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 ftubborn and too strange a hand
Over your friend that loves you.

Bru. Caffius,

6

Be not deceiv'd: If I have veil'd my look,
I turn the trouble of my countenance
Merely upon myfelf. Vexed I am,

7

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

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 farther my neglect,

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

Caf. Then, Brutus, I have much mistook 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 itfelf, "
But by reflexion by fome other things.
Caf. 'Tis just :

8

Strange a band Strange, is alien, unfamiliar, fuch as might become a stranger.

JOHNSON. -palions of fome difference,] With a fluctation of difcordant opinions and defires.

JOHNSON.

• The eye jees not itself,] So Sir John Davies in his poem on The Immortality of the Soul.

It is because the mind is like the eve,

Thro' which it gathers knowledge ly degrees ;
Whofe rays reflet not, but spread out & arlly;
Not feeing itself, when other things it fees?

Again in Marfion's comedy of the Fawne, 1635.
"Thus few ftrike fail until they run on fhelf
"The eye fees all things but its proper felf."

STEEVENS.

And

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

That you might fee your fhadow. I have heard,
Where many of the beft refpect in Rome,
(Except immortal Cefar,) 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 glafs,
Will modeftly difcover 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
To ftale with ordinary oaths my love
To every new protefter; if you know,
That I do fawn on men, and hug them hard,
And after fcandal them; or if you know,
That I profefs myfelf in banqueting

To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.

[Flourish and bout.

Bru. What means this fhouting? I do fear, the
People

Chufe Cæfar 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?

Toftale with ordinary oaths my love, &c.] To invite every new proteftor to my affection by the fale or allurement of customary

oaths.

JOHNSON.

If it be aught toward the general good,
Set Honour in one eye, and Death i' the 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 single self,
I had as lief not be, as live to be
In awe of fuch a thing as I myself.

I was born free as Cæfar; fo were you :
We both have fed as well; and we can both
Endure the winter's cold, as well as he.
For once, upon a raw and gufty day,

The troubled Tyber chafing with his fhores,
Cæfar, fays to me, "dar'ft thou, Caffius, now
Leap in with me into this angry flood,

66

"And swim to yonder point ?"-Upon the word, Accoutred as I was, I plunged in,

And bid him follow: fo, indeed, he did.
The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it
With lufty finews; throwing it afide,
And ftemming it with hearts of controverfy.
But ere we could arrive the point propos'd,
Cæfar cry'd, "Help me, Caffius, or I fink."
I, as Æneas, our great Ancestor,

Did from the flames of Troy upon his fhoulder
The old Anchifes bear, fo, from the waves of Tyber
Did I the tired Cæfar: and this man
Is now become a God;

and Caffius is

▾ And I will look on both indifferently;] Dr. Warburton has a long note on this occafion, which is very trifling. When Brutus first names Lonour and death, he calmly declares them indifferent; but as the image kindies in his mind, he fets honour above life. is not this natural? JOHNSON. A wretched

A wretched creature, and muft bend his body,
If Cæfar carelefly but nod on him.

He had a fever when he was in Spain,

And, when the fit was on him, I did mark
How he did fhake: 'tis true, this God did fhake:
His coward lips did from their colour fly;
And that fame eye, whofe Bend doth awe the world,
Did lofe its luftre: I did hear him groan:

Ay, and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans
Mark him, and write his fpeeches in their books,
Alas! it cry'd-" give me fome drink, Titinius"-
As a fick girl. Ye Gods, it doth amaze me,
A man of fuch feeble temper fhould

So get the start of the majestick world,
And bear the Palm alone.

Bru. Another general fhout!

[Shout. Flourish.

I do believe, that thefe applauses are

For fome new honours that are heap'd on Cæfar.
Caf. Why, man, he doth beftride the narrow world
Like a Coloffus; and we petty men

Walk under his huge legs, and peep about
To find ourselves difhonourable graves.
Men at fome time are mafters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

His coward lips did from their colour fly ;] A plain man would have faid, the colour fled from his lips, and not his lips from their colour. But the falfe expreffion was for the fake of as false a piece of wit: a poor quibble, alluding to a coward flying from his colours. WARBURTON.

3-get the fart of the majestick world, &c.] This image is extremely noble: it is taken from the Olympic games. The majeftick world is a fine periphrafis for the Roman empire: their citizens fet themselves on a footing with Kings, and they called their dominion Orbis Romanus. But the particular allufion feems to be to the known ftory of Cafar's great pattern Alexander, who being afked, Whether he would run the courfe at the Olympic games, replied, Yes, if the racers were Kings.

WARBURTON,

Brutus

4

Brutus and Cæfar! what fhould be in that Cæfar?
Why should that name be founded, more than yours?
Write them together, yours is as fair a name;
Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well; +
Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with 'em,
Brutus will start a fpirit, as foon as Cæfar.
Now in the names of all the Gods at once,
Upon what meat does this our Cæfar feed,
That he is grown fo great? Age, thou art fham'd:
Rome, thou haft loft the breed of noble bloods!
When went there by an age, fince the great flood,
But it was fam'd with more than with one man?
When could they fay, till now, that talk'd of Rome,
That her wide walls incompafs'd but one man?
Now is it Rome, indeed; and room enough,
When there is in it but one only man.
Oh! you and I have heard our fathers fay,

5 There was a Brutus once, that would have brook'd
The eternal devil to keep his state in Rome,
As eafily as a king.

Bru. That you do love me, I am nothing jealous; What would you work me to, I have fome aim. How I have thought of this, and of thefe times, I fhall recount hereafter; for this prefent, I would not, fo with love I might intreat you,

4 Sound them, it deth become the mouth as well.]

A fimilar thought occurs in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1614. "What diapafon's more in Tarquin's name

"Than in a fubject's? or what's Tullia

"More in the found, than fhould become the name
"Of a poor maid ?

STEEVENS.

5 There was a Brutus once,] i. e. Lucius Junius BRUTUS. STEEV. • — eternal devil-] I fhould think that our author wrote rather, infernal devil.

JOHNSON.

I would continue to read eternal devil. L. J. Brutus (says Caffius) would as foon have fubmitted to the perpetual dominion of a devil, as to the lafting government of a king.

STEEVENS.

Be