Return to 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.