Imatges de pàgina
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To hear the replication of your founds,
Made in his concave fhores?

And do you now put on your beft attire?
And do you now cull out an holiday?"
And do you now ftrew flowers in his way,
That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood?
Be gone

Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,
Pray to the gods to intermit the plague
That needs muft light on this ingratitude.
Flav. Go, go, good countrymen, and for this fault
Aflemble all the poor men of your fort;
Draw them to Tyber bank, and weep your tears
Into the channel, 'till the loweft ftream
Do kifs the most exalted fhores of all.

[Exeunt Commoners.
See, whether their bafeft mettle be not moved;
They vanith tongue-tied in their guiltinefs.
Go you down that way tow'rds the Capitol,
This way will I; difrobe the images,

If you do find them decked with ceremonies.
Mar. May we do fo?

You know it is the feaft of Lupercal.

Flav. It is no matter, let no images
Be hung with Cæfar's trophies; I'll about,
And drive away the Vulgar from the streets:
So do you too, where you perceive them thick.
Thefe growing feathers, pluck'd from Cæfar's wing,
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch;

Who elfe would foar above the view of men,
And keep us all in fervile fearfulness.

[Exeunt feverally.

Enter CESAR, ANTONY for the Course, CALPHURNIA,

PORCIA, DECIUS, CICERO, BRUTUS, CASSIUS,

CASCA, a Soothsayer.

Caf Calphurnia,----

Cafca. Peace, ho! Cæfar fpeaks.

Caf. Calphurnia,---

Calp. Here, my Lord.

Caf. Stand you directly in Antonius' way, When he doth run his courfe

Ant. Cæfar, my Lord.

-Antonius,

Caf. Forget not in your fpeed, Antonius, To touch Calphurnia; for our elders fay, The barren, touched in this holy chase, Shake off their fterile curfe.:

Ant. I fhall remember.

When Cæfar fays, Do this, it is perform'd.
Caf. Set on, and leave no ceremony out.
Sooth. Cafar,

Caf. Ha! who calls?

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Cafe. Bid every noife be ftill; peace yet again. Cef. Who is it in the prefs that calls on me? I hear a tongue, fhriller than all the mufick, Cry, Cæfar. Speak; Cæfar is turn'd to hear. Sooth. Beware the Ides of March.

Cef What man is that?

Bru. A foothfayer bids you beware the Ides of March.

Caf. Set him before me, let me fee his face. Cafca. Fellow, come from the throng, look upon Cæfar.

Caf. What fay'ft thou to me now? fpeak once again.

Sooth. Beware the Ides of March.

Caf. He is a dreamer, let us leave him; pafs.

[Exeunt Cæfar and Train.

Manent BRUTUS and CASSIUS.

Caf. Will you go fee the order of the course?
Bru. Not I.

Caf. I pray you, do.

Bru. I am not gamefome; I do lack some part

Of that quick spirit that is in Antony:
Let me not hinder, Caffius, your defires;
I'll leave you.

Caf. Brutus, I do observe you now of late;
I have not from your eyes that gentleness
And fhew of love, as I was wont to have;
You bear too ftubborn and too ftrange a hand
Over your friend that loves you.

Bru. Caffius,

Be not deceived. If I have veiled my look,
I turn the trouble of my countenance
Merely upon myself. Vexed I am,
Of late, with paffions of fome difference,
Conceptions only proper to myself;

Which give fome foil, perhaps, to my behaviour:
But let not therefore my good friends be grieved,
Among which number, Caffius, be you one;
Nor conftrue any farther my neglect,

Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war,
Forgets the fhews of love to other men.

Caf. Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your paffion;

By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried
Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations.
Tell me, good Brutus, can you fee your face?
Bru. No, Caffius; for the eye fees not itself,
But by reflection from fome other things.
Caf. "Tis juft.

And it is very much lamented, Brutus,
That you have no fuch mirrors as will turn
Your hidden worthinefs into your eye,

That you might fee your fhadow. I have heard,
Where many of the best refpect in Rome,
(Except immortal Cæfar) fpeaking of Brutus,
And groaning underneath this age's yoke,
Have wished that noble Butus had his eyes.
VOL. X.

Κ

Bru.Into what dangers would you lead me, Caffius, That you would have me feek into myfelf, For that which is not in me?

Caf.Therefore, good Brutus, be prepared to hear;
And fince you know you cannot fee yourself
So well as by reflection; I, your glass,
Will modeftly discover to yourself

That of yourself, which yet you know not of.
And be not jealous of me, gentle Brutus :
Were I a common laugher, or did ufe
To ftale with ordinary oaths my love
To every new proteftor; if you know
That I do fawn on men, and hug them hard,
And after scandal them; or if you know
That I profefs myfelf in banquetting

To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.

[Flourish and fhout, Bru. What means this fhouting? I do fear, the Chufe Cæfar for their King. Caf. Ay, do you fear it?

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Then must I think you would not have it fo.

Bru. I would not, Caffius; yet I love him well: But wherefore do you hold me here so long? What is it that you would impart to me? If it be aught toward the general good, Set Honour in one eye, and Death i' th' other, And I will look on Death indifferently: (3)

(3) And I will look on both indifferently;] What a contradiction to this are the lines immediately fucceeding? If he loved honour, more than he feared death, how could they be, both indifferent to him? Honour thus is but in equal balance to death, which is not speaking at all like Brutus; for in a foldier of any ordinary pretenfion, it should always preponderate. We muft certainly read;

And I will look on death indifferently.

What occafioned the corruption, I prefume, was the tran fcribers imagining the abverb indifferently must be applied to

For let the gods fo fpeed me, as I love

The name of Honour, more than 1 fear Death.
Caf. I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,
As well as I do know your outward favour.
Well, Honour is the fubject of my story:
I cannot tell what you and other men
Think of this life; but for my fingle self,
I had as lief not be, as live to be

In awe of fuch a thing as I myself.
I was born free as Cæfar, fo were you;
We both have fed as well; and we can both
Endure the winter's cold, as well as he.
For once upon a raw and gufty day. (4)
The troubled Tiber chafing with his thores,
Cæfar fays to me, "Dareft thou, Caffius, now
"Leap in with me into this angry flood,

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And fwim to yonder point?"-Upon the word, Accoutred as I was, I plunged in,

And bid him follow: fo, indeed, he did.

two things opposed. But the ufe of the word does not demand it, nor does Shakespeare always apply it fo. In the prefent paffage it fignifies neglectingly, without fear or concern; and so Cafca afterwards, again in this act, employs it : And dangers are to me indifferently.

i. 2. I weigh them not; am not deterred on the score of danger. Mr Warburton.

(4) For once upon a raw and guy day,] This may, per haps, appear a very odd amufement for two of the greatest men in Rome. But it appears this was an ufual exercise for the nobility that delighted in the hardy ufe of arms, and were not enervated, from this paffage of Horace, l. 1 ode 8.

Cur times flavum Tiberium tangere?

Upon which Hermannus Figulus makes this comment? Natare. Nam Roma prima adolefcentia juvenes, præter cæteras gymnafticas difciplinas, etiam natare difcebant, ut ad belli munera firmiores aptiorefq; effent. And he puts us in mind from Suetonius, how expert a fwimmer Julius Cæfar was.

Mr Warburton.

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