Fashion it thus; that what he is, augmented, And kill him in the fhell. Enter Lucius. Luc. The taper burneth in your closet, Sir. Searching the window for a flint, I found This paper, thus feal'd up: and, I am sure, It did not lie there, when I went to bed. [Gives him the letter. Bru. Get you to bed again, it is not day. Is not to-morrow, boy, the Ides of March? Luc. I know not, Sir. Bru. Look in the kalendar, and bring me word. Luc. I will, Sir. Bru. The exhalations, whizzing in the air, Give fo much light, that I may read by them. [Exit. [Opens the letter, and reads. Brutus, thou sleep'ft; awake, and fee thyself: Shall Rome Brutus, thou Sleep'ft: awake, Such inftigations have been often dropt, Shall Rome-Thus muft I piece it out; 9 —as his kind,-] According to his nature. JOHNSON. 1 Is not to-morrow, boy, the FIRST of March ?] We fhould read IDES: for we can never fuppofe the fpeaker to have loft fourteen days in his account. He is here plainly ruminating on what the foothfayer told Cæfar [Act I. Scene 2.] in his prefence. [-Beware the Ides of March.] The boy comes back and fays, Sir, March is wafted fourteen days. So that the morrow was the Ides of March, as he fuppofed. For March, May, July, and October, had fix nones each, fo that the fifteenth of March was the Ides of that month. WARBURTON. "Shall "Shall Rome stand under one man's awe? what! "Rome? My ancestors did from the ftreets of Rome "The Tarquin drive, when he was call'd a King." Speak, ftrike, redrefs!Am I entreated To speak and strike? ORome! I make thee promise, If the redrefs will follow, thou receivest Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus ! 2 Enter Lucius. Luc. Sir, March is wafted fourteen days. Sir, March is wafted fifteen days. And The editors are flightly mistaken: it was wafted but fourteen days; this was the dawn of the 15th, when the boy makes his report. 3 Between the acting of a dreadful thing, THEOBALD. And the first mo ́ion, &c.] That nice critic, Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus, complains, that of all kind of beauties, thofe great ftrokes, which he calls the terrible graces, and which are fo frequent in Homer, are the rarest to be found in the following writers. Amongst our countrymen, it feems to be as much confined to the British Homer. This defcription of the condition of confpirators, before the execution of their defign, has a pomp and terror in it that perfectly aftonishes. The excellent Mr. Addifon, whofe modefty made him fometimes diffident of his own genius, but whofe true judgment always led him to the fafeft guides (as we may fee by thofe fine ftrokes in his Cato borrowed from the Phillippics of Cicero) has paraphrafed this fine defcription; but we are no longer to expect thofe terrible graces which animate his original. O think, what anxious moments pass between Fill'd up with horror all, and big with death. Cato. I fhall And the first motion, all the interim is The I fhall make two remarks on this fine imitation. The firft is, that the fubjects of the two confpiracies being fo very different (the fortunes of Cæfar and the Roman empire being concerned in the one; and that of a few auxilliary troops only in the other) Mr. Addison could not, with propriety, bring in that magnificent circumftance which gives one of the terrible graces of Shakespeare's defcription; The genus and the mortal inft, uments Are then in council, For kingdoms, in the Pagan Theology, befides their goed, had their vil genius's, likewife, reprefented here, with the most daring ftretch of fancy, as fitting in confultation with the confpirators, whom he calls their mortal inftruments. But this, as we fay, would have been too pompous an apparatus to the rape and desertion of Syphax and Sempronius. The other thing obfervable is, that Mr. Addifon was fo ftruck and affected with these terrible graces in his original, that inftead of imitating his author's fentiments, he hath, before he was aware, given us only the copy of his own impreffions made by them. For, Oh, 'tis a dreadful interval of time, Fill'd up with horror al, and big with death, are but the affections raised by fuch forcible images as these, All the intrim is Like a phantafma, or a hideous dream. Like to a little kingdom, fuffers then The nature of an infurrection. Comparing the troubled mind of a confpirator to a state of anarchy, is just and beautiful; but the int'rim, or interval, to an bideous vifion, or a frightful dream, holds fomething fo wonderfully of truth, and lays the foul fo open, that one can hardly think it poffible for any man, who had not fome time or other been engaged in a confpiracy, to give fuch force of colouring to nature. WARB. The Savor of the Greek critics does not, I think, mean fentiments which raise fear, more than wonder, or any other of the tu. multuous paffions; To do is that which frikes, which aflonifers, with the idea either of fome great fubject, or of the author's abilities. Dr. Warburton's pompous criticism might well have been shortened. The genius is not the geniu of a kingdom, nor are the inftruments, confpirators. Shakespeare is defcribing what pafies in a fingle bofom, the infurrection which a confpirator feels agitating the little The genius, and the mortal inftruments Enter Lucius. Luc. Sir, 'tis your brother + Caffius at the door, Who doth defire to fee you. Bru. Is he alone? Luc. No, Sir, there are more with him. Bru. Do you know them? Luc. No, Sir; their hats are pluckt about their ears, And half their faces buried in their cloaks, By any mark of favour. as when we you of a m kingdom of his own mind; when the Genius, or power that watches for his protection, and the mortal inftruments, the paffions, which excite him to a deed of honour and danger, are in council and debate; when the defire of action and the care of fafety, keep the mind in continual fluctuation and disturbance. JOHNSON. Instead of inftruments, it should, I think, be inftrument, and explained thus. The genius, i. e. the foul or fpirit, which should govern; and the mortal inftrument, i. e. the man, with all his bodily, that is, earthly paffions, fuch as envy, pride, malice, and ambition, are then in council, i. e. debating upon the horrid action that is to be done, the foul and rational powers diffuading, and the mortal inftrument, man, with his bodily paffions, prompting and pushing on to the horrid deed, whereby the state of man, like to a little kingdom, fuffers then the nature of an infurrection, the inferior powers rifing and rebelling against the fuperior. See this exemplified in Macbeth's foliloquy, and alfo by what King John fays, A&IV. Nay, in the body of this fleshly land, This kingdom, this confine of blood and breath, Between my confcience and my coufin's death. SMITH. +-your brother Caffius-] Caffius married Junia, Brutus's fifter. 3-of favour.] Any distinction of countenance, STEEVENS. JOHNSON. Bru. [Exit Lucius. Bru. Let them enter. They are the faction. O Confpiracy! Sham'st thou to fhew thy dangerous brow by night, When evils are most free? O then, by day, Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough, To mask thy monftrous vifage? Seek none, Confpi racy; Hide it in fmiles and affability: For if thou path thy native femblance on, Not Erebus itself were dim enough To hide thee from prevention. Enter Caffius, Cafca, Decius, Cinna, Metellus, and Trebonius. Caf. I think, we are too bold upon your reft. Good morrow, Brutus: do we trouble you ? Bru. I have been up this hour; awake all night. Which every noble Roman bears of you. Bru. He is welcome hither. Caf. This, Decius Brutus. Bru. They are all welcome. What watchful cares do interpose themselves Betwixt your eyes and night? Caf. Shall I entreat a word? [They whisper. Dec. Here lies the Eaft: doth not the day break ' here? For if thou path thy native femblance on,] If thou walk in thy true form. JOHNSON. |