Imatges de pàgina
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Bru. Let them enter.

They are the faction. O Confpiracy!

[Exit Lucius.

Sham'st thou to fhew thy dangerous brow by night, When evils are moft tree? O then, by day,

Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough,

To mask thy monftrous vifage? Seek none, Confpi

racy;

Hide it in smiles and affability :

For if thou path thy native femblance on,

Not Erebus itself were dim enough

To hide thee from prevention.

Enter Caffius, Cafca, Decius, Cinna, Metellus, and Trebonius.

Caf. I think, we are too bold upon your reft. Good morrow, Brutus: do we trouble you?

Bru. I have been up this hour; awake all night.
Know I thefe men that come along with you? [Afide.
Caf. Yes, every man of them; and no man here,
But honours you and every one doth wish,
You had but that opinion of yourself,

Which every noble Roman bears of you.
This is Trebonius,

Bru. He is welcome hither.
Caf. This, Decius Brutus.
Bru. He is welcome too.

Caf. This, Cafca; this Cinna;
And this Metellus Cimber.

Bru. They are all welcome.

What watchful cares do interpofe themselves

Betwixt your eyes and night?

Caf. Shall I entreat a word?

[They whisper.

Dec. Here lies the Eaft: doth not the day break

here?

For if thou path thy native femblance on,] If thou walk in thy true form.

JOHNSON.
Cafca.

Cafca. No.

Cin. O, pardon, Sir, it doth; and yon grey lines, That fret the clouds, are meffengers of day.

Cafca. You fhall confefs, that you are both deceiv'd,

Here, as I point my fword, the fun arises;
Which is a great way growing on the South,
Weighing the youthful feafon of the year.
Some two months hence, up higher toward the North
He first presents his fire; and the high Eaft
Stands, as the Capitol, directly here.

Bru. Give me your hands all over, one by one.
Caf. And let us fwear our refolution.

Bru. No, not an oath. If not the face of men, 7 The sufferance of our fouls, the time's abuse-

If these be motives weak, break off betimes,
And every man hence to his idle bed;

So let high fighted tyranny range on,
''Till each man drop by lottery. But if these,

As

"No, not an oath. If that the FACE of men, &c.] Dr. Warburton would read fate of men; but his elaborate emendation is, I think, erroneous. The face of men is the countenance, the regard, the efte of the publick; in other terms, honour and reputation; or the face of men may mean the dejected look of the people.

He reads, with the other modern editions,

-If that the face of men,

but the old reading is,

-if not the face, &c..

JOHNSON.

So Tully in Catilinam-Nibil horum ora vultufque moverunt ?

8

STEEVENS.

No, not an oath.-] Shakespeare form'd this fpeech on the following paffage in Sir T. North's Translation of Plutarch:—“ The confpirators having never taken oaths together, nor taken or given any caution or affurance, nor binding themselves one to another by any religious oaths, they kept the matter fo fecret to themfelves," &c.

STEEVENS,

9 'Till each man ep by lottery.] Perhaps the Poet alluded to the cuftom of decimation, i. e. the felection by lot of every tenth foldier, in a general mutiny, for punishment.

He

As I am fure they do, bear fire enough
To kindle cowards, and to steel with valour
The melting spirits of women; then, countrymen,
What need we any spur, but our own cause,
To prick us to redrefs? What other bond,
Than fecret Romans, that have spoke the word,
And will not palter? and what other oath,
Than honefty to honefty engag'd,

That this fhall be, or we will fall for it?
'Swear priests, and cowards, and men cautelous,
Old feeble carrions, and such suffering fouls
That welcome wrongs: unto bad causes, swear
Such creatures as men doubt; but do not stain
The even virtue of our enterprize,

Nor the infuppreffive mettle of our fpirits,

To think, that, or our caufe, or our performance,
Did need an oath; when every drop of blood,
That every Roman bears, and nobly bears,
Is guilty of a feveral bastardy,

If he doth break the smallest particle

Of any promise that hath past from him.

