BRU. Away, slight man! Cas. Is't possible ? BRU. Hear me, for I will speak. Must I give way and room to your rash choler? Shall I be frighted, when a madman stares? CAS. O ye gods! ye gods! Must I endure all this? BRU. All this? ay, more: Fret, till your proud heart break; Go, show your slaves how cholerick you are, CAS. Is it come to this? BRU. You say, you are a better soldier : Let it appear so; make your vaunting true, And it shall please me well: For mine own part, I shall be glad to learn of noble men. CAS. You wrong me every way, you wrong me, Brutus; I said, an elder soldier, not a better : Did I say, better? BRU. If you did, I care not. CAS. When Cæsar liv'd, he durst not thus have mov'd me. • I'll use you for my mirth,] Mr. Rowe has transplanted this insult into the mouth of Lothario: " And use his sacred friendship for our mirth." STEEVENS. BRU. Peace, peace; you durst not so have tempted him. CAS. I durst not? BRU, No. CAS. What? durst not tempt him? BRU. For your life you durst not. CAS. Do not presume too much upon my love, I may do that I shall be sorry for. BRU. You have done that you should be sorry for. There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats; For I am arm'd so strong in honesty, That they pass by me, as the idle wind, Which I respect not. I did send to you For certain sums of gold, which you denied me;For I can raise no money by vile means: By heaven, I had rather coin my heart, And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash," By any indirection. I did send To you for gold to pay my legions, From the hard hands of peasants their wile trash,] This is a noble sentiment, altogether in character, and expressed in a manner inimitably happy. For to wring, implies both to get unjustly, and to use force in getting: and hard hands signify both the peasant's great labour and pains in acquiring, and his great unwillingness to quit his hold. WARBURTON. I do not believe that Shakspeare, when he wrote hard hands in this place, had any deeper meaning than in the following line in A Midsummer-Night's Dream : "Hard-handed men that work in Athens here." HOLT WHITE. Mr. H. White might have supported his opinion, (with which I perfectly concur) by another instance, from Cymbeline : " hands "Made hourly hard with falsehood as with labour." STEEVENS. BRU. Away, slight man! Cas. Is't possible ? BRU. Hear me, for I will speak. Must I give way and room to your rash choler? Shall I be frighted, when a madman stares? CAS. O ye gods! ye gods! Must I endure all this? BRU. All this? ay, more: Fret, till your proud heart break; Go, show your slaves how cholerick you are, CAS. Is it come to this? BRU. You say, you are a better soldier : Let it appear so; make your vaunting true, And it shall please me well: For mine own part, I shall be glad to learn of noble men. CAS. You wrong me every way, you wrong me, Brutus; I said, an elder soldier, not a better : Did I say, better? BRU. If you did, I care not. Cas. When Cæsar liv'd, he durst not thus have mov'd me. * I'll use you for my mirth,] Mr. Rowe has transplanted this insult into the mouth of Lothario: " And use his sacred friendship for our mirth." STEEVENS. BRU. Peace, peace; you durst not so have tempted him. CAS. I durst not? BRU, No. CAS. What? durst not tempt him? BRU. For your life you durst not. CAS. Do not presume too much upon my love, I may do that I shall be sorry for. BRU. You have done that you should be sorry for. There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats; For I am arm'd so strong in honesty, That they pass by me, as the idle wind, Which I respect not. I did send to you For certain sums of gold, which you denied me;For I can raise no money by vile means: By heaven, I had rather coin my heart, And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash," By any indirection. I did send To you for gold to pay my legions, 7 - than to wring From the hard hands of peasants their wile trash,] This is a noble sentiment, altogether in character, and expressed in a manner inimitably happy. For to wring, implies both to get unjustly, and to use force in getting: and hard hands signify both the peasant's great labour and pains in acquiring, and his great unwillingness to quit his hold. WARBURTON. I do not believe that Shakspeare, when he wrote hard hands in this place, had any deeper meaning than in the following line in A Midsummer-Night's Dream : "Hard-handed men that work in Athens here." HOLT WHITE. Mr. H. White might have supported his opinion, (with which I perfectly concur) by another instance, from Cymbeline : " hands "Made hourly hard with falsehood as with labour.” STEEVENS. BRU. Away, slight man! Cas. Is't possible ? BRU. Hear me, for I will speak. Must I give way and room to your rash choler? Shall I be frighted, when a madman stares? CAS. O ye gods! ye gods! Must I endure all this? BRU. All this? ay, more: Fret, till your proud heart break; Go, show your slaves how cholerick you are, CAS. Is it come to this? BRU. You say, you are a better soldier : Let it appear so; make your vaunting true, And it shall please me well: For mine own part, I shall be glad to learn of noble men. Cas. You wrong me every way, you wrong me, Brutus; I said, an elder soldier, not a better : Did I say, better? BRU. If you did, I care not. CAS. When Cæsar liv'd, he durst not thus have mov'd me. • I'll use you for my mirth,] Mr. Rowe has transplanted this insult into the mouth of Lothario: " And use his sacred friendship for our mirth." STEEVENS. |