his manner, Brutus,
standing in the middest of the house, would have spoken, and
stayed the other Senators that were not of the conspiracy, to
have told them the reason why they had done this fact. But
they, as men both afraid and amazed, fled one upon another's
neck in haste to get out at the door, and no man followed
them."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Note 95: /abide:/ pay for, suffer for. So in III, ii, 114.
"Through confusion of form with 'abye,' when that verb was
becoming archaic, and through association of sense between
_abye_ (pay for) _a deed_, and _abide the consequences of a
deed_, 'abide' has been erroneously used for 'abye' = pay for,
atone for, suffer for."--Murray.]

[Note 97: "But Antonius and Lepidus, which were two of
Caesar's chiefest friends, secretly conveying themselves away,
fled into other men's houses and forsook their
own."--Plutarch, _Julius Caesar_.]

[Note 98: "When the murder was newly done, there were sudden
outcries of people that ran up and down."--Plutarch, _Marcus
Brutus_.]

[Page 88]

BRUTUS. Fates, we will know your pleasures:
That we shall die, we know; 'tis but the time, 100
And drawing days out, that men stand upon.

CASCA. Why, he that cuts off twenty years of life
Cuts off so many years of fearing death.

BRUTUS. Grant that, and then is death a benefit:
So we are Caesar's friends, that have abridg'd 105
His time of fearing death. Stoop, Romans, stoop,
And let us bathe our hands in Caesar's blood
Up to the elbows, and besmear our swords:
Then walk we forth, even to the market-place,
And, waving our red weapons o'er our heads, 110
Let's all cry 'Peace, freedom, and liberty!'

CASSIUS. Stoop, then, and wash. How many ages hence
Shall this our lofty scene be acted over
In states unborn and accents yet unknown!

[Note 102: CASCA | Cask. Ff | Cas. Pope Camb Globe.]

[Note 114: /states/ F2 F3 F4 | State F1.]

[Note 101: /stand upon/: concern themselves with. Cf. II, ii,
13. What men are chiefly concerned about is how long they can
draw out their little period of mortal life. Cf. Sophocles,
_Ajax_, 475-476: "What joy is there in day following day, as
each but draws us on towards or keeps us back from death?"--J.
Churton Collins.]

[Note 102-103: Many modern editors have followed Pope and
given this speech to Cassius. But there is no valid reason for
this change from th