Caf. But what of Cicero? fhall we found him?

I think, he will stand very strong with us.
Cafca. Let us not leave him out.

Cin. No, by no means.

Met. O, let us have him; for his filver hairs
Will purchase us a good opinion,

And buy men's voices to commend our deeds:
It fhall be faid, his judgment rul'd our hands;
Our youths and wildness fhall no whit appear,

He speaks of this in Coriolanus,

By decimation, and a tythed death,

Take thou thy fate.

This is imitated by Otway,

STEEVENS.

When you would bind me, is there need of oaths? &c.

Venice preferved.

JOHNSON.

But

But all be buried in his gravity.

Bru. O, name him not: let us not break with him; For he will never follow any thing,

That other men begin.

Caf. Then leave him out.

Cafca. Indeed, he is not fit.

Dec. Shall no man elfe be touch'd, but only Cæfar? Caf. Decius, well urg'd:-I think, it is not meet, Mark Antony, fo well belov'd of Cæfar,

Should out-live Cæfar: we fhall find of him
A fhrewd contriver; and you know, his means,
If he improve them, may well ftretch fo far,
As to annoy us all which to prevent,
Let Antony, and Cæfar, fall together.

Bru. Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Caffius,
To cut the head off, and then hack the limbs;
Like wrath in death, and envy afterwards:
For Antony is but a limb of Cæfar.

Let us be facrificers, but not butchers, Caius ;
We all stand up against the spirit of Cæfar;
And in the spirit of man there is no blood:
O, that we then could come by Cæfar's fpirit,
And not difmember Cæfar! but alas!
Cæfar must bleed for it! And, gentle friends,
Let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully;
Let's carve him as a difh fit for the Gods.
Not hew him as a carcafe fit for hounds:
And let our hearts, as fubtle mafters do,
Stir up their fervants to an act of rage,
And after seem to chide them. This fhall make
Our purpose neceffary, and not envious:
Which, fo appearing to the common eyes,
We shall be call'd purgers, not murderers.
And for Mark Antony, think not of him;
For he can do no more than Cæfar's arm,
When Cæfar's head is off.

VOL. VIII.

D

Caf.

Caf. Yet I fear him;

For in the ingrafted love he bears to Cæfar,-
Bru. Alas, good Caffius, do not think of him:
If he love Cæfar, all that he can do

2

Is to himfelf; take thought, and die for Cæfar: And that were much, he fhould; for he is given To fports, to wildness, and much company.

Treb. There is no fear in him; let him not die; For he will live, and laugh at this hereafter.

Bru. Peace, count the clock.

Caf. The clock hath ftricken three.
Treb. 'Tis time to part.

Caf. But it is doubtful yet,

[Clock firikes.

Whether Cæfar will come forth to-day, or no:
For he is fuperftitious grown of late;
Quite from the main opinion he held once
Of fantafy, of dreams, and ceremonies :
It may be, thefe apparent prodigies,
The unaccustom'd terror of this night,
And the perfuafion of his augurers,
May hold him from the Capitol to-day.

2-take thought,-] That is, turn melancholy.
3 For he is fuperftitious grown of late,
Quite from the main opinion be held once
Of fantafy, of dreams and ceremonies :]

JOHNSON.

Cæfar, as well as Caffius, was an Epicurean. By main opinion Caffius intends a compliment to his fect, and means folid, fundamental opinion, grounded in truth and nature: as by fantasy is meant ominous forebodings; and by ceremonies, atonements of the Gods by means of religious rites and facrifices. A little after, where Calphurnia fays,

Cafar, I never food on ceremonies,

Yet now they fright me:

The poet ufes ceremonies in a quite different fenfe, namely, the turning accidents to omens, a principal fuperftition of antiquity.

WARBURTON.

Main opinion, is nothing more than leading, fixed, predominant opinion.

JOHNSON.

Dec.

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