Chapter 15

_Enter_ OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, _and their_ Army

OCTAVIUS. Now, Antony, our hopes are answered: You said the enemy would not come down, But keep the hills and upper regions. It proves not so: their battles are at hand; They mean to warn us at Philippi here, 5 Answering before we do demand of them.

ANTONY. Tut, I am in their bosoms, and I know Wherefore they do it: they could be content To visit other places, and come down With fearful bravery, thinking by this face 10 To fasten in our thoughts that they have courage; But 'tis not so.

[Note _The plains of Philippi_: Capell | The Fields of Philippi, with the two Camps Rowe | Ff omit.]

[Note 4: /battles:/ troops, battalions. 'Battle' was used for an 'army,' especially an army embattled, or ordered in battle array. The plural is here used with historical correctness, as Brutus and Cassius had each an army; the two armies of course coöperating, and acting together as one. Cf. 'battle' in l. 16 and 'battles' in V, iii, 108.]

[Note 5: /warn:/ summon to fight. Cf. _King John_, II, i, 201. In _Richard III_, I, iii, 39, we have "warn them to his royal presence."]

[Note 7: /am in their bosoms:/ am familiar with their intention.]

[Note 10: /bravery:/ bravado, defiance. The epithet 'fearful' probably means that fear is behind the attempt to intimidate by display and brag. Dr. Wright interprets 'bravery' as 'ostentation,' 'display.']

[Page 145]

_Enter a_ Messenger

MESSENGER. Prepare you, generals: The enemy comes on in gallant show; Their bloody sign of battle is hung out, And something to be done immediately. 15

ANTONY. Octavius, lead your battle softly on, Upon the left hand of the even field.

OCTAVIUS. Upon the right hand I; keep thou the left.

ANTONY. Why do you cross me in this exigent? 19

OCTAVIUS. I do not cross you; but I will do so. [_March_]

[Note 14: /bloody sign./ "The next morning, by break of day, the signal of battle was set out in Brutus' and Cassius' camp, which was an arming scarlet coat."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Note 17: Plutarch tells that Cassius, though the more experienced soldier, allowed Brutus to lead the right wing. "Shakespeare made use of this incident, but transferred to the opposite camp, in order to bring out the character of Octavius which made Antony yield. Octavius really commanded the left wing."--Clar.]

[Note 19: /exigent:/ exigency. So in _Antony and Cleopatra_, IV, xiv, 63.]

[Note 20: /I will do so:/ I will do as I have said. Not 'I will cross you.' At this time Octavius was but twenty-one years old, and Antony was old enough to be his father. At the time of Cæsar's death, when Octavius was in his nineteenth year, Antony thought he was going to manage him easily and have it all his own way with him; but he found the youngster as stiff as a crowbar, and could do nothing with him. Cæsar's youngest sister, Julia, was married to Marcus Atius Balbus, and their daughter Atia, again, was married to Caius Octavius, a nobleman of the plebeian order. From this marriage sprang the present Octavius, who afterwards became the Emperor Augustus. He was mainly educated by his great-uncle, was advanced to the patrician order, and was adopted as his son and heir; so that his full and proper designation at this time was Caius Julius Cæsar Octavianus. The text gives a right taste of the man, who always stood firm as a post against Antony, till the latter finally knocked himself to pieces against him.]

[Page 146]

_Drum._ _Enter_ BRUTUS, CASSIUS, _and their_ Army; LUCILIUS, TITINIUS, MESSALA, _and others_

BRUTUS. They stand, and would have parley.

CASSIUS. Stand fast, Titinius: we must out and talk.

OCTAVIUS. Mark Antony, shall we give sign of battle?

ANTONY. No, Cæsar, we will answer on their charge. Make forth; the generals would have some words. 25

OCTAVIUS. Stir not until the signal.

BRUTUS. Words before blows: is it so, countrymen?

OCTAVIUS. Not that we love words better, as you do. 28

BRUTUS. Good words are better than bad strokes, Octavius.

