"Caffius. Ay, do you fear it?

"Then muft I think, you would not have it so. "Brut. I would not Caffius; yet I love him

"well:

"But wherefore do you hold me here so long? "What is it, that you would impart to me? "If it be aught toward the general good "Set honour, &c."

"If it be ought toward the general good, σε (πρὸς τὸ ὅλον, πρὸς τὴν πόλιν) as I am a part "that whole, a citizen of that city; my prin"ciples lead me to perfue it; this is my end,

my good whatever comes in competition "with the general good, will weigh nothing; "death and honour are to me things of an indifferent nature: but however I freely acknow

ledge that, of thefe indifferent things, honour "has my greatest efteem, my choice and love; "the very name of honour I love, more than I "fear even death."

In Antony and Cleopatra, Act V.

"Cleop. Why that's the way

"To fool their preparation, and to conquer "Their moft abfurd intents."

8

8 They correct, affur'd.

Abfurd,

Abfurd, harfh, grating. Lat. abfurdus, [ex ab et furdus, à quo aures et animum avertas.] Cicer. pro Rofc. f. 7. Fraudavit Rofcius. Eft boc quidem auribus animifque abfurdum. Abfurdum eft, i. e. founds harfh, grating, unpleasant.

There is a paffage in this play which I cannot here pass over. Antony is fpeaking of Octavius Caefar, Act III.

"He at Philippi kept

"His fword e'en like a dancer, while I ftrook "The lean and wrinkled Caffius; and 'twas I "That the 9 mad Brutus ended."

I omit the epithets given to Caffius, as they are well known from Plutarch, and other paffages of our poet. But why does Antony call Brutus Mad? Plato feeing how extravagantly Diogenes acted the philofopher, faid of him, or ΜΑΙΝΟΜΕΝΟΣ Στο Σωκράτης, ἐςίν. That he was Socrates run mad. There is likewife an obfervation drawn from the depth of philofophy by Horace, Ep. I, 6.

Infani fapiens nomen ferat, aequus iniqui; "Ultra quam fatis eft, virtutem fi petat ipfam."

Now if this be the opinion of philofophers themfelves concerning philosophy, that it may be perfued with fo much ardor and enthusiasm, that even the over-strain'd persuit may border on madness; how agreeable is it to the character of the wild, undisciplin'd Antony, to call even Brutus Mad, the fober Brutus, the philofopher and patriot? Such as Antony look on all virtue and patriotism, as enthusiasm and madnels.

I will here add an inftance or two of words and manners of expreffion from other languages, which Shakespeare has introduced into his plays. In Hamlet, Act III.

"That he, as 'twere by accident, may here Affront Ophelia."

i. e. meet her face to face. Ital. affrontare.

In Macbeth, A& III.

"No, this my hand will rather "Thy multitudinous fea incarnadine,

Making the green one red."

i. e. make it red, (as Shakespeare himself explains it) of the carnation colour. Ital. colore incarnatino.

In Henry V. A& IV.

"And newly move

"With cafted flough and fresh legerity."

i. e. alacrity, lightness. Fr. legereté. Ital. leggerezza. He feems to allude to that fine image in Virgil, Aen. II, 471. of Pyrrhus.

Qualis ubi in lucem coluber, malagramina paftus,
Frigida tub terra tumidum quem bruma tegebat;
Nunc pofitis 10 novus exuviis, nitidusque juventâ,
Lubrica fublato convolvit pectore terga,
Arduus ad folem, et linguis micat ora trifulcis.

In the Tempest, Act II. Gonzalo is giving an account of his imaginary commonwealth.

"No name of magistrate;

Letters fhould not be known; wealth; po66 verty,

"And use of service, none; contract, fucceffion, "Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none.

Bourn, from the French word, Borne, a bound or limit: which was not known, as the poets fung, in the golden age. Perhaps from Bavo's,

10 Novus, Virgil uses this word in allufion to his name NEOPTOLEMUS, the new or young warrior.

collis,

collis, tumulus: thefe being the original boundarys. Again, in Antony and Cleopatra, Act I.

"I'll fet a bourn how far to be belov'd."

i. e. a boundary, a limit. A Bourne, fignifies with us, a head of a fountaine; and towns, whofe names end in bourn, are fituated upon fprings of water: perhaps from the Greek word Beúew, fcaturire. I cannot help observing that Shakespeare in the former paffage,

"Bourn, bound of land;"

adds an explanation of the word, which is no unusual thing with the best writers. In K. Lear, Act IV. he ufes it in it's original fignification according to the Greek etymology,

"Edg. From the dread fummit of this chalky "bourn."

I don't remember any one paffage, wherein he ufes bourn for a fpring-head.

In Hamlet, Act II. The "mobled queen: this defignedly affected expreffion seems to be formed

10 I once thought it fhould be mabled, 1. carelefly dreffed. The word is used in the northern parts of England; and by Sandys in his travels, p. 148. The elder mabble their heads in linnen, &c.