Chapter 2

_Enter_ FLAVIUS, MARULLUS, _and certain_ Commoners _over the stage_

FLAVIUS. 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 Of your profession? Speak, what trade art thou? 5

CARPENTER. Why, sir, a carpenter.

MARULLUS. Where is thy leather apron and thy rule? What dost thou with thy best apparel on? You, sir, what trade are you? 9

[Note: ACT I, SCENE I | Actus Primus. Scœna Prima Ff.--_Rome. A street_ Capell | Rome Rowe | Ff omit.--Commoners Ff | Plebeians Hanmer.]

[Note 6: CARPENTER | Car. Ff | First Com. Camb | 1 Pleb. Hanmer.]

[Note: ACT I. In the First Folio _The Tragedie of Julius Cæsar_ is divided into acts but not into scenes, though 'Scœna (so spelled in the Folios) Prima' is given here after 'Actus Primus.'--_over the stage_. This, the Folio stage direction, suggests a mob.]

[Note 3: /Being mechanical:/ being mechanics. Shakespeare often uses adjectives with the sense of plural substantives. Cf. 'subject' in _Hamlet_, I, i, 72. Twice in North's Plutarch occurs "base mechanical people."--/ought not walk/. See Abbott, § 349.]

[Note 4-5: Shakespeare transfers to ancient Rome the English customs and usages of his own time. In Porter and Clarke's 'First Folio' _Julius Cæsar_, it is mentioned that Shakespeare's uncle Henry, a farmer in Snitterfield, according to a court order of October 25, 1583, was fined "viii d for not havinge and wearinge cappes on Sondayes and hollydayes."]

[Note 9: /You./ On 'you' as distinct from 'thou,' see Abbott, § 232.]

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COBBLER. Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but, as you would say, a cobbler. 11

MARULLUS. But what trade art thou? answer me directly.

COBBLER. A trade, sir, that I hope I may use with a safe conscience; which is, indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles. 15

FLAVIUS. What trade, thou knave? thou naughty knave, what trade?

COBBLER. Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me: yet, if you be out, sir, I can mend you. 18

MARULLUS. What mean'st thou by that? mend me, thou saucy fellow?

COBBLER. Why, sir, cobble you.

FLAVIUS. Thou art a cobbler, art thou? 22

[Note 10: COBBLER | Cobl. Ff | Sec. Com. Camb.]

[Note 15: /soles/ | soules F1 F2 | soals F4.]

[Note 16: FLAVIUS | Fla. Ff | Mur. Capell | Mar. Globe Camb.]

[Note 19: MARULLUS | Mur. Ff.]

[Note 10: /in respect of/: in comparison with. So in _The Psalter_ (Book of Common Prayer), xxxix, 6. Cf. _Hamlet_, V, ii, 120.]

[Note 11: /cobbler/. This word was used of a coarse workman, or a bungler, in any mechanical trade. So the Cobbler's answer does not give the information required, though it contains a quibble.]

[Note 12: /directly/: in a straightforward manner, without evasion.]

[Note 15: /soles/. The First Folio spelling, 'soules,' brings out the pun. This 'immemorial quibble,' as Craik calls it, is found also in _The Merchant of Venice_, IV, i, 123: "Not on thy sole, but on thy soul."]

[Note 16: Modern editors give this speech to Marullus, but the Folio arrangement is more natural and dramatic, the two Tribunes alternately rating the people, as Knight puts it, like two smiths smiting on the same anvil.]

[Note 17-18: A quibble upon two common meanings of 'out'--(1) 'at variance,' as in "Launcelot and I are out," _The Merchant of Venice_, III, v, 34; and (2) as in 'out at heels,' or 'out at toes.']

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COBBLER. Truly, sir, all that I live by is with the awl: I meddle with no tradesman's matters, nor women's matters, but withal I am, indeed, 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. 28

FLAVIUS. But wherefore art not in thy shop to-day? Why dost thou lead these men about the streets?

COBBLER. 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. 33

[Note 25: withal I F1 | withall I F2 F3 | withawl. I (Farmer's conj.) Camb Globe | with all. I Capell.]

[Note 34: Two lines in Ff.]

[Note 39-40: Pompey? Many ... oft Have Rowe | Pompey many ... oft? Have Ff.]

[Note 25: The text of the First Folio needs no emendation. It is good prose and involves a neat pun.]

[Note 26: /proper:/ goodly, handsome. This word has often this meaning in Elizabethan literature, and is still so used in provincial England. Cf. _The Tempest_, II, ii, 63; _Hebrews_ (King James version), xi, 23; Burns's _The Jolly Beggars_: "And still my delight is in proper young men."]

[Note 27: /trod upon neat's-leather/. This expression and "as proper a man as" are repeated in the second scene of the second act of _The Tempest_.--/neat's-leather/: ox-hide. 'Neat' is Anglo-Saxon _neát_, 'ox,' 'cow,' 'cattle,' and is still used in 'neat-herd,' 'neat's-foot oil.' See _The Winter's Tale_, I, ii, 125. The form 'nowt' is still in common use in the North of England and the South of Scotland. Cf. Burns's _The Twa Dogs_: "To thrum guitars an' fecht wi nowte."]

