Caf. Calphurnia,-
Calp. Here, my lord.

9

Caf. Stand you directly in Antonius' way, When he doth run his courfe.Antonius. Ant. Cæfar, my lord.

Caf. Forget not, in your fpeed, Antonius, To touch Calphurnia: for our elders fay, The barren, touched in this holy chafe, Shake off their fteril curfe.

Ant. I fhall remember:

When Cæfar fays, Do this, it is perform'd.
Caf. Set on; and leave no ceremony out,
Sooth. Cæfar,

Caf. Ha! Who calls?

Cafca. Bid every noise be still :-Peace yet again. Caf. Who is it in the prefs, that calls on me? I hear a tongue, fhriller than all the mufick, Cry, Cæfar Speak; Cæfar is turn'd to hear, Sooth. Beware the ides of March.

Caf. What man is that?

Bru. A foothfayer, bids you beware the ides of

March.

Caf. Set him before me, let me see his face,

66 Jungitur his Decimus, notiffimus inter amicos
"Cæfaris, ingratus, cui trans-Alpina fuiffet
"Gallia Cæfareo nuper commiffa favore.
"Non illum conjuncta fides, non nomen amici
Deterrere poteft."

26

"Ante alios Decimus, cui fallere, nomen amici
Præcipue dederat, ductorem fæpe morantem
Incitat. Supplem. Lucani.'

STEEVENS.

Shakespeare's mistake of Decius for Decimus, arofe from the old tranflation of Plutarch. FARMER.

Lord Sterline has committed the fame mistake in his Julius Cafar. MALOne.

9

in Antonius? way.] The old copy generally reads Antonio, Octavio, Flavio. The players were more accustomed to Italian than Roman terminations, on account of the many verfons from Italian novels, and the many Italian characters in dramatic pieces formed on the fame originals. STEEVENS,

Caf

9

Caf. Fellow, come from the throng: Look upon Cæfar.

Caf. What fay'ft thou to me now? Speak once again.

Sooth. Beware the ides of March.

Caf. He is a dreamer; let us leave him :-pass.
[1 Sennet. Exeunt Cæfar, and Train.
Caf. Will you go fee the order of the courfe?
Bru. Not I.

Caf. I pray you, do,

Bru. I am not gamefome; I do lack fome part Of that quick spirit that is in Antony.

Let me not hinder, Caffius, your defires;

I'll leave you.

Caf. Brutus, I do observe you now of late;
I have not from your eyes that gentleness,
And fhew of love, as I was wont to have:
You bear too ftubborn and too strange a hand
Over your friend that loves you.

Bru. Caffius,

2

Sennet.] I have here inferted the word Sennet, from the original edition, that I may have an opportunity of retracting a hafty conjecture in one of the marginal directions in Henry VIII. Sennet appears to be a particular tune or mode of martial mufick. JOHNSON.

I have been informed that fennet is derived from fennefie, an antiquated French tune formerly used in the army; but the Dictionaries which I have confulted exhibit no fuch word.

In Decker's Satiromaftix, 1602:

"Trumpets found a flourish, and then a fennet.' In the Dumb Show preceding the first part of Hieronimo, 1605, is "Sound a fignate and pafs over the stage."

In Antonio's Revenge, 1602: Cornets found a cynet.”
In Look about You, 1600: "Enter a finet."

In a play called Alarum for London, &c. 1602: " A fignet founded."
In B. and Fletcher's Knight of Malta, a fynnet is called a flourish
of trumpets, but I know not on what authority. See a note on
K. Henry VIII. act II. fc. iv.

Sennet may be a corruption from fonata, Ital. STEEVENs.

ftrange a band] Strange, is alien, unfamiliar, fuch as

might become a stranger. JOHNSON,

Be

Be not deceiv'd: If I have veil'd my look,
I turn the trouble of my countenance
Merely upon myfeif. Vexed I am,

3

Of late, with paffions of fome difference,
Conceptions only proper to myself,

Which give fome foil, perhaps, to my behaviours;
But let not therefore my good friends be griev'd;
(Among which number, Caffius, be you one)
Nor conftrue any further my neglect,

Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war,
Forgets the fhews of love to other men.

