[IV.126] [Exit Lucius] Ff omit.
[IV.127] [Exeunt Cassius ...] Capell | Exeunt Ff.
[IV.128] Re-enter Lucius, ... Capell | Enter Lucius ... Ff (after Brutus, l. 236).
[IV.129] Poor knave. Cf. 'Gentle knave,' l. 269. The word 'knave' is here used in the literal sense of 'boy.' It was used as a term of endearment, or of loving familiarity with those of lower rank. So in King Lear, I, iv, 107.
[IV.130] o'er-watch'd: worn out with keeping awake. So in King Lear, II, ii, 177. Cf. 'o'ershot' in [III, ii, 150.]
[IV.131] ll. 242, 244, etc.: Claudius Rowe | Claudio Ff.
[IV.132] Varro Rowe | Varrus Ff.
[IV.133] Scene VI Pope.—Enter Varro and Claudius Rowe | Enter Varrus and Claudio Ff.
[IV.134] ll. 252-253 These two simple lines, with the answer of Lucius, "I was sure your lordship did not give it me," are among the best things in the play. Consider how much is implied in them, and what a picture they give of the earnest, thoughtful, book-loving Brutus. And indeed all his noblest traits of character come out, "in simple and pure soul," in this exquisite scene with Lucius, which is hardly surpassed by anything in Shakespeare. Who could be troubled by the anachronism in the book being of modern shape? "Brutus was a careful man, and slept very little, both for that his diet was moderate, as also because he was continually occupied. He never slept in the day-time, and in the night no longer than the time he was driven to be alone, and when everybody else took their rest. But now whilst he was in war, and his head ever busily occupied to think of his affairs and what would happen, after he had slumbered a little after supper, he spent all the rest of the night in dispatching of his weightiest causes, and after he had taken order for them, if he had any leisure left him, he would read some book till the third watch of the night, at what time the captains, petty captains, and colonels, did use to come to him."—Plutarch, Marcus Brutus.
[IV.135] [Varro and ...] Ff omit.