These couchings and these lowly curtefies
Might fire the blood of ordinary men;

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,
That will be thaw'd from the true quality

With that which melteth fools; I mean, fweet words,
Low-crooked curtfies, and bafe fpaniel-fawning.
Thy brother by decree is banifhed:

If thou dost bend, and pray, and fawn for him,
I fpurn thee like a cur out of my way.

Know, Cæfar doth not wrong; nor without cause
Will he be fatisfied.3

Met. Is there no voice more worthy than my own,
To found more fweetly in great Cæfar's ear,
For the repealing of my banish'd brother?

Bru. I kifs thy hand, but not in flattery, Cæfar;
Defiring thee, that Publius Cimber may
Have an immediate freedom of repeal.
Caf. What, Brutus !

Caf. Pardon, Cæfar; Cæfar, pardon:
As low as to thy foot doth Caffius fall,
To beg enfranchisement for Publius Cimber.

Caf. I could be well mov'd, if I were as you;
If I could pray to move, prayers would move me:

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,
Of whofe true, fixt, and refting quality,
There is no fellow in the firmament.

The skies are painted with unnumbred sparks,
They are all fire, and every one doth shine;
But there's but one in all doth hold his place:
So, in the world, 'tis furnish'd well with men,
And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive ;
Yet, in the number, I do know but one

6

That unaffailable holds on his rank,

Unfhak'd of motion: and, that I am he,
Let me a little fhew it, even in this;

That I was conftant, Cimber should be banish'd;
And conftant do remain to keep him so,

Cim. O Cæfar,

Caf. Hence! Wilt thou lift up Olympus ?
Dec. Great Cæfar,

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.
7 Deth not Brutus bootless kneel?] I would read,

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
Up to the elbows, and befmear our fwords:
Then walk we forth even to the market-place,
And, waving our red weapons o'er our heads,
Let's all cry,

"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?
Bru. How many times fhall Cæfar bleed in sport,
That now on Pompey's bafis lies along,

No worthier than the duft?

Caf. So oft as that shall be,

So often fhall the knot of us be call'd
The men that gave their country liberty.

Dec. What, fhall we forth?

Caf. Ay, every man away:

Brutus fhall lead; and we will grace his heels
With the most boldest, and best hearts of Rome.

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;
Thus did Mark Antony bid me fall down; [Kneeling.
And, being proftrate, thus he bade me fay.
Brutus is noble, wife, valiant, and honeft;
Cæfar was mighty, bold, royal, and loving:
Say, I love Brutus, and I honour him;

Say, I fear'd Cæfar, honour'd him, and lov'd him.
If Brutus will vouchsafe that Antony
May fafely come to him, and be refolv'd
How Cæfar hath deferv'd to lie in death,
Mark Antony shall not love Cæfar dead,
So well as Brutus living; but will follow
The fortunes and affairs of noble Brutus,
Thorough the hazards of this untrod state,
With all true faith. So fays my mafter Antony.
Bru. Thy mafter is a wife and valiant Roman;
I never thought him worse.

Tell him, so please him come unto this place,
He fhall be fatisfied; and, by my honour,

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
Antony.

Ant. O mighty Cæfar! doft thou lie fo low?
Are all thy conquefts, glories, triumphs, fpoils,
Shrunk to this little meafure ?-Fare thee well.-
I know not, gentlemen, what you intend,
Who else must be let blood, who elfe is rank:

9—who elfe is rank;] Who elfe may be fuppofed to have overtopped his equals, and grown too high for the public fafety. JOHNS.