train'd, and bid go forth: 35
A barren-spirited fellow; one that feeds
On objects, arts, and imitations,
Which, out of use and stal'd by other men,
Begin his fashion: do not talk of him
But as a property. And now, Octavius, 40
Listen great things: Brutus and Cassius
Are levying powers: we must straight make head:
Therefore let our alliance be combin'd,
Our best friends made, and our best means stretch'd out;
And let us presently go sit in council, 45
How covert matters may be best disclos'd,
And open perils surest answered.

[Note 37: /objects, arts/ | Objects, Arts Ff | abject orts
Theobald | abjects, orts Staunton Camb Globe.--/imitations/,
Rowe | Imitations. Ff.]

[Note 38: /stal'd/ F3 | stal'de F1 F2 | stall'd F4.]

[Note 44: /and our best means (meanes) stretch'd out/ F2 F3 F4
| our meanes stretch't F1 | our best means strecht Johnson.]

[Note 32: /wind:/ wheel, turn. We have 'wind' as an active
verb in _1 Henry IV_, IV, i, 109: "To turn and wind a fiery
Pegasus."]

[Note 34: /in some taste:/ to some small extent. This meaning
comes from 'taste' in the sense of 'a small portion given as a
sample.']

[Note 37-39: As the textual notes show, modern editors have
not been content with the reading of the Folios. The serious
trouble with the old text is the period at the close of l. 37.
If a comma be substituted the meaning becomes obvious: Lepidus
is one who is always interested in, and talking about, such
things--books, works of art, etc.--as everybody else has got
tired of and thrown aside. Cf. Falstaff's account of Shallow,
_2 Henry IV_, III, ii, 340: "'a came ever in the rearward of
the fashion; and sung those tunes to the over-scutch'd
huswives that he heard the carmen whistle, and sware they were
his fancies or his good-nights." 'Stal'd' is 'outworn,' or
'grown stale'; and the reference is not to objects, etc.,
generally, but only to those which have lost the interest of
freshness. 'Abjects' in the Staunton-Cambridge reading, is
'things thrown away'; 'orts,' 'broken fragments.']

[Note 40: /a property:/ a tool, an accessory. The reference is
to a 'stage property.' Cf. Fletcher and Massinger, _The False
One_, V, iii:

this devil Photinus
Employs me as a property, and, grown useless,
Will shake me off again.

Shakespeare uses 'property' as a verb in this sense in
_Twelfth Night_, IV, ii,