Thou, like an exorcift, haft conjur'd up7 Bru. A piece of work, that will make fick men whole. Lig. But are not fome whole, that we must make sick? Bru. That muft we alfo. What it is, my Caius, I fhall unfold to thee, as we are going To whom it must be done. Lig. Set on your foot; And, with a heart new-fir'd, I follow you, Bru. Follow me then. [Exeunt. The fame. A Room in Cæfar's Palace. Thunder and lightning. Enter CESAR, in his Night-gown. Caf. Nor heaven, nor earth, have been at peace tonight: Thrice hath Calphurnia in her fleep cry'd out, Serv. My lord? Caf. Go bid the priests do prefent facrifice, And bring me their opinions of fuccefs. Serv. I will, my lord. Enter CALPHURNIA. [Exit. Cal. What mean you, Cæfar? Think you to walk forth? You fhall not ftir out of your house to-day. Caf. Cæfar fhall forth: The things, that threaten'd me, Ne'er look'd but on my back; when they shall fee The face of Cæfar, they are vanished. 7 Thou, like an exorcift, baft conjur'd up-] It has been already obferved, that exorcift in Shakspeare's age fignified one who raifes fpirits by inchantment. See Vol. III. p. 476, n. 7. MALONE. Cal. Cal. Cæfar, I never flood on ceremonies, Yet now they fright me. There is one within, Befides the things that we have heard and feen, Recounts moft horrid fights feen by the watch. A lioness hath whelped in the ftreets; And graves have yawn'd, and yielded up their dead": In ranks, and fquadrons, and right form of war', The noise of battle hurtled in the air3, O Cæfar! $ Cefar, I never flood on ceremonies,] i. e. I never paid a ceremo nious or fuperftitious 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, "I should not cross myself at any time: "I never was fo ceremonious." The original thought is in the old tranflation of Plutarch: "Calphurnia, until that time, was never given to any fear or superstition." STEEVENS.. 9 And graves have yawn'd, and yielded up their dead : &c.] So, in a funeral fong in Much ado about nothing: "Graves yawn, and yield your dead." Again, in Hamlet: "A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, "The graves ftood tenantlefs, and the fheeted dead "Did fqueak and gibber in the Roman streets." MALONE. Fierce firy warriors fight upon the clouds, In ranks and fquadrons, and right forms of war,] So, in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, 1590: "I will perfift a terror to the world; "Making the meteors that like armed men "Are feen to march upon the towers of heaven, "And break their burning launces in the ayre, "For honour of my wondrous victories," MALONE. 2 The noife of battle hurtled in the air,] To burtle is, I fuppose, to clash, or move with violence and noife. So, in Selimus Emperor of the Turks, 15941 "Here the Polonian he comes burtling in, "Under the conduct of fome foreign prince." Again, ibid: "To tofs the fpear, and in a warlike gyre "To burtie my fharp fword about my head." Shakspeare ufes the word again in As You Like it: O Cæfar! these things are beyond all use, Caf. What can be avoided, Whole end is purpos'd by the mighty gods? Cal. When beggars die, there are no comets feen; Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, 66 in which burtling, "From miferable flumber I awak'd" STEEVENS. It Again, in The Hiftory of Arthur, P. I. c. 14: "They made both the Northumberland battailes to burtie together." BOWLE. To burtle originally fignified to push violently; and, as in fuch an action a loud noife was frequently made, it afterwards feems to have been used in the sense of to clafb. So, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, v. 2618: "And he him burtletb with his hors adoun." MALONE. 3 When beggars die, there are no comets feen; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.] "Next to the fhadows and pretences of experience, (which have been met withali at large,) they seem to brag moft of the ftrange events which follow (for the most part,) after blazing ftarres; as if they were the fummoners of God to call princes to the feat of judgment. The furest way to fhake their painted bulwarks of experience is, by making plaine, that neyther princes always dye when comets blaze, nor comets ever [i. e. always] blaze when princes dye. Defenfative against the poison of fuppofed Prophecies, by Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, 1583. Again, ibid: "Let us look into the nature of a comet, by the face of which it is fuppofed that the fame fhould portend plague, famine, warre, or the death of potentates." MALONE. 4 Cowards die many times before their deaths ;] So, in Marton's Infatiate Countefs, 1613: "Fear is my vaffal; when I frown, he flies: "A bundred times in life a coward dies." Lord Effex, probably before either of these writers, made the fame remark. In a letter to lord Rutland, he obferves, "that as he which dieth nobly, doth live for ever, fo he that doth live in fear, dotb die continually." MALONE. "When fome of his friends did counsel him to have a guard for the fafety of his perfon; he would never confent to it, but faid, it was better to die once, than always to be affrayed of death." Sir Tb. North's Tranf. of Plutarch. STEEVENS. 5 that I yet have beard,] This fentiment appears to have been imitated by Dr. Young in his tragedy of Bufiris king of Egypt: "Did It feems to me moft ftrange that men should fear; Will come, when it will come. Re-enter a Servant. What fay 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. If he should stay at home to-day for fear. We are two lions litter'd in one day 3, Cal. Alas, my lord, Your wisdom is confum'd in confidence. Do not go forth to-day: Call it my fear, That keeps you in the house, and not your own. "Didft thou e'er fear? "Sure 'tis an art; I know not bew to fear: 'Tis one of the few things beyond my power; death, a neceflary end, &c.] This is a fentence derived from the ftoical doctrine of predeftination, and is therefore improper in the mouth of Cæfar. JOHNSON. 7 - in shame of cowardice:] The ancients did not place courage but wifdom in the heart. JOHNSON. 8 We are two lions, &c.] The reading of the old copy—We beare two lions, &c. is undoubtedly erroneous. The emendation was made by Mr. Upton. Mr. Theobald reads-We were, &c. and this reading is fo plaufible, that it is not easy to determine, which of the two has the best claim to a place in the text. If Theobald's emendation be adopted, the phraseology, though less elegant, is perhaps more Shaksperian. It may mean the fame as if he had written,-We two lions were litter'd in one day, and I am the elder and more terrible of the two. MALONE. This refembles the boaft of Otho: Experti invicem fumus, Ego et Fortuna. Tacitus, STEEVENS Caf Caf. Mark Antony fhall fay, I am not well; Here's Decius Brutus, he fhall tell them fo. Dec. Cæfar, all hail! Good morrow, worthy Cæfar : Caf. And you are come in very happy time, And tell them, that I will not come to-day; Caf. Shall Cæfar send a lye? Have I in conqueft ftretch'd mine arm fo far, But, for your private fatisfaction, It was a vifion, fair and fortunate: Your ftatue spouting blood in many pipes, 9 And thefe fhe does apply for warnings and portents, And evils imminent ;] The late Mr. Edwards was of opinion that we should read: "-warnings and portents STEEVENS, |