If I myself, there is no hour fo fit As Cæfar's death's hour; nor no inftrument I do beseech ye, if ye bear me hard, Now, whilft your purpled hands do reek and fmoke, Fulfil your pleasure. Live a thousand I fhall not find myself so apt to die : years, No place will please me fo, no mean of death, Bru. O Antony! beg not your death of us. Hath done this deed on Cæfar. For your part, * Our arms in strength of malice, and our hearts, Our arms exempt from malice,] This is the reading only of the modern editions, yet perhaps the true reading. The old copy has, Our arms in ftrength of malice. JOHNSON. The old reading I believe to have been what the author meant, and the last editor feems to have given a fanction to the alteration of his predeceffors without confidering the context. To you, (lays Brutus) our words have leaden points; our arms, frong in the deed of malice they have just performed, and our hearts united like thofe of brothers in the action, are yet open to re.eive you with all poffible affection. The fuppofition that Brutus meant, their hearts were of brothers temper in respect of Antony, feems to have mifled those who have confidered this paffage before. I have replaced the old reading. Mr. Pope firft fubftituted the words exempt from, in its place. STEEVENS. Caf. Caf. Your voice shall be as ftrong as any man's In the difpofing of new dignities. Bru. Only be patient, till we have appeas'd Ant. I doubt not of your wisdom. Let each man render me his bloody hand. Yours, Cinna ;-and, my valiant Casca, your's ;— My credit now ftands on fuch flippery ground, That I did love thee, Cæfar, oh, 'tis true: Pardon me, Julius!-Here waft thou bay'd, brave hart; Here didft thou fall, and here thy hunters stand 2 2-crimson'd in thy lethe.] Mr. Theobald fays, The dictionaries acknowledge no fuch word as lethe; yet he is not without fuppofition, that O world thou waft the foreft to this hart; And this, indeed, O world, the heart of thee. Caf. Mark Antony Ant. Pardon me, Caius Caffius: The enemies of Cæfar fhall fay this; Then, in a friend, it is cold modefty. Caf. I blame you not for praifing Cæfar fo; But what compact mean you to have with us? Will you be prick'd in number of our friends? Or fhall we on, and not depend on you? Ant. Therefore I took your hands; but was, indeed, Sway'd from the point, by looking down on Cæfar. Ant. That's all I feek: And am moreover fuitor, that I may Bru. You fhall, Mark Antony. You know not what you do, do not confent, [Afide. that Shakespear coin'd the word; and yet, for all that, the 】 might be a d imperfectly wrote, therefore he will have death inftead of it. After all this pother, letbe was a common French word, fignifying death or deftruction, from the Latin lethum. WARB. Lethe is ufed by many of the old tranflators of novels, for death. STEEVENS. Know Know you, how much the people may be mov'd Bru. By your pardon, I will myself into the pulpit first, And fhew the reafon of our Cæfar's death, Caf. I know not what may fall: I like it not. Bru. Mark Antony, here, take you Cæfar's body. You fhall not in your funeral speech blame us, But speak all good you can devife of Cæfar; And fay, you do't by our permission, Elfe fhall you not have any hand at all About his funeral. And you fhall speak In the fame pulpit whereto I am going, After my fpeech is ended. Ant. Be it fo; I do defire no more. Bru. Prepare the body then, and follow us. [Exeunt Confpirators: Manet Antony. Ant. O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, That I am meek and gentle with thefe butchers. Thou art the ruins of the nobleft man, That ever lived in the tide of times. Woe to the hand that shed this coftly blood! Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips, 3-in the tide of times.] That is, in the courfe of times. JOHN'S. A curfe A curfe fhall light upon the limbs of men; That mothers fhall but fmile, when they behold +-upon the LIMBS of men; ] We should read, —LINE of men ; i, e. human race. unless we read, That WARB. The uncommonnefs of the thefe lymms of then; That is, thefe bloodbounds of men. word lymm eafily made the change. I think the old reading may very well ftand. Antony means. only, that a future curfe fhall commence in diftempers feizing on the limbs of men, and be fucceeded by commotion, cruelty, and defolation over all Italy. STEEVENS. 5 Cry Havock,-] A learned correfpondent has informed me, that, in the military operations of old times, bavock was the word by which declaration was made, that no quarter fhould be given. In a tract intitled, The Office of the Coneftable & Marefchall in the Tyme of Werre, contained in the Black Book of the Admiralty, there is the following chapter: "The peyne of hym that crieth havock and of them that fol "loweth hym. etit. v." Item Si quis inventus fuerit qui clamorem inceperit qui vo "catur Havok." "Alfo that no man be fo hardy to crye Havok upon peyne that "he that is begynner fhal be deede therefore: & the remanent "that doo the fame or folow fhall lose their horse & harneis : "and the perfones of fuch as foloweth & efcrien shal be under ar "reft |