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,
Let’s all cry ‘Peace, freedom and liberty!’”—III., I, 106.
Plutarch mentions no sayings of the conspirators; there is no mention of the dripping swords. Shakespeare is here supposed to follow Appian, who says: “The murderers woulde haue sayde somewhat in ye Senate house, but no man would tarry to heare. They wrapt their gowns about their left armes as targets, and hauying their daggers bloudy, cryed they had kylled a King and a Tyranne, and one bare an hatte upon a speare, in token of Libertie. Then they exhorted them to the common wealth of their country and remembered olde Brutus, and the oth mode againste the old kings.” (Appian, 1578, p. 142.)[[22]] Here we find the matter of the dripping swords, and an intimation of the cry of the Conspirators. But Pescetti, who followed Appian, supplies a still closer parallel. Here Brutus, after announcing the death of the tyrant, and after exhorting the people to rejoice in their reestablished liberties, turns to the conspirators and exclaims:
“Ma scorriam per la terra,
O voi, che fidelissimi compagni,
Mi siete stati all’ onorata impresa,
Con le coltella in mano,
Del Tirannico sangue ancor stillanti
E co’ pilei sù l’aste
E ’l popolo di Marte
Chiamiamo a libertade. Con.— Libertà, libertà, morto è il Tiranno:
Libera è Roma, e rotto è il giogo indegno.”—Ces., pp. 116–17.
Here we have the substance of Appian’s account. Here Brutus, as in Shakespeare, addresses his fellow conspirators. In the one case he refers to them as “most faithful companions,” in the other, as “Romans.” In both he exhorts them to the same purpose. In one they are to rove the streets with their dripping swords still in their hands, and to call the people of Rome to their reestablished liberty; in the other, they are exhorted to walk forth waving their red weapons over their heads, and to cry “Peace, freedom and liberty.” The cry of the chorus in Pescetti seems an answer to this appeal:
“Libertà, libertà, morto è il Tiranno:
Libera è Roma e rotto è il giogo indegno.”
And this again is closely parallel to Cinna’s outburst,