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Shakespeare
for Scholars: |
Shakespeare
for Everyone Else: |
| Enter two tribunes named FLAVIUS and MARULLUS.
They meet some Commoners
FLAVIUS: |
The year is 44 BC., and the play begins in the city of Rome. It is February.
This scene is thankfully short, as it is full of puns.
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| Hence! Home, you idle creatures get you home:
Is this a holiday? what! know you not,
Being mechanical, you ought not walk
Upon a labouring day without the sign
Of your profession? Speak, what trade art thou?
FIRST COMMONER: |
In this scene, two officials who are called “tribunes”
stop a crowd of Roman citizens, and begin to yell at them. "Hence" says one.
The tribunes are angry with the citizens for celebrating. The two guys,
Flavius and Marullus, are ticked off because so many people are taking the
day off, to celebrate Caesar’s arrival. The Commoners are not even wearing
the "sign of their profession." Flavius and Marullus do not like this
lack of dress, and they do not like this Caesar guy, at all -- they think
he is becoming rather dangerous.
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| Why, sir, a carpenter.
MARULLUS:
Where is thy leather apron and thy rule?
What dost thou with thy best apparel on?
You, sir, what trade are you?
SECOND COMMONER: |
The first guy they question happens to be a carpenter.
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| Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but,
as you would say, a cobbler.
MARULLUS: |
The next guy they stop is a “cobbler,” or a shoemaker
(see also Nike).
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| But what trade art thou? answer me directly.
SECOND COMMONER: |
Marullus pretends this is not the guy's profession. This
is an insult. A cobbler was also means
the guy is a scheister.
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| A trade, sir, that, I hope, I may use with a safe
conscience; which is, indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles.
MARULLUS: |
The cobbler says he is a mender of “bad soles,”
(or, “bad souls.”) He is also a smart-aleck. The cobbler
is just full of puns.
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| What trade, thou knave? thou naughty knave, what trade?
SECOND COMMONER: |
Flavius and Marullus do not like the cobbler’s attitude.
Marullus calls him a "naughty knave." Or, does he mean a "knaughty
knave"?
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| Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me: yet,
if you be out, sir, I can mend you.
MARULLUS:
What meanest thou by that? mend me, thou saucy fellow!
SECOND COMMONER:
Why, sir, cobble you.
FLAVIUS:
Thou art a cobbler, art thou?
SECOND COMMONER: |
To be "out with" someone apparently means to be angry with
him. Or, a bit peeved with him. In other words, pissed off.
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| Truly, sir, all that I live by is with the awl: I
meddle with no tradesman's matters, nor women's
matters, but with awl. I am, indeed, sir, a surgeon
to old shoes; when they are in great danger , I
recover them. As proper men as ever trod upon
neat's leather have gone upon my handiwork.
FLAVIUS: |
An "awl" is a pointed tool used by leather-workers,
shoemakers, and others with a fetish in this particular area.
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| But wherefore art not in thy shop today?
Why dost thou lead these men about the streets?
SECOND COMMONER:
Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes, to get myself
into more work. But, indeed, sir, we make holiday,
to see Caesar and to rejoice in his triumph.
MARULLUS: |
The word "wherefore" means "why." Why this is, I do
not know. Why should mean why, and wherefore should mean wherefore.
Sigh... |
| Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home ?
What tributaries follow him to Rome,
To grace in captive bonds his chariot-wheels?
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"What conquest brings him home?" Translation: What
did Caesar ever do for you? |
| You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!
O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,
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Apparently, Marullus subscribes to the theory that "blocks
and stones" can break his bones. Marullus scolds the Commoners for following
this Caesar guy, because Marullus thinks he is
dangerous to the future of their country. |
| Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft
Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The livelong day, with patient expectation,
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome:
And when you saw his chariot but appear,
Have you not made an universal shout,
That Tiber trembled underneath her banks,
To hear the replication of your sounds
Made in her concave shores?
And do you now put on your best attire?
And do you now cull out a holiday?
And do you now strew flowers in his way
That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood? Be gone!
Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,
Pray to the gods to intermit the plague
That needs must light on this ingratitude.
FLAVIUS:
Go, go, good countrymen, and, for this fault,
Assemble all the poor men of your sort ;
Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears
Into the channel, till the lowest stream
Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.
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They try to shame the entire crowd of people for their
celebrating, by reminding them that they used to cheer for an earlier
“hero” that this Caesar apparently defeated (some guy named
“Pompey”).
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| (Exeunt all the Commoners)
See whether their basest metal be not moved;
They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.
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The crowd leaves. |
| Go you down that way towards the Capitol;
This way will I disrobe the images,
If you do find them deck 'd with ceremonies.
MARULLUS: |
Flavius tells Marullus they should split up, and go
around and tear down any decorations that they find hanging around town,
to try to discourage any more of this celebrating (reference
“party-poopers.”)
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| May we do so?
You know it is the feast of Lupercal.
FLAVIUS: |
Marullus is worried. He wonders if it is okay to do
this, especially since it is a holiday. |
| It is no matter; let no images
Be hung with Caesar's trophies. I'll about,
And drive away the vulgar from the streets:
So do you too, where you perceive them thick .
These growing feathers pluck'd from Caesar's wing
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch,
Who else would soar above the view of men
And keep us all in servile fearfulness.
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Flavius insists that it will be okay. |
| (Exeunt) |
The two exeunt, stage left. The scene ends, not with
a bang, but with a whimper.
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