office seekers to win enough votes to secure an election by providing games and gladiatorial combats.

Caesar saw the danger in such a situation. He cut down to 150,000, less than half of the previous number, the total of those who could receive free wheat. He likewise settled his soldiers either in colonies in the provinces or on land in Italy. Besides, he tried to keep the governors and other officers of the provinces from plundering the people there and filling their own pockets with the loot.

The senate, or at least some of the senators, as Marcus knew, wanted to have the title of king conferred on Caesar. Caesar was quite unwilling, for he knew how bitterly the people hated the memory of the old kings of Rome. He wished to preserve most of the forms that had grown up in the four centuries of the Roman republic. For the year B. C. 44 he was elected consul along with Mark Antony, a man who had faithfully supported him ever since his return from Gaul. Marcus was so thoroughly devoted to Caesar that he wished the mighty Julius would continue forever. But the Imperator, as he preferred to be called, now felt himself so well established in power that he no longer needed the protection of a bodyguard. He therefore provided land for each of his guards. To Marcus he gave a farm in the new province beyond the Po. His faithful follower was very reluctant to leave Caesar, but the great general told him that all the guard would be better off working for themselves on property of their own than in idling about the city and waiting for the government's dole of wheat or barley.

On his way from Rome, Marcus visited the region which he had left upon entering the army some fifteen years before. No trace of his father or his father's farm was

left. The land had been absorbed by one of the neighboring estates. By diligent inquiry he found the son of the overseer, whom he had known in his boyhood. The man was now himself an overseer and a strong supporter of the patricians. He told of the sale of the farm to satisfy the debt against it shortly after Marcus's departure and of the old man's dying in Rome with some relatives.

He and Marcus got into a heated argument that arose from a remark which Marcus let drop about Caesar's godlike

powers.

"You are as sacrilegious as the scurviest plebeian!" cried the overseer. "Why should Caesar's image be carried among those of the immortal gods! It is unpardonable that any Roman should accept divine honors from Roman citizens."

"But you will admit that he rules the country like a god!" answered Marcus.

"Not for a moment!" said the angry overseer. "Caesar is ruining the country. There is no future ahead of a man today. In the old times he could get some office in a province and come back in a few years a rich man. Now he can hardly get enough to make it worth while. we've had enough of this one-man rule!

No,

Times were much better when the senate ruled Rome!"

"But were the poor people better off?" asked Marcus.

"Oh, the rabble!" exclaimed the other. "What rights have they?"

With this dispute fresh in his mind, Marcus proceeded on his way to his farm. But hardly had he reached his new home when the frightful news came that the kind master of fifteen years, the victorious general, and the wise ruler, had been assassinated by a band of his political enemies. And Marcus knew that the civilized world would again be thrown into confusion.

Upon a laboring day without the sign
Of your profession? Speak, what trade art

thou?

5

First Com. Why, sir, a carpenter.
Mar. Where is thy leather apron and

thy rule?

What dost thou with thy best apparel on? You, sir, what trade are you?

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

12

Mar. But what trade art thou? Answer me directly.

Sec. Com. 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?

Sec. Com. Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me; yet, if you be out, sir, I can mend you.

20

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

Sec. Com. Why, sir, cobble you.

Flay. Thou art a cobbler, art thou?

Sec. Com. 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, 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.

32

Flav. But wherefore art not in thy shop

today?

Why dost thou lead these men about the streets?

Sec. Com. Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes, to get myself into more work. But, indeed, sir, we make holiday, to see Caesar and to rejoice in his triumph.

4-5. sign of your profession, the tools used or the ordinary clothing worn in your trade. 10. in respect of, in comparison with. 12. cobbler. In Shakespeare's time the word referred to any kind of bungling worker. 13. directly, straightforwardly. 18-19. be not out, do not be out of temper. Note the play upon the two meanings of out. 30. proper, fine, handsome. 31. neat's leather, ox-hide, shoe-leather. 38. triumph, see pages 386, 387.

