I shall have glory by this losing day,
More than Octavius and Mark Antony
By this vile conquest shall attain unto.

So, fare you well at once; for Brutus' tongue
Hath almost ended his life's history:

Night hangs upon mine eyes; my bones would rest,
That have but labour'd to attain this hour.

Cli. Fly, my lord, fly.

Bru.

40

[Alarum. Cry within, Fly, fly, fly!'

Hence I will follow.

[Exeunt Clitus, Dardanius, and Volumnius.

I prithee, Strato, stay thou by thy lord:
Thou art a fellow of a good respect;

Thy life hath had some smatch of honour in it :
Hold then my sword, and turn away thy face,
While I do run upon it. Wilt thou, Strato?

45

Stra. Give me your hand first: fare you well, my lord. Bru. Farewell, good Strato. [Runs on his sword.] Cæsar, now be still:

I kill'd not thee with half so good a will.

50

[Dies.

Alarum. Retreat. Enter OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, MESSALA, LUCILIUS, and the army.

Oct. What man is that?

Mes. My master's man. Strato, where is thy master? Stra. Free from the bondage you are in, Messala:

The conquerors can but make a fire of him;
For Brutus only overcame himself,

And no man else hath honour by his death.

55

Lucil. So Brutus should be found. I thank thee, Brutus, That thou hast proved Lucilius' saying true.

Oct. All that served Brutus, I will entertain them. 60 Fellow, wilt thou bestow thy time with me? Stra. Ay, if Messala will prefer me to you. Oct. Do so, good Messala.

Mes. How died my master, Strato?

Stra. I held the sword, and he did run on it. Mes. Octavius, then take him to follow thee, That did the latest service to my master.

Ant. This was the noblest Roman of them all :

All the conspirators, save only he,

Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar;
He only, in a general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle, and the elements

So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world 'This was a man!'

Oct. According to his virtue let us use him,
With all respect and rites of burial.

Within my tent his bones to-night shall lie,
Most like a soldier, order'd honourably.
So call the field to rest, and let's away,
To part the glories of this happy day.

65

70

15

75

80

[Exeunt.

71 He only, in] He, onely in Ff. general honest] general-honest S. Walker conj.

71, 72 general...And] generous... Of Craik (Collier MS.).

77 With all] F3F4. Withall FF.

79 order'd] Pope. ordered Ff.

81 [Exeunt.] Capell. Exeunt omnes. Ff.

NOTES.

NOTE I.

DRAMATIS PERSONE. Rowe has 'Artemidorus, a Soothsayer,''Artimedorus a Sooth-sayer' in the first edition-which was altered by Theobald, who described Artemidorus as 'a Sophist of Cnidos,' and made the Soothsayer a separate person.

The Acts, but not the Scenes, are marked in the Folios.

thus:

NOTE II.

In both the editions of Pope this line is ludicrously printed

'No, Sir, their are pluckt about their ears.'

He seems to have thought that 'hat' was an intolerable anachronism, for in Coriolanus, II. 3. 95 and 164, he has substituted 'cap.' In this passage it would seem that he could not make up his mind and left a blank accordingly. It is noticed in one of Theobald's letters to Warburton (Nichols's Illustrations, Vol. II. p. 493).

NOTE III.

II. 1. 189. Jennens quotes and wildness' as the reading of Rowe's Octavo. Two lines below he quotes 'laugh at us hereafter' as from the same edition. In 1. 2. 110, he says that Rowe's Octavo reads 'we arrive' for 'arrive ;' in 1. 2. 163, that it reads 'would you' for 'you would;' in I. 2. 170, that it reads 'But' for 'Both ;' in 1. 3. 85, that it omits 'say;' in III. 1. 207, that it reads 'Sing'd.' In none of these cases does our copy of Rowe correspond with his statements.

NOTE IV.

III. 2. 110. We transcribe a portion of Pope's note on this passage :

"Cæsar has had great wrong.

