Ant. Cæfar, my lord.

Caf. Forget not, in your speed, Antonius, To touch Calphurnia; for our elders say, The barren, touched in this holy chase, 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?

[Mufick

Cafca. Bid every noife be ftill:-Peace yet again.

[Mufick ceafes, Caf. Who is it in the prefs, that calls on me? I hear a tongue, fhriller than all the musick, 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 fee his face.

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.

[Sennet

Caf. He is a dreamer; let us leave him ;-pass.
Exeunt all but Brutus and Caffius.
Caf.

The correction was made by Mr. Pope." At that time, (says Plutarch,) the feaft Lupercalia was celebrated, the which in olde time men fay was the feast of Shepheards or heardfmen, and is much like unto the feaft of Lyceians in Arcadia. But howfoever it is, that day there are diverse noble men's fonnes, young men, (and fome of them magiftrates themselves that govern them,) which run naked through the city, ftriking in fport them they meet in their way with leather thongs.

And many noble women and gentlewomen alfo go of purpose to stand in their way, and doe put forth their handes to be stricken, perfuading themselves that being with childe, they fhall have good deliverie; and alfo, being barren, that it will make them conceive with child. Cæfar fat to behold that sport upon the pulpit for orations, in a chayre of gold, apparelled in triumphant manner. Antonius, who was conful at that time, was one of them that renne this holy courfe." North's Tranflation.

We learn from Cicero that Cæfar conftituted a new kind of these Laperci, whom he called after his own name, Juliani; and Mark Antony was the first who was fo entitled. MALONE.

Senner] I have been informed that fennet is derived from sennefte, an

antiquated

ما

Caf. Will you go see the order of the course?
Bru. Not I.

Caf. I pray you, do.

Bru. I am not gamefome; I do lack fome
Of that quick spirit that is in Antony.
Let me not hinder, Caffius, your defires;
I'll leave you.

Caf. Brutus, I do obferve 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,

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

Of late, with paffions of fome difference 3,
Conceptions only proper to myself,

part

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 breaft of mine hath bury'd
Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations.

Tell me, good Brutus, can you fee your face?

antiquated French tune formerly ufed in the army; but the Dictiona-
ries which I have confulted exhibit no fuch word.

Sennet may be a corruption from fonata, Ital. STEEVENS.
See p. 57, n. 3. MALONE,

2

frange a band-] Strange, is alien, unfamiliar, fuch as might

become a ftranger. JOHNSON.

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

So, in Coriolanus, A&t V. fc. iii:

thou haft fet thy mercy and thy honour

"At difference in thee."

STEEVENS.

A following line may prove the best comment on this:

"Than that poor Brutus, with bimfelf at war,-." MALONE.

Bru.

Bru. No, Caffius: for the eye fees not itself,
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 worthiness into your eye,

That you might fee your fhadow. I have heard,
Where many of the best respect in Rome,
(Except immortal Cæfar,) fpeaking of Brutus,
And groaning underneath this age's yoke,
Have with'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 you yet know not of.
And be not jealous of me, gentle Brutus:
Were I a common laugher, or did use
To ftale with ordinary oaths my love
To every new protefter; if you know

4 tbe eye fees not itself,] So, fir John Davies in his poem on The Immortality of the Soul, 1599:

"Is it because the mind is like the eye,

"Through which it gathers knowledge by degrees;
Whofe rays reflect not, but spread 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 shelf:

"The eye fees all things but its proper felf." STEEVENS. Again, in Sir John David's poem:

the lights which in my tower do fhine,

"Mine eyes which fee all objects nigh and far, "Look not into this little world of mine;

"Nor fee my face, wherein they fixed are." MALONE. 5- a common laugher,] Old Copy-laughter. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

6 To fale with ordinary oaths my love, &c.] To invite every new proteftor to my affection by the fale or allurement of cuftomary oaths.

JOHNSON.

That

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 so.

Bru. I would not, Caffius; yet I love him well :-
But wherefore do you hold me here fo long?
What is it that you would impart to me?
If it be aught toward the general good,
Set honour in one eye, and death i' the other,
And I will look on both indifferently':
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 her shores,
Cæfar faid to me, Dar'ft thou, Caffius, now
Leap in with me into this angry flood3,

And

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

JOHNSON.

8 Dar'ft thou, Caffius, now, Leap in with me into this angry flood,] Shakspeare probably recollected the story which Suetonius has told of Cefar's leaping into the

2.

fea,

Aud fwim to yonder point?-Upon the word,
Accouter'd as I was, I plunged in,

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

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

He had a fever when he was in Spain,

And, when the fit was on him, I did mark

How he did shake: 'tis true, this god did shake:
His coward lips did from their colour fly';

And that fame eye, whofe bend doth awe the world,
Did lofe his luftre: I did hear him groan:
Ay, and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans
Mark him, and write his speeches in their books,
Alas! it cry'd, Give me fome drink, Titinius,
As a fick girl. Ye gods, it doth amaze me,

A man

fea, when he was in danger by a boat's being overladen, and fwimming to the next ship with his Commentaries in his left hand." Holland's Tranflation of Suetonius, 1606, p. 26. So alfo, ibid. p. 24: "Were rivers in his way to hinder his paffage, cross over them he would, either fwimming, or elfe bearing himself upon blowed leather bottles."

MALONE.

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

86 - thofe powers that the queen

"Hath rais'd in Galla, have arriv'd our coaft." STEEVENS. His coward lips did from their colour fly;] A plain man would have faid, the colour fied from his lips, and not his lips from their colour. But the falfe expreffion was for the fake of as falfe a piece of wit: a poor quibble, alluding to a coward flying from his colours. WARBURTON.