindarus , Servant to Cassius Calpurnia , Wife to Cæsar Portia , Wife to Brutus Commoners, or Plebeians, of Rome; Senators, Guards, Attendants, etc. Scene: Act I-Act IV, Scene i, at Rome; Act IV, Scenes ii and iii, near Sardis, in Asia Minor; Act V, the plains near Philippi, in Macedonia. ] Act I Layout 2 ACT FIRST Scene One [ Rome. A Street ] Enter Flavius, Marullus , and certain Commoners over the Stage . Flav. Hence! home, you idle creatures, get you home: Is this a holiday? What! know you not. Being mechanical , you ought not walk Upon a labouring day without the sign 4 Of your profession ? Speak, what trade art thou? Car. Why, sir, a carpenter. Mar. Where is thy leather apron, and thy rule? What dost thou with thy best apparel on? 8 You, sir, what trade are you? Cob. Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but, as you would say, a cobbler . Mar. But what trade art thou? Answer me directly . 12 Cob. A trade, sir, that, I hope, I may use with a safe conscience; which is, indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles. Mar. What trade, thou knave? thou naughty knave, what trade? 16 Cob. Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me: yet, if you be out , sir, I can mend you. Mar. What mean'st thou by that? Mend me, thou saucy fellow? 20 Cob. Why, sir, cobble you. Flav. Thou art a cobbler, art thou? Cob. Truly, sir, all that I live by is with the awl: I meddle with no tradesman's matters, nor women's matters, but with awl . I am, indeed, 25 sir, a surgeon to old shoes; when they are in great danger, I recover them. As proper men as ever trod upon neat's leather have gone upon my handiwork. 29 Flav. But wherefore art not in thy shop to-day? Why dost thou lead these men about the streets? Cob. Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes, to get myself into more work. But, indeed, sir, we make holiday to see Cæsar and to rejoice in his triumph . Mar. Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home? 36 What tributaries follow him to Rome To grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels? You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things! O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome, 40 Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements. To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops. Your infants in your arms, and there have sat 44 The livelong day, with patient expectation. To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome: And when you saw his chariot but appear. Have you not made a universal shout, 48 That Tiber trembled underneath her banks, To hear the replication of your sounds Made in her concave shores? And do you now put on your best attire? 52 And do you now cull out a holiday? And do you now strew flowers in his way, That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood ? Be gone! 56 Run to your houses, fall upon your knees, Pray to the gods to intermit the plague That needs must light on this ingratitude. Flav . Go, go, good countrymen, and for this fault 60 Assemble all the poor men of your sort; Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears Into the channel, till the lowest stream Do kiss the most exalted shores of all. 64 Exeunt all the Commoners . See whether their basest metal be not mov'd; They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness. Go you down that way towards the Capitol; This way will I. Disrobe the images 68 If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies . Mar . May we do so? You know it is the feast of Lupercal . Flav . It is no matter; let no images 72 Be hung with Cæsar's trophies, I'll about And drive away the vulgar from the streets: So do you too where you perceive them thick. These growing feathers pluck'd from Cæsar's wing 76 Will make him fly an ordinary pitch , Who else would soar above the view of men And keep us all in servile fearfulness. Exeunt . Scene Two [ A Public Place ] Enter [ in solemn procession, with music ] Cæsar, Antony for the course, Calpurnia, Portia, Decius, Cicero, Brutus, Cassius, Casca , [ a great crowd following, among them ] a Soothsayer: after them Marullus and Flavius . Cæs . Calpurnia! Casca . Peace, ho! Cæsar speaks. [ Music ceases. ] Cæs . Calpurnia! Cal. Here, my lord. Cæs . Stand you directly in Antonius' way When he doth run his course. Antonius! 4 Ant. Cæsar, my lord. Cæs. Forget not, in your speed , Antonius, To touch Calpurnia; for our elders say, The barren, touched