Enter a Servant.

Serv. My Lord ?

Caf. Go bid the priests do prefent facrifice, And bring me their opinions of fuccefs.

Serv. I will, my lord.

Enter Calphurnia.

[Exit.

Cal. What mean you, Cæfar? Think you to walk forth?

You fhall not ftir out of your houfe to-day.

Caf. Cæfar fhall forth. The things, that threatened me,

Ne'er lookt but on my back; when they fhall fee
The face of Cæfar, they are vanished.

Cal. Cæfar, I never stood on ceremonies,
Yet now they fright me. There is one within,
Befides the things that we have heard and feen,
Recounts moft horrid fights feen by the watch.
A lionefs hath whelped in the streets;

And graves have yawn'd, and yielded up their dead:
Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds,

In ranks, and fquadrons, and right form of war,
Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol :

The noise of battle hurtled in the air;
Horfes did neigh, and dying men did groan;
And ghofts did fhriek, and fqueal about the streets.
O Cæfar! these things are beyond all use,

And I do fear them.

Cafar, I never flood on ceremonies.] i. e. I never paid a ceremonious regard to prodigies or omens.

The adjective is used in the fame fenfe in the Devil's Charter, 1607.

"The devil hath provided in his covenant,
"I fhould not cross myself at any time :-
"I never was fo ceremonious."

STEEVENS.

Caf.

Caf. What can be avoided,

Whofe end is purpos'd by the mighty Gods?
Yet Cæfar fhall go forth: for these predictions
Are to the world in general, as to Cæfar.

Cal. When beggars die, there are no comets feen: The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of

princes.

Caf. Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never tafte of death but once. Of all the wonders that I

yet have heard,

2

It seems to me most strange that men should fear; Seeing that death, a neceffary end,

3

Will come, when it will come.

Enter a Servant.

What fay the augurers?

Serv. They would not have you to ftir forth to-day. Plucking the entrails of an offering forth,

They could not find a heart within the beast.

[Exit Servant.

Caf. The Gods do this in fhame of cowardice:

Cæfar fhould be a beast without a heart,

If he should stay at home to-day for fear.

No, Cæfar fhall not: Danger knows full well,
That Cæfar is more dangerous than he.

2 This fentiment appears to have been imitated by Dr. Young in his tragedy of Bufiris king of Egypt.

"Didft thou e'er fear?

Sure 'tis an art; I know not how to fear :
'Tis one of the few things beyond my power;
And if death must be fear'd before 'tis felt,
Thy mafter is immortal.-

STEEVENS.

3 -death, a neceffary end, &c.] This is a fentence derived from the Stoical doctrine of predeftination, and is therefore improper in the mouth of Cæfar.

4

in fhame of cowardice:] The ancients did not place courage but wisdom in the heart.

JOHNSON.

JOHNSON.

We

We were two lions litter'd in one day,
And I the elder and more terrible;
And Cæfar fhall forth.

go

Cal. Alas, my lord,

Your wisdom is confum'd in confidence.
Do not go forth to-day: call it my fear,

That keeps you in the house, and not your own,
We'll fend Mark Antony to the fenate-house;
And he will fay, you are not well to-day:
Let me, upon my knee, prevail in this.

Caf. Mark Antony fhall fay, I am not well;
And, for thy humour, I will ftay at home.

Enter Decius.

Here's Decius Brutus, he shall tell them fo.
Dec. Cæfar, all hail! Good morrow, worthy Cæfar:
I come to fetch you to the fenate-house.

Caf. And you are come in very happy time,
To bear my greeting to the fenators,

And tell them, that I will not come to-day :
Cannot is falfe; and that I dare not, falfer;
I will not come to-day. Tell them fo, Decius.
Cal. Say, he is fick.

Caf. Shall Cæfar fend a lye?

Have I in conqueft ftretcht mine arm so far,
To be afraid to tell grey-beards the truth ?-
Decius, go tell them, Cæfar will not come;

Dec. Moft mighty Cæfar, let me know fome caufe, Left I be laugh'd at, when I tell them fo.

