Act 2, Scene 3

A street near the Capitol.

[Enter Artemidorus, reading paper.]
Artemidorus
1054 "Caesar, beware of Brutus; take heed of Cassius; come
1055 not near Casca; have an eye to Cinna; trust not Trebonius; mark
1056 well Metellus Cimber; Decius Brutus loves thee not; thou hast
1057 wrong'd Caius Ligarius. There is but one mind in all these men,
1058 and it is bent against Caesar. If thou be'st not immortal, look
1059 about you: security gives way to conspiracy. The mighty gods
1060 defend thee!
1061 Thy lover, Artemidorus."
1062 Here will I stand till Caesar pass along,
1063 And as a suitor will I give him this.
1064 My heart laments that virtue cannot live
1065 Out of the teeth of emulation.—
1066 If thou read this, O Caesar, thou mayest live;
1067 If not, the Fates with traitors do contrive.
[Exit.]

Notes

TLN 1059archaic vocab
“security gives way to conspiracy”
Here 'security' does not mean physical safety but a dangerous overconfidence -- a false sense that all is well. Artemidorus is saying that Caesar's complacency is the very opening the conspirators need.
TLN 1061archaic vocab
“Thy lover, Artemidorus”
'Lover' in Elizabethan English means a devoted friend or well-wisher, not a romantic partner. Artemidorus signs himself as Caesar's loyal admirer, not his intimate.
TLN 1063historical topical
“as a suitor will I give him this”
A 'suitor' is a person who formally petitions a magistrate or ruler with a written request. Roman and Elizabethan custom both allowed citizens to approach a public figure directly in the street and press a written petition into his hand; Artemidorus plans to exploit this right to get his letter to Caesar.
classical Plutarch's Lives (North's Translation)
TLN 1064archaic vocab
“virtue cannot live / Out of the teeth of emulation”
'Emulation' here means envious rivalry -- a gnawing desire to pull down anyone who rises above the rest. Artemidorus laments that a man of genuine merit (Caesar, in his view) cannot survive among men consumed by such competitive envy. 'Out of the teeth of' means 'safely clear of the bite of.'
TLN 1067classical allusion
“the Fates with traitors do contrive”
The Fates (Latin: Parcae; Greek: Moirai) were the three goddesses who spun, measured, and cut the thread of every mortal life. Artemidorus warns that if Caesar ignores the letter, even the divine powers that govern destiny will be aligned with his killers -- suggesting the assassination is not merely a human crime but a cosmic catastrophe.
classical Plutarch's Lives (North's Translation)