For I will flay myself. Bru. Caffius, be conftant: Popilius Lena fpeaks not of our purposes; For, look, he fmiles, and Cæfar doth not change. Caf. Trebonius knows his time; for, look you, Brutus, He draws Mark Antony out of the way. [Exeunt ANTONY and TREBONIUS. Senators take their feats. CESAR and the Dec. Where is Metellus Cimber? Let him go, Bru. He is addreft: prefs near, and fecond him. [Kneeling. Met. Most high, moft mighty, and moft puiffant Cæfar, Caf. I must prevent thee, Cimber. To this fentiment to Caffius, as being exactly agreeable to his character, and to that spirit which has appeared in a former scene: "I know where I will wear this dagger then; "Caffius from bondage will deliver Caffius." MALONE. He is addreft:] i. e. he is ready. STEEVENS. See Vol. V. p. 514, n. 2. MALONE. 7 -you are the fift that rears your band.] To reduce the paffage to the rules of grammar, we should read-You are the first that rears his band. TYR WHITT. 8 And turn pre ordinance-] Pre-ordinance, for ordinance already eftablished. WARBURTON. 9 Into the law of children.] The old copy has-the lane of children. The w of Shakspeare's time differed from an n only by a small curl at the bottom of the fecond stroke, which if an e happened to follow, could fcarcely be perceived. I have not hesitated therefore to adopt Dr. Johnfon's emendation. The words pre-ordinance and decree strongly support it. MALONE. I do not well understand what is meant by the lane of children. I should read, the law of children. That is, change pre-ordinance and decree inte the law of children; into fuch flight determinations as every start of will would alter. Lane and lawe in fome manuscripts are not easily disting guished. JOHNSON. To think that Cæfar bears fuch rebel blood, With that which melteth fools; I mean, fweet words, If thou dost bend, and pray, and fawn, for him, Know, Cæfar doth not wrong; nor without cause Met. Is there no voice more worthy than my own, For If the lane of children be the true reading, it may poffibly receive illuftration from the following passage in Ben Jonson's Staple of News : "A narrow-minded man! my thoughts do dwell "All in a lane." The lane of children will then mean the narrow conceits of children, which must change as their minds grow more enlarg'd. So, in Hamlet: "For nature, crefcent, does not grow alone "In thewes and bulk; but as this temple waxes, "Grows wide witbal." But even this explanation is harsh and violent. STEEVENS. Will be be fatisfied.] Ben Jonfon quotes this line unfaithfully among his Difcoveries, and ridicules it again in the Introduction to his Staple of News. "Cry you mercy; you never did wrong, but with juft caufe?" STEEVENS. It may be doubted, I think, whether Jonfon has quoted this line unfaithfully. The turn of the sentence, and the defect in the metre (according to the present reading), rather incline me to believe that the paffage ftood originally thus: Know, Cafar doth not wrong, but with just cause ; Nor without caufe will be be fatisfied. We may fuppofe that Ben started this formidable criticism at one of the earliest representations of the play, and that the players, or perhaps Shakspeare himself, over-awed by so great an authority, withdrew the words in question; though, in my opinion, it would have been better to have told the captious cenfurer that his criticism was ill-founded; that wrong is not always a fynonymous term for injury; that, in poetical language especially, it may be very well understood to mean only barm, or burt, what the law calls damnum fine injuria; and that, in this fenfe, there is nothing abfurd in Cæfar's faying, that he doth not wrong (i. e. doth not inflict any evil, or punishment) but with juft cause. But, fuppofing this passage to have been really cenfurable, and to have heen written by Shakspeare, the exceptionable words were undoubtedly left out when the play was printed in 1623; and therefore what are we to think of the malignant pleasure with which Jonfon continued For the repealing of my banish'd brother? Caf. Pardon, Cæfar; Cæfar, pardon: The skies are painted with unnumber'd sparks, That I was conftant Cimber should be banish'd, Cin. O Cæfar, Caf. Hence! Wilt thou lift up Olympus ? Dec. Great Cæfar, Caf. Doth not Brutus bootlefs kneel '? Cafca. continued to ridicule his deceafed friend for a flip, of which pofterity, without his information, would have been totally ignorant? TYRWH. Mr. Tyrrwhitt's interpretation of the word wrong is supported by a line in our authour's Rape of Lucrece: "Time's glory is "To wrong the wronger, till he render right." MALONE, 2-apprebenfive;] Sufceptible of fear, or other paffions. JOHNSON. So, in K. Henry IV. P. II. A&t IV. fc. iii : "—makes it apprebansive, quick, forgetive," &c. STEEVENS. 3-but one-] One and only one. JOHNSON. — bolds on bis rank,] Perhaps, bolds on bis race; continues his course. We commonly fay, To bold a rank, and To bold on a courfe or way. JOHNS. Unfhak'd of motion :] i. e. Unfhak'd by fuit or folicitation, of which the object is to move the perfon addreffed. MALONE. 