This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit?

Answer 1

This quote is from William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Act I Scene 2. The scene begins with Caesar and his entourage preparing to greet the waiting crowd of Roman citizens. Cassius and Brutus are there, and early on, Caesar shows his shrewd political insight by identifying Cassius as dangerous man, and while Caesar stands before the cheering crowd Cassius very subtly reveals his political nature and strong distaste for Caesar to Brutus. Then Casca enters, reporting the news of Caesars and Antony's dramatics and tells how Antony offered Caesar the crown three times, each time Caesar rejecting it. When Casca exits, Brutus makes an off hand remark about the slow nature of Casca by saying:

"What a blunt fellow is this grown to be. He was quick mettle when he went to school."

Brutus is commenting on Casca's seeming slow nature which is contrary to how he was in the past and Cassius responds with a subtle rebuke of Brutus misjudgment of character by responding:

"So is he now in execution. Of any bold or noble enterprise, however he puts on this tardy form. This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit, which give men stomach to digest his words with better appetite.."

The irony of the remark made by Cassious is that he his advising Brutus to be less dismissive of others and consider the true nature of peoples seeming inferiority. It is Brutus who is the tragic hero of this story and all tragic heroes are felled by their own hubris. Brutus is afflicted with an air of superiority but he also holds strongly the ideal that people are basically good. He views both Casca and Cassius as good people and is most certainly unaware of Cassius' subtle designs to use Brutus in his conspiracy to kill Caesar. The irony is that while Cassius is advising Brutus to look past peoples facades, he is relying on the fact that Brutus will not see through his own.