Act IV
[IV.1] Scene I. The Folios give no indication of place, but that Shakespeare intended the scene to be in Rome is clear from ll. 10, 11, where Lepidus is sent to Cæsar's house and told that he will find his confederates "or here, or at the Capitol." In fact, however, the triumvirs, Octavius, Antonius, and Lepidus, met in November, b.c. 43, some nineteen months after the assassination of Cæsar, on a small island in the river Rhenus (now the Reno), near Bononia (Bologna). "All three met together in an island environed round about with a little river, and there remained three days together. Now, as touching all other matters they were easily agreed, and did divide all the empire of Rome between them, as if it had been their own inheritance. But yet they could hardly agree whom they would put to death: for every one of them would kill their enemies, and save their kinsmen and friends. Yet, at length, giving place to their greedy desire to be revenged of their enemies, they spurned all reverence of blood and holiness of friendship at their feet. For Cæsar left Cicero to Antonius's will; Antonius also forsook Lucius Cæsar, who was his uncle by his mother; and both of them together suffered Lepidus to kill his own brother Paulus. Yet some writers affirm that Cæsar and Antonius requested Paulus might be slain, and that Lepidus was contented with it."—Plutarch, Marcus Antonius.
[IV.2] Rome. A room ... house Ff omit.—Antony, Octavius ... table Malone | Enter Antony, Octawius, and Lepidus. Ff.
[IV.3] prick'd. So in [III, i. 217]. See [note, p. 95, l. 217].
[IV.4] According to Plutarch, as quoted [above], this was Lucius Cæsar, not Publius; nor was he Antony's nephew, but his uncle by the mother's side. His name in full was Antonius Lucius Cæsar.
[IV.5] with a spot I damn him: with a mark I condemn him.
[IV.6] What, Johnson | What? Ff.
[IV.7] slight unmeritable: insignificant, undeserving. In Shakespeare many adjectives, especially those ending in -ful, -less, -ble, and -ive, have both an active and a passive meaning. See Abbott, § 3.
[IV.8] point F1 | print F2F3F4.
[IV.9] commons. This is a thoroughly English allusion to such pasture-lands as are not owned by individuals, but occupied by a given neighborhood in common. In 1614 Shakespeare protested against the inclosure of such 'common fields' at Stratford-on-Avon.