narrow world Like a Colossus, and we petty men Walk under his huge legs and peep about To find ourselves dishonorable graves (I.ii.135-138).
Cassius also knows how to get Brutus to do what he wants and how to appeal to the honor of the latter, suggesting that whatever action they take will be a public good in itself:
O, you and I have heard our fathers say There was a Brutus once that would have brook'd The eternal devil to keep his state in Rome As easily as a king (I.ii.158-161).
The attack on the king, Caesar, is here suggested to be the way to keep the state in Rome intact. In Shakespeare, Brutus is shown again and again as torn between two views of honor, the one based on loyalty to the state as it is, the other on loyalty to the ideal or the
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