Note to Julius Caesar, 1.2.35-36, "you bear too stubborn and too strange a hand""


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Julius Caesar,
Act 1, Scene 1, line 35
You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand / Over your friend that loves you: i.e., you are being cruelly overbearing to your dear friend. —"Bear a hand over" is a phrase used to designate a rider's handling of the reins of his horse. Cassius is comparing Brutus to a rider who jerks up the reins and is therefore high-handed. According to Cassius, Brutus is being high-handed, stubbornly insisting on having his own way, and treating Cassius as though Cassius is some stranger, not a dear friend to Brutus.