Page:The Tragedy of Julius Caesar (The Warwick Shakespeare).djvu/21

 hatred of monarchy in the abstract. He will in no wise endure to be a bondsman himself; but, though only in a secondary degree, he would have all Romans free. He cares little whether Cæsar is formally crowned, but that Cæsar or anyone else should have absolute power is intolerable. He is perfectly honest in his sentiments; they are not invented to deceive Brutus. He wants Brutus to share the leadership at least, not to make a mere tool of him. From end to end of the play, he does his best to induce Brutus to take his own view of what ought to be done; but he always gives way if his persuasion fails. Cicero is excluded; Antony is spared, and subsequently allowed to speak at the funeral; the fortunes of the conspirators are staked on a great battle—in each case Cassius withdraws his opposition in deference to Brutus, whom he loves; in each case we know that Brutus was wrong and Cassius right: yet Cassius has no reproach for his colleague, attempts no rivalry with him, acts throughout with an admirable loyalty. And to appreciate all this fully, we must remember that he is drawn always as a man with a fiery temper, irritable and passionate, to whom it was singularly galling to be crossed.

Certainly Cassius is not a hero. His moral standard is not of the highest. When he has an end in view, he has no inclination to palter about the means. He has no qualms of conscience in the matter of removing Antony as well as Cæsar; he will not cavil at the measures taken by his lieutenants for raising money—

He allows his political convictions to be coloured by his personal feelings, his 'affections sway more than his reason' to an extent which is utterly destructive of statesmanship. But if that applies to his hatred of Cæsar, it applies no less to his love for Brutus. In spite of his angry temper, his followers are devoted to him; Titinius slays himself on the body of his dead chief; to Brutus he is "the last of all the Romans". And intellectually he stands out from the rest of the