The New Hudson Shakespeare: Julius Cæsar

by William Shakespeare

[II.38] a man F₁ | man F₂F₃F₄.

[II.39] ll. 67-69: Cf. [I, ii, 39-47]; Macbeth, I, iii, 137-142.

[II.40] brother. Cassius was married to Junia, the sister of Brutus.

[II.41] moe Ff | more Rowe.

[II.42] moe: more. The old comparative of 'many.' In Middle English 'moe,' or 'mo,' was used of number and with collective nouns; 'more' had reference specifically to size. See Skeat.

[II.43] Pope was evidently so disgusted with Shakespeare's tendency to dress his Romans like Elizabethans, that in his two editions he omits 'hats' altogether, indicating the omission by a dash!

[II.44] cloaks | Cloakes F₁ | cloathes F₂ | cloaths F₃F₄.

[II.45] favour: countenance. So in [I, ii, 91]; [I, iii, 129].

[II.46] 'em F₁F₂F₃ | them F₄.

[II.47] evils: evil things. So in Lucrece, l. 1250, we have 'cave-keeping evils.' The line in the text means, When crimes and mischiefs, and evil and mischievous men, are most free from the restraints of law or of shame. So Hamlet speaks of night as the time "when hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world." Cf. [l. 265].