5 In old editions,

We heard two lions

-We beare

The first folio,

The copies have been all corrupt, and the paffage, of courfe, unintelligible. But the flight alteration, I have made, restores fenfe to the whole; and the fentiment will neither be unworthy of Shakespeare, nor the boaft too extravagant for Cæfar in a vein of vanity to utter that he and Danger were two twin-whelps of a lion, and he the elder, and more terrible of the two. THEOB.

Caf.

Caf. The cause is in my will, I will not come;
That is enough to fatisfy the fenate.
But for your private fatisfaction,

Because I love you, I will let you know.
Calphurnia here, my wife, ftays me at home:
She dreamt laft night fhe faw my ftatue,
Which, like a fountain with an hundred fpouts,
Did run pure blood; and many lufty Romans
Came fmiling, and did bathe their hands in it.

6

And these she does apply for warnings and portents, And evils imminent; and on her knee

Hath begg'd, that I will stay at home to-day.
Dec. This dream is all amifs interpreted;

It was a vifion, fair, and fortunate :

Your statue, spouting blood in many pipes,
In which fo many fmiling Romans bath'd,
Signifies, that from you great Rome fhall fuck
Reviving blood; 7 and that great men fhall prefs

6 Thefe fhe does apply for warnings and portents,
And evil. imminent,

The late Mr. Eduards was of opinion that we should read

Of evils imminent.

7

warnings and portents

For

STEEVENS.

-and that great men shall press

For tinctures, ftains, relicks, and cog izance.]

That this dream of the ftatue's fpouting blood fhould fignify, the increase of power and empire to Rome from the influence of Cafar's arts and arms, and wealth and honour to the noble Romans through his beneficence, expreffed by the words, From you great Rome hall fuck reviving blood, is intelligible enough. But how thefe great men fhould literally prefs for tinctures, ftains, relicks, and cognisance, when the fpouting blood was only a fymbolical vifion, I am at a lofs to apprehend. Here the circumftances of the dream, and the interpretation of it, are confounded with one another. This line therefore,

For tinctures, flains, relicks, and cognisance,

muft needs be in way of fimilitude only; and if fo, it appears that fome lines are wanting between this and the preceding; which

want

For tinctures, ftains, relicks, and cognisance.
This by Calphurnia's dream is fignity'd.

Caf. And this way have you well expounded it. Dec. I have, when you have heard what I can fay; And know it now; the fenate have concluded To give this day a crown to mighty Cæfar. If you fhall fend them word you will not come, Their minds may change. Befides, it were a mock Apt to be render'd, for fome one to fay, "Break up the fenate 'till another time,

"When Cæfar's wife shall meet with better dreams." If Cæfar hide himself, fhall they not whisper, "Lo, Cæfar is afraid!"

Pardon me, Cæfar, for my dear, dear, love

To your proceeding bids me tell you this;

8

And reafon to my love is liable.

Caf. How foolish do your fears feem now, Calphurnia?

want fhould, for the future, be marked with afterisks. The fenfe of them is not difficult to recover, and, with it, the propriety of the line in queftion. The speaker had faid, the ftatue fignified, that by Cæfar's influence Rome fhould flourish and increase in empire, and that great men fhould prefs to him to partake of his good fortune, just as men run with handkerchiefs, &c. to dip them in the blood of martyrs, that they may partake of their me rit. It is true, the thought is from the Chriftian history; but fo small an anachronism is nothing with our poet. Befides, it is not my interpretation which introduces it, it was there before: for the line in queftion can bear no other fenfe than as an allusion to the blood of the martyrs, and the fuperftition of fome churches with regard to it. WARBURTON.

I am not of opinion that any thing is loft, and have therefore marked no omiffion. This fpeech, which is intentionally pompous, is fomewhat confufed. There are two allufions; one to coats armorial, to which princes make additions, or give new tindures, and new marks of cognisance,; the other to martyrs, whofe reliques are preferved with veneration. The Romans, fays. Brutus, all come to you as to a faint, for reliques, as to a prince, for honours. JOHNSON. 8 And reafon, &c.] And reafon, or propriety of conduct and language, is fubordinate to my love.

JOHNSON.