Cit. Live, Brutus, live! live! 1 Cit. Bring him with triumph home unto his house. 2 Cit. Give him a statue with his ancestors. 3 Cit. Let him be Cæsar. 4 Cit. Cæsar's better parts Shall now be crown'd in Brutus.3 1 Cit. We'll bring him to his house with shouts and clamours. Bru. My countrymen, 2 Cit. 1 Cit. Peace, ho! Peace; silence! Brutus speaks. Bru. Good countrymen, let me depart alone, Do grace to Cæsar's corpse, and grace his speech I do entreat you, not a man depart, 1 Cit. Stay, ho! and let us hear Mark Antony. 3 Cit. Let him go up into the publick chair; We'll hear him:-Noble Antony, go up. Ant. For Brutus' sake, I am beholden to you.4 [Exit. He says, for Brutus' sake, He finds himself beholden to us all. 4 Cit. 'Twere best he speak no harm of Brutus here. 1 Cit. This Cæsar was a tyrant. 3 Cit. Nay, that's certain : We are bless'd, that Rome is rid of him. Cit. 3 Shall now be crown'd in Brutus ] As the present hemistich without some additional syllable, is offensively unmetrical, the adverbnow, which was introduced by Sir Thomas Hanmer, is here admitted. Steevens. 4 beholden to you.] Throughout the old copies of Shakspeare, and many other ancient authors, beholden is corruptly spelt-beholding. Steevens. 5 He says, for Brutus' sake,] Here we have another line rendered irregular, by the interpolated and needless words-He says Steevens: I come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him. And Brutus is an honourable man. He hath brought many captives home to Rome, When that the poor have cried, Cæsar hath wept : Yet Brutus says, he was ambitious; You all did see, that, on the Lupercal, I thrice presented him a kingly crown, Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition? I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, And men have lost their reason!-Bear with me; 6 My heart is in the coffin there with Cæsar, And I must pause till it come back to me.] Perhaps our author recollected the following passage in Daniel's Cleopatra, 1594: "As for my love, say, Antony hath all; "Say that my heart is gone into the grave "With him, in whom it rests, and ever shall." Malone. The passage from Daniel is little more than an imitation of part of Dido's speech in the second Æneid, v. 28 & seq: "Ille meos amores “Abstulit, ille habeat secum, servetque sepulchro." Steevens. 1 Cit. Methinks there is much reason in his sayings. 2 Cit. If thou consider rightly of the matter, Cæsar has had great wrong. 3 Cit. Has he, masters? I fear, there will a worse come in his place. 4 Cit. Mark'd ye his words? He would not take the crown; Therefore, 'tis certain, he was not ambitious. 1 Cit. If it be found so, some will dear abide it. 2 Cit. Poor soul! his eyes are red as fire with weeping. Let but the commons hear this testament, Yea, beg a hair of him for memory, And, dying, mention it within their wills, Unto their issue. 4 Cit. We'll hear the will: Read it, Mark Antony. Cit. The will, the will; we will hear Cæsar's will. Ant. Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it; It is not meet you know how Cæsar lov'd you. 7 And none so poor -] The meanest man is now too high to do reverence to Cæsar. Johnson. 8 their napkins] i. e. their handkerchiefs. Napery was the ancient term for all kinds of linen. Steevens. Napkin is the Northern term for handkerchief, and is used in this sense at this day in Scotland. Our author frequently uses the word. See Vol. V, p. 120, n. 4; and Vol. VII, p. 102, n. 1. Malone. You are not wood, you are not stones, but men; 4 Cit. Read the will; we will hear it, Antony; You shall read us the will; Cæsar's will. Ant. Will you be patient? Will you stay a while? I have o'ershot myself, to tell you of it. I fear, I wrong the honourable men, Whose daggers have stabb'd Cæsar: I do fear it. 4 Cit. They were traitors: Honourable men! Cit. The will! the testament! 2 Cit. They were villains, murderers: The will! read the will! Ant. You will compel me then to read the will? 2 Cit. Descend. [He comes down from the Pulpit. 3 Cit. You shall have leave. 4 Cit. A ring; stand round. 1 Cit. Stand from the hearse, stand from the body. Ant. If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. The first time ever Cæsar put it on; 'Twas on a summer's evening, in his tent; That day he overcame the Nervii : Look! in this place, ran Cassius' dagger through: Through this, the well-beloved Brutus stabb'd; For Brutus, as you know, was Cæsar's angel :9 9 For Brutus, as you know, was Cæsar's angel:] This title of endearment is more than once introduced in Sidney's Arcadia. Steevents. This was the most unkindest cut of all: Quite vanquish'd him: then burst his mighty heart; Even at the base of Pompey's statua,1 Which all the while ran blood, great Cæsar fell. 1 Even at the base of Pompey's statua,] [Old copy-statue.] It is not our author's practice to make the adverb even, a dissyllable. If it be considered as a monosyllable, the measure is defective. I suspect therefore he wrote-at Pompey's statua. The word was not yet completely denizened in his time. Beaumont, in his Masque, writes it statua, and its plural statuaes. Yet, it must be acknowledged that statue is used more than once in this play, as a dissyllable. Malone. See Vol. II, p. 226, n. 5; and Vol. XI, p. 113, n. 2. I could bring a multitude of instances in which statua is used for statue. Thus, in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, edit. 1632, 540: and Callistratus by the helpe of Daedalus about Cupid's statua, made" &c Again, 574: “ — ) - his statua was to be seene in the temple of Venus Elusina." Steevens. 2 Which all the while ran blood,] The image seems to be that the blood of Cæsar flew upon the statue, and trickled down it. Johnson. Shakspeare took these words from Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch: "- against the very base whereon Pompey's image stood, which ran all a gore of blood, till he was slain." Steevens. 3 — treason flourish'd —] i. e. flourished the sword. Sɔ, in Romeo and Juliet: And flourishes his blade in spite of me." Steevens. The dint of pity:] is the impression of pity. The word is in common use among our ancient writers. So, in Preston's Cambyses: "Your grace therein may hap receive, with other for your Again, ibid: "He shall dye by dent of sword, or else by choking rope." Steevens. Here is himself, marr'd, as you see, with traitors.] To mar seems |