Cas. Be you content: Good Cinna, take this | That lowliness is young ambition's ladder, paper, And look you lay it in the prætor's chair, Cin. All but Metellus Cimber; and he's gone Casca. O, he sits high in all the people's hearts: Cas Him and his worth, and our great need of You have right well conceited. Let us go, We will awake him, and be sure of him. [Exeunt. ACT II. Whereto the climber-upward turns his face : Will bear no colour for the thing he is, Re-enter LUCIUS. Searching the window for a flint, I found Bru. Get you to bed again, it is not day. Bru. Look in the calendar, and bring me word. Bru. The exhalations, whizzing in the air, SCENE I. The same. Brutus's Orchard. Enter Shall Rome, &c. Speak, strike, redress! BRUTUS. Brutus, thou sleep'st; awake, Such instigations have been often dropp'd Shall Rome, &c. Thus must I piece it out; Shall Rome stand under one man's awe? What! My ancestors did from the streets of Rome The Tarquin drive, when he was call'd a king. To speak, and strike? O Rome! I make thee pro- If the redress will follow, thou receivest Luc. Sir, March is wasted fourteen days." [Knock within. Bru. 'Tis good. Go to the gate; somebody [Exit LUCIUS. Since Cassius first did whet me against Cæsar, knocks. It is the bright day, that brings forth the adder; That ; And then, I grant, we put a sting in him, The abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins Between the acting of a dreadful thing Remorse from power: And, to speak truth of Are then in council; and the state of man," Cæsar, I have not known when his affections sway'd 1 Orchard and garden appear to have been synonymous with our ancestors. In Romeo and Juliet, Capulet's garden is twice called orchard. Like to a little kingdom, suffers then one of his earliest comments on Shakspeare, addressed to Concanen, when, in league with Theobald and others, he made war against Pope. The following note, by the Rev. Mr. Blakeway, is quite of another char 2 Shakspeare usually uses remorse for pity, tender-acter, and takes with it my entire concurrence and apness of heart. probation : 4 3 i. e. a matter proved by common experience. The aspirer once attain'd unto the top, Cuts off those means by which himself got up: And with a harder hand, and straighter rein, Doth curb that looseness he did find before: Doubting the occasion like might serve again, His own example makes him fear the more." Daniel's Civil Wars, 1602. 5. As his kind,' like the rest of his species. Thus in Antony and Cleopatra :- You must think this, look you, the worm [i. e. serpent] will do his kind.' 6 The old copy erroneously reads, the first of March. The correction was made by Theobald; as was the following. 7 Here again the old copy reads, fifteen. This was only the dawn of the fifteenth when the boy makes his The genius, and the mortal instruments,' &c. Mortal is assuredly deadly; as it is in Macbeth :Come, you spirits, That tend on mortal thoughts." By instruments, I understand our bodily powers, our members: as Othello calls his eyes and hands his spe culative and active instruments and Menenius, in Coriolanus, Act i. Sc. 1, speaks of the cranks and offices of man,' The strongest nerves, and small inferior veins.' So intending to paint, as he does very finely, the inward conflict which precedes the commission of some dreadful crime; he represents, as I conceive him, the genius, or soul, consulting with the body, and, as it were, questioning the limbs, the instruments which are to perform this deed of death, whether they can undertake to bear her out in the affair, whether they can screw up their courage to do what she shall enjoin them. The tumultuous commotion of opposing sentiments and feelings, produced by the firmness of the soul contending with the secret misgivings of the body; during which the Re-enter Lucius. Luc. Sir, 'tis your brother Cassius at the door, Who doth desire to see you. Bru. Is he alone? Luc. No, sir; there are more with him. Do you know them? ears. And half their faces buried in their cloaks, Bru. Let them enter. [Exit LUCIUS. They are the faction. O, conspiracy! To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, con- Hide it in smiles, and affability: For if thou path thy native semblance2 on,' To hide thee from prevention. The sufferance of our souls, the time's abuse,- Nor the insuppressive mettle of our spirits, Enter CASSIUS, CASCA, DECIUS, CINNA, METEL-If he do break the smallest particle LUS CIMBER, and TREBONIUS. Cas. I think we are too bold upon your rest; Good morrow, Brutus: Do we trouble you? Bru. I have been up this hour; awake, all night. Cas. Yes, every man of them; and no man here, Bru. He is welcome hither. Of