ANTONY. In your bad strokes, Brutus, you give good words. Witness the hole you made in Cæsar's heart, Crying, 'Long live! hail, Cæsar!'

CASSIUS. Antony, The posture of your blows are yet unknown; But, for your words, they rob the Hybla bees, And leave them honeyless.

ANTONY. Not stingless too. 35

BRUTUS. O, yes, and soundless too; For you have stol'n their buzzing, Antony, And very wisely threat before you sting.

[Note 21: Scene II Pope.--LUCILIUS, TITINIUS ... | Ff omit.]

[Note 33: /The posture of your blows:/ where your blows are to fall.--/are./ The verb is attracted into the plural by the nearest substantive. Cf. 'was,' IV, iii, 5. Abbott calls this idiom 'confusion of proximity.']

[Note 34: Hybla, a hill in Sicily, was noted for its thyme and its honey. So Vergil, _Eclogues_, I, 54-55: "the hedge whose willow bloom is quaffed by Hybla's bees." Cf. _1 Henry IV_, I, ii, 47: "As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle." Antony could not be so 'honey-tongued' unless he had quite exhausted thyme-flavored Hybla.]

[Page 147]

ANTONY. Villains, you did not so, when your vile daggers Hack'd one another in the sides of Cæsar: 40 You show'd your teeth like apes, and fawn'd like hounds, And bow'd like bondmen, kissing Cæsar's feet; Whilst damned Casca, like a cur, behind Struck Cæsar on the neck. O you flatterers!

CASSIUS. Flatterers! Now, Brutus, thank yourself: 45 This tongue had not offended so to-day, If Cassius might have rul'd.

OCTAVIUS. Come, come, the cause: if arguing make us sweat, The proof of it will turn to redder drops. Look; 50 I draw a sword against conspirators; When think you that the sword goes up again? Never, till Cæsar's three and thirty wounds Be well aveng'd; or till another Cæsar Have added slaughter to the sword of 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 Cæsar_ and _Marcus Brutus_) of the assassination of Cæsar.]

[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 Cæsar'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 Cæsar, to that of Julius. See note, p. 145, l. 20.]

[Page 148]

BRUTUS. Cæsar, 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 the sense of 'silly,' 'foolish.' So in _The Comedy of Errors_, IV, i, 93. A foolish schoolboy, joined with a masker and reveler (for Antony's reputation, see I, ii, 204; II, i, 188, 189; II, ii, 116), and unworthy even of that honor.]

[Note 66: /stomachs:/ appetite, inclination, courage. So in _Henry V_, IV, iii, 35: "He which hath no stomach to this fight."]

[Page 149]

CASSIUS. Messala!

MESSALA. What says my general?

CASSIUS. Messala, This is my birth-day; as this very day Was Cassius born. Give me thy hand, Messala: Be thou my witness that, against my will, As Pompey was, am I compell'd to set 75 Upon one battle all our liberties. You know that I held Epicurus strong, And his opinion: now I change my mind, And partly credit things that do presage. Coming from Sardis, on our former ensign 80 Two mighty eagles fell, and there they perch'd, Gorging and feeding from our soldiers' hands; Who to Philippi here consorted us: This morning are they fled away and gone; And in their steads do ravens, crows, and kites, 85 Fly o'er our heads and downward look on us, As we were sickly prey: their shadows seem A canopy most fatal, under which Our army lies, ready to give up the ghost.

[Note 71: /Messala/, | Ff add to l. 72.]

[Note 80: /former/ Ff | foremost Rowe.]

[Note 85: /steads/ F3 F4 | steeds F1 F2.]

[Note 72: 'As' is often used redundantly with definitions of time. This is still a provincialism. See Abbott, § 114. "Messala writeth, that Cassius having spoken these last words unto him, he bade him farewell, and willed him to come to supper to him the next night following, because it was his birthday."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Note 75: Alluding to the battle of Pharsalia, which took place in the year B.C. 48. Pompey was forced into that battle, against his better judgment, by the inexperienced and impatient men about him, who, inasmuch as they had more than twice Cæsar's number of troops, fancied they could easily defeat him if they could but meet him. So they tried it, and he quickly defeated them.]

