CAS. Stoop then, and wash.-How many ages hence,

Shall this our lofty fcene be acted over,
In states unborn," and accents yet unknown?

BRU. How many times fhall Cæfar bleed in sport, That now on Pompey's bafis lies along,

No worthier than the duft?

CAS.

So oft as that shall be,

So often fhall the knot of us be call'd
The men that gave our country liberty.
DEC. What, fhall we forth?

CAS.

Ay, every man away:

Brutus fhall lead; and we will grace his heels
With the most boldeft and beft hearts of Rome.

Enter a Servant.

BRU. Soft, who comes here? A friend of Antony's.

SERV. Thus, Brutus, did my mafter bid me kneel Thus did Mark Antony bid me fall down; And, being proftrate, thus he bade me fay.

Stoop then, and wash.] To wash does not mean here to cleanse, but to wash over, as we fay, wash'd with gold; for Caffius means that they should steep their hands in the blood of Cæfar.

M. MASON.

In ftates unborn,] The firft folio has-ftate; very properly corrected in the fecond folio-ftates. Mr. Malone admits the firft of thefe readings, which he thus explains-In theatrick pomp yet undifplayed.

But, furely, by unborn ftates, our author must have meant-communities which as yet have no existence. STEEVENS.

8 So oft as that fhall be,] The words-fhall be, which render this verfe too long by a foot, may be justly confidered as interpolations, the fenfe of the paffage being obvious without a fupplement. As oft as that, in elliptical phrafe, will fignify-as oft as that ball happen. Thefe are too many inftances of fimilar ellipfes destroyed by the player editors, at the expence of metre. STEEVENS.

Brutus is noble, wife, valiant, and honeft;
Cæfar was mighty, bold, royal, and loving:
Say, I love Brutus, and I honour him;

Say, I fear'd Cæfar, honour'd him, and lov'd him.
If Brutus will vouchfafe, that Antony
May fafely come to him, and be refolv'd
How Cæfar hath deferv'd to lie in death,
Mark Antony fhall not love Cæfar dead
So well as Brutus living; but will follow
The fortunes and affairs of noble Brutus,
Thorough the hazards of this untrod state,
With all true faith. So fays my mafter Antony.

BRU. Thy mafter is a wife and valiant Roman; I never thought him worfe.

Tell him, fo please him come unto this place,
He shall be fatisfied; and, by my honour,
Depart untouch'd.

SERV. I'll fetch him prefently. [Exit Serv. BRU. I know, that we fhall have him well to friend.

CAS. I wish, we may: but yet have I a mind, That fears him much; and my mifgiving ftill Falls fhrewdly to the purpose.

Re-enter ANTONY.

BRU. But here comes Antony.-Welcome, Mark Antony.

ANT. O mighty Cæfar! Doft thou lie fo low? Are all thy conquefts, glories, triumphs, fpoils, Shrunk to this little meafure?-Fare thee well.I know not, gentlemen, what you intend, Who else must be let blood, who else is rank: 9

9 who else is rank:] Who elfe may be fuppofed to have evertopped his equals, and grown too high for the publick fafety.

JOHNSON.

If I myself, there is no hour fo fit

As Cæfar's death's hour; nor no inftrument
Of half that worth, as thofe your fwords, made rich
With the most noble blood of all this world.

I do beseech ye, if you bear me hard,

Now, whilst your purpled hands do reek and smoke,
Fulfil your pleasure. Live a thousand years,
I fhall not find myself fo apt to die:

No place will please me so, no mean of death,
As here by Cæfar, and by you cut off,
The choice and master spirits of this age.

BRU. O Antony! beg not your death of us.
Though now we must appear bloody and cruel,
As, by our hands, and this our prefent act,
You fee we do; yet fee you but our hands,
And this the bleeding bufinefs they have done:
Our hearts you fee not, they are pitiful;
And pity to the general wrong of Rome
(As fire drives out fire, so pity, pity,)

2

I rather believe the meaning is, who elfe is too replete with blood? So, in our author's Venus and Adonis:

"Rain added to a river that is rank,

"Perforce will force it overflow the bank."