any promise that hath pass'd from him. Cas. But what of Cicero? Shall we sound him? I think, he will stand very strong with us. Cin. He is welcome too. For he will never follow any thing Cas. This, Casca; this, Cinna; And this, Metellus Cimber. Bru. They are all welcome. What watchful cares do interpose themselves Betwixt your eyes and night? Cas. Shall I entreat a word? [They whisper. Dec. Here lies the east: Doth not the day break here? Casca. No. Cin. O, pardon, sir, it doth; and yon gray lines, Here, as I point my sword, the sun arises: Bru. Give me your hands all over, one by one. Bru. No, not an oath: If not the face3 of men, mental faculties are, though not actually dormant, yet in a sort of waking stupor, crushed by one overwhelm. ing image, is finely compared to a phantasm or a hideous dream, and by the state of man suffering the nature of an insurrection. Tibalt has something like it in Romeo and Juliet : Patience perforce with wilful choler meeting, Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting:' 1 See Act i. Sc. 3. 2 If thou walk in thy true form.' 3 Johnson thus explains this passage; in which, with a view perhaps to imitate the abruptness of dis. course, Shakspeare has constructed the latter part without any regard to the beginning. The face of men' is the countenance, the regard, the esteem of the public; in other terms, honour and reputation: or the face of men may mean the dejected look of the people. Thus Cicero in Catilinam:- Nihil horum ora vultusque moverunt.' Gray may perhaps support Johnson's explanation: And read their history in a nation's eyes. Mason thought we should read, the faith of men ;' to which, he says, the context evidently gives support :— what other bond, Than secret Romans, that have spoke the word, That other men begin. Cas. Then leave him out. Dec. Shall no man else be touch'd but only Casar? Let Antony, and Cæsar, fall together. Bru. Our course will seem too bloody, Caius To cut the head off, and then hack the limbs; The speech is formed on the following passage in North's Plutarch:- The conspirators having never taken oath together, nor taken or given any caution or assurance, nor binding themselves one to another by any religious oaths, they kept the matter so secret to themselves,' &c. 4 Steevens thinks there may be an allusion here to the custom of decimation, i. e. the selection by lot of every tenth soldier in a general mutiny for punishment. The poet speaks of this in Coriolanus: By decimation and a tithed death 5 To palter is to shuffle, to equivocate; to go from engagements once made. 6 Though cautelous is often used for wary, circum. spect, by old writers, the context plainly shows that Shakspeare uses it here for artful, insidious; opposed to honesty. It is used in Coriolanus, Act iv Sc 1, in the same sense. 7 i. e. character. Thus in King Henry IV. Parti, Act v. Sc. 4: Thou hast redeem'd thy lost opinion, 8 Let us not break the matter to him. 9 Envy here, as alinost always by Shakspeare, is used for malice. Let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully; Cas. Treb. There is no fear in him; let him not die; For he will live, and laugh at this hereafter. [Clock strikes. Bru. Peace, count the clock. Dec. Never fear that: If he be so resolv'd, For I can give his humour the true bent; Cas. Nay, we will all of us be there to fetch him. Bru. Now, good Metellus, go along by him : He loves me well, and I have given him reasons; Send him but hither, and I'll fashion him. Cas. The morning comes upon us: We'll leave you, Brutus ; And, friends, disperse yourselves: but all remember "Gradive, dedisti, 1 Ne qua manus vatem, ne quid mortalia bello Lædere tela queant, sanctum et venerabile Diti Funus erat.' Statius, Theb. vii. 1. 696. The following passage of the old translation of Plu tarch was probably in the poet's thoughts:- Cesar turned himself no-where but he was stricken at by some, and still naked swords in his face, and was hacked and mangled among them as a wild beast taken of hunters.' 2 To take thought, is to grieve, to be troubled in mind. See note on Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. 5; and Antony and Cleopatra, Act iii. Sc. 2. 'My bodie surely is well, or in good case; but I take thought, or my minde is full of fancies and trouble.'- Baret. 3 Whether. 