Original "Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare, Act 1

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Brutus is a trusted confidant of the Roman general Julius Caesar, but when he becomes convinced that Caesar's ambitions are a threat to the republic, he plots his friend's assassination. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists for the play: Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, Act 4, Act 5
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. knave
    a deceitful and unreliable scoundrel
    What trade, thou knave? Thou naughty knave, what trade?
  2. beseech
    ask for or request earnestly
    Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me.
  3. saucy
    improperly forward or bold
    What mean’st thou by that? Mend me, thou saucy fellow?
  4. awl
    a pointed tool for marking surfaces or for punching holes
    Truly, sir, all that I live by is with the awl. I meddle with no tradesman’s matters nor women’s matters, but withal I am indeed, sir, a surgeon to old shoes: when they are in great danger, I recover them.
  5. battlement
    a notched rampart around the top of a castle or city wall
    Many a time and oft
    Have you climbed 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.
  6. strew
    spread by scattering
    And do you now strew flowers in his way
    That comes in triumph over Pompey’s blood?
  7. exalt
    praise, glorify, or honor
    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.
  8. servile
    submissive or fawning in attitude or behavior
    These growing feathers plucked 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.
  9. soothsayer
    someone who makes predictions of the future
    A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.
  10. throng
    a large gathering of people
    Fellow, come from the throng.
  11. countenance
    the appearance conveyed by a person's face
    Be not deceived. If I have veiled my look,
    I turn the trouble of my countenance
    Merely upon myself.
  12. construe
    make sense of; assign a meaning to
    But let not therefore my good friends be grieved
    (Among which number, Cassius, be you one)
    Nor construe any further my neglect
    Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war,
    Forgets the shows of love to other men.
  13. cogitation
    attentive consideration and thought
    Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your passion,
    By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried
    Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations.
  14. yoke
    an oppressive power
    I have heard
    Where many of the best respect in Rome,
    Except immortal Caesar, speaking of Brutus
    And groaning underneath this age’s yoke,
    Have wished that noble Brutus had his eyes.
  15. rout
    a disorderly crowd of people
    ...if you know
    That I profess myself in banqueting
    To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.
  16. flourish
    a short lively tune played on brass instruments
    [Flourish and shout.]
    BRUTUS: What means this shouting? I do fear the people
    Choose Caesar for their king.
  17. impart
    transmit, as knowledge or a skill
    What is it that you would impart to me?
  18. chafe
    feel extreme irritation or anger
    For once, upon a raw and gusty day,
    The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores,
    Caesar said to me “Dar’st thou, Cassius, now
    Leap in with me into this angry flood
    And swim to yonder point?”
  19. buffet
    strike against forcefully
    The torrent roared, and we did buffet it
    With lusty sinews, throwing it aside
    And stemming it with hearts of controversy.
  20. sinew
    a band of tissue connecting a muscle to its bony attachment
    The torrent roared, and we did buffet it
    With lusty sinews, throwing it aside
    And stemming it with hearts of controversy.
  21. brook
    put up with something or somebody unpleasant
    O, you and I have heard our fathers say
    There was a Brutus once that would have brooked
    Th’ eternal devil to keep his state in Rome
    As easily as a king.
  22. entreat
    ask for or request earnestly
    For this present,
    I would not, so with love I might entreat you,
    Be any further moved.
  23. repute
    look on as or consider
    Brutus had rather be a villager
    Than to repute himself a son of Rome
    Under these hard conditions as this time
    Is like to lay upon us.
  24. chide
    scold or reprimand severely or angrily
    But look you, Cassius,
    The angry spot doth glow on Caesar’s brow,
    And all the rest look like a chidden train.
    Calphurnia’s cheek is pale, and Cicero
    Looks with such ferret and such fiery eyes
    As we have seen him in the Capitol,
    Being crossed in conference by some senators.
  25. fain
    in a willing manner
    I saw Mark Antony offer him a crown (yet ’twas not a crown neither; ’twas one of these coronets), and, as I told you, he put it by once; but for all that, to my thinking, he would fain have had it.
  26. loath
    strongly opposed
    Then he offered it to him again; then he put it by again; but to my thinking, he was very loath to lay his fingers off it.
  27. swoon
    pass out from weakness or physical or emotional distress
    He put it the third time by, and still as he refused it the rabblement hooted and clapped their chopped hands and threw up their sweaty nightcaps and uttered such a deal of stinking breath because Caesar refused the crown that it had almost choked Caesar, for he swooned and fell down at it.
  28. doublet
    a man's close-fitting jacket, worn during the Renaissance
    Marry, before he fell down, when he perceived the common herd was glad he refused the crown, he plucked me ope his doublet and offered them his throat to cut.
  29. amiss
    in an improper or mistaken manner
    When he came to himself again, he said if he had done or said anything amiss, he desired their Worships to think it was his infirmity.
  30. infirmity
    the state of being weak in health or body
    When he came to himself again, he said if he had done or said anything amiss, he desired their Worships to think it was his infirmity.
  31. wench
    a young woman
    Three or four wenches where I stood cried “Alas, good soul!” and forgave him with all their hearts.
  32. surly
    unfriendly and inclined toward anger or irritation
    Besides (I ha’ not since put up my sword),
    Against the Capitol I met a lion,
    Who glazed upon me and went surly by
    Without annoying me.
  33. portentous
    of momentous or ominous significance
    When these prodigies
    Do so conjointly meet, let not men say
    “These are their reasons, they are natural,”
    For I believe they are portentous things
    Unto the climate that they point upon.
  34. herald
    a sign indicating the approach of something or someone
    It is the part of men to fear and tremble
    When the most mighty gods by tokens send
    Such dreadful heralds to astonish us.
  35. prodigious
    of momentous or ominous significance
    Now could I, Casca, name to thee a man
    Most like this dreadful night,
    That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars
    As doth the lion in the Capitol;
    A man no mightier than thyself or me
    In personal action, yet prodigious grown,
    And fearful, as these strange eruptions are.
  36. sufferance
    patient endurance especially of pain or distress
    But, woe the while, our fathers’ minds are dead,
    And we are governed with our mothers’ spirits.
    Our yoke and sufferance show us womanish.
  37. factious
    dissenting with the majority opinion
    Be factious for redress of all these griefs,
    And I will set this foot of mine as far
    As who goes farthest.
  38. redress
    act of correcting an error or a fault or an evil
    Be factious for redress of all these griefs,
    And I will set this foot of mine as far
    As who goes farthest.
  39. gait
    a person's manner of walking
    ’Tis Cinna; I do know him by his gait.
  40. alchemy
    a pseudoscientific forerunner of chemistry in medieval times
    O, he sits high in all the people’s hearts,
    And that which would appear offense in us
    His countenance, like richest alchemy,
    Will change to virtue and to worthiness.
Created on Tue Jan 06 14:08:29 EST 2026

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