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
The multitude, befide themselves with fear;
And then we will deliver you the cause,
Why I, that did love Cæfar when I strook him,
Proceeded thus.

Ant. I doubt not of your wifdom.

Let each man render me his bloody hand.
First, Marcus Brutus, will I fhake with you ;-
Next, Caius Caffius, do I take your hand ;-
Now, Decius Brutus, yours;-now yours, Me-
tellus ;-

Yours, Cinna;-and, my valiant Cafca, your's ;-
Tho' laft, not least in love, yours, good Trebonius.
Gentlemen all-alas, what fhall I say?

My credit now stands on fuch flippery ground,
That one of two bad ways you must conceit me,
Either a coward or a flatterer.-

That I did love thee, Cæfar, oh, 'tis true:
If then thy fpirit look upon us now,
Shall it not grieve thee, dearer than thy death,
To fee thy Antony making his peace,
Shaking the bloody fingers of thy foes,
Moft noble! in the prefence of thy corfe?
Had I as many eyes, as thou haft wounds,
Weeping as faft as they ftream forth thy blood,
It would become me better, than to clofe
In terms of friendship with thine enemies.

Pardon me, Julius!-Here waft thou bay'd, brave hart;

Here didft thou fall, and here thy hunters ftand
Sign'd in thy spoil, and crimson'd in thy lethe.

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;
And this, indeed, O world, the heart of thee.
How like a deer, ftricken by many princes,
Doft thou here lie?

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.
Friends am I with you all, and love you all;
Upon this hope, that you shall give me reasons,
Why, and wherein Cæfar was dangerous.

Bru. Orelfe this were a favage fpectacle.
Our reafons are fo full of good regard,
That were you, Antony, the fon of Cæfar,
You should be fatisfied.

Ant. That's all I feek:

And am moreover fuitor, that I may
Produce his body to the market-place;
And in the pulpit, as becomes a friend,
Speak in the order of his funeral.

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
By that which he will utter?

Bru. By your pardon,

I will myself into the pulpit first,

And fhew the reafon of our Cæfar's death,
What Antony fhall fpeak, I will protest
He speaks by leave, and by permiffion;
And that we are contented Cæfar fhall
Have all due rites, and lawful ceremonies:
It fhall advantage more than do us wrong.

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!
Over thy wounds now do I prophefy,-

Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips,
To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue ;-

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;
Domestick fury, and fierce civil ftrife,
Shall cumber all the various parts of Italy:
Blood and destruction fhall be so in use,
And dreadful objects fo familiar,

That mothers fhall but smile, 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 thefe confines, with a monarch's voice,
5 Cry Havock, and let flip the dogs of war;

+-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
With carrion men, groaning for burial.

Enter a Servant.

You ferve Octavius Cæfar, do you not?
Serv. I do, Mark Antony.

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,
No Rome of fafety for Octavius yet';

Hie hence, and tell him fo. Yet ftay a while;
Thou shalt not back, 'till I have borne this corfe
Into the market-place: there fhall I try,
In my oration, how the people take
The cruel iffue of these bloody men ;
According to the which, thou shalt difcourfe
To young Octavius of the state of things.

-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