Scholars and Plebeians

Vanish, or I shall giue thee thy deseruing,
And blemish Caesars Triumph. Let him take thee,
And hoist thee vp to the shouting Plebeians,
Follow his Chariot, like the greatest spot
Of all thy Sex. Most Monster-like be shewne
For poor'st Diminitiues, for Dolts, and let
Patient Octauia, plough thy visage vp
With her prepared nailes.

At least two of the editions of this play I've been studying insist in their notes that the word 'plebeians' be pronounced with a stress on the first syllable. I find this very odd, since the editors don't usually tell actors how they should be speaking their lines.

I wrote to my friend about the puzzle:

hey the scholars all insist that the word 'plebeians' in –

etc...

– should have it's stress on the 1st syllable. they make a point of it in the notes on the bottom of the page in a couple of instances. Seems bizarre to me that they're even making notes about a stress, even more so when my natural inclination in the verse is to pronounce the word the way I normally would, with the emphasis on the 2nd syllable.



And he wrote back:

go with your instincts.
"scholars won't go into the water until they learn how to swim".
and don't forget 'quinapollus'

Which was a reference I didn't get until googled and found differently spelled as a quote from 12th Night:

Clo.
Wit, and't be thy will, put me into good fooling:
those wits that thinke they haue thee, doe very oft proue
fooles: and I that am sure I lacke thee, may passe for a
wise man. For what saies Quinapalus, Better a witty foole,
then a foolish wit. God blesse thee Lady.
Ol.
Take the foole away.
Clo.
Do you not heare fellowes, take away the Ladie.