See Vol. VIII. p. 170, n. 2. MALONE.

In The Tempest we have—

whom to trafb

For overtopping.

I conceive Dr. Johnfon's explanation therefore to be the true one. The epithet rank is employed, on a fimilar occafion, in King Henry VIII:

"Ha! what, fo rank?" and without allufion to a plethora.

STEEVENS.

2 As fire drives out fire, &c.] So, in Coriolanus:

"One fire drives out one fire; one nail one nail."

MALONE.

Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona :

"Even as one heat another heat expels,

"Or as one nail by strength drives out another."

STERVENS

Hath done this deed on Cæfar. For your part,
To you our fwords have leaden points, Mark An-

tony:

Our arms, in ftrength of malice,' and our hearts,
Of brothers' temper, do receive you in
With all kind love, good thoughts, and reverence.
CAS. Your voice fhall be as ftrong as any man's,
In the difpofing of new dignities.

BRU. Only be patient, till we have appeas'd
The multitude, beside themselves with fear,
And then we will deliver you the cause,

Why I, that did love Cæfar when I ftruck him,
Have thus proceeded.

ANT.
I doubt not of your wisdom.
Let each man render me his bloody hand:
First, Marcus Brutus, will I fhake with you ;-
Next, Caius Caffius, do I take your hand ;-
Now, Decius Brutus, yours ;-now yours,

Metellus ;

3 Our arms in ftrength of malice,] Thus the old copies.

То

you, (fays Brutus) our words have leaden points: our arms, ftrong in the deed of malice they have just perform'd, and our hearts united like thofe of brothers in the action, are yet open to receive you with all poffible regard. The fuppofition that Brutus meant, their hearts were of brothers' temper in respect of Antony, feems to have mifled those who have commented on this paffage before. For — in ftrength of, Mr. Pope fubftituted-exempt from; and was too haftily followed by other editors. If alteration were neceffary, it would be easier to read:

Our arms no ftrength of malice,

STEEVENS.

One of the phrafes in this paffage, which Mr. Steevens has fo happily explained, occurs again in Antony and Cleopatra : "To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts, "With an unflipping knot."

Again, ibid:

"The heart of brothers governs in our love!"

The counterpart of the other phrafe is found in the fame play: "I'll wrestle with you in my ftrength of love." MALONE,

Yours, Cinna ;-and, my valiant Casca, yours ;Though laft, not least in love, yours, good Trebonius.

Gentlemen all,-alas! what fhall I say?

My credit now ftands on fuch flippery ground,
That one of two bad ways you must conceit me,
Either a coward, or a flatterer.-

That I did love thee, Cæfar, O, 'tis true:
If then thy spirit look upon us now,

Shall it not grieye thee, dearer than thy death,
To fee thy Antóny making his

peace, Shaking the bloody fingers of thy foes,

Most noble! in the prefence of thy corfe?
Had I as many eyes as thou haft wounds,
Weeping as fast as they ftream forth thy blood,
It would become me better, than to clofe
In terms of friendship with thine enemies.
Pardon me, Julius !-Here waft thou bay'd, brave
hart;

Here didst thou fall; and here thy hunters ftand,
Sign'd in thy fpoil, and crimfon'd in thy lethe.s
O world! thou waft the foreft to this hart;
And this, indeed, O world, the heart of thee.—
How like a deer, ftricken by many princes,

• Though laft, not leaft in love,] So, in King Lear: Although the laft, not least in our dear love."

The fame expreffion occurs more than once in plays exhibited before the time of Shakspeare.

MALONE.

crimson'd in thy lethe.] Lethe is ufed by many of the old tranflators of novels, for death; Part II. 1632:

"The proudest nation that
"Is now extinct in lethe."

and in Heywood's Iron Age,

great

Afia nurs'd,

Again, in Cupid's Whirligigg, 1616:

For vengeance' wings bring on thy lethal day."

Dr. Farmer obferves, that we meet with lethal for deadly in the information for Mungo Campbell. STEEVENS.