5 Doth not Brutus bootless kneel ?] I would read: Do not Brutus bootlefs kneel! JOHNSON, A a 4 I can. Cafca. Speak, hands, for me. [Cafca tabs Cæfar in the neck. Cæfar catches bold of his arm. He is then ftabb'd by several other confpirators, and at laft by Marcus Brutus. Caf. Et tu, Brute :-Then fall, Cæfar. [Dies. The fenators and people retire in confufion. Cin. I cannot fubfcribe to Dr. Johnfon's opinion. Cæfar, as fome of the confpirators are preffing round him, anfwers their importunity properly: See you not my own Brutus kneeling in vain? What fuccefs can you expect to your folicitations, when bis are ineffectual? This might have put my learned coadjutor in mind of the paffage of Homer, which he has fo elegantly introduced in his preface. Thou? (faid Achilles to his captive) when so great a man as Patroclus has fallen before thee, doft tbou complain of the common lot of mortality? STEEVENS. The editor of the fecond folio faw this paffage in the fame light as Dr. Johnfon did, and made this improper alteration. By Brutus here Shakspeare certainly meant Marcus Brutus, because he has confounded him with Decimus, (or Decius as he calls him); and imagined that Marcus Brutus was the peculiar favourite of Cæfar, calling him "bis well-beloved;" whereas in fact it was Decimus Brutus that Cæfar was particularly attached to, appointing him by his will his fecond heir, that is, in remainder after his primary devifees. MALONE. 6 Et tu, Brute-] Suetonius fays, that when Cæfar put Metellus Cimber back," he caught hold of Cæfar's gowne at both shoulders, whereupon, as he cried out, This is violence, Caffius came in fecond full a front, and wounded him a little beneath the throat. Then Cæfar catching Caffius by the arme thruft it through with his ftile, or writing punches; and with that being about to leape forward, he was met with another wound and stayed." Being then affailed on all fides, "with three and twenty wounds he was itabbed, during which time he gave but one groan, (without any word uttered,) and that was at the first thrust; though fome have written, that as Marcus Brutus came running upon him, he said, xai cu Tix;ov, and thou, my fonne.” Holland's Tranflation, 1606. No mention is here made of the Latin exclamation, which our authour has attributed to Cæfar, nor did North furnish him with it, or with English words of the fame import, as might naturally have been fuppofed. Plutarch fays, that on receiving his firft wound from Cafca," he caught hold of Cafca's fword, and held it hard; and they both cried out, Cæfar in Latin, O vile traitor, Cafca, what doeft thou and Casca in Greek to his brother, Brother, belp me."-The confpirators then "compaffed him on every fide with their fwordes drawn in their handes, that Cæfar turned him no where but he was ftricken by fome, and ftill had naked fwords in his face, and was hacked and mangled amongst them as a wild beaft taken of hunters. And then Brutus himself gave him one wound about the privities.-Men report alfo, that Cæfar did ftill defend Cin. Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets. Caf. Some to the common pulpits, and cry out, Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement! Bru. People, and fenators! be not affrighted; Fly not; ftand ftill:-ambition's debt is paid. Cafca. Go to the pulpit, Brutus 7. Dec. And Caffius too. Bru. Where's Publius? Cin. Here, quite confounded with this mutiny. Bru. Talk not of ftanding ;-Publius, good cheer; Nor to no Roman elfe: fo tell them, Publius. Caf. And leave us, Publius; left that the people, defend himself against the refte, running every way with his bodie, but when he faw Brutus with his fworde drawen in his hande, then he pulled his gowne over his heade, and made no more refiftance." Neither of these writers therefore, we fee, furnished Shakspeare with this exclamation. His authority appears to have been a line in the old play, entitled The True Tragedie of Ricbarde Duke of Yorke, &c. printed in 1600, on which he formed his third part of King Henry VI. "Et tu, Brute? Wilt thou ftab Cæfar too ?" This line Shakspeare rejected when he wrote the piece above mentioned, (fee Vol. VI. p. 371, n. 8.) but it appears it had made an impreffion, on his memory. The fame line is alfo found in Acolaftus bis After-witte, a poem by S. Nicholfon, printed in 1600: "Et tu, Brute? Wilt thou ftab Cæfar too? "Thou art my friend, and wilt not fee me wrong'd." So, in Cæfar's Legend, Mirrour for Magiftrates, 1587. "O this, quoth I, is violence; then Caffius pierc'd my breaft; "And Brutus thou, my fonne, quoth 1, whom erft I loved beft." The Latin words probably appeared originally in Dr. Eedes's play on this fubject. See p. 307, n. I. MALONE. 7 Go to the pulpit, &c.] We have now taken leave of Cafca. Shakfpeare for once knew that he had a fufficient number of heroes on his hands, and was glad to lofe an individual in the croud. It may be added, that the fingularity of Cafca's manners would have appeared to little advantage amidst the fucceeding varieties of tumult and war. STEEVENS. 8 Nor to no Roman elfe:] This ufe of two negatives, not to make an affirmative, but to deny more strongly, is common to Chaucer, Spenfer, and other of our ancient writers. Hickes obferves, that in the Saxon, even four negatives are fometimes conjoined, and ftill preferve a negative fignification. STEEVENI. Rushing |