They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltinefs. If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies." You know, it is the feaft of Lupercal. FLAV. It is no matter; let no images Be hung with Cæfar's trophies. I'll about, And drive away the vulgar from the streets: So do you too, where you perceive them thick. Who elfe would foar above the view of men, [Exeunt. 9deck'd with ceremonies.] Ceremonies, for religious ornaments. Thus afterwards he explains them by Cafar's trophies; i. e. fuch as he had dedicated to the gods. WARBURTON. Ceremonies are honorary ornaments; tokens of respect. MALONE. 2 Be hung with Cafar's trophies.] Cæfar's trophies, are, I believe, the crowns which were placed on his ftatues. So, in fir Thomas North's tranflation: " There were fet up images of Cæfar in the city with diadems on their heads, like kings. Those the two tribunes went and pulled down." STEEVENS. What these trophies really were, is explained by a paffage in the next scene, where Cafca informs Caffius, that "Marullus and Fla vius, for pulling fearfs off Cæfar's images, are put to filence." M. MASON, SCENE II. The fame. A publick Place. Enter, in proceffion, with mufick, CÆSAR; ANTONY, for the courfe; CALPHURNIA, PORTIA, DECIUS,' CICERO, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, and CASCA, a great crowd following; among them a Soothsayer. CAS. Calphurnia,— CASCA. Peace, ho! Cæfar speaks. CES. [Mufick ceafes. Calphurnia, 3 This perfon was not Decius, but Decimus Brutus. The poet (as Voltaire has done fince) confounds the characters of Marcus and Decimus. Decimus Brutus was the most cherished by Cæfar of all his friends, while Marcus kept aloof, and declined fo large a fhare of his favours and honours, as the other had conftantly accepted. Velleius Paterculus, fpeaking of Decimus Brutus, fays, ab iis, quos miferat Antonius, jugulatus eft; juftiffimafque optimè de fe merito viro C. Cæfari pœnas dedit. Cujus cum primus omnium amicorum fuiffet, interfector fuit, et fortunæ ex qua fructum tulerat, invidiam in auctorem relegabat, cenfebatque æquum, quæ acceperat à Cæfare retinere : Cæfarem, quia illa dederat, periffe." Lib. II. c. lxiv: "Jungitur his Decimus, notiffimus inter amicos "Ante alios Decimus, cui fallere, nomen amici Shakspeare's mistake of Decius for Decimus, arofe from the old tranflation of Plutarch. FARMER, Lord Sterline has committed the fame mistake in his Julius Cæfar : and in Holland's Tranflation of Suetonius, 1606, which I believe Shakspeare had read, this perfon is likewife called Decius Brutus. MALONE. CAL. Here, my lord. CAS. Stand you directly in Antonius' way, When he doth run his courfe.-Antonius. ANT. Cæfar, my lord. CES. Forget not, in your speed, Antonius, ANT. SOOTH. Cæfar. CES. Ha! Who calls? [Mufick. in Antonius' way,] The old copy generally reads Antonio, Octavio, Flavio. The players were more accuftomed to Italian than Roman terminations, on account of the many verfions from Italian novels, and the many Italian characters in dramatick pieces formed on the fame originals. STEEVENS. The correction was made by Mr. Pope." At that time, (fays Plutarch,) the feast Lupercalia was celebrated, the which in olde time men say was the feaft of Shepheards or heard fmen, and is much like unto the feaft of Lyceians in Arcadia. But how foever it is, that day there are diverfe 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 purpofe to stand in their way, and doe put forth their handes to be ftricken, perfuading themselves that being with childe, they shall have good deliverie; and alfo, being barren, that it will make them conceive with child. Cæfar fat to behold that sport vpon 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 ronne this holy courfe." North's Tranflation. We learn from Cicero that Cæfar constituted a new kind of these Luperci, whom he called after his own name, Juliani; and Mark Antony was the first who was fo entitled. MALONE. 1 CASCA. Bid every noise be still:-Peace yet again. [Mufick ceafes. CES. 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. CES. What man is that? BRU. A foothfayer, bids you beware the ides of March. CES. Set him before me, let me fee his face. CAS. What fay'st thou to me now? Speak once again. SOOTH. Beware the ides of March. CES. He is a dreamer; let us leave him ;-pass. [Sennet. Exeunt all but Brutus and Caffius. CAS. Will you go fee the order of the course? BRU. Not I. CAS. 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. 5 Sennet.] I have been informed that fennet is derived from fennefte, 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 Jeronimo, 1605, is "Sound a fignate and pafs over the stage." In Beaumont 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 King Henry VIII. A& II. fc. iv. Vol. XI. p. 83, n. 3. Sennet may be a corruption from fonata, Ital. STEEVENS. CAS. Brutus, I do obferve you now of late:" BRU. Caffius, Be not deceiv'd: If I have veil'd my look, Of late, with paffions of fome difference, Which give fome foil, perhaps, to my behaviours: Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war, CAS. Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your paffion;" 6 Brutus, I do obferve you now of late:] Will the reader sustain any lofs by the omiffion of the words-you now, without which the measure would become regular? 7 I'll leave you. I have not &c. Brutus, I do obferve of late, ·ftrange a hand-] Strange, is alien, unfamiliar, fuch as might become a ftranger. JOHNSON. 8 paffions of fome difference,] With a fluctuation of difcor dant opinions and defires. JOHNSON. So, in Coriolanus, A& V. sc. iii: thou haft fet thy mercy and thy honour A following line may prove the best comment on this : 9 MALONE. your paffion;] i. e. the nature of the feelings from which you are now fuffering. So, in Timon of Athens: "I feel my master's paffion." STEEVENS. |