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The live-long day with patient expectation,
To fee great Pompey pass the streets of Rome;
And when you faw his chariot but appear,
Have you not made an univerfal fhout,
That Tyber trembled underneath his banks
To hear the replication of your founds,
Made in his concave fhores?

And do you now put on your best attire?
And do you now cull out an holiday?
And do you now ftrew flowers in his way,
That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood?
Be gone-

Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,
Pray to the Gods, to intermit the plague
That needs muft light on this ingratitude.

Flav. Go, go, good countrymen; and for that
fault

Affemble all the poor men of your fort,
Draw them to Tyber's bank, and weep your tears
Into the channel, 'till the lowest stream
Do kifs the most exalted fhores of all.

[Exeunt Commoners.
See, whe're their baseft metal be not mov'd;
They vanish tongue-ty'd in their guiltinefs.
Go you down that way tow'rds the Capitol,
This way will I. Difrobe the images,
If you do find them 3 deck'd with ceremonies.
Mar. May we do fo?

You know, it is the feaft of Lupercal.

Flav. It is no matter. Let no images
Be hung with Cafar's trophies. I'll about,
And drive away the vulgar from the streets?

3-deck'd with ceremonies.] Ce remonies, for religious ornaments. Thus afterwards he explains them

by Cafar's trophies; i. e. fuck as he had dedicated to the Gods. WARBURTON.

So do you too, where your perceive them thick.
Thefe growing feathers, pluckt from Cæfar's wing,
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch;

Who else would foar above the view of men,

And keep us all in fervile fearfulness.

[Exeunt feverally:

SCENE II.

Enter Cæfar, Antony. For the Course, Calphurnia, Porcia, Decius, Cicero, Brutus, Caffius, Cafca, a Soothsayer,

Caf. Calphurnia

Cafca. Peace, ho! Cæfar speaks.

Cef. Calphurnia

Calp. Here, my Lord.

Caf. Stand you directly in Antonius' When he doth run his Courfe

Ant. Cæfar. My Lord.

way,

Antonius

Caf. Forget not in your speed, Antonius, To touch Calpburnia; for our Elders fay, The barren, touched in this holy chase, Sake off their fteril curfe.

Ant. I fhall remember.

When Cafar fays, do this; it is perform❜d.
Caf. Set on, and leave no ceremony out.
South. Cafar,-

Caf. Ha! who calls?

Cafea. Bid every noife be ftill. Peace! Yet again.
Caf. Who is it in the Prefs, that calls on me?

I hear a tongue, fhriller than all the mufick,
Cry, Cæfar. Speak; Cafar is turn'd to hear.
Soo b. Beware the Ides of March.

Caf. What man is that?

Bru. A footh-fayer bids you beware the Ides of

March.

Caf

Caf. Set him before me; let me see his face.
Cafca. Fellow, come from the throng. Look upon
Cafar.

Caf. What fay'st thou to me now? Speak once again.

Sooth. Beware the Ides of March.

Caf. He is a dreamer; let us leave him. Pass.

[+Sennet. Exeunt Cæfar and Train.

[blocks in formation]

Manent Brutus and Caffius,

Caf. Will you go fee the order of the Course?
Bru. Not I.

Caf. I pray you, do.

Bru. I am not gamefome; I do lack fome part
Of that quick spirit that is in Antony.

Let me not hinder, Caffius, your defires;
I'll leave you.

Caf. Brutus, I do obferve you now of late;
I have not from your eyes that gentleness
And fhew of love, as I was wont to have.
You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand
Over your friend that loves you.

Bru. Caffius,

Be not deceiv'd: if I have veil'd my look,
I turn the trouble of my countenance
Meerly upon myself. Vexed I am,

Of late, with paffions of fome difference,
Conceptions only proper to myself,

+ I have here inferted the word Sennet, from the original edition, that I may have an opportunity of retracting a hafty conjecture in one of the marginal directions in Henry VIII. Sennet appears to be a particular tune or mode

of martial mufick.

5ftrange a hand] Strange is alien, unfamiliar, such as might become a ftranger.

6-paffions of fome difference,] With a fluctuation of difcordant opinions and defires. B 4

Which

Which give fome foil, perhaps, to my behaviours;
But let not therefore my good friends be griev❜d,
Among which number, Caffius, be you one,
Nor conftrue any further my neglect,

Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war,
Forgets the fhews of love to other men.

Caf. Then, Brutus, I have much miftook your paffion;
By means whereof, this breaft of mine hath buried
Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations.
Tell me, good Brutus, can you fee your face?
Bru. No, Caffius; for the eye fees not itself,
But by reflexion from fome other things.
Caf. 'Tis juft;

And it is very much lamented, Brutus,
That you have no fuch mirrors, as will turn
Your hidden worthiness into your eye,

That you might fee your fhadow. I have heard,
Where many of the best respect in Rome,
Except immortal Cafar, fpeaking of Brutus,
And groaning underneath this age's yoke,
Have wifh'd, that noble Brutus had his eyes-

Bru. Into what dangers would you lead me, Caffius,
That you would have me feek into myself,
For that which is not in me?

Caf. Therefore, good Brutus, be prepar'd to hear; And fince you know, you cannot fee yourself. So well as by reflexion; I, your glass,

Will modeftly discover to yourself

That of yourself, which yet you know not of
And be not jealous of me, gentle Brutus :
Were 'I a common laugher, or did use
7 To ftale with ordinary oaths my love
To every new protestor; if you know,
That I do fawn on men, and hug them hard,

To ftale with ordinary oaths my love, &c.] To invite every new protetor to my affec

tion by the fale or allurement of cuftomary oaths.

And

And after scandal them; or if you know,
That I profefs myself in banqueting

To all the rout; then hold me dangerous.

[Flourish and fhout.

Bru. What means this houting? I do fear, the

People

Chufe Cafar for their King.
Caf. Ay, do you fear it?

Then must I think, you would not have it fo.
Bru. I would not, Caffius; yet I love him well.
But wherefore do you hold me here fo long?
What is it, that you would impart to me?
If it be aught toward the general good,
Set Honour in one eye, and Death i'th other,
And I will look on both indifferently,
For, let the Gods fo fpeed me, as I love
The name of Honour, more than I fear Death.
Caf. I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,
As well as I do know your outward favour.
Well, Honour is the fubject of my story.
I cannot tell, what you and other men
Think of this life; but for my fingle felf,

And I will look on both indifferently;] This is a contradiation to the lines immediately fucceeding. If he lov'd honour more than be fear'd death, how could they be both indifferent to him? Honour thus is but in equal balance to death, which is not fpeaking at all like Brutus: for, in a foldier of any ordinary pretenfions, honour fhould always preponderate. We muft certainly read,

And I will look on death indif

ferently. What occafion'd the corruption, I prefume, was, the tranfcribers imagining, the adverb indiferent

must be applied to two things

appos'd. But the ufe of the word does not demand it; nor does Shakespeare always apply it fo. In the prefent paffage it fignifies weglectingly; without fear, or concern: And fo Cafca afterwards again in this act, employs it.

And dangers are to me indifferent. Iweigh them not; nor am deterr'd on the fcore of danger.

WARBURTON.

This long note is very trifling. When Brutus first names bonour and death, he calmly declares them indifferent; but as the image kindles in his mind, he fets bonour above life. Is not this natural?

I had

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