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MARULLUS. Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home? What tributaries follow him to Rome, 35 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, Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements, 40 To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops, Your infants in your arms, and there have sat The live-long day, with patient expectation, To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome: And when you saw his chariot but appear, 45 Have you not made an universal shout, 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? 50 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! Run to your houses, fall upon your knees, 55 Pray to the gods to intermit the plague That needs must light on this ingratitude.

[Note 39: /Many a time and oft/. This form of emphasis occurs also in _The Merchant of Venice_, I, iii, 107. Cf. _Timon of Athens_, III, i, 25.]

[Note 41: /windows/, Rowe | Windowes? Ff.]

[Note 44: /Rome/: Ff | Rome? Rowe.]

[Note 47, 49: /her/ | his Rowe.]

[Note 47: /That/: so that. For the omission of 'so' before 'that,' see Abbott, § 283.--/her/. In Latin usage rivers are masculine, and 'Father' is a common appellation of 'Tiber.' In Elizabethan literature Drayton generally makes rivers feminine, while Spenser tends to make them masculine.]

[Note 48: /To hear/: at hearing. A gerundive use of the infinitive.--/replication/: echo, repetition (Lat. _replicare_, to roll back).]

[Note 51: Is this a day to pick out for a holiday?]

[Note 53: The reference is to the great battle of Munda, in Spain, which took place in March of the preceding year, B.C. 45. Cæsar was now celebrating his fifth triumph, which was in honor of his final victory over the Pompeian, or conservative, faction. Cnæus and Sextus, the two sons of Pompey the Great, were leaders in that battle, and Cnæus perished. "And because he had plucked up his race by the roots, men did not think it meet for him to triumph so for the calamities of his country."--Plutarch, _Julius Cæsar_.]

[Note 57: "It is evident from the opening scene, that Shakespeare, even in dealing with classical subjects, laughed at the classic fear of putting the ludicrous and sublime into juxtaposition. After the low and farcical jests of the saucy cobbler, the eloquence of Marullus 'springs upwards like a pyramid of fire.'"--Campbell.]

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FLAVIUS. Go, go, good countrymen, and, for this fault, Assemble all the poor men of your sort; Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears 60 Into the channel, till the lowest stream Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.

[_Exeunt all the_ Commoners]

See, where their basest metal be not mov'd! They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness. Go you down that way towards the Capitol; 65 This way will I: disrobe the images, If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies.

[Note 62: [_Exeunt_ ... ] Ff | Exeunt Citizens Capell.]

[Note 63: /where/ Ff | whe're Theobald | whêr Dyce | whether Camb.]

[Note 61-62: Till the river rises from the extreme low-water mark to the extreme high-water mark.]

[Note 63: /where:/ whether. As in V, iv, 30, the 'where' of the Folios represents the monosyllabic pronunciation of this word common in the sixteenth century. In Shakespeare's verse the 'th' between two vowels, as in 'brother,' 'other,' 'whither,' is frequently mute.--/basest metal./--The Folio spelling is 'mettle,' and the word here may connote 'spirit,' 'temper.' If it be taken literally, the reference may be to 'lead.' Cf. 'base lead,' _The Merchant of Venice_, II, ix, 19. In this case the meaning may be that even these men, though as dull and heavy as lead, have yet the sense to be tongue-tied with shame at their conduct. 'Mettle' occurs again in I, ii, 293; 'metal' (First Folio, 'mettle') in I, ii, 306.]

[Note 66: /images./ These images were the busts and statues of Cæsar, ceremoniously decked with scarfs and badges in honor of his triumph.]

[Note 67: /ceremonies:/ ceremonial symbols, festal ornaments. Cf. 'trophies' in l. 71 and 'scarfs' in I, ii, 282. Shakespeare employs the word in the same way, as an abstract term used for the concrete thing, in _Henry V_, IV, i, 109; and, in the singular, in _Measure for Measure_, II, ii, 59. "After that, there were set up images of Cæsar in the city, with diadems on their heads like kings. Those the two tribunes, Flavius and Marullus, went and pulled down."--Plutarch, _Julius Cæsar_.]

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MARULLUS. May we do so? You know it is the feast of Lupercal.

FLAVIUS. It is no matter; let no images 70 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 Will make him fly an ordinary pitch, 75 Who else would soar above the view of men, And keep us all in servile fearfulness. [_Exeunt_]

[Note 69: /Lupercal./ The _Lupercalia_, originally a shepherd festival, were held in honor of Lupercus, the Roman Pan, on the 15th of February, the month being named from _Februus_, a surname of the god. Lupercus was, primarily, the god of shepherds, said to have been so called because he protected the flocks from wolves. His wife Luperca was the deified she-wolf that suckled Romulus. The festival, in its original idea, was concerned with purification and fertilization.]

[Note 71: /Cæsar's trophies./ These are the scarfs and badges mentioned in note on l. 66, as appears from ll. 281-282 in the next scene, where it is said that the Tribunes "for pulling scarfs off Cæsar's images, are put to silence."]

[Note 72: /the vulgar:/ the common people. So in _Love's Labour's Lost_, I, ii, 51; _Henry V_, IV, vii, 80.]

[Note 75: /pitch./ A technical term in falconry, denoting the height to which a hawk or falcon flies. Cf. _I Henry VI_, II, iv, 11: "Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch."]

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