4 Quite from the main opinion he held once Thus in Troilus and Cressida : 'Why then should we our main opinion crush, In taint of our best man?' Fantasy was used for imagination or conceit in Shakspeare's time; but the following passage from Lavaterus on Ghostes and Spirites, 1572, may elucidate its meaning in the present instance -- Suidas maketh a difference between phantasma and phantasia, saying that phantasma is an imagination or appearance of a Bight or thing which is not, as are those sights which Bru. Good gentlemen, look fresh and merrily; [Exeunt all but BRUTUS. Por. Enter PORTIA. Brutus, my lord! Bru. Portia, what mean you? Wherefore rise you now? It is not for your health, thus to commit Por. Nor for yours, neither. You have ungently, Stole from my bed: And yesternight, at supper, I urg'd you further; then you scratch'd your head, Which seem'd too much enkindled; and, withal, Bru. I am not well in health, and that is all. Por. Brutus is wise, and were he not in health, He would embrace the means to come by it. Bru. Why, so I do :-Good Portia, go to bed, Por. Is Brutus sick? and is it physical To walk unbraced, and suck up the humours Of the dank morning? What, is Brutus sick And will he steal out of his wholesome bed, To dare the vile contagion of the night? And tempt the rheumy and unpurged air To add unto his sickness? No, my Brutus; You have some sick offence within your mind, Which, by the right and virtue of my place, I ought to know of: And, upon my knees, I charm you,10 by my once commended beauty, men in their sleepe do thinke they see; but that phantasia is the seeing of that only which is in very deede.' Ceremonies signify omens or signs deduced from sacrifices or other ceremonial rites. Thus in a subsequent passage : Cæsar, I never stood on ceremonies, running behind a tree, eluded the violent push the ani5 Unicorns are said to have been taken by one, who, mal was making at him, so that his horn spent its force he was despatched by the hunter. This is alluded to on the trunk, and stuck fast, detaining the animal till by Spenser, F. Q. b. ii. c. 5; and by Chapman, in his Bussy d'Ambois, 1607. Bears are reported to have been surprised by means of a mirror, which they would gaze on, affording their pursuers an opportunity of taking the surer aim. This circumstance is mentioned by Claudian. Elephants were seduced into pitfalls, lightly covered with hurdles and turf, on which a proper bait to tempt them was placed. See Pliny's Natural History, JULIUS CESAR. By all your vows of love, and that great vow Bru. Kneel not, gentle Portia. suburbs Of your good pleasure? If it be no more, Bru. You are my true and honourable wife; Por. If this were true, then should I know this secret. grant, I am a woman; but, withal, A woman that Lord Brutus took to wife: I grant, I am a woman; but, withal, A woman well reputed; Cato's daughter. Tell me your counsels, I will not disclose them: Here, in the thigh: Can I bear that with patience, Bru. O ye gods, Render me worthy of this noble wife! Hark, hark! one knocks: Portia, go in a while; All my engagements I will construe to thee, All the charactery3 of [Exit PORTIA. Enter LUCIUS and LIGARIUS. you. Bru. Caius Ligarius, that Metellus spake of.- Lig. Vouchsafe good morrow from a feeble tongue. To wear a kerchief? 'Would, you were not sick! treat by words or other fascinating means. 'tis your graces That from my mutest conscience to my tongue Bru. Such an exploit have I in hand, Ligarius, Had you a healthful ear to hear of it. 257 Lig. By all the gods that Romans bow before, Lig. But are not some whole, that we must make I shall unfold to thee, as we are going You shall not stir out of your house to-day. Ne'er look'd but on my back; when they shall see And Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds, him by the right hande, sayed unto him, Brutus, if thou 1 The general idea of this part of Portia's speech is taken from the old translation of Plutarch. Lord Sterline, in his Julius Cæsar, 1607, uses similar language:I was not, Brutus, match'd with thee, to be A partner only of thy board and bed: Each servile whore in those might equal me, That did herself to nought but pleasure wed. No-Portia spous'd thee with a mind t' abide Thy fellow in all fortunes, good or ill, With chains of mutual love together tied, As those that have two breasts, one heart, two souls, one will.' 2 These glowing words have been adopted by Gray in his celebrated Ode: 'Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart.' 3 Charactery is defined writing by characters or strange marks.' Brutus therefore means that he will divulge to her the secret cause of the sadness marked on his countenance.' In The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act v. Sc. 1, it is said, 'Fairies use flowers for their charactery. 