And, friends! difperse yourselves: but all remember What you have faid, and fhew yourselves true Ro 6 mans. Bru. Good gentlemen, look fresh and merrily; Let not our looks put on our purposes; But bear it, as our Roman actors do, With untir'd fpirits, and formal conftancy. Manet Brutus. Boy! Lucius!-Faft afleep? It is no matter. Enter Portia. Por. Brutus, my lord! Bru. Portia, what mean you? Wherefore rife you now? It is not for your health, thus to commit Your weak condition to the raw cold morning. Por. Nor for yours neither. You have ungently, Brutus, Stol'n from my bed: And, yefternight at fupper, Mufing and fighing, with your arms a-cross : I urg'd you further; then you scratch'd your head, But, with an angry wafture of your hand, 6 Let not our looks- -] Let not our faces put on, that is, wear or fhou our defigns. JOHNSON. Which feem'd too much enkindled; and, withal, Bru. Why, fo I do :-Good Portia, go to bed. Bru. Kneel not, gentle Portia. Por. I fhould not need, if you were gentle Brutus. Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus, Is it excepted, I fhould know no fecrets To keep with you at meals, 7 comfort your bed, And talk to you fometimes? Dwell I but in the fuburbs Of your good pleasure? If it be no more, Bru. You are my true and honourable wife; That vifit my fad heart. I Por. If this were true, then fhould I know this fecret. grant, I am a woman; but withal, A woman that lord Brutus took to wife: I grant, I am a woman; but withal, 7 To keep with you at meals, &c. "I being, O Brutus, (fayed fhe) the daughter of Cato, was ma"ried vnto thee, not to be thy beddefellowe and companion in bedde and at borde onelie, like a harlot : but to be partaker "alfo with thee, of thy good and euill fortune. Nowe for thy"felfe, I can finde no caufe of faulte in thee touchinge our matche "but for my parte, howe may I fhowe my duetie towardes thee, "and howe muche I woulde doe for thy fake, if I can not con"ftantlie beare a fecret mifchaunce or griefe with thee, which re"quireth fecrecy and fidelity? I confeffe, that a womans wit "commonly is too weake to keepe a fecret fafely: but yet, Bru"tus, good education, and the companie of vertuous men, haue "fome power to reforme the defect of nature. And for my felfe, "I haue this benefit moreouer: that I am the daughter of Cato, "and wife of Brutus. This notwithstanding, I did not truft to "any of these things before: vntill that now I haue found by experience, that no paine nor griefe whatsoeuer can ouercome With those wordes fhe fhewed him her wounde on her thigh, and tolde him what she had done to proue her felfe." Sir Tho. North's Tranflat. of Plutarch. STEEVENS. 66 66 me. 66 -Comfort your bed,]" is but an odd phrafe, and gives as odd "an idea," fays Mr. Theobald. He therefore fubftitutes, confort. But this good old word, however difufed through modern refinement, was not fo difcarded by Shakespeare. Henry VIII. as we read in Cavendish's life of Wolfey, in commendation of queen Katharine, in public faid, " She hath beene to me a true obedient wife, and as comfortable as I could with." UPTON. A wa • A woman well-reputed Cato's daughter. Tell me your counfels, I will not disclose them : Here, in the thigh: can I bear that with patience, Bru. O ye Gods, Render me worthy of this noble wife! [Knock. Hark, hark! one knocks: Portia, go in a while; The fecrets of my heart. All my engagements I will conftrue to thee, Enter Lucius and Ligarius. Lucius, who is that knocks? [Exit Portia. Luc. Here is a fick man, that would speak with you. Bru. Caius Ligarius, that Metellus fpake of.Boy, ftand afide. Caius Ligarius! how? Cai. Vouchfafe good-morrow from a feeble tongue. A woman well-reputed; Cato's daughter.] This falfe pointing fhould be corrected thus, A woman well reputed Cato's daughter. i. e. worthy of my birth, and the relation I bear to Cato. This indeed was a good reafon why fhe fhould be intrufted with the fecret. But the falfe pointing, which gives a fenfe only implying that she was a woman of a good character, and that she was Cato's daughter, gives no good reafon: for the might be Cato's daughter, and yet not inherit his firmness; and fhe might be a woman well-reputed, and yet not the best at a fecret. But if the was well-reputed Cato's daughter, that is, worthy of her birth, fhe could neither want her father's love to her country, nor his refoWARBURTON. lution to engage in its deliverance. Bru. O, what a time have you chofe out, brave Caius, To wear a kerchief? Would you were not fick! Bru. Such an exploit have I in hand, Ligarius, Had you an healthful ear to hear of it. Cai. By all the Gods the Romans bow before, Bru. A piece of work, that will make fick men whole. Cai. But are not fome whole, that we must make fick? Bru. That we muft alfo. What it is, my Caius, I fhall unfold to thee, as we are going, To whom it must be done. Cai. Set on your foot; And with a heart new-fir'd, I follow you, To do I know not what: but it fufficeth, Bru. Follow me then. Caf SCENE II. Changes to Cafar's Palace. [Exeunt. Thunder and lightning. Enter Julius Cæfar. NOR OR heaven, nor earth, have been at peace to-night: Thrice hath Calphurnia in her fleep cry'd out, Help, ho! they murder Cæfar." Who's within? Enter |