Caf. Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your paffion;

By means whereof, this breast of mine hath bury'd
Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations.
Tell me, good Brutus, can you fee your face?
Bru. No, Caffius: for the eye fees not itself 4,
But by reflection, by fome other things.
Caf. 'Tis juft:

And it is very much lamented, Brutus,

That you have no fuch mirrors, as will turn
Your hidden worthinefs into your eye,

That you might fee your fhadow. I have heard,
Where many of the beft refpect in Rome,
(Except immortal Cæfar) fpeaking of Brutus,

3 paffions of fome difference,] With a fluctuation of difcordant opinions and defires. JOHNSON.

So, in Coriolanus, act V. fc. iii

66

:

-thou haft fet thy mercy and thy honour

"At difference in thee." STEEVENS.

The eye fees not itself.] So, fir John Davies in his poem on

The Immortality of the Soul:

Is it because the mind is like the eye,

Through which it gathers knowledge by degrees;
Whofe rays reflect not, but fpread outwardly;
Not feeing itself, when other things it fees?

Again, in Marston's comedy of the Fawne, 1606:
"Thus few ftrike fail until they run on fhelf;

"The eye fees all things but its proper felf." STEEVENS.

And

And groaning underneath this age's yoke,
Have wifh'd that noble Brutus had his eyes.
Bru. Into what dangers would you lead me, Caffius,
That you would have me feek into myself
For that which is not in me?

Caf. Therefore, good Brutus, be prepar'd to hear:
And, fince you know you cannot see yourself
So well as by reflection, I, your glafs,
Will modeftly discover to yourself

That of yourself which yet you know not of.
And be not jealous of me, gentle Brutus :
Were I a common laugher, or did use

2

To stale with ordinary oaths my love

To every new protester; if you know

That I do fawn on men, and hug them hard,
And after scandal them; or if you know
That I profefs myself in banqueting

To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.

[Flourish, and fhout.

Bru, What means this fhouting? I do fear, the people

Choose Cæfar for their king,

Caf. Ay, do you fear it?

Then must I think you would not have it fo.
Bru. I would not, Caffius; yet I love him well
But wherefore do you hold me here so long?
What is it that you would impart to me?
If it be ought toward the general good,
Set honour in one eye, and death i' the other,
And I will look on both indifferently:

5 To ftale with ordinary oaths my love, &c.] To invite every new protefter to my affection by the ftale or allurement of cuftomary oaths. JOHNSON.

• And I will look on both indifferently;] Dr. Warburton has a long note on this occafion, which is very trifling. When Brutus first names honour and death, he calmly declares them indifferent; but as the image kindles in his mind, he fets honour above life. Is not this natural? JOHNSON.

For,

For, let the gods fo fpeed me, as I love
The name of honour more than I fear death.

Caf. I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,
As well as I do know your outward favour.
Well, honour is the fubject of my story.-
I cannot tell, what you and other men,
Think of this life; but, for my fingle felf,
I had as lief not be, as live to be
In awe of fuch a thing as I myself.

I was born free as Cæfar; fo were you :
We both have fed as well; and we can both
Endure the winter's cold, as well as he.
For once, upon a raw and gufty day,
The troubled Tyber chafing with his fhores,
Cæfar faid to me, Dar'ft thou, Caffius, now
Leap in with me into this angry flood,
And fwim to yonder point ?-Upon the word,
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in,

And bade him follow: fo, indeed, he did.
The torrent roar'd; and we did buffet it
With lufty finews; throwing it afide,
And stemming it with hearts of controversy.
But ere we could arrive the point propos'd 7,
Cæfar cry'd, Help me, Caffius, or I fink.

I, as Æneas, our great ancestor,

Did from the flames of Troy upon his fhoulder
The old Anchifes bear, fo, from the waves of Tyber

Did I the tired Cæfar: And this man

Is now become a god; and Caffius is

A wretched creature, and muft bend his body,
If Cæfar carelessly but nod on him.

7 But ere we could arrive the point propos'd,] The verb arrive is ufed, without the prepofition at, by Milton in the fecond book of Paradife Loft, as well as by Shakespeare in the Third Part of K. Henry VI. act V. fc. iii:

66

thofe powers that the queen

Hath rais'd in Gallia, have arriv'd our coast.”

STEEVENS.

He