By our permiffion is allow'd to make.
I do intreat you, not a man depart,
Save I alone, till Antony have spoke.

SCENE

[Exit.

VI.

1 Pleb. Stay, ho, and let us hear Mark Antony. 3 Pleb. Let him go up into the public Chair, We'll hear him. Noble Antony, go up.

Ant. For Brutus' fake, I am beholden to you. 4 Pleb. What does he fay of Brutus?

3 Pleb. He fays, for Brutus' fake

He finds himself beholden to us all.

4 Pleb. 'Twere beft he speak no harm of Brutus here. i Pleb. This Cæfar was a Tyrant.

3 Pleb. Nay, that's certain.

We are bleft, that Rome is rid of him.

2 Pleb. Peace; let us hear what Antony can say. Ant. You gentle Romans

All. Peace, ho, let us hear him.

Ant. Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your

ears.

I come to bury Cafar, not to praise him.
The Evil, that men do, lives after them,
The Good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Cæfar! noble Brutus
Hath told you, Cafar was ambitious;
If it were fo, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Cafar anfwer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus, and the reft,
For Brutus is an honourable man,
So are they all, all honourable men,
Come I to fpeak in Cæfar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me,
But Brutus fays, he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.

He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whofe ranfoms did the general coffers fill;

Did this in Cæfar seem ambitious?

When that the poor have cry'd, Cafar hath wept;
Ambition should be made of fterner ftuff,

Yet Brutus fays, he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did fee, that, on the Lupercal,
I thrice prefented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refufe.

Was this ambition?

Yet Brutus fays, he was ambitious;
And, fure, he is an honourable man.
I fpeak not, to difprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without caufe;
What caufe with-holds you then to mourn for him?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have loft their reafon. Bear with me,
My heart is in the coffin there with Cafar,
And I muft paufe 'till it come back to me.

1 Pleb. Methinks, there is much reason in his fay-
ings.

If thou confider rightly of the matter,
Cafar has had great wrong.

3 Pleb. Has he, Mafters? I fear there will a worse come in his place.

4 Pleb. Mark'd ye his words? he would not take the crown;

· Cæfar has had great wrong.] 3 Pleb. Cæfar had never wrong but with just cause. If ever there was fuch a line written by ShakeSpeare, I could fancy it might have its place here, and very humorously in the character of a Plebeian. One might believe Ben Johnson's remark was made upon no better credit than fome blunder of an actor in speaking that verfe near the beginning of the third act.

Know, Cæfar doth not wrong; nor without cause

4

Will he be fatisfied.

But the verse, as cited by Ben Johnson, does not connect with, Will be be fatisfied. Perhaps this play was never printed in Ben Johnson's time, and fo he had nothing to judge by but as the actor pleased to speak it.

I have inferted this note, because it is Pope's, for it is otherwife of no value. It is ftrange that he fhould fo much forget the date of the copy before him, as to think it not printed in Johnfox's time.

Therefore,

Therefore, 'tis certain he was not ambitious.

1 Pleb. If it be found fo, fome will dear abide it.
2 Pleb. Poor foul! his eyes are red as fire with

3

weeping.

Pleb. There's not a nobler man in Rome than

Antony.

4 Pleb. Now, mark him, he begins to speak.
Ant. But yefterday the word of Cefar might
Have ftood against the world; now lies he there,
And none fo poor to do him reverence.
O mafters! if I were difpos'd to ftir

Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage,
I fhould 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 myfelf 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 Teftament,
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 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 Cefar lov'd you.
You are not wood, you are not ftones, but men,
And, being men, hearing the will of Cafar,
It will inflame you, it will make you mad.

2 And none to poor- The meanest man is now too high to do reverence to Cafar.

'Tis good you know not, that you are his heirs; For if you fhould, O what would come of it? 4 Pleb. Read the Will, we will hear it, Antony s You fhall read us the Will, Cafar's Will.

Ant. Will you be patient? will you ftay a while? I have o'erfhot myself, to tell you of it.

I fear, I wrong the honourable men,

Whofe daggers have stabb'd Cafar. I do fear it. 4 Pleb. They were traitors. Honourable men! All. The Will! the Teftament!

2 Pleb. They were villains, murderers. The Will? read the Will!

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.

3

[He comes down from the pulpit.

Pleb. You fhall have leave.

4 Pleb. A ting; ftand round.

1 Pleb. Stand from the hearfe, ftand from the body. 2 Pleb. Room for Antony-moft noble Antony. Ant. Nay, prefs not fo upon me, ftand far off. All. Stand back! room! bear back!

Ant. If you have tears, prepare to fhed them now. You all do know this mantle; I remember,

The first time ever Cafar put it on,

'Twas on a fummer's evening in his tent,
That day he overcome the Nervii.

Look! in this place, ran Caffius dagger through;
See, what a Rent the envious Cafca made;
Through this, the well-beloved Brutus stabb'd;
And as he pluck'd his curfed steel away,
Mark, how the blood of Cafar follow'd it!
As rufhing out of doors, to be refolv'd,
If Brutus fo unkindly knock'd, or no.
For Brutus, as you know, was Cæfar's angel,
Judge, oh you Gods! how dearly Cæfar lov'd him;

This

This was the most unkindeft cut of all;

For when the noble Cæfar saw him stab,
Ingratitude, more ftrong than traitors' arms,
Quite vanquish'd him; then burst his mighty heart;
3 And, in his mantle muffling up his face,
Even at the Base of Pompey's ftatue,

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; thefe are gracious drops.
Kind fouls! what, weep you when you but behold
Our Cæfar's velture wounded? look you here!
Here is himself, marr'd, as you fee, by traitors.
1 Pleb. O piteous fpectacle!

2 Pleb. O noble Cæfar!

3 Pleb. O woful day!

4 Pleb. O traitors, villains! Pleb. O moft bloody fight!

2 Pleb. We will be reveng'd: revenge: aboutfeek-burn-fire-kill-flay! let not a trai

then the reflection, which follows,

O what a fall was thereis natural, lamenting the disgrace of being at laft fubdued in that quarrel in which he had been compleat victor. WARE.

I know not whether the tranfpofition be needful: the image feems to be, that the blood of Cafar flew upon the statue, and trickled down it. And the exclamation,

O what a fall was there— follows better after

great Cæfar fell, than with a line interpofed. 1 Plebs