A friend should bear his friend’s infirmities,
     But Brutus makes mine greater than they are. 
Bru.  I do not, till you practice them on me. 
Cas.  You love me not. 
Bru.  I do not like your faults. 
Cas.  A friendly eye could never see such faults. 
Bru.  A flatterer’s would not, though they do appear
     As huge as high Olympus. 
Cas.  Come, Antony, and young Octavius, come,
     Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius,
     For Cassius is aweary of the world;
     Hated by one he loves; braved by his brother;
     Checked like a bondman; all his faults observed,
     Set in a notebook, learned, and conned by rate,
     To cast into my teeth.  Oh, I could weep
     My spirit from mine eyes!  There is my dagger,
     And here my naked breast; within, a heart
     Dearer than Plutus’ mine, richer than gold: 
     If that thou be’st a Roman, take it forth: 
     I, that denied thee gold, will give my heart: 
     Strike, as thou didst at Caesar; for, I know,
     When thou didst hate him worst, thou lovedst him better
     Than ever thou lovedst Cassius. 
Bru.  Sheathe your dagger: 
     Be angry when you will, it shall have scope;
     Do what you will, dishonor shall be humor. 
     O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb
     That carries anger as the flint bears fire;
     Who, much enforced, shows a hasty spark,
     And straight is cold again. 
Cas.  Hath Cassius lived
     To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus,
     When grief, and blood ill-tempered, vexeth him? 
Bru.  When I spoke that, I was ill-tempered, too. 
Cas.  Do you confess so much?  Give me your hand.

238 Eclectic series.

Bru.  And my heart, too. 
Cas.  O Brutus! 
Bru.  What’s the matter? 
Cas.  Have you not love enough to bear with me,
     When that rash humor which my mother gave me
     Makes me forgetful? 
Bru.  Yes, Cassius; and, from henceforth,
     When you are over earnest with your Brutus,
     He’ll think your mother chides, and leave you so.

Shakespeare.—­Julius Caesar, Act iv, Scene iii.

Notes.—­Ides (pro. idz) was a term used in the Roman calendar.  It fell on the fifteenth day of March, May, July, and October, and on the thirteenth of other months.  On the ides of March, 44 B. C., Julius Caesar was murdered by Brutus, Cassius, and other conspirators.  The populace were aroused to indignation, and the conspirators were compelled to fly.

Indirection; i. e., dishonest means.

Antony and Octavius, who, with Lepidus, formed the triumvirate now governing Rome, were at this time marching against the forces of Brutus and Cassius.

Plutus, in ancient mythology, the god of wealth.