Bru. Sheath your dagger; Be angry when you will, it fhall have scope; Caf. Hath Caffius liv'd To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus, Caf. O Brutus ! Bru. What's the matter? Caf. Have you not love enough to bear with me, When that rash humour, which my mother gave me, Makes me forgetful? 1 Bru. Yes, Caffius, and from henceforth When you are over-earnest with your Brutus, He'll think your mother chides, and leave you * * * * * * * * * * * * Bru. O Caffius, I am fick of many griefs. Caf. Of your philosophy you make no use, If you give place to accidental evils. Bru. No man bears forrow better Caf. Ha! Porcia! Bru. She is dead. fo. -Porcia's dead. Caf. How 'fcap'd I killing, when I croft O infupportable and touching lofs! Upon what fickness ? Bru. Impatient of my abfence; And grief, that young Octavius with Mark Antony Have made themselves fo ftrong: (for with her death That tidings came) with this fhe fell distract, And (her attendants abfent) fwallow'd fire. Caf. And dy'd fo? Bru. Even fo. Caf. O ye immortal Gods! Enter Enter Boy with wine and tapers. Bru. Speak no more of her; give me a bowl of wine. [Drinks. Caf. My heart is thirsty for that noble pledge. Fill, Lucius, till the wine o'er-fwell the cup; I cannot drink too much of Brutus' love. SCENE V. Opportunity to be feiz'd on all Affairs. There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; ACT V. SCENE II. The Parting of Brutus and Caffius. Bru. No, Caffius, no; think not, thou noble Ro man, That ever Brutus will go bound to Rome; He bears too great a mind. But this fame day If we do meet again, we'll fmile indeed : If not, 'tis true, this parting was well made. Bru. Why then, lead on. O, that a man might know The end of this day's business ere it come! But it fufficeth, that the day will end; And then the end is known. Melan Melancholy, the Parent of Error. Oh, hateful error, melancholy's child! Antony's Character of Brutus. This was the noblest Roman of them all : Did, that they did, in envy of great Cæfar: So mixt in him, that nature might stand up, (16) And fay to all the world; "This was a man!" (16) It may perhaps be needlefs to inform the Reader, that the Duke of Buckingham, difpleas'd with what the critics esteem fo great a fault in this play, the death of Julius Cæfar, in the third act, hath made two plays of it: but I am afraid the lovers of Shakespear will be apt to place that nobleman's performance on a level with the reft of those who have attempted to alter, or amend Shakespear. General Obfervations. THE affaffination of Julius Cæfar (fays Mrs. Griffiths) is a fact famous in hiftory; but notwithstanding the heroic opinion which the world has been taught to conceive of it, I confefs that I have ever reputed its fame as a matter of notoriety rather than of applause. I fhall only confider this action in the perfon of Brutus alone, because it has been thought that he was the only one among the confpirators who had engaged in it upon principle folely, as Antony has faid above. Plutarch has debated this fubject, in his comparison of Brutus with Dion; and, in my opinion, feems to condemn it, upon the whole. At least, if we take in the character he there draws of of Caefar, with the ftate and circumftances of the commonwealth at that political crifis, it plainly appears that he meant to declare against it. His words are: "With refpect to Cæfar, though, whilst "his imperial power was in its infancy, he treated his oppo"nents with feverity; yet, as foon as that power was con"firmed, the tyranny was rather a nominal, than a real thing; "for no tyrannical action could be laid to his charge. Nay, "fuch was the condition of Rome then, that it evidently "required a mafter; and Caefar was no more than a tender and fkilful phyfician, appointed by Providence to heal the difcmpers of the "flate. Of courfe the people lamented his death, and were implacably enraged against his affaffins." Cowley, in his fine Ode to Brutus, brings heavy charges alfo against him, on account of this action; though he feems only to do fo, in order to vindicate him from them. But then he does not pretend to defend him from the facts themselves, juftifying him only upon the higher principle which had rendered him guilty of them. However, I think that he is feverer upon his hero even than Plutarch, by mentioning that weak and unphilofophic exclamation of his, where he fays, he had miftaken virtue for a good, but found it only a name. "What can we fay, but thine own tragic word? "That virtue, which had worshipped been by thee, "As the most folid good, and greatest deity, "By this fatal proof became An idol only, and a name." This circumftance his Biographer had favourably fuffered to pafs unnoticed; and of which Balzac fays, "that Brutus seems to lament his disappointment here, as if he was upbraiding a jilting mistress." If he had acted folely from virtue, he wouldnot have complained that he had miffed the reward. But though the principle might have been ever so right, in itfelf, the action was certainly wrong, in him. There are duties involved in duties, fometimes, which may counteract each other, and thereby render what might be the virtue of one perfon, the vice of another. Many fituations and cafes of this kind may be proposed; but I fhall not launch beyond my subject. Brutus had many and great obligations to Cæfar. He owed him his life-nay, 'tis faid, even his firft life; and had the lives of feveral of his friends faved alfo at his interceffion. He had ever lived with him in the greatest intimacy, and on the Cæfar had an amour with Servika, the mother of Brutus, before his birth. the footing of his first friend. Nay, Cefar had created himself enemies, by his partiality towards him, in the preferring him to pofts of profit and honour, which others, from their fervices, were better intitled to. One of thefe malecontents was Caffius, who from that very refentment became the first mover and principal actor in the confpiracy. And were all these obligations to be cancelled by one dath of the Stoic's pen? Stoical virtues are not always moral ones. Thofe metaphyfical braveries (for I was wrong in calling them virtues) which exceed the feelings of humanity, have never, as I faid before, been able to infpire my mind with either admiration or esteem. The fympathy of nature is wanting, and true philosophy has good reafon to fufpect every principle or motive of action to be fophisticate, that bears not this original impression. King |