protest against any decrees of the | vel from town to town, and display senate, and proceedings of magistrates, whether prejudicial to the citizens or not; they were sacrosancti, i. e. no one dared, under pain of death, to lay hands upon them. Their origin was as follows. When the people were oppressed by debt, and were maltreated by their creditors, and received no protection from the senate, in the year 492 b. Ch., they removed from Rome to the hill called Mons Sacer, and did not return until the senate granted them magistrates for themselves, to be elected from their own body, who should protect them from the oppression of the senate. At first there were two of them, afterwards five, finally ten. 4) A sophist, i. e. a learned man who professed philosophy and rhetotoric, and instructed others therein for hire. These sophists used to tra their skill for money; for this purpose they caused a subject to be proposed on which they immediately proceeded to dispute. Hence the name came to be used by way of contempt, especially since many of these persons concerned themselves only with useless subtilties. 5) Cnidos, a town of Caria (a province of Asia Minor, on the Egean sea), in which Venus was especially worshipped. 6) Sardis, and more frequently plural Sardes, or Sardeis, ium, the chief town of Lydia, a country of Asia Minor, famous on account of king Crosus, and because the Etrurians are said to have sprung from Lydia. 7) Philippi, orum, a town of Macedonia, celebrated for the defeat of Brutus and Cassius by Antony and Octavianus. ACT I. SCENE I. Rome. A Street. Enter FLAVIUS, MARULLUS, and a Rabble1 of Citizens. 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 Of your profession? Speak, what trade art thou? 1 CIT. 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? 2 CIT. Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but, as you would say, a cobbler. 2 MAR. But what trade art thou? Answer me directly. 2 CIT. A trade, sir, that, I hope, I may use with a safe conscience; which is, indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles. 3 MAR. What trade, thou knave; thou naughty knave, what trade? 2 CIT. Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me:4 yet, if you be out, sir, I can mend you. MAR. What meanest thou by that? Mend me, thou saucy fellow! 2 CIT. Why, sir, cobble you. FLAV. Thou art a cobbler, art thou? 2 CIT. Truly, sir, all that I live by is, with the awl: I meddle with no tradesman's matters, but with awl.5 I am, 1) A tumultuous crowd, an assembly of low people. 2) A quibble: a cobbler meaning a mender of old shoes, and a clumsy workman in general: Stümper. The quibble may be expressed in some way by the German words, Flicker and Schuhflicker. 3) Fletcher has the same quibble: "If thou dost this, there shall be no more shoe mending; Every man shall have a care of his own soul. 4) To be out means to fall out, to scold; and the following be out means, to have worn out shoes through which the toes appear. 5) Where our author uses words equivocally, he imposes some difficulty on his editor with respect to the mode of exhibiting them in print. Shakspeare, who wrote for the stage, not for the closet, was contented if his quibble satisfied the ear. I have with the other modern editors, print 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 handy-work. FLAV. But wherefore art not in thy shop to-day? Why dost thou lead these men about the streets? 2 CIT. 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? What tributaries follow him to Rome, To grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels? -- ed here with awl, though in the cent on the h that makes an admissible in these words. The letter u, when long, is not so properly a vowel as a semiconsonant, and perfectly equivalent to commencing y: a feeling of this has insensibly influenced, the best speakers to prefix a to it in their conversation, while a confused idea of the general rule, arising from an ignorance of the nature of the letters, has often induced them to prefix an to it in writing. This misapplication of the article frequently occurs in the writings of our author's time, as here an, instead of a universal. So, in Hamlet, Act. V. sc. 2: an union. 3) As Tyber (spelled also Tiber, Tiberis) is always represented by the figure of a man, the feminine gender is improper. Steevens. Other rivers, however, are frequently described as females, though less classically, To hear the replication of your sounds, And do you now put on your best attire? And do you now strew flowers in his way, Run to your houses, fall upon your knees, 2 That needs must light on this ingratitude. FLAV. Go, go, good countrymen, and for this fault, Assemble all the poor men of your sort;3 [Exeunt Citizens. Draw them to Tyber banks, and weep your tears You know, it is the feast of Lupercal. 6 7 FLAV. It is no matter; let no images Who else would soar above the view of men, [Exeunt. even when speaking of the presiding | sar's trophies; i. e. such as he had power over the stream. dedicated to the gods. 6) Lupercal, Lupercalia, ium a. orum, sc. solemnia or sacra, a feast of the Romans, celebrated in February, in honour of Pan, the god of mountains, cattle, etc. 7) Cæsar's trophies are the crowns which were placed on his statues. There were set up, in the city, images of Cæsar with diadems on their heads, like kings. These the two tribunes pulled down. SCENE II. A publick Place. Enter, in Procession, with Musick, CESAR; ANTONY, for the Course; CALPHURNIA, PORTIA, DECIUS, CICERO, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, and CASCA; a great Crowd following, among them a Soothsayer. CES. Calphurnia, CASCA. Peace, ho! Cæsar speaks, [Musick ceases. CAL. Here, my lord. CES. Stand you directly in Antonius' way, When he doth run his course. 1 Antonius. ANT. Cæsar, my lord. CES. Forget not, in your speed, Antonius, ANT. I shall remember: When Cæsar says, Do this, it is perform'd. CES. Ha! who calls? Musick. CASCA. Bid every noise be still: Peace yet again. [Musick ceases. CES. CAS. Fellow, come from the throng: Look upon Cæsar. pass. [Sennet. Exeunt all but BRU. and CAS. 1) A ceremony observed at the feast of Lupercalia. That day, says Plutarch, there are diverse noble men's sons, young men, (and some of them magistrates themselves that govern them,) who run naked through the city, striking in sport those they meet in their way with leather thongs. 2) i. e. in the crowd. 3) The fifteenth day of March, May, July, and October; the thirteenth of the other months, so called from a Greek word, which signifies, in general, the phases of the moon; in particular, the time of the full moon. 4) Sennet, a flourish of instruments, may be a corruption from sonata. |