Upon a day, as he was wont to goon,[6]
And in the Capitolie anon him hente[7]
This false Brutus, and his othere foon[8]
And stikede him with boydekins[9] anoon
With many a wounde, and thus they lete him lye;
But never gronte[10] he at no strook but oon,
Or elles at two, but if[11] his storie lye.
The Monkes Tale, ll. 715-718. (Skeat's Chaucer.)
This literary and popular tradition is followed in Hamlet, III, ii, 107-111:
Hamlet. What did you enact?