[V.37] steads F3F4 | steeds F1F2.
[V.38] perils F1 | peril F2F3F4.
[V.39] rests Ff | rest Rowe.
[V.40] By F1 | Be F2.
[V.41] prevent The time: anticipate the full, natural period. To the understanding of this speech, it must be observed that the sense of the words, 'arming myself,' etc., follows next after the words, 'which he did give himself.' In this passage, as Dr. Wright (Clar.) has pointed out, Shakespeare was misled by an error in North's version of Amyot's Plutarch, where we have feis (= fis) translated as if it were from fier: "Brutus answered him, being yet but a young man, and not over greatly experienced in the world; 'I trust (I know not how) a certain rule of philosophy, by the which I did greatly blame ... Cato for killing himself, as being no lawful nor godly act, touching the gods; nor, concerning men, valiant: but, being now in the midst of the danger, I am of a contrary mind.'"—Plutarch, Marcus Brutus. Wright, in his note on this passage, shows how the true meaning is obscured by bad printing and punctuation. Brutus's answer begins really with, 'Being yet but a young man'; and 'I trust' is evidently a past tense (Old English 'truste') which must have been read by Shakespeare as the present.
[V.42] Thorough | Thorow F1F2 | Through F3F4 | Along Pope.
[V.43] Rome? Theobald | Rome Ff.
[V.44] l. 111 Two lines in Ff.
[V.45] "The philosopher indeed renounced all confidence in his own principles. He had adopted them from reading or imitation; they were not the natural growth of instinct or genuine reflection; and, as may easily happen in such a case, his faith in them failed when they were tested by adversity. As long as there seemed a chance that the godlike stroke would be justified by success, Brutus claimed the glory of maintaining a righteous cause; but, when all hope fled, he could take leave of philosophy and life together, and exclaim, 'I once dreamed that virtue was a thing; I find her only a name, and the mere slave of fortune.' He had blamed Cato for flying from misery by self-murder; but he learnt to justify the same desperate act when he contemplated committing it himself."—Merivale.
[V.46] the Ides F1 | that Ides F2F3F4.