[III.116] ll. 43-46 In this speech Shakespeare seems to have aimed at imitating the manner actually ascribed to Brutus. "In some of his Epistles, he counterfeited that brief compendious manner of speech of the Lacedæmonians."—Plutarch, Marcus Brutus. Shakespeare's idea is sustained by the Dialogus de Oratoribus, ascribed to Tacitus, wherein it is said that Brutus's style of eloquence was censured as otiosum et disjunctum. Verplanck remarks, "the disjunctum, the broken-up style, without oratorical continuity, is precisely that assumed by the dramatist." Gollancz finds a probable original of this speech in Belleforest's Histoires Tragiques (Hamlet); Dowden thinks Shakespeare received hints from the English version (1578) of Appian's Roman Wars.
[III.117] ll. 47, 72, etc. All Ff | Cit. (Citizens) Capell.
[III.118] ll. 48, 49, etc. Citizen | Ff omit.
[III.119] l. 52 Two lines in Ff.
[III.120] Scene VI Pope.
[III.121] beholding. This Elizabethan corruption of 'beholden' occurs constantly in the Folios of 1623, 1632, and 1664. The Fourth Folio usually has 'beholden.' Here Camb has 'Goes into the pulpit.'
[III.122] blest F1 | glad F2F3F4.
[III.123] "Afterwards when Cæsar's body was brought into the market-place, Antonius making his funeral oration in praise of the dead, according to the ancient custom of Rome, and perceiving that his words moved the common people to compassion, he framed his eloquence to make their hearts yearn the more; and taking Cæsar's gown all bloody in his hand, he laid it open to the sight of them all, shewing what a number of cuts and holes it had upon it. Therewithal the people fell presently into such a rage and mutiny, that there was no more order kept amongst the common people."—Plutarch, Marcus Brutus.[1] How Shakespeare elaborates this!
[III.123[1] There is a similar passage in Plutarch, Marcus Antonius.
[III.124] bury. A characteristic anachronism. Cf. 'coffin' in l. 106.