It seems to me most strange that men should fear.
(II. ii. 33.)
His courage, of course, is beyond question; but is there not a hint of the theatrical in this overstrained amazement, in this statement that fear is the most unaccountable thing in all his experience? One recalls the story of the young soldier who said that he knew not what it was to be afraid, and received his commander’s answer: “Then you have never snuffed a candle with your fingers.” That was the reproof of bravado by bravery in the mouth of a man so fearless that he could afford to acknowledge his acquaintance with fear. And surely Caesar could have afforded to do so too. We see and know that he is the bravest of the brave, but if anything could make us suspicious, it would be his constant harping on his flawless valour. So, too, he says of Cassius:
I fear him not:
Yet if my name were liable to fear,
I do not know the man I should avoid
So soon as that spare Cassius ...
I rather tell thee what is to be fear’d
Than what I fear; for always I am Caesar.
(I. ii. 198, 211.)