US] Ff omit.]

[Note 243: /wrong:/ harm. Cf. l. 47. Note the high
self-appreciation of Brutus here, in supposing that if he can
but have a chance to speak to the people, and to air his
wisdom before them, all will go right. Here, again, he
overbears Cassius, who now begins to find the effects of
having stuffed him with flatteries, and served as a mirror to
"turn his hidden worthiness into his eye" (I, ii, 57-58).]

[Page 97]

ANTONY. Be it so;
I do desire no more.

BRUTUS. Prepare the body, then, and follow us.

[_Exeunt all but_ ANTONY]

ANTONY. O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, 255
That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!
Thou art the ruins of the noblest man
That ever lived in the tide of times.
Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood!
Over thy wounds now do I prophesy, 260
Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips,
To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue,
A curse shall light upon the limbs of men;
Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy; 265
Blood and destruction shall be so in use,
And dreadful objects so familiar,
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quartered with the hands of war;
All pity chok'd with custom of fell deeds: 270
And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war;
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth 275
With carrion men, groaning for burial.

[Note 254: [_Exeunt_ ...] Capell | Exeunt. Manet Antony Ff.]

[Note 255: Scene IV Pope.]

[Note 263: /limbs/ F3 F4 | limbes F1 F2.]

[Note 257-258: Cf. Antony's eulogy of Brutus, V, v, 68-75.]

[Note 263: /limbs/. Thirteen different words ('kind,' 'line,'
'lives,' 'loins,' 'tombs,' 'sons,' 'times,' etc.) have been
offered by editors as substitutes for the plain, direct
'limbs' of the Folios. One of Johnson's suggestions was "these
lymmes," taking 'lymmes' in the sense of 'lime-hounds,' i.e.
'leash-hounds.' 'Lym' is on the list of dogs in _King Lear_,
III, vi, 72. In defence of the Folio text Dr. Wright quotes
Timon's curse on the senators of Athens and says, "Lear's
curses were certainly levelled at his daughter's limbs."]

[Note 269: /with/: by. So in I