nging the reading of
the Folios. This conjunction of old men, fools, and children
is found in country sayings in England to-day. So in a
Scottish proverb: "Auld fowks, fules, and bairns should never
see wark half dune," White's reading was first suggested by
Mitford.]

[Note 67: /preformed:/ originally created for some special
purpose.]

[Note 71: /monstrous state:/ abnormal condition of things.
'Enormous state' occurs with probably the same general meaning
in _King Lear_, II, ii, 176. As Cassius is an avowed
Epicurean, it may seem out of character to make him speak
thus. But he is here talking for effect, his aim being to
kindle and instigate Casca into the conspiracy; and to this
end he does not hesitate to say what he does not himself
believe.]

[Note 75: This reads as if a lion were kept in the Capitol.
But the meaning probably is that Caesar roars in the Capitol,
like a lion. Perhaps Cassius has the idea of Caesar's claiming
or aspiring to be among men what the lion is among beasts. Dr.
Wright suggests that Shakespeare had in mind the lions kept in
the Tower of London, "which there is reason to believe from
indications in the play represented the Capitol to
Shakespeare's mind." It is possible, too, that we have here a
reference to the lion described by Casca in ll. 20-22.]

[Note 77: /prodigious:/ portentous. As in _A Midsummer Night's
Dream_, V, i, 419: "Never mole, hare lip, nor scar, Nor mark
prodigious."]

[Page 36]

CASCA. 'Tis Caesar that you mean, is it not, Cassius?

CASSIUS. Let it be who it is; for Romans now 80
Have thews and limbs like to their ancestors;
But, woe the while! our fathers' minds are dead,
And we are govern'd with our mothers' spirits;
Our yoke and sufferance show us womanish.

CASCA. Indeed, they say the senators to-morrow 85
Mean to establish Caesar as a king;
And he shall wear his crown by sea and land,
In every place save here in Italy.

[Note 79: Two lines in Ff.]

[Note 81: /thews/ | Thewes F1 F2 | Sinews F3 F4.]

[Note 80: /Let it be who it is:/ "no matter who it
is."--Clar.]

[Note 81: /thews:/ muscles. So in _Hamlet_, I, iii, 12, and _2
Henry IV_, III, ii, 276. In Chaucer and Middle English the
word means 'manners,' though in Layamon's _Brut_ (l. 6361), in
the singular, it seems to mean 'sinew' or 'strength.' See
Skeat for a suggestive discussion.]

[Note 83: /with:/ by. So in III, ii, 196. See Abbott,