[I.182] l. 300 Ff print as two lines.
[I.183] metal F3F4 | mettle F1 | mettall F2.
[I.184] that it is dispos'd: that which it is disposed to. For the omission of prepositions in Shakespeare, see Abbott, §§ 198-202. Cassius in this speech is chuckling over the effect his talk has had upon Brutus.
[I.185] bear me hard: has a grudge against me. This remarkable expression occurs three times in this play, but nowhere else in Shakespeare. Professor Hales quotes an example of it from Ben Jonson's Catiline, IV, v. It seems to have been borrowed from horsemanship, and to mean 'carries tight rein,' or 'reins hard,' like one who distrusts his horse. So before, ll. 35, 36:
You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand
Over your friend that loves you.
[I.186] humour. To 'humor' a man, as the word is here used, is to turn and wind and manage him by watching his moods and crotchets, and to touch him accordingly. It is somewhat in doubt whether the 'he' in the preceding line refers to Brutus or to Cæsar. If to Brutus, the meaning of course is: he should not play upon my humors and fancies as I do upon his. And this sense is fairly required by the context, for the whole speech is occupied with the speaker's success in cajoling Brutus, and with plans for cajoling and shaping him still further. Johnson refers 'he' to Cæsar.
[I.187] hands: handwritings. So the word is used colloquially to-day.
[I.188] We will either shake him, or endure worse days in suffering the consequences of our attempt.—Shakespeare makes Cassius overflow with intense personal spite against Cæsar. This is in accordance with what he read in North's Plutarch.
[I.189] Scene III Capell | Scene VI Pope.