To towers and windows, yea, to chimneytops,

Your infants in your arms, and there have sat

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 an universal shout, 51
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?
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

44. Pompey, a great general overcome by Caesar some three years before at the battle of Pharsalus, B. c. 48. Pompey was a supporter of the senate. 49. pass, pass through. 53. replication, echo. 56. cull out, choose. 58. Pompey's blood, Pompey's sons, one of whom had fallen. 61. intermit the plague, ward off the pestilence. In olden times contagious diseases were very frequent, due to insanitary conditions, but the people supposed them to be instances of divine wrath. 66-67. till the lowest, etc., till the lowest level of the water rises to the highwater mark. 68. metal, spirit (now metlle). 71. images, statues of Caesar.

monies.

1.

NOTES AND QUESTIONS

EXPLANATORY NOTES

[Exeunt.

This first scene strikes the keynote of the play. The tribunes, Flavius and Marullus, are officers supposed to look out for the interests of the common people, as opposed to the people of wealth and birth who make up the senate. But in this scene they talk and act as party politicians; they are conservatives adhering to the cause of the senate and the dead Pompey. The mob, of whom only two speak, do not hold high sentiments. They are excited over the prospect of a show of some kind at Caesar's triumph. They are not important enough individually to be named, but collectively they determine the future, because he who is popular with the commons can rule Rome. Caesar, we here see, has won them completely.

2. Caesar is at the height of his power. He has just returned from a war in Spain where he has overthrown the last army of his opponents, led by the sons of Pompey, one of whom was killed. A large faction of Rome, represented here by the tribunes, resented the celebration of a victory over Roman blood. The triumph actually took place in October (B. c. 45), but Shakespeare moves it to the feast of the Lupercalia, February 15 (B. c. 44), when the tribunes took the action here described. The Introduction (Roman Life in Caesar's Time, pages 383-388) will clear up the whole situation.

72. ceremonies, decorations, such as badges and wreaths. 74. Lupercal, the Lupercalia, a feast celebrated on February 15, in honor of Lupercus, the god of shepherds. 77. the vulgar, the common people. 80. pitch, in falconry, the height to which the falcon flies before swooping on its prey. Plucking feathers from the bird's wings would keep it from flying too high.

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS

1. Judging from this scene alone, what conflict do you think the play is going to develop? Will the play be tragic or comic?

2. Are your sympathies with the tribunes or with the common people? Why?

3. Do you think the speech of Marullus beginning "Wherefore rejoice?" is poetical or eloquent? Select particular lines that bear out your opinion.

4. Punning is a favorite source of humor throughout Shakespeare's plays. Point out examples in the cobbler's speeches, lines 14-32. Class Reading or Acting. The tribunes' rebuke of the commoners (lines 1-82).

18. ides of March, March 15. Stage direction. Sennet, a set of notes on a trumpet to signal the march of procession. 29. quick, lively. 34. show, evidence, as, here used as a relative pronoun, equivalent to our "that.' 35. bear.. a hand, keep a tight rein on, as a cautious rider might with a strange horse. 39. Merely, entirely, solely. 40. passions of some difference, contradictory feelings. 41. only proper, pertaining entirely. 42. soil, stain. 44. be you one, be assured that you are

one.

49. By means whereof, because of which. 54. just, true. 58. shadow, reflection or picture. 59. best respect, most highly esteemed. 60. immortal Caesar. Is this said seriously or sarcastically? 62. had his eyes, saw himself, as the one best fitted to lead. 69. modestly, truthfully. 71. jealous on, suspicious of. 72. laugher, buffoon. 72-73. did use to stale, were used to make stale with too frequent use. 74. protester, one who makes a strong profession of friendship. 76. after scandal them, afterwards slander them. 77. profess myself, declare my friendship. 78. rout, common crowd.

86-87. set honor, etc., even if the honorable course of action brings death, Brutus will still pursue it. 88. speed, make prosperous. 91. favor, appearance. 95. lief, pronounce "lieve" to bring out the pun with live. 109. with hearts of controversy, swimming strongly and courageously. 112. Aeneas, a survivor of the siege of Troy, who settled in Italy. 114. In scanning this line, the unimportant words in the fourth foot are not stressed.