Citations:et tu, Brute

English

Phrase

		1591 1599			1851	1933	2002 2006
ME «	15th c.	16th c.	17th c.	18th c.	19th c.	20th c.	21st c.

1. "You too, Brutus" or "even you, Brutus"; expression of betrayal.
   • 1591, 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 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, Ben Jonson, 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, Shakespeare, 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?—Then fall, Cæsar. [Dies. The senators and people retire in confusion.]

   • 1851, Herman Melville, 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 “Et tu Brute!” 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.