English
Alternative spellings
et tu, Brute?
Etymology
Loaned from Latin et tu, Brute#Latin|et tū, Brute?
wikipedia
Pronunciation
IPA|Ét Ëtu ËbɹutÉ
Phrase
et tu, Brute
- You too, Brutus; even you, Brutus.
#*1591, w:William Shakespeare|Shakespeare (disputed), The True Tragedie of Richard Duke of York, and the Death of Good King Henrie the Sixt, Thomas Millington (octavo, 1595), read in Alexander Dyce, Robert Dodsley, Thomas Amyot, A Supplement to Dodsley's Old Plays, Shakespeare Society (1853) p. 176, [note that although this play is generally believed to be an early version of w:Henry_VI%2C_part_3|Henry VI, Part Three, the phrase does not appear in the latter (or in the 1600 edition of the former)]
#*: Prince Edward: Et tu Brute, wilt thou stab Cæsar too? A parlie sirra to George of Clarence.
#*1599, w:Ben Jonson|Ben Jonson, w:Every Man Out of His Humour|Euery Man out of his Humor, Silhouette (1921 facsimile)
#*: Carlo: Et tu Brute. Puntarvolo: Sirha close your lips, or I will drop it in thine eyes, by heauen.
#*1599, w:William Shakespeare|Shakespeare, w:Julius Caesar (play)|Julius Cæsar, read in William Shakespeare, George Long Duyckinck, The Works of Shakespeare: the text regulated by the recently discovered folio of 1632, Redfield (1853) p. 707,
#*: [Casca stabs Cæsar in the Neck. Cæsar catches hold of his Arm. He is then stabbed by several other Conspirators, and at last by Marcus Brutus.] Cæsar: Et tu, Brute?âThen fall, Cæsar. [Dies. The senators and people retire in confusion.]
#*1851, w:Herman Melville|Herman Melville, w:Moby_Dick|Moby-Dick, or, the Whale, Penguin Classics (1986), ISBN: 0142437247, p. 326
#*: And that is the reason why a young buck with an intelligent looking calf's head before him, is somehow one of the saddest sights you can see. The head looks a sort of reproachfully at him, with an âEt tu Brute!â expression.
#*1933, Christopher St. John, Biography read in Christabel Marshall, Ellen Terry's Memoirs, Read Country Books ISBN: 1846649846 (2006), p. 308,
#*:She did not say, yet she might have said, "Et tu, Brute," when after her mother's death she read the last chapters of "Ellen Terry and Her Secret Self. Gordon Craig's jibes there at the "loving guardians" of Ellen Terry in her old age are the more unworthy, because he could have done much to make it happier.
#*2002, Randall (EDT) Martin, footnote in Henry VI, Part Three, Oxford University Press, ISBN: 0192831410, p. 112,
#*: But according to the Oxford editor of Julius Caesar, 'Et tu, Brute' had probably already become a popular tag by the time of True Tragedy [see 1591 cite], readily understood by English speakers just as it is today.
#*2006, Joan Saunders, Doors of the Megdalines, Lulu Press, Inc., ISBN: 1411677358, p. 125,
#*:"I hope the junk food doesn't mess up our experiment. It might give him cramps." Bob remarked. 'Et tu, Brute?' I thought. Calmed by the healthy American food, the dawk regarded us thoughtfully.
#*2006, Maria Wyke, Julius Caesar in Western Culture, Blackwell Publishing, ISBN: 1405125985, p. 223,
#*: "Et tu, Brute?" (3.1.76). This familiar but strange, strangely familiar, anachronistic foreign language at the heart of Julius Caesar is the only Latin in all of Shakespeare's so-called Roman plays.
Usage notes
Used figuratively from 1591 (sometimes jocularly) to express shock and sadness at the treachery of a good friend. Although apparently an Elizabethan invention, a "genuine antique reproduction" (see Marjorie B. Garber, Shakespeare's Ghost Writers: Literature as Uncanny Causality, Routledge (UK) (1997), ISBN: 0415918693, pp.54-55) it appears to have been well known in England before its use in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar''.
Latin
Phrase
et#Latin|et tu#Latin|tū, Brutus#Latin|Brute?
- Even you, Brutus?
Usage notes
Although the phrase is put into the mouth of w:Julius_Caesar|Julius Caesar by Richard Eedes, and later w:William_Shakespeare|Shakespeare, contemporary accounts suggest this is historically incorrect. According to Marjorie B. Garber, Shakespeare's Ghost Writers: Literature as Uncanny Causality, Routledge (UK) (1997), ISBN: 0415918693, p.54, the 18th century Shakespearean scholar w:Edmond Malone|Edmond Malone wrote that it was used in a latin play (since lost):
:1582, Richard Edes SIC, Epilogus Caesaris Interfecti.
(According to w:George Steevens|George Steevens, another 18th century Shakespearean scholar (read in A. Chalmers, The plays of William Shakspeare, printed from the text of the corrected copy left by G. Steevens, with a selection of notes from the most eminent commentators, &c. (1805), p. 244), the play's author was Richard Eedes, based in Oxford and later one of the translators of the w:King_James_Bible|King James Bible.)
Category:Latin phrases
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