Here, as I point my sword, the sun arises; Some two months hence, up higher toward the north He first presents his fire; and the high east BRU. Give me your hands all over, one by one. BRU. No, not an oath: If not the face of men*, 4 No, not an oath: If NOT the FACE of men, &c.] Dr. Warburton would read "fate of men;" but his elaborate emendation is, I think, erroneous. The "face of men" is the countenance, the regard, the esteem of the public;' in other terms, honour and reputation; or the face of men" may mean the dejected look of the people.' JOHNSON. 66 So, Tully in Catilinam-" Nihil horum ora vultusque move runt ? Shakspeare formed this speech on the following passage in Sir T. North's translation of Plutarch :-" The conspirators having never taken oaths together, nor taken or given any caution or assurance, nor binding themselves one to another by any religious oaths, they kept the matter so secret to themselves," &c. STEEVENS. I cannot reconcile myself to Johnson's explanation of this passage, but believe we should read: 66 — If not the faith of men," &c. which is supported by the following passage in this very speech: What other bond 66 "Than secret Romans, that have spoke the word, 66 when every drop of blood "That every Roman bears, and nobly bears, "Is guilty of a several bastardy, "If he do break the smallest particle "Of any promise that hath pass'd from him." Both of which prove, that Brutus considered the faith of men as their firmest security in each other. M. MASON. In this sentence, [i. e. the two first lines of the speech,] as in several others, Shakspeare, with a view perhaps to imitate the abruptness and inaccuracy of discourse, has constructed the latter part without any regard to the beginning. "If the face of men, the sufferance of our souls, &c. If these be not sufficient; if these be motives weak," &c. So, in The Tempest: The sufferance of our souls, the time's abuse,- So let high-sighted tyranny range on, But if these, As I am sure they do, bear fire enough To kindle cowards, and to steel with valour No, not so much perdition," &c. Mr. M. Mason would read-" if not the faith of men-." If the text be corrupt, faiths is more likely to have been the poet's word; which might have been easily confounded by the ear with face, the word exhibited in the old copy. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: the manner of their deaths? "I do not see them bleed : Again, in King Henry VI. Part III. : "And with their helps only defend ourselves." Again, more appositely, in The Rape of Lucrece : "You, fair lords, quoth she, "Shall plight your honourable faiths to me." Gray may perhaps support Johnson's explanation: MALONE. "And read their history in a nation's eyes." BOSWELL. 5 Till each man drop by lottery.] Perhaps the poet alluded to the custom of decimation, i. e. the selection by lot of every tenth soldier, in a general mutiny, for punishment. He speaks of this in Coriolanus: "By decimation, and a tithed death, "Take thou thy fate." STEEVENS. And will not PALTER?] And will not fly from his engagements. Cole, in his Dictionary, 1679, renders to palter, by tergiversor. In Macbeth it signifies, as Dr. Johnson has observed, to shuffle with ambiguous expressions: and, indeed, here also it may mean to shuffle; for he whose actions do not correspond with his promises is properly called a shuffler. MALONE. That this shall be, or we will fall for it? Nor the insuppressive mettle of our spirits, To think, that, or our cause, or our performance, If he do break the smallest particle Of any promise that hath pass'd from him. CAS. But what of Cicero? Shall we sound him? I think, he will stand very strong with us. CASCA. Let us not leave him out. CIN. No, by no means. MET. O let us have him; for his silver hairs Will purchase us a good opinion 1, 7 Swear priests, &c.] This is imitated by Otway: 66 When you would bind me, is there need of oaths?" 8 - cautelous,] Is here cautious, sometimes insidious. So, in A Woman is a Weathercock, 1612: "Yet warn you, be as cautelous not to wound my integrity." Again, in Drayton's Miseries of Queen Margaret: "Witty, well-spoken, cautelous, though young." Again, in the second of these two senses in the romance of Kynge Appolyn of Thyre, 1610: "a fallacious policy and cautelous wyle." 66 Again, in Holinshed, p. 945: the emperor's councell thought by a cautell to have brought the king in mind to sue for a licence from the pope." STEEVENS. Bullokar, in his English Expositor, 1616, explains cautelous thus: "Warie, circumspect;" in which sense it is certainly used here. MALOne. 9 The EVEN virtue of our enterprize,] The calm, equable, temperate spirit that actuates us. MALONE. Thus in Mr. Pope's Eloisa to Abelard : "Desires compos'd, affections ever even—.” STEEVENS. And buy men's voices to commend our deeds: BRU. O, name him not; let us not break with him; For he will never follow any thing That other men begin. CAS. Then leave him out. CASCA. Indeed he is not fit. DEC. Shall no man else be touch'd but only Cæsar ? CAS. Decius, well urg'd:-I think it is not meet, Mark Antony, so well belov'd of Cæsar, Should outlive Cæsar: We shall find of him Let Antony, and Cæsar, fall together. BRU. Our course will seem too bloody, Caius To cut the head off, and then hack the limbs ; Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius. 1-opinion.] i. e. character. So, in King Henry IV. Part I. Act V. Sc. IV. : "Thou hast redeem'd thy lost opinion." The quotation is Mr. Reed's. STEEVENS. 2—and ENVY afterwards :] Envy is here, as almost always in Shakspeare's plays, malice. MALONE. 3 O, that we then could come by Cæsar's spirit, &c.] Lord Sterline has the same thought: Brutus remonstrating against the taking off Antony, says: 6 5 This shall make Cæsar must bleed for it! And, gentle friends, CAS. Is to himself; take thought, and die for Cæsar: "Ah! ah! we must but too much murder see, "And would the gods that Rome could be made free, 4 — as a dish fit for the gods, &c.] Gradive, dedisti, MALONE. Ne qua manus vatem, ne quid mortalia bello 5 Not hew him as a carcase fit for hounds :] Our author had probably the following passage in the old translation of Plutarch in his thoughts: - Cæsar turned himselfe no where but he was stricken at by some, and still had naked swords in his face, and was hacked and mangled among them as a wild beast taken of hunters." MALONE. 6 Stir up their servants -] Another instance of the image which occurs, p. 38: "the mortal instruments." BOSWELL. 7 Yet I Do fear him :] For the sake of metre I have supplied the auxiliary verb. So, in Macbeth : 8 66 there is none but him "Whose being I do fear." STEEVENS. - take thought,] That is, turn melancholy. JOHNSON. |