Caf. Your voice fhall be as ftrong as any man's In the difpofing of new dignities. Bru. Only be patient, till we have appeas'd Ant. I doubt not of your wifdom. Let each man render me his bloody hand. Yours, Cinna;-and, my valiant Cafca, your's ;- My credit now stands on fuch flippery ground, That I did love thee, Cæfar, oh, 'tis true: Pardon me, Julius!-Here waft thou bay'd, brave hart; Here didft thou fall, and here thy hunters ftand 2-crimson'd in thy lethe.] Mr. Theobald fays, The dictionaries acknowledge no fuch word as lethe; yet he is not without fuppofition, that O world! thou waft the foreft to this hart; Caf. Mark Antony Ant. Pardon me, Caius Caffius: The enemies of Cæfar fhall fay this; Then, in a friend, it is cold modefty. Caf. I blame you not for praifing Cæfar fo; But what compact mean you to have with us? Will you be prick'd in number of our friends? Or fhall we on, and not depend on you? Ant. Therefore I took your hands; but was, indeed, Sway'd from the point, by looking down on Cæfar. Bru. Orelfe this were a favage fpectacle. Ant. That's all I feek: And am moreover fuitor, that I may Bru. You fhall, Mark Antony. Caf. Brutus, a word with you.-— You know not what you do, do not confent, [Afide. That Antony speak in his funeral: that Shakespear coin'd the word; and yet, for all that, the I might be a d imperfectly wrote, therefore he will have death inflead of it. After all this pother, lethe was a common French word, fignifying death or deftruction, from the Latin lethum. WARB. Lethe is ufed by many of the old tranflators of novels, for death. STEEVENS. Know Know you, how much the people may be mov'd Bru. By your pardon, I will myself into the pulpit first, And fhew the reafon of our Cæfar's death, Caf. I know not what may fall: I like it not. Bru. Mark Antony, here, take you Cæfar's body. You shall not in your funeral speech blame us, But fpeak all good you can devife of Cæfar; And fay, you do't by our permiffion, Elfe fhall you not have any hand at all About his funeral. And you fhall speak In the fame pulpit whereto I am going, After my fpeech is ended. Ant. Be it fo; I do defire no more. Bru. Prepare the body then, and follow us.. [Exeunt Confpirators. Manet Antony. Ant. O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, That I am meek and gentle with these butchers. Thou art the ruins of the noblest man, That ever lived in the tide of times. Woe to the hand that shed this coftly blood! Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips, 3 —in the tide of times,] That is, in the courfe of times. JOHNS. A curfe A curfe fhall light upon the limbs of men; That mothers fhall but smile, when they behold +-upon the LIMBS of men; ] We should read, LINE of men; That thefe lymms of men; The uncommonnefs of the JOHNSON. That is, thefe bloodbounds of men. word lymm eafily made the change. I think the old reading may very well ftand. Antony means only, that a future curfe fhall commence in diftempers feizing on the limbs of men, and be fucceeded by commotion, cruelty, and defolation over all Italy. STEEVENS. 5 Cry Havock,-] A learned correfpondent has informed me, that, in the military operations of old times, bavock was the word by which declaration was made, that no quarter fhould be given. In a tract intitled, The Office of the Coneftable & Marefchall in the Tyme of Werre, contained in the Black Book of the Admiralty, there is the following chapter: "The peyne of hym that crieth haveck and of them that fol"loweth hym. etit. v." "Item Si quis inventus fuerit qui clamorem inceperit qui vo"catur Havok." "Alfo that no man be fo hardy to crye Havok upon peyne that "he that is begynner fhal be deede therefore: & the remanent "that doo the fame or folow fhall lofe their horfe & harneis : "and the perfones of fuch as foloweth & efcrien fhal be under ar "reft That this foul deed fhall fmell above the earth Enter a Servant. You ferve Octavius Cæfar, do you not? Ant. Cæfar did write for him, to come to Rome. Serv. He did receive his letters, and is coming: And bid me fay to you by word of mouth, O Cæfar! [Seeing the body. Ant. Thy heart is big; get thee apart and weep. Paffion, I fee, is catching; for mine eyes, Seeing those beads of forrow stand in thine, Began to water. Is thy master coming? Serv. He lies to-night within feven leagues of Rome. Ant. Poft back with speed, and tell him what hath chanc'd. Here is a mourning Rome, a dangerous Rome, Hie hence, and tell him fo. Yet ftay a while; -Lend me your hand. [Exeunt with Cafar's body. "rest of the Conestable & Marefchall warde unto tyme that they "have made fyn; & founde furetie no morr to offende; & his body in prifon at the Kyng wylle.-" JOHNSON. No Rome of fafety, &c.] If Shakespeare meant to quibble on the words Rome and room, he is at least countenanced in it by other authors. So in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1638: ." You fhall have my room, My Rome indeed, for what I feem to be "Brutus is not, but born great Rome to free." STEEVENS. SCENE |