4 This is from Plutarch's Life of Brutus, as translated by North: Brutus went to see him being sicke in his bedde, and sayed unto him, O Ligarius, in what a time art thou sicke? Ligarius, rising up in his bed and taking 2 H 5 Here and in all other places Shakspeare uses erorcist for one who raises spirits, not one who lays them. this use of the word. But it has been erroneously said that he is singular in adjective is used in the same sense in The Devil's Char- The devil hath provided in his covenant I never was so ceremonious.' 7 Shakspeare has adverted to this again in Hamlet:- The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead princes.1 cause, Ces. Cowards die many times before their Lest I be laugh'd at, when I tell them so. deaths;2 The valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, Cas. The cause is in my will, I will not come; That is enough to satisfy the senate. But, for your private satisfaction, It seems to me most strange that men should fear; Because I love you, I will let you know; Re-enter a Servant. What say the augurers? Serv. They would not have you to sur forth to-day. Plucking the entrails of an offering forth, Calphurnia here, my wife, stays me at home: Caes. The gods do this in shame of cowardice :3 It was a vision, fair and fortunate: Cæsar should be a beast without a heart, Cal. Alas, my lord, Cas. Mark Antony shall say, I am not well; Here's Decius Brutus, he shall tell them so. Cæsar: I come to fetch you to the senate-house. Your statue spouting blood in many pipes, press Cas. And this way have you well expounded it. Pardon me, Cæsar; for my dear, dear love And reason to my love is liable. Cas. How foolish do your fears seem now, Calphurnia? 4 The old copy reads, We heare,' &c. The emendation was made by Theobald. Upton proposed to read. We are,' &c. 5 Steevens observes, that any speech of Cæsar, throughout this scene, will appear to disadvantage, if compared with the following, put into his mouth by May in the seventh book of his Supplement to Lucan: Plus me Calphurnia luctus, 1 This may have been suggested by Suetonius, who forgotten his classics strangely, as he has shown by relates that a blazing star appeared for seven days to-several extracts from Virgil and Ovid. gether during the celebration of games, instituted by Augustus, in honour of Julius. The common people believed that this indicated his reception among the gods, his statues were accordingly ornamented with its figure, and medals struck on which it was represented; one of them is engraved in Mr. Douce's Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 82; from whence this note is taken. Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, in his Defensative against the Poison of supposed Prophesies, 1583, says, Next to the shadows and pretences of experience (which have been met with all at large,) they seem to brag most of the strange events which follow (for the most part) after blazing starres; as if they were the summonses of God to call princes to the seat of judg ment. The surest way to shake their painted bulwarkes of experience is, by making plaine that neither princes always dye when comets blaze, nor comets ever (i. e. always) when princes dye.' In this work is a curious anecdote of Queen Elizabeth, then lying at Richmond, being dissuaded from looking on a comet; with a courage equal to the greatness of her state she caused the windowe to be sette open, and said, jacta est alea-the dice are thrown.' 2When some of his friends did counsel him to have a guard for the safety of his person, he would never consent to it; but said, it was better to die once than always to be afraid of death.'-North's Plutarch. Lord Essex in a letter to Lord Rutland, observes, That as he which dieth nobly doth live for ever, so he that doth live in fear doth die continually.-Aud Marston, in bis Insatiate Countess, 1613: Fear is my vassal; when I frown he flies: A hundred times in life a coward dies.' 3 Johnson remarks, That the ancients did not place! courage in the heart.' Mr. Douce observes, that he had Et lachrymæ movere tuæ, quam tristia vatum 6 The old copy reads statue; but it has been showa by Mr. Reed beyond controversy that statua was pre nounced as a trisyllable by our ancestors, and hence ge nerally written statua. Thus in Lord Bacon's Advancement of Learning, ed. 1633, p. 88:- It is not possible to have the true pictures or statuaes of Cyrus, Álexander, Cæsar, no, nor of the kings or great personages of much later years.' Again: without which the history of the world seeras to be as the statua of Polyphemus, with his eye out.' 7 At the execution of several of our ancient nobility, martyrs, &c, we are told that handkerchiefs were tinetured with their blood, and preserved as affectionate or salutary memorials of the deceased. 8And reason, or propriety of conduct and language, is subordinate to my love.' |