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Enter FLAVIUS, MARULLUS, and certain
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Commoners over the stage.
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over the stage from opposite sides of the |
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stage >>>
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FLAVIUS
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Hence! home, you idle creatures get you home:
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Is this a holiday? what! know you not,
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Being mechanical, you ought not walk
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mechanical of the class of skilled workers, |
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Upon a labouring day without the sign
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such as carpenters and cobblers |
1.1.5 |
Of your profession? Speak, what trade art thou?
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the sign emblems, such as the carpenter's |
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ruler and leather apron |
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First Commoner
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Why, sir, a carpenter.
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MARULLUS
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Where is thy leather apron and thy rule?
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rule ruler |
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What dost thou with thy best apparel on?
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You, sir, what trade are you?
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Second Commoner
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1.1.10 |
Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but,
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in respect of a fine workman compared to a |
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as you would say, a cobbler.
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skillful workman | cobbler clumsy bungler |
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(But Second Commoner is making a joke; he |
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MARULLUS
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really is a cobbler, a repairer of shoes.) |
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But what trade art thou? Answer me directly.
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directly immediately, plainly |
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Second Commoner
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A trade, sir, that, I hope, I may use with a safe con-
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science; which is, indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles.
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soles (With a pun on "souls." Marullus doesn't |
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get the joke; he only hears "souls.") |
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MARULLUS
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1.1.15 |
What trade, thou knave? thou naughty knave, what trade?
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naughty good-for-nothing |
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Second Commoner
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Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me: yet,
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out with me angry with me |
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if you be out, sir, I can mend you.
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be out i.e., be coming out of your shoes, |
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because they have holes |
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MARULLUS
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What meanest thou by that? Mend me, thou saucy fellow?
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Second Commoner
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Why, sir, cobble you.
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cobble you mend your shoes (But he may be |
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implying that Marullus's soul is in such bad |
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FLAVIUS
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shape that it can only be cobbled, not mended.) |
1.1.20 |
Thou art a cobbler, art thou?
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Second Commoner
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Truly, sir, all that I live by is with the awl: I
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the awl a cobbler's tool >>> |
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meddle with no tradesman's matters, nor women's
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matters, but withal I am, indeed, sir, a surgeon
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withal nevertheless (With a pun on "with awl.") |
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to old shoes; when they are in great danger, I
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1.1.25 |
recover them. As proper men as ever trod upon
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recover cure, re-cover (He's still punning.) |
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neat's leather have gone upon my handiwork.
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proper handsome, admired |
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neat's leather cowhide |
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FLAVIUS
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But wherefore art not in thy shop today?
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Why dost thou lead these men about the streets?
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Second Commoner
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Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes, to get myself
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1.1.30 |
into more work. But, indeed, sir, we make holiday,
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to see Caesar and to rejoice in his triumph.
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triumph triumphal procession >>>
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MARULLUS
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Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home?
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What tributaries follow him to Rome,
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tributaries foreign princes who will pay |
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To grace in captive bonds his chariot-wheels?
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ransom to Rome |
1.1.35 |
You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!
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O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,
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Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft
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Pompey former partner in power with Caesar >>>
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Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements,
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chimney-tops Shakespeare's Rome looks like |
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To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops,
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Shakespeare's London. The Romans had no |
1.1.40 |
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
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chimneys. |
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The livelong day, with patient expectation,
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To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome:
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And when you saw his chariot but appear,
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Have you not made an universal shout,
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1.1.45 |
That Tiber trembled underneath her banks,
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Tiber The great river that flows through Rome. |
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To hear the replication of your sounds
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replication echo |
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Made in her concave shores?
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And do you now put on your best attire?
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And do you now cull out a holiday?
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cull out choose (the most worthless) |
1.1.50 |
And do you now strew flowers in his way
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his i.e., Caesar's |
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That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood?
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Pompey's blood Pompey's kin (specifically |
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Be gone!
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his sons, defeated by Caesar) |
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Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,
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Pray to the gods to intermit the plague
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intermit withhold | the plague a terrible |
1.1.55 |
That needs must light on this ingratitude.
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disease, thought of as divine punishment |
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light on come down upon |
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FLAVIUS
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Go, go, good countrymen, and, for this fault,
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Assemble all the poor men of your sort;
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Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears
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Into the channel, till the lowest stream
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1.1.60 |
Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.
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the most exalted shores of all the highest |
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banks of the Tiber |
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Exeunt all the Commoners.
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See whe'er their basest metal be not moved;
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whe'er whether | metal nature |
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They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.
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Go you down that way towards the Capitol;
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Capitol i.e., the Capitoline hill >>>
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This way will I. Disrobe the images,
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images statues (of Caesar) |
1.1.65 |
If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies.
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ceremonies Crowns and other royal regalia. |
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(As a propaganda ploy, Caesar's supporters had |
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MARULLUS
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set up statues of him in royal regalia.) |
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May we do so?
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You know it is the feast of Lupercal.
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feast of Lupercal an ancient feast of
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purification and fertility >>>
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FLAVIUS
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It is no matter; let no images
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Be hung with Caesar's trophies. I'll about,
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Caesar's trophies decorations put up in honor |
1.1.70 |
And drive away the vulgar from the streets:
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of Caesar | the vulgar commoners |
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So do you too, where you perceive them thick.
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These growing feathers pluck'd from Caesar's wing
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Will make him fly an ordinary pitch,
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pitch height (A falcon's pitch is the high point |
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Who else would soar above the view of men
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in its flight; from its pitch the falcon swoops |
1.1.75 |
And keep us all in servile fearfulness.
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down on its prey.) |
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Exeunt
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