the sense of
'silly,' 'foolish.' So in _The Comedy of Errors_, IV, i, 93. A
foolish schoolboy, joined with a masker and reveler (for
Antony's reputation, see I, ii, 204; II, i, 188, 189; II, ii,
116), and unworthy even of that honor.]

[Note 66: /stomachs:/ appetite, inclination, courage. So in
_Henry V_, IV, iii, 35: "He which hath no stomach to this
fight."]

[Page 149]

CASSIUS. Messala!

MESSALA. What says my general?

CASSIUS. Messala,
This is my birth-day; as this very day
Was Cassius born. Give me thy hand, Messala:
Be thou my witness that, against my will,
As Pompey was, am I compell'd to set 75
Upon one battle all our liberties.
You know that I held Epicurus strong,
And his opinion: now I change my mind,
And partly credit things that do presage.
Coming from Sardis, on our former ensign 80
Two mighty eagles fell, and there they perch'd,
Gorging and feeding from our soldiers' hands;
Who to Philippi here consorted us:
This morning are they fled away and gone;
And in their steads do ravens, crows, and kites, 85
Fly o'er our heads and downward look on us,
As we were sickly prey: their shadows seem
A canopy most fatal, under which
Our army lies, ready to give up the ghost.

[Note 71: /Messala/, | Ff add to l. 72.]

[Note 80: /former/ Ff | foremost Rowe.]

[Note 85: /steads/ F3 F4 | steeds F1 F2.]

[Note 72: 'As' is often used redundantly with definitions of
time. This is still a provincialism. See Abbott, Sect. 114.
"Messala writeth, that Cassius having spoken these last words
unto him, he bade him farewell, and willed him to come to
supper to him the next night following, because it was his
birthday."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.]

[Note 75: Alluding to the battle of Pharsalia, which took
place in the year B.C. 48. Pompey was forced into that battle,
against his better judgment, by the inexperienced and
impatient men about him, who, inasmuch as they had more than
twice Caesar's number of troops, fancied they could easily
defeat him if they could but meet him. So they tried it, and
he quickly defeated them.]

[Note 77: I was strongly attached to the doctrines of
Epicurus. "Cassius being in opinion an Epicurean, and
reasoning thereon with Brutus, spake to him touching the
vision thus: 'In our sect, Brutus, we have an opinion, that we
do not always feel