This intimation of discontent encourages Caffius to try to incenfe Brutus against the growing power of Cæfar. On the fhouts of the mob, Brutus expreffes his fear that they are making Cæfar king; this encourages Caffius to proceed in his design. He makes two speeches, in which he appears envious and malignant to Cæfar, of whom he speaks as men do, who, unwilling to confess the qualities that give superiority to a rival, dwell with malice on those petty circumstances, by which he is not distinguished from ordinary. men. The French critic is much offended at this fcene, and fays, it is not in the style of great men. The language of envy is always low. The speeches of Caffius express well his envious and peevish temper, and make him a foil to fet off to advantage the more noble mind of Brutus. Caffius endeavours to stimulate Brutus to oppofe the encroachments of Cæfar on the liberty of Rome, by setting before him its firft Deliverer, the great Junius Brutus; a name revered by

every

every Roman, but undoubtedly, adored by his defcendants.

This is truly Imitation, when the Poet gives us the just copies of all circumstances that accompanied the action he reprefents. Corneille's drama's are fantastic compofitions, void of historical truth, imitation of character, or reprefentation of manners. Some few lines from Seneca, ingrafted into the Cinna, have given it reputation. For, however custom may have taught a very ingenious and polite people to endure the infipid fcenes of l'amoureux et l'amoureuse, the fault has been in the Poets, not the fpectators all their critics have strongly condemned this mode of writing; and the public, by its approbation of this piece on account of the scenes between Auguftus and Cinna, fhews plainly how much dialogues of a noble and manly kind would please. Unhappily, Seneca's Auguftus makes the Cinna of Corneille appear too mean and little. These borrowed ornaments never will affort perfectly well with the piece; they

break in upon the harmony of fentiment, and the proportion of characters, and fall greatly short of the eafy propriety, and becoming grace, of a perfect set of imitations defigned for, and fitted to the work, as in this tragedy of Julius Cæfar, where all the characters appear in due degrees of subordination to the Hero of the piece. Our Poet, to interest us the more for Brutus, takes every occafion to make Caffius a foil for him. In the next scene he is reprefented by Cæfar in an unamiable light; the opportunity of so fit an occafion is taken, to make some fine reflections on the malignant and envious nature of men, not foftened by the joys of mirth, and the endearing intercourse of focial pleasures.

CESAR. (TO ANTONY, apart.)

Let me have men about me that are fat,
Sleek-headed men, and fuch as fleep a-nights:

Yond Caffius has a lean and hungry look ;

He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous.
ANTONY.

Fear him not, Cæfar, he's not dangerous;

He is a noble Roman, and well given.

ESAR.

CÆSAR.

Would he were fatter. But I fear him not:

Yet if my name were liable to fear,

I do not know the man I should avoid,

So foon as that spare Caffius. He reads much;
He is a great obferver; and he looks

Quite through the deeds of men. He loves no plays,
As thou do'ft, Antony; he hears no mufic;
Seldom he fmiles, and fmiles in fuch a fort,

As if he mock'd himself, and scorn'd his fpirit,
That could be mov'd to smile at any thing.
Such men as he be never at heart's ease,

Whilft they behold a greater than themselves;
And therefore are they very dangerous.

Cafca's blunt recital of the offer of a crown to Cæfar, in the next scene, is much cenfured by the critic, accustomed to the decorums of the French theatre. It is not improbable the Poet might have in his eye fome person of eminence in his days, who was distinguished by fuch manners. Many allufions and imitations which please at the time, are loft to pofterity, unless they point at transactions and perfons of the first consequence.

quence.

Whether we approve fuch a character on the stage or not, we must allow his narration represents the designs of Cæfar's party, and the averfion of the Roman people to that Royalty, which he affected; and it was right to avoid engaging the parties in more deep discourse, as Shakespear intended, by a fort of hiftorical process, to fhew how Brutus was led on to that act, to which his nature was averse.

The first scene of the fecond act prefents Brutus debating with himself, upon the point on which Caffius had been urging him. Caffius in his foliloquy, scene third, act first, feems to intimate, that refentment had a fhare in his defire to take off Cæfar. Brutus, on the contrary, informs us, that no perfonal motives sway him, but fuch as are derived from an hereditary averfion to tyranny, and the pledge, which the virtue of his ancestors had given the common-wealth, that a Brutus would not suffer a king in Rome; these confiderations compel him to take the following refolution :