ftage the Marcus Brutus of Plutarch rendered more amiable and more interefting. A peculiar gentleness of manners, and delicacy of mind, diftinguifh him from all the other confpirators; and we cannot refuse to concur with the confeffion of his enemies, and the words of Antony.

ANTONY.

This was the nobleft Roman of them all :

All the confpirators, fave only he,

Did that they did in envy of great Cæfar;

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 fay to all the world; This was a Man! The following foliloquy prophetic of the civil war, fubfequent to the death of Cæfar, Spoken by Antony addreffing himself to the dead body, is fublime and folemn.

ANTONY.

O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,

That I am meek and gentle with thefe butchers.

Thou art the ruins of the nobleft man,

That ever lived in the tide of times.

Woe

Woe to the hand that shed this coftly blood!
Over thy wounds now do I prophesy,

Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips,
To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue,
A curfe fhall light upon the limbs of men;
Domestic fury, and fierce civil ftrife,

Shall cumber all the parts of Italy;

Blood and deftruction fhall be so in use,
And dreadful objects fo familiar,

That mothers fhall but fimile, when they behold
Their infants quarter'd with the hands of war:
All pity choak'd with custom of fell deeds;
And Cæfar's fpirit, ranging for revenge,
With Até by his fide come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines, with a monarch's voice
Cry Havock, and let flip the dogs of war.

This fpeech fhews the fecret enmity Antony bears to the confpirators, and prepares us for the inflammatory oration which at the obfequies of Cæfar he pronounces before the people.- -I fhall quote it at length, for as this tragedy has been brought by Mr. Voltaire into a comparison with the Cinna of Corneille, and he is pleafed to call our

English piece a monstrous fpectacle, and takes not the least notice of a speech which may be confidered as one of the finest pieces of rhetoric that is extant, I am defirous to fet it immediately before the reader, who will hardly find any thing monftrous in its form, or abfurd in its matter, but quite the reverse. I fuppofe a popular addrefs and manner, in an oration defigned for the populace, would be deemed the most proper by the best critics in the art of rhetoric.

ANTONY.

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
I come to bury Cæfar, not to praise him.
The evil, that men do, lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Cæfar! noble Brutus
Hath told you, Cæfar was ambitious;
If it were fo, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Cæsar answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus, and the reft,
For Brutus is an honourable man,
So are they all, all honourable men,
Come I to fpeak in Cæfar's funeral.

He

He was my friend, faithful and just to me;

But Brutus fays, he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honourable man.

He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill ;
Did this in Cæfar feem ambitious?

When that the poor have cry'd, Cæfar hath wept ;
Ambition fhould be made of fterner ftuff,

Yet Brutus fays, he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honourable man
You all did fee, that, on the Lupercal

I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refufe. Was this ambition?

Yet Brutus fays, he was ambitious;

And, fure, he is an honourable man.

I speak not, to disprove what Brutus spoke,

But here I am to speak what I do know.

You all did love him once, not without cause ;

What cause with-holds you then to mourn for him?

O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,

And men have loft their reafon. Bear with me.

My heart is in the coffin there with Cæfar,

And I muft pause 'till it come back to me.

I PLEBEIA N.

Methinks, there is much reason in his fayings, &c.

ANTONY.

ΑΝΤΟΝΥ.

But yesterday the word of Cæfar might

Have flood against the world; now lies he there,

And none fo poor to do him reverence.

O masters! if I were difpos'd to ftir

Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage,
I should do Brutus wrong, and Caffius wrong,
Who, you all know, are honourable men.
I will not do them wrong: I rather chuse
To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you,
Than I will wrong fuch honourable men.

But here's a parchment, with the feal of Cæfar,

I found it in his clofet, 'tis his will ;

Let but the commons hear this testament,

Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read,

And they would go and kiss dead Cæfar's wounds,
And dip their napkins in his facred blood;

Yea, beg a hair of him for memory,

And dying, mention it within their wills,

Bequeathing it as a rich legacy

Unto their iffue.

4 PLEBEIAN.

We'll hear the will; read it, Mark Antony.

ALL.

The will, the will. We will hear Cæfar's will.

ANTONY.