It did not lie there, when I went to bed. [Gives him the letter. Bru. Look in the kalendar, and bring me word. Bru. The exhalations, whizzing in the air, [Exit. [Opens the letter, and reads. Brutus, thou sleep'ft; awake, and fee thyself: Shall Rome, Brutus, thou sleep'ft: awake. Such inftigations have been often dropt, Shall Rome-thus muft I piece it out, Shall Rome ftand under one man's awe? what! " Rome? "My ancestors did from the streets of Rome To fpeak, and ftrike? O Rome! I make thee promife, 4 Is not to-morrow, boy, the FIRST of March] We fhould read IDES: For we can never suppose the speaker to have loft fourteen days in his account, He is here plainly ruminating on what the foothfayer told Cafar A& I. Scene 2.] in his prefence. -Beware the Ides of March.] The boy comes back and says, Sir, March is wasted fourteen days. So that the morrow was the Ides of March, as he supposed. For March, May, July, and October, had fix nones each, fo that the fifteenth of March was the Ides of that month. WARB. Enter Enter Lucius. Luc. Sir, March is wafted fourteen days. [knocks within. [Exit Lucius. Bru, 'Tis good. Go to the gate; fome body knocks. Since Caffius first did whet me againft Cafar, I have not flept. Between the acting of a dreadful thing, And the first motion, all the interim is 5 In former editions, Sir, March is wasted fifteen days. The editors are flightly mistaken: It was wafted but fourteen days; this was the dawn of the 15th, when the boy makes his report, THEOBALD. 6 Between the acting of a dread-, ful thing, And the first motion, &c.] That nice critic, Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus, complains, that, of all kind of beauties, thofe great ftrokes, which he calls the terrible graces, and which are fo fre. quent in Homer, are the rareft to be found in the following wri. ters. Amongst our countrymen it feems to be as much confined to the British Homer. This defcription of the condition of confpirators, before the execution of their defign, has a pomp and terror in it that perfectly aftonishes. The excellent Mr. Addifon, whofe modefty made him fometimes diffident in his own genius, but whofe true judgment always led him to the fafeft guides, (as we may fee by thofe many fine ftrokes in his Cato borrowed from the Philippies of Ci Like cero) has paraphrafed this fine defcription; but we are no longer to expect thofe terrible graces which animate his original. O think, what anxious moments pass between The birth of pilots, and their laft fatal periods. Oh, 'tis a dreadful interval of time, big with death. Filld up with horror all, and Cato, I fhall make two remarks on this fine imitation. The first is, that the fubjects of the two confpiracies being fo very different, (the fortunes of Cæfar and the Roman Empire being concerned in the one; and that of a few auxiliary troops only in the other) Mr. Addifon could not, with propriety, bring in that magnificent circumftance which gives one of the terrible graces of Shakespeare's defcription; The Genius, and the Mortal Infruments Are then in CouncilFor Kingdoms, in the Pagan Theology, befides their good, had their evil Genius's, likewife, reprefented here, with the most daring stretch of fancy, as fitting in Like a phantafma, or a hideous dream; Enter Lucius. Lut. Sir, 'tis your brother Caffius at the door, Who doth defire to fee you. Bru. Is he alone? in confultation with the confpirators, whom he call their Mortal Inftruments. But this, as we fay, would have been too pompous an apparatus to the rape and defer. tion of Sphax and Sempronius. The other thing obfervable is, that Mr. Addison was fo ftruck and affected with thefe terrible graces in his original, that inftead of imitating his author's fenti ments, he hath, before he was aware, given us only the copy of his own impreffions made by them. For, Oh, 'tis a dreadful interval of time, Fill'd up with Horror all, and big with death, are but the affections raised by fuch forcible Images as these, All the Int'rim is -the State of Man, The Nature of an insurrection. Comparing the troubled mind of a confpirator to a state of Anarchy, is juft and beautiful; but the int'rim, or interval, to an bideous vifion, or a frightful dream, holds fomething fo won derfully of truth, and lays the foul fo open, that one can hardly think it poffible for any man, who had not fome time or other been engaged in a confpiracy, to give fuch force of colouring to Nature. WARBURTON. Theo of the Greek criticks does not, I think, mean fentiments which raife fear, more than wonder, or any other of the tumultuous paffions; To devov is that which frikes, which aftonifhes, with the idea either of fome great fubject, or of the author's abilities. Dr. Warburton's pompous criticifm might well have been fhortened. The Genius is not the genius of a kingdom, nor are the inftruments, confpirators. ShakeSpeare is defc.ibing what paffes in a fingle bofom, the infurrection which a confpirator feels agitating the little kingdom of his own mind; when the Genius, or power that watches for his protection, and the mortal inftruments, the paffions, which excite him to a deed of honour and danger, are in council and debate; when the defire of action and the care of fafety, keep the mind in continual fluctuation and disturbance. Luc. Luc. No, Sir, there are more with him. Bru. Do you know them? Luc. No, Sir, their hats are pluckt about their ears, And half their faces buried in their cloaks; That by no means I may discover them By any mark of favour. Bru. Let them enter, They are the faction. O Confpiracy! [Exit Lucius. Sham'st thou to fhew thy dang'rous brow by night, Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough, To mask thy monftrous vifage? Seek none, Confpi racy; Hide it in Smiles and Affability; For if thou path, thy native femblance on, SCENE II. Enter Caffius, Cafca, Decius, Cinna, Metellus, and Trebonius. Caf. I think, we are too bold upon your Rest. Good-morrow, Brutus. Do we trouble you? Bru. I have been up this hour; awake all night. Know I these men, that come along with you? [Afide. Caf. Yes, every man of them; and no man here, But honours you; and every one doth wish, You had but that opinion of your felf, Which every noble Roman bears of you. 8 For if thou path, thy native Jemblance on,] If thou walk in thy true form. Bru. Caf. This, Cafca; this, Cinna; Bru. He is welcome too. And this, Metellus Cimber. Bru. They are all welcome. What watchful cares do interpose themselves Betwixt your eyes and night? Caf. Shall I entreat a word? They whisper. Dec. Here lies the Eaft: doth not the day break here? Cafca. No. Cin. O pardon, Sir, it doth; and yon grey lines, That fret the Clouds, are meffengers of day. Cafca. You fhall confefs, that you are both deceiv'd: Here, as I point my fword, the Sun arifes, Bru. Give me your hands all over, one by one. Bru. No, not an oath. 9 No, not an oath; if that the FACE of men, &c] The confpirators propofe an oath as the fanction of their mutual faith. This, Brutus, very much in charatter, oppofes: Because an oath was the ufual cement of thofe lawle's cabals, which have not virtue enough in themselves to keep their members together: On this conficeration his argument against an oath turns: And the motives he thought fufficient to preferve faith amorgft them, were thefe: The Sfferance of their fouls, i. e. their commifc. ration for expiring liberty: The If not the face of men, The time's abufe, i. e. the general corruption of manners which had reduced publick liberty to this condition; and which, that liberty restored, would reform. But now, what is he FACE of men? Did he mean they had honeft looks. This was a poor and low obfervation, unworthy Brutus, and the occafion, and the gran deur of his fpeech: Besides, it is foreign to the turn and argument of his difcourfe, which is to fhew the strong cement of the confederacy, from the juftice of their caufe, not from the natural honour of the confpirators. His argument |