Luʹpercal (The)

strictly speaking, meant the place where Romulus and Remus were suckled by the wolf (lupus). A yearly festival was held on this spot on Feb. 15, in honour of Luʹpercus, the god of fertility. On one of these festivals Antony thrice offered to Julius Cæsar a kingly crown, but seeing the people were only half-hearted, Cæsar put it aside, saying, “Jupiter alone is king of Rome.” Shakespeare makes Antony allude to this incident:

“You all did see that on the Lupercal

I thrice presented him a kingly crown,

Which he did thrice refuse.”

Julius Cæsar, iii. 2.

⁂ Shakespeare calls the Lupercalia “the feast of Lupercal” (act i. 1,), and probably he means the festival in Antony’s speech, not the place where the festival was held.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.