That this fhall be, or we will fall for it?
Swear priefts, and cowards, and men cautelous,
Old feeble carrions, and such suffering fouls
That welcome wrongs; unto bad causes swear
Such creatures as men doubt; but do not stain
The even virtue of our enterprize,

Nor th' infuppreffive mettle of our spirits,

To think, that or our caufe, or our performance,
Did need an oath when every drop of blood

:

That every Roman bears, and nobly bears,
Is guilty of a feveral bastardy,

If he doth break the faralleft particle

Of any promise that hath past from him.

Is it not wonderful to see a poor player thus ennoble the fentiments, and give full expanfion to the magnanimity of the man styled the Deliverer of Rome ?

Mr. Voltaire is fo little fenfible of the noble delicacy of this speech, that he says the confpirators are not Romans, but a parcel of country-fellows of a former age who conspire in a tippling-house.-Surely there is no partiality in faying our Author has given to Brutus Roman Sentiments, with a tincture of the Platonic Philofophy; and, befides

9

besides these more general characteristics, has added many nice touches, which specify his perfonal qualities. We behold on the stage the Marcus Brutus of Plutarch rendered more amiable and more interesting. A peculiar gentleness of manners, and delicacy of mind, distinguish him from all the other confpirators; and we cannot refuse to concur with the confeffion of his enemies, and the words of Antony.

ANTONY.

This was the nobleft Roman of them all:

All the confpirators, save only he,

Did that they did in envy of great Cæfar;

He, only, in a general honest thought,
And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle, and the elements

So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up,
And fay to all the world, This was a Man!

The following foliloquy, prophetic of the civil war, fubfequent to the death of Cæfar, spoken by Antony addreffing himself to the dead body, is fublime and folemn.

ANTONY.

O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,

R 2

That

That I am meek and gentle with thefe butchers.
Thou art the ruins of the nobleft man,

That ever lived in the tide of times.

Woe to the hand hat shed this coftly blood!
Over thy wounds now do I prophesy,

Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips,
To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue,
A curfe fhall light upon the limbs of men ;
Domeftic fury, and fierce civil ftrife,
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy;

Blood and deftruction fhall be fo in ufe,
And dreadful objects fo familiar,

That mothers fhall but fmile, when they behold
Their infants quarter'd with the hands of War :
All pity choak'd with cuftom of fell deeds;
And Cæfar's fpirit aging for revenge,
With Até by his fide come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines, with a monarch's voice,
Cry Havock, and let flip the dogs of war.

This speech fhews the fecret enmity Antony bears to the confpirators, and prepares us for the inflammatory oration, which at the obfequies of Cæfar he pronounces before the people.I shall cite it at length, for as this tragedy has been brought by Mr.

Voltaire

Voltaire into a comparison with the Cinna of Corneille, and he is pleafed to call our English piece a monstrous spectacle, and takes not the least notice of a speech which may be confidered as one of the finest pieces of rhetoric that is extant, I am defirous to fet it before the reader. It is prefumed that he will hardly find any thing monstrous in its form, or abfurd in its matter, but quite the reverse. I suppose a popular address and manner, in an oration defigned for the populace, would be deemed the most proper by the best critics in the art of rhetoric.

ANTONY.

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
I come to bury Cæfar, not to praise him.
'The evil, that men do, lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Cæfar! Noble Brutus
Hath told you, Cæfar was ambitious
If it were fo, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Cæfar answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus, and the reft,
For Brutus is an honourable man,

So are they all, all honourable men,

Come

R 3

Come I to speak in Cæfar's funeral.

He was my friend, faithful and just to me;
But Brutus fays, he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honourable man.

He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ranfoms did the general coffers fill;
Did this in Cæfar feem ambitious?

When that the poor have cry'd, Cæfar hath wept;
Ambition fhould be made of sterner stuff,

Yet Brutus fays, he was ambitious,
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did fee, that on the Lupercal

I thrice prefented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refufe. Was this ambition?

Yet Brutus fays, he was ambitious;

And, fure, he is an honourable man,

I fpeak not, to difprove what Brutus fpoke,

But here I am to speak what I do know.

You all did love him once, not without caufe;

What cause with-holds you then to mourn for him? O judgment thou art fled to brutish beasts,

And men have loft their reason. Bear with me,

My heart is in the coffin there with Cæfar,

And I must paufe till it come back to me.

I PLEBEIAN.

Methinks, there is much reason in his sayings, &c.

ANTONY.