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and to grind the daggers of the assassins to a sharper point. Perhaps, also, it is a part of the irony which so marks this play, to put the haughtiest words in Caesar's mouth just before his fall.] [Page 85] CINNA. O Caesar,-- CAESAR. Hence! wilt thou lift up Olympus? DECIUS. Great Caesar,-- CAESAR. Doth not Brutus bootless kneel? CASCA. Speak, hands, for me! [_They stab Caesar_] CAESAR. Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar! [_Dies_] [Note 75: /Doth not/ F1 | Do not F2 F3 F4.] [Note 77: [_Dies_] _Dyes_ F1 | F2 F3 F4 omit.] [Note 75: The 'Do not' of the three later Folios was adopted by Johnson because Marcus Brutus would not have knelt.] [Note 76: The simple stage direction of the Folios is retained. That of the Cambridge and the Globe editions is, "Casca first, then the other Conspirators and Marcus Brutus stab Caesar."] [Note 77: /Et tu, Brute?/ There is no classical authority for putting this phrase into the mouth of Caesar. It seems to have been an Elizabethan proverb or 'gag,' and it is found in at least three works published earlier than _Julius Caesar_. (See Introduction, Sources, p. xvi.) Caesar had been as a father to Brutus, who was fifteen years his junior; and the Greek, [Greek: kai sy teknon] "and thou, my son!" which Dion and Suetonius put into his mouth, though probably unauthentic, is good enough to be true. In Plutarch are two detailed accounts of the assassination, that in _Marcus Brutus_ differing somewhat from that in _Julius Caesar_ with regard to the nomenclature of the persons involved. The following is from _Marcus Brutus_: "Trebonius on the other side drew Antonius aside, as he came into the house where the Senate sat, and held him with a long talk without. When Caesar was come into the house, all the Senate rose to honour him at his coming in. So when he was set, the conspirators flocked about him, and amongst them they presented one Tullius Cimber, who made humble suit for the calling home again of his brother that was banished. They all made as though they were intercessors for him, and took Caesar by the hands, and kissed his head and breast. Caesar at the first simply refused their kindness and entreaties; but afterwards, perceiving they still pressed on him, he violently thrust them from him. Then Cimber with both his hands plucked Caesar's gown over his shoulders, and Casca, that stood behind h
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