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ON THE FABLE AND COMPOSITION (F

JULIUS CESAR.

Ir appears from Peck's Collection of divers curious Hif torical Pieces, &c. (appended to his Memoirs, &c. of Oliver Cromwell,) p. 14, that a Latin play on this fubject had been written. "Epilogus Cæfaris interfecti, quomodo in fcenam prodiit ea res, acta in Ecclefia Chrifti, Oxon. Qui Epilogus a magiftro Ricardo Eedes et fcriptus et in profcenio ibidem dictus fuit, A. D. 1582." Meres, whofe Wit's Commonwealth was pub. lifhed in 1598, enumerates Dr Eedes among the best tragic writers of that time. STEEVENS.

William Alexander, afterwards earl of Sterline, wrote a tragedy on the ftory and with the title of Julius Cæfar. It may be prefumed that Shakespeare's play was pofterior to his; for lord Sterline, when he compofed his Julius Cafar, was a very young author, and would hardly have ventured into that circle, within which the moft eminent dramatic writer of England had already walked. The death of Cæfar, which is not exhibited but related to the audience, forms the catastrophe of his piece. In the two plays many parallel paffages are found, which might, perhaps, have proceeded only from the two authors drawing from the fame fource. However, there are fome realons for thinking the coincidence more than accidental.

Mr Steevens has produced from Darius, another play of this writer's, fome lines fo like a celebrated pallage of Shakespeare in the Tempest, A& III, that the one muft, I apprehend, have been copied from the other. Lord Sterline's Darius was printed at Edinburgh in 1603, and his Julius Cafar in 1607, at a time when he was but little acquainted with English writers;

for

for they abound with Scoticifms, which, in the fubf quent folio edition, 1637, he corrected. But neithe the Tempest, nor the Julius Cæfar of our author, wa printed till 1623.

It must also be remembered, that our author has fe veral plays, founded on fubjects which had been un fuccefsfully treated by others. Of this kind are King John, King Henry V, King Lear, Measure for Measure the Taming of the Shrew, Antony and Cleopatra, th Merchant of Venice, and perhaps Macbeth*: whereas no proof has hitherto been produced, that any con temporary writer ever prefumed to new model a story that had already employed the pen of Shakespeare On all these grounds it appears more probable that Shakespeare was indebted to lord Sterline, than that lord Sterline borrowed from Shakespeare. If this reafoning be juft, this play could not have appeared before the year 1607.

The real length of time in Julius Cæfar, Mr Upton obferves, is as follows: About the middle of February A. U. C. 709, the feftival of Luperci was held in honour of Cæfar, when the regal crown was offered to him by Antony. On the 15th of March in the fame year he was killed. Nov. 27, A. U. C. 710, the triumvirs met at a small island, formed by the river Rhenus, near Bononia, and there adjusted their favage profcription.-A. U. C. 711. Brutus and Caffius were defeated near Philippi. MALONE.

Of this tragedy many particular paffages deferve regard, and the contention and reconcilement of Brutus and Caffius is univerfally celebrated; but I have never been strongly agitated in perufing it, and think it fomewhat cold and unaffecting, compared with some other of Shakespeare's plays; his adherence to the real story, and to Roman manners, feems to have impeded the natural vigour of his genius. JOHNSON.

See Dr Farmer's obfervations on Macbeth.

1807

JULIUS CÆSAR.

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A Soothsayer.

CINNA, a Poet: Another Poet.

LUCILIUS, TITINIUS, MESSALA, Young CATO, and
VOLUMNIUS, Friends to Brutus and Caffius.

VARRO, CLITUS, CLADIUS, STRATO, LUCIUS DAR-
DANIUS, Servants to Brutus.
PINDARUS, Servant to Caffius.

WOMEN.

CALPHURNIA, Wife to Cafar.

PORTIA, Wife to Brutus.

Plebeians, Senators, Guards, Attendants, Sc. SCENE, for the first three Ads, at Rome: afterwards at an Island near Mutina; at Sardis; and near Philippi.

JULIUS CÆSAR. A!!

ACT I.

SCENE I. Rome. A Street.

Enter FLAVIUS, MARULLUS, and certain Commoners.

H

Flavius.

you not,

ENCE; home, you idle creatures, get you home. Is this a holiday? What! know Being mechanical, you ought not walk, Upon a labouring day, without the fign Of your profeffion?-Speak, what trade art thou? Car. Why, fir, a carpenter.

Mar. Where is thy leather apron, and thy rule?. What doft thou with thy beft apparel on?You, fir; what trade are you?

Cob. Truly, fir, in refpect of a fine workman, I am but, as you would fay, a cobler.

Mar. But what trade art thou? Answer me directly. Cob. A trade, fir, that, I hope, I may use with a fafe confcience; which is indeed, fir, a mender of bad foals.

Flav. What trade, thou knave? thou naughty knave, what trade?

Cob. Nay, I beseech you, fir, be not out with me: Yet, if you be out, fir, I can mend you.

Mar. What meanest thou by that? Mend me, thou faucy fellow?

Cob. Why, fir, cobble you.

A 2

Fla.

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