These couchings and these lowly curtefies I ' And turn pre-ordinance and first decree 2 * Into the lane of children. Be not fond, To think that Cæfar bears fuch rebel blood, With that which melteth fools; I mean, fweet words, If thou dost bend, and pray, and fawn for him, Know, Cæfar doth not wrong; nor without cause Met. Is there no voice more worthy than my own, Bru. I kifs thy hand, but not in flattery, Cæfar; Caf. Pardon, Cæfar; Cæfar, pardon: Caf. I could be well mov'd, if I were as you; And turn pre-ordinance-] Pre-ordinance, for ordinance already established. WARB. Into the lane of children.] I do not well understand what is meant by the lane of children. I should read, the law of children. It was, change pre-ordinance and decree into the law of children; into fuch flight determinations as every start of will would alter. Lane and lawe in fome manufcripts are not eafily diftinguished. JOHNSON. 3 Know, Cæfar doth not wrong; nor without caufe Will he be fatisfied.] Ben Jonfon quotes this line unfaithfully among his Difcoveries, and ridicules it again in the Introduction to his Staple of News. Cry you mercy; you never did wrong, but with just cause?” E 2 STEEVENS. But But I am conftant as the northern star, The skies are painted with unnumbred sparks, 6 That unaffailable holds on his rank, Unfhak'd of motion: and, that I am he, That I was conftant, Cimber should be banish'd; Cim. O Cæfar, Caf. Hence! Wilt thou lift up Olympus ? 7 Caf. Doth not Brutus bootlefs kneel? Cafca. Speak hands for me. [They ftab Cæfar. Caf. Et tu, Brute?--Then fall Cæfar! [Dies. Cin. Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead! Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets. -apprehenfive ;] Sufceptible of fear, or other paffions. 5 but one] One, and only one. 6 JOHNSON, JOHNSON. -bolds on his rank,] Perhaps, holls on his race; continues We commonly fay, To hold a rank, and To hold on his course. a courfe or way. Do not Brutus bootlefs kneel! JOHNSON. JOHNSON. Doth not Brutus bootless kneel?] I cannot subscribe to Mr. Johnfon's opinion. Cæfar, as fome of the confpirators are preffing round him, answers their importunity properly; See you not my orn Brutus kneeling in vain? What fuccefs can you expect to your felicitations, when his are ineffectual? This might have put the late editor in mind of the paffage of Homer, which he has employed in his preface. Thou? (faid Achilles to his captive) when Jub a man as Patroclus has fallen before thee, doft thoù complain of the common lot of mortality? STEEVENS Caf Caf. Some to the common pulpits, and cry out, Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement !" Bru. People, and fenators! be not affrighted; Fly not, ftand ftill. Ambition's debt is paid. Cafca. Go to the pulpit, Brutus. Dec. And Caffius too. Bru. Where's Publius? Cin. Here, quite confounded with this mutiny. Met. Stand faft together, left fome friends of Cæfar's Should chance Bru. Talk not of standing. Publius, good cheer; There is no harm intended to your person, Nor to no Roman elfe: fo tell them, Publius. Cafca. And leave us, Publius; left that the people, Rushing on us, fhould do your age fome mifchief. Bru Do fo; and let no man abide this deed, But we the doers. Enter Trebonius. Caf. Where is Antony? Tre. Fled to his houfe amaz'd. Men, wives, and children, stare, cry out, and run, As it were dooms-day. Bru. Fates! we will know your pleasures :That we fhall die, we know ; 'tis but the time, And drawing days out, that men stand upon. Caf. Why, he that cuts off twenty years of life, Cuts off fo many years of fearing death. Bru. Grant that, and then is death a benefit: So are we Cæfar's friends, that have abridg'd His time of fearing death. Stoop, Romans, stoop; And Stoop, Romans, stoop, &c.] In all the editions this fpeech is afcribed to Brutus, than which nothing is more inconfiftent with his mild and philofophical character. But (as I often find fpeeches And let us bathe our hands in Cæfar's blood "Peace! Freedom! and Liberty !" Caf. Stoop then, and wash. How many ages hence [Dipping their fwords in Cafar's blood. Shall this our lofty fcene be acted o'er, In ftates unborn, and accents yet unknown? No worthier than the duft? Caf. So oft as that shall be, So often fhall the knot of us be call'd Dec. What, fhall we forth? Caf. Ay, every man away: Brutus fhall lead; and we will grace his heels Enter a Servant. Bru. Soft, who comes here? A friend of Antony's. in the later editions put into wrong mouths, different from the first published by the author) I think this liberty not unreasonable. POPE. -Stoop, Romans, floop ;] Mr. Pope has arbitrarily taken away the remainder of this fpeech from Brutus, and placed it to Casca : because he thinks nothing is more inconfiftent with Brutus's mild and philofophical character. I have made bold to restore the fpeech to its right owner. Brutus esteem'd the death of Cæsar a facrifice to liberty: and, as fuch, gloried in his heading the enterprize. Befides, our poet is ftrictly copying a fact in hiftory. Plutarch, in the life of Cæfar, fays, " Brutus and his followers, being 3 yet hot with the murder, march'd in a body from the fenate house to the capitol, with their drawn fwords, with an air of confidence "and affurance." And, in the life of Brutus,-" Brutus and "his party betook themselves to the Capitol, and in their way, fhewing their hands all bloody, and their naked fwords, proclaim'd "liberty to the people." Dr. Warburton follows Pope. THEOB. JOHNSON. Serv. Thus, Brutus, did my mafter bid me kneel; Say, I fear'd Cæfar, honour'd him, and lov'd him. Tell him, so please him come unto this place, Depart untouch'd. Serv. I'll fetch him prefently. [Exit Servant. Bru, I know that we fhall have him well to friend. Caf. I wish we may but yet have I a mind, That fears him much; and my mifgiving ftill Falls fhrewdly to the purpose. Enter Antony. Bru. But here comes Antony.-Welcome, Mark Ant. O mighty Cæfar! doft thou lie fo low? 9—who elfe is rank;] Who elfe may be fuppofed to have overtopped his equals, and grown too high for the public fafety. JOHNS. |