[Note 77: I was strongly attached to the doctrines of Epicurus. "Cassius being in opinion an Epicurean, and reasoning thereon with Brutus, spake to him touching the vision thus: 'In our sect, Brutus, we have an opinion, that we do not always feel or see that which we suppose we do both see and feel, but that our senses, being credulous and therefore easily abused ... imagine they see and conjecture that which in truth they do not.'"--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Note 80: /former:/ first. Cf. "former things passed away." "When they raised their camp there came two eagles, that, flying with a marvellous force, lighted upon two of the foremost ensigns, and always followed the soldiers, which gave them meat and fed them, until they came near to the city of Philippes; and there, one day only before the battle, they both flew away."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Page 150]

MESSALA. Believe not so.

CASSIUS. I but believe it partly; 90 For I am fresh of spirit, and resolv'd To meet all perils very constantly.

BRUTUS. Even so, Lucilius.

CASSIUS. Now, most noble Brutus, The gods to-day stand friendly, that we may, Lovers in peace, lead on our days to age! 95 But, since the affairs of men rests still incertain, Let's reason with the worst that may befall. If we do lose this battle, then is this The very last time we shall speak together: What are you then determined to do? 100

[Note 92: /perils/ F1 | peril F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 96: /rests/ Ff | rest Rowe.]

[Page 151]

BRUTUS. Even by the rule of that philosophy By which I did blame Cato for the death Which he did give himself: I know not how, But I do find it cowardly and vile, For fear of what might fall, so to prevent 105 The time of life: arming myself with patience To stay the providence of some high powers That govern us below.

CASSIUS. Then, if we lose this battle, You are contented to be led in triumph Thorough the streets of Rome? 110

[Note 102: /By/ F1 | Be F2.]

[Note 110: /Thorough/ | Thorow F1 F2 | Through F3 F4 | Along Pope.--/Rome?/ Theobald | Rome Ff.]

[Note 111: Two lines in Ff.]

[Note 105-106: /prevent The time:/ anticipate the full, natural period. To the understanding of this speech, it must be observed that the sense of the words, 'arming myself,' etc., follows next after the words, 'which he did give himself.' In this passage, as Dr. Wright (Clar.) has pointed out, Shakespeare was misled by an error in North's version of Amyot's Plutarch, where we have _feis_ (= _fis_) translated as if it were from _fier_: "Brutus answered him, being yet but a young man, and not over greatly experienced in the world; 'I trust (I know not how) a certain rule of philosophy, by the which I did greatly blame ... Cato for killing himself, as being no lawful nor godly act, touching the gods; nor, concerning men, valiant: but, being now in the midst of the danger, I am of a contrary mind.'"--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_. Wright, in his note on this passage, shows how the true meaning is obscured by bad printing and punctuation. Brutus's answer begins really with, 'Being yet but a young man'; and 'I trust' is evidently a past tense (Old English 'truste') which must have been read by Shakespeare as the present.]

[Page 152]

BRUTUS. No, Cassius, no: think not, thou noble Roman, That ever Brutus will go bound to Rome; He bears too great a mind. But this same day Must end that work the Ides of March begun; And whether we shall meet again I know not. 115 Therefore our everlasting farewell take. For ever, and for ever, farewell, Cassius! If we do meet again, why, we shall smile; If not, why then this parting was well made.

CASSIUS. For ever, and for ever, farewell, Brutus! 120 If we do meet again, we'll smile indeed; If not, 'tis true this parting was well made.

BRUTUS. Why, then, lead on. O, that a man might know The end of this day's business ere it come! But it sufficeth that the day will end, 125 And then the end is known. Come, ho! away! [_Exeunt_]