Bu. O, what a time have you chofe out, brave Caius, To wear a kerchief? Would you were not fick! Cai. I am not fick, if Brutus have in hand Any exploit worthy the name of honour. Bru. Such an exploit have I in hand, Ligarius, Had you an healthful ear to hear of it. Cai. By all the Gods the Romans bow before, Bru. A piece of work, that will make fick men whole. Cai. But are not fome whole, that we must make fick? Bru. That we must alfo. What it is, my Caius, I fhall unfold to thee, as we are going, To whom it must be done. Cai. Set on your foot; And with a heart new-fir'd, I follow you, To do I know not what: but it fufficeth, That Brutus leads me on. Bru. Follow me then. Caf SCENE II. Changes to Cafar's Palace, [Exeunt. Thunder and lightning. Enter Julius Cæfar. OR heaven, nor earth, have been at peace CelN to-night: Thrice hath Calphurnia in her fleep cry'd out, Help, ho! they murder Cæfar." Who's within? Enter Enter a Servant. Serv. My Lord ? Caf. Go bid the priests do prefent facrifice, And bring me their opinions of fuccefs. Serv. I will, my lord. Enter Calpburnia. [Exit. Cal. What mean you, Cæfar? Think you to walk forth? You fhall not stir out of your houfe to-day. Caf. Cæfar fhall forth. The things, that threatened me, Ne'er lookt but on my back; when they fhall fee The face of Cæfar, they are vanished. I Cal. Cæfar, I never ftood on ceremonies, Yet now they fright me. There is one within, Be fides the things that we have heard and feen, Recounts moft horrid fights feen by the watch. A lionefs hath whelped in the streets; And graves have yawn'd, and yielded up their dead: Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds, In ranks, and fquadrons, and right form of war, The noise of battle hurtled in the air; And I do fear them. 1 Cæfar, I never flood on ceremonies.] i. e. I never paid a ceremonious regard to prodigies or omens. The adjective is ufed in the fame fenfe in the Devil's Charter, 1607. "The devil hath provided in his covenant, STEEVENS. Caf. Caf. What can be avoided, Whofe end is purpos'd by the mighty Gods? Cal. When beggars die, there are no comets feen: The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes. Caf. Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never tafte of death but once. 2 Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, Will come, when it will come. Enter a Servant. What say the augurers? Serv. They would not have you to ftir forth to-day. Plucking the entrails of an offering forth, They could not find a heart within the beaft. [Exit Servant. Caf. The Gods do this in fhame of cowardice: Cæfar fhould be a beaft without a heart, If he should stay at home to-day for fear. No, Cæfar fhall not: Danger knows full well, 2 This fentiment appears to have been imitated by Dr. Young in his tragedy of Bufiris king of Egypt. 3-death, a neceffary end, &c.] This is a fentence derived from the Stoical doctrine of predeftination, and is therefore improper in the mouth of Cæfar. 4 JOHNSON. in fhame of cowardice:] The ancients did not place courage but wisdom in the heart. JOHNSON, We "We were two lions litter'd in one day, And I the elder and more terrible; And Cæfar fhall go forth. Cal. Alas, my lord, Your wisdom is confum'd in confidence. That keeps you in the house, and not your own. Enter Decius. Here's Decius Brutus, he fhall tell them fo. Caf. And you are come in very happy time, And tell them, that I will not come to-day: Caf. Shall Cæfar fend a lye? Have I in conqueft ftretcht mine arm so far, Dec. Moft mighty Cæfar, let me know fome cause, Left I be laugh'd at, when I tell them fo. The copies have been all corrupt, and the paffage, of course, unintelligible. But the flight alteration, I have made, restores fenfe to the whole; and the fentiment will neither be unworthy of Shakespeare, nor the boat too extravagant for Cæfar in a vein of vanity to utter: that he and Danger were two twin-whelps of a lion, and he the elder, and more terrible of the two. THEOB. Caf. Caf. The caufe is in my will, I will not come; Because I love you, I will let you know. It was a vifion, fair, and fortunate : Your ftatue, spouting blood in many pipes, 7 • Thefe fhe does apply for warnings and portents, And evils imminent. The late Mr. Edwards was of opinion that we should read For STEEVENS. 7 and that great min fhall prefs For tinctures, ftains, relicks, and cognizance.] That this dream of the ftatue's fpouting blood fhould fignify, the increase of power and empire to Rome from the influence of Cafar's arts and arms, and wealth and honour to the noble Romans through his beneficence, expreffed by the words, From you great Rome fhall fuck reviving blood, is intelligible enough. But how thefe great men fhould literally prefs for tinctures, ftains, relicks, and cognisance, when the fpouting blood was only a fymbolical vifion, I am at a lofs to apprehend. Here the circumftances of the dream, and the interpretation of it, are confounded with one another. This line therefore, For tinctures, fains, relicks, and cognisance, must needs be in way of fimilitude only; and if fo, it appears that fome lines are wanting between this and the preceding; which want |