Puslapio vaizdai
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And men have loft their reason.-Bear with me,

My heart is in the coffin there with Cæfar,

And I must pause 'till it come back to me.

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But yesterday the word of Cæfar might
Have stood against the world; now lies he there,

And none so poor to do him reverence.
O masters! if I were dispos'd to ftir
Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage,
I should do Brutus wrong, and Caffius wrong;
Who, you all know, are honourable men.
I will not do them wrong; I rather chuse
To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you,
Than I will wrong fuch honourable men.
But here's a parchment with the feal of Cæfar;
I found it in his closet, 'tis his will;..
Let but the commons hear this teslament,
(Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read)
And they would go and kifs dead Cæfar's wounds,
And dip their napkins in his facred blood;
Yea, beg a hair of him for memory,
And dying, mention it within their Wills,
Bequeathing it as a rich legacy

Unto their issue.

4 Pleb. We'll hear the will; read it, Mark Antony. All. The will; the will; we will hear Cæfar's will. Ant. Have patience, gentle friends, I must not

read it;

It is not meet you know how Cæfar lov'd you;
You are not wood, you are not stones, but men:
And, being men, hearing the will of Cæfar,
It will inflame you, it will make you mad.
'Tis good you know not, that you are his heirs;

For

For if you should-O what would come of it?

4 Pleb. Read the will, we will hear it, Antony: You shall read us the will, Cæfar's will.

Ant. Will you be patient? will you stay a while ? (I have o'er-shot myself, to tell you of it.) I fear, I wrong the honourable men, Whose daggers have stabb'd Cæfar. - I do fear it. 4 Pleb. They were traitors-honourable men! All. The will! the testament!

Ant. You will compel me then to read the will? Then make a ring about the corps of Cæfar, And let me shew you him, that made the will. Shall I descend, and will you give me leave ? All. Come down.

2 Pleb. Descend,

:

[He comes down from the pulpit.

Ant. If you have tears, prepare to shed them now

You all do know this mantle; I remember,
The first time ever Cæfar put it on;
'Twas on a summer's evening in his tent,
That day he overcame the Nervii-

Look! in this place, ran Cassius' dagger through;-
See, what a rent the envious Casca made.-
Through this, the well-beloved Brutus stabb'd;
And as he pluck'd his cursed steel away,
Mark, how the blood of Cæfar follow'd it!
As rushing out of doors, to be resolv'd,
If Brutus so unkindly knock'd, or no;
For Brutus, as you know, was Cæfar's ange'.
Judge, oh you Gods! how dearly Cæfar lov'd him;
This, this, was the unkindeft cut of all;
For, when the noble Cæfar saw him stab,
Ingratitude, more strong than traitors arms,
Quite vanquish'd him; then burst his mighty heart;

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And, in (11) this mantle muffling up his face,
Even at the base of Pompey's statue, '
(Which all the while ran blood) great Cæfar fell.
O what a fall was there, my countrymen!
Then I, and you, and all of us fell down :
Whilft bloody treason flourish'd over us.
O now you weep; and, I perceive, you feel
The dint of pity; these are gracious drops.
Kind souls! what, weep you, when you but behold
Our Cæfar's vesture wounded? look you here!
Here is himself, marr'd, as you fee, by traitors.
I Pleb. O piteous spectacle!

2 Pleb. We will be reveng`d; revenge; about seek-burn-fire-kill-flay! let not a traitor live.

Ant. Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up

To such a fudden flood of mutiny :
They, that have done this deed, are honourable.
What private griefs they have, alas! I know not,
That made them do it: they are wife and honourable;
And will, no doubt, with reasons answer you.
I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts;
I am no orator, as Brutus is:

But, as you know me all, a plain, blunt man,
(12). That love my friend; and that they know full

well,

That give me publick leave to speak of him:
For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
Ation or utt'rance, nor the power of speech,

"The action and the

(11) This] Upton vulg. bis. emphafis is highly improved by this easy change."" The reader may fee a fevere comment on a note of Mr. Warburton's, concerning this mantle in the 14th page of the Preface to Upton's observations on Shakespear.

(12) See Vol. I. p. 177. n, 6,

To

To ftir mens blood; I only speak right on.
I tell you that, which you yourselves do know;
Shew you weet Cæfar's wounds, poor, poor dumb

mouths!

And bid them speak for me. But were I Brutus,
And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony
Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue
In every wound of Cæfar, that should move
The stones of Rome to rife and mutiny.

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Ceremony infincere.

-Ever note, Lucilius,

When love begins to ficken and decay,
It useth an enforced ceremony;

There are no tricks in plain and fimple faith :
But hollow men, like horses hot at hand,
Make gallant shew and promise of their mettle;
But when they should endure the bloody spur,
They fall their crest, and, like deceitful jades,
Sink in the trial.

SCENE III. Changes to the Inside of Brutus's Tent.

:

Re-enter Brutus and Caffius.

Cas. (13) That you have wrong'd me doth appear

in this

You have condemn'd and noted Lucius Pella,

For

(13) That, &c.] I shall not use any apology for quoting this celebrated scene entire; fince to have taken any particular passages from it, would have spoilt the beauty of the whole: Its excellence is so generally known, and so greatly admired, that there remains

little

For taking bribes here of the Sardians;
Wherein, my letter (praying on his fide,
Because I knew the man) was flighted of.
Bru. You wrong'd yourself to write in such a case.
Caf. In such a time as this, it is not meet

That (14) ev'ry nice offence should bear its com

ment.

Bru. Yet let me tell you, Caffius, you yourself Are much condemn'd to have an itching palm; To fell, and mart your offices for gold, To undeservers.

little to be faid concerning it: There is a famous scene of the • like kind between Agamemnon and Menelaus, in the Iphigenia in Aulis of Euripides, which Mr. Dryden judges inferior to this; the reader may see what he says upon this head in his preface to Troilus and Creffida, in which he himself has introduced a similar scene: Beaumont and Fletcher, charmed, I suppose, with the Applause our author met with for this scene, (which we find particularly commended in some verses prefix'd to the first folio impreffion of his works,

Or till I hear a scene more nobly take,

Than what thy half-fword parlying Romans make)

They, I fay, have endeavour'd to imitate him, but with their asual fuccess, in the Maid's Tragedy, where "two virtuous perfons, as here and in Euripides, des, rais'd by natural degrees to the extremity of paffion, are conducted to the declination of that paffion, and conclude with the warm renewing of their friendship." See the Maid's Tragedy, Act 3. Mr. Gildon in his remarks on Shakespear's works, at the end of his poems, has tranflated the quarreling scene from Euripides, in which, if a good deal of the fpirit has evaporated, the reader will yet in some measure be able to judge of its merits. See Shakespear's poems, Sewel's edit. p. 388.

(14) Ev'ry nice, &c.] This may be well-understood and explained by every flight or triffing offence; but I am to imagine the author gave it,

That every offence shou'd bear nice comment.

It was so easy for the word nice to have been removed from its proper place: bis comment is in the folio, which shews there is fomething wrong; and the metre by this reading is as perfect, nay more fo, than by the other,

Caf

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