Caf. Brutus, I do obferve you now of late: Bru. Caffius, 6 Be not deceiv'd: If I have veil'd my look, 7 Of late, with paffions of fome difference, Which give fome foil, perhaps, to my behaviours: Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war, Caf. Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your paffion; By means whereof, this breaft of mine hath buried 8 Strange a band Strange, is alien, unfamiliar, fuch as might become a stranger. JOHNSON. -palions of fome difference,] With a fluctation of difcordant opinions and defires. JOHNSON. • The eye jees not itself,] So Sir John Davies in his poem on The Immortality of the Soul. It is because the mind is like the eve, Thro' which it gathers knowledge ly degrees ; Again in Marfion's comedy of the Fawne, 1635. STEEVENS. And And it is very much lamented, Brutus, That you might fee your fhadow. I have heard, Caf. Therefore, good Brutus, be prepar'd to hear: That of yourself, which yet you know not of. To all the rout, then hold me dangerous. [Flourish and bout. Bru. What means this fhouting? I do fear, the Chufe Cæfar for their King. Caf. Ay, do you fear it? Then must I think, you would not have it fo. Bru. I would not, Caffius; yet I love him well:But wherefore do you hold me here fo long? What is it, that you would impart to me? Toftale with ordinary oaths my love, &c.] To invite every new proteftor to my affection by the fale or allurement of customary oaths. JOHNSON. If it be aught toward the general good, I was born free as Cæfar; fo were you : The troubled Tyber chafing with his fhores, 66 "And swim to yonder point ?"-Upon the word, Accoutred as I was, I plunged in, And bid him follow: fo, indeed, he did. Did from the flames of Troy upon his fhoulder and Caffius is ▾ And I will look on both indifferently;] Dr. Warburton has a long note on this occafion, which is very trifling. When Brutus first names Lonour and death, he calmly declares them indifferent; but as the image kindies in his mind, he fets honour above life. is not this natural? JOHNSON. A wretched A wretched creature, and muft bend his body, He had a fever when he was in Spain, And, when the fit was on him, I did mark Ay, and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans So get the start of the majestick world, Bru. Another general fhout! [Shout. Flourish. I do believe, that thefe applauses are For fome new honours that are heap'd on Cæfar. Walk under his huge legs, and peep about His coward lips did from their colour fly ;] A plain man would have faid, the colour fled from his lips, and not his lips from their colour. But the falfe expreffion was for the fake of as false a piece of wit: a poor quibble, alluding to a coward flying from his colours. WARBURTON. 3-get the fart of the majestick world, &c.] This image is extremely noble: it is taken from the Olympic games. The majeftick world is a fine periphrafis for the Roman empire: their citizens fet themselves on a footing with Kings, and they called their dominion Orbis Romanus. But the particular allufion feems to be to the known ftory of Cafar's great pattern Alexander, who being afked, Whether he would run the courfe at the Olympic games, replied, Yes, if the racers were Kings. WARBURTON, Brutus 4 Brutus and Cæfar! what fhould be in that Cæfar? 5 There was a Brutus once, that would have brook'd Bru. That you do love me, I am nothing jealous; What would you work me to, I have fome aim. How I have thought of this, and of thefe times, I fhall recount hereafter; for this prefent, I would not, fo with love I might intreat you, 4 Sound them, it deth become the mouth as well.] A fimilar thought occurs in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1614. "What diapafon's more in Tarquin's name "Than in a fubject's? or what's Tullia "More in the found, than fhould become the name STEEVENS. 5 There was a Brutus once,] i. e. Lucius Junius BRUTUS. STEEV. • — eternal devil-] I fhould think that our author wrote rather, infernal devil. JOHNSON. I would continue to read eternal devil. L. J. Brutus (says Caffius) would as foon have fubmitted to the perpetual dominion of a devil, as to the lafting government of a king. STEEVENS. Be |