3 Pleb. Cæsar had never wrong, but with just cause.'

If ever there was such a line written by Shakespear, I shou'd fancy it might have its place here, and very humorously in the character of a Plebeian.' He refers to Ben Jonson's quotation in the Sylva or Discoveries, which has been much discussed by the commentators on III. 1. 47. Jonson's words are: 'Many times he [i.e. Shakespeare] fell into those things, could not escape laughter: as when he said in the person of Cæsar, one speaking to him, "Cæsar thou dost me wrong," He replied "Cæsar did never wrong but with just cause," and such like; which were ridiculous.' Vol. 1x. pp. 175, 176, ed. 1816. There is another reference to Shakespeare's supposed blunder in the Induction to Ben Jonson's Staple of News, first acted in 1625: Prologue. Cry you mercy, you never did wrong, but with just cause.' Vol. v. p. 162. Gifford in his note supposes that Metellus Cimber's speech and Cæsar's reply, as they are found in the Folio of 1623, are due to the 'botchery of the players,' and that they originally stood thus:

'Met.

Cæsar, thou dost me wrong.

Cas. Cæsar did never wrong, but with just cause.'

But surely the first twelve lines of Cæsar's reply, to which Gifford makes no allusion, cannot have been written by any other hand than Shakespeare's. On the whole it seems more probable that Jonson, quoting from memory, quoted wrong, than that the passage was altered in consequence of his censure, which was first made, publicly, in 1625.

NOTE V.

III. 2. 204, 205. The arrangement given in the text, suggested by Mr Grant White and Dr Delius, was first printed by us in the Globe Shakespeare and has been adopted by Mr Dyce in his second edition. The Folios continue the words to the second citizen, thus:

2. We will be reveng'd: Revenge

About, seeke, burne, fire, kill, slay,
Let not a Traitor live.'

See Coriolanus, Note (VII). Perhaps the speech given to Sec. Cit. lines 208, 209, should be also given to All, as Dr Delius has also suggested. The same remark may apply to the speech of Third Cit. at the end of Scene 3.

NOTE VI.

IV. 1. Rowe and Pope give 'Rome' for the Scene. Theobald places it on a small Island near Mutina.' In his note he says, 'Shakespeare, I dare say, knew from Plutarch, that these Triumvirs met, upon the Proscription, in a little Island: which Appian, who is more particular, says, lay near Mutina upon the River Lavinius.' Hanmer makes the scene at A small Island in the little River Rhenus near Bononia.' Warburton cuts the knot by omitting to indicate the scene. Johnson followed Theobald. Capell put A Room in Antony's House,' which is adopted by Malone and modern editors generally. Mr Knight says, 'The triumvirs, it is well known, did not meet at Rome to settle their proscription. But it is evident that Shakspere places his scene at Rome, by Lepidus being sent to Cæsar's house, and told that he shall find his confederates "or here, or at the Capitol."'

NOTE VII.

Iv. 2. 50, 52. The ingenious alteration made by Mr Craik cures the defective metre of line 50 and gets rid of the incongruous 'association of an officer of rank and a servant boy' in line 52. We have not however adopted it, because we are of opinion that the error, such as it is, is due to the author and not to a transcriber. In the first place, irregularities of metre are especially frequent, as Mr Dyce and others have pointed out, where proper names occur; and, secondly, an incongruity which was unnoticed by a long series of commentators may well have escaped the observation of a writer among whose merits minute accuracy cannot be ranked. Moreover in Shakespeare's eyes Lucius was probably a page of gentle birth, with whom Titinius might not unfitly be associated; and the office of guarding a door is at least as suitable to him as that of carrying a message to an army. In the next scene, both Lucius and

Lucilius are in attendance.

NOTE VIII.

v. 1. 69, 70. The stage directions given in the text are compounded of that given in the Folios and that given by Rowe. The Folios after 'hark, a word with you,' add Lucillius and Messala stand forth, which Capell was the first to omit. Rowe, retaining those words, added Brutus speaks apart to Lucilius.