-Bear with me, And men have loft their reason.- * * But yesterday the word of Cæfar might Let but the commons hear this teflament, Unto their iffue. 4 Pleb. We'll hear the will; read it, Mark Antony. All. The will; the will; we will hear Cafar's will. Ant. Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it; It is not meet you know how Cæfar lov'd you; For For if you fhould-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-fhot myself, to tell you of it.) I fear, I wrong the honourable men, Whose daggers have ftabb'd Cæfar. I do fear it. 4 Pleb. They were traitors-honourable men! All. The will! the teftament! Ant. You will compel me then to read the will? Then make a ring about the corps of Cæfar, And let me fhew you him, that made the will. Shall I defcend, and will you give me leave? All. Come down. 2 Pleb. Defcend, [He comes down from the pulpit. Ant. If you have tears, prepare to fhed them now. You all do know this mantle; I remember, The first time ever Cæfar put it on ; "Twas on a fummer's evening in his tent, That day he overcame the Nervii Look! in this place, ran Caffius' dagger through;- And, in (11) this mantle muffling up his face, (Which all the while ran blood) great Cæfar fell. O now you weep; and, I perceive, you feel Kind fouls! what, weep you, when you but behold 2 Pleb. We will be reveng`d; revenge; aboutfeek-burn-fire-kill-flay! let not a traitor live. Ant. Good friends, fweet friends, let me not ftir you up To fuch a fudden flood of mutiny: They, that have done this deed, are honourable. 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 : (11) This] Upton vulg. bis. "The action and the emphafis is highly improved by this eafy 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 obfervations on Shakespear. (12) See Vol. I. p. 177. n, 6, Το To ftir mens blood; I only speak right on. I tell you that, which you yourfelves do know ; Shew you fweet Cæfar's wounds, poor, poor dumb mouths! And bid them speak for me. But were I Brutus, ACT. IV. SCENE II. Ceremony infincere. -Ever note, Lucilius, When love begins to ficken and decay, There are no tricks in plain and fimple faith: Make gallant fhew and promise of their mettle; SCENE III. Changes to the Infide of Brutus's Tent. Re-enter Brutus and Caffius. Caf. (13) That you have wrong'd me doth appear in this You have condemn'd and noted Lucius Pella, For (13) That, &c.] I fhall not ufe any apology for quoting this celebrated scene entire ; fince to have taken any particular paffages from it, would have spoilt the beauty of the whole: Its excellence is fo generally known, and fo greatly admired, that there remains For taking bribes here of the Sardians; Bru. You wrong'd yourself to write in fuch a cafe. That (14) ev'ry nice offence fhould bear its comment. 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 undefervers. little to be faid concerning it: There is a famous fcene 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 fee what he fays upon this head in his preface to Troilus and Crefida, in which he himself has introduced a similar fcene: Beaumont and Fletcher, charmed, I fuppofe, with the Applaufe our author met with for this fcene, (which we find particularly commended in fome verfes prefix'd to the first folio impreffion of his works, Or till I hear a fcene more nobly take, Than what thy half-fword parlying Romans make) They, I fay, have endeavour'd to imitate him, but with their afual fuccefs, in the Maid's Tragedy, where "two virtuous perfons, as here and in Euripides, 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 friendfhip." See the Maid's Tragedy, Act 3. Mr. Gildon in his remarks on Shakespear's works, at the end of his poems, has tranf lated the quarreling scene from Euripides, in which, if a good deal of the fpirit has evaporated, the reader will yet in fome 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 trifling offence; but I am to imagine the author gave it, That every offence fhou'd bear nice comment. It was fo eafy for the word nice to have been removed from its proper place: his comment is in the folio, which fhews there is fomething wrong; and the metre by this reading is as perfect, nay more fo, than by the other. Caf |