That this foul deed shall smell above the earth Enter a Servant. You serve Octavius Cæsar, do SERV. I do, Mark Antony. you not? ANT. Cæsar did write for him to come to Rome. SERV. He did receive his letters, and is coming: And bid me say to you by word of mouth, O Cæsar! [Seeing the Body. ANT. Thy heart is big, get thee apart and weep. Passion, I see, is catching; for mine eyes, Seeing those beads of sorrow stand in thine, Began to water. Is thy master coming? SERV. He lies to-night within seven leagues of Rome. ANT. Post back with speed, and tell him what hath chanc'd: 66 that when any wood, in his Forest Laws, c. xx. s. 9, says: pourallee man doth find any wild beasts of the forest in his pourallee, that is in his owne freehold lands, that he hath within the pourallee, he may let slippe his dogges after the wild beastes, and hunt and chase them there," &c. REED. Slips were contrivances of leather by which greyhounds were restrained till the necessary moment of their dismission. See King Henry V. Act III. Sc. I. STEEVENS. To let slip a dog at a deer, &c. was the technical phrase of Shakspeare's time. So, in Coriolanus: "Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash, "To let him slip at will." By the dogs of war, as Mr. Tollet has elsewhere observed, Shakspeare probably meant fire, sword, and famine. So, in King Henry V. Chorus to Act I.: "Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, "Assume the port of Mars; and, at his heels, "Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire, "Crouch for employment." The same observation is made by Steele, in the Tatler, No. 137. 8 FOR mine eyes,] Old copy-from mine eyes. by the editor of the second folio. MALONE. MALONE. Corrected Here is a mourning Rome, a dangerous Rome, 9 Hie hence, and tell him so. Yet, stay a while; In my oration, how the people take [Exeunt, with CESAR'S Body. SCENE II. The Same. The Forum. Enter BRUTUS and CASSIUS, and a Throng of Citizens. CIT. We will be satisfied; let us be satisfied. BRU. Then follow me, and give me audience, friends. Cassius, go you into the other street, And part the numbers.— Those that will hear me speak, let them stay here; Those that will follow Cassius, go with him; And publick reasons shall be rendered Of Cæsar's death. 1 CIT. I will hear Brutus speak. 2 CIT. I will hear Cassius; and compare their reasons, 9 No Rome of safety, &c.] If Shakspeare meant to quibble on the words Rome and room, in this and a former passage, he is at least countenanced in it by other authors. So, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1638: 66 You shall have my room, My Rome indeed, for what I seem to be, "Brutus is not, but born great Rome to free." STEEVENS. When severally we hear them rendered. [Erit CASSIUS, with some of the Citizens. BRUTUS goes into the Rostrum. 3 CIT. The noble Brutus is ascended: Silence! BRU. Be patient till the last. Romans, countrymen, and lovers! hear me for my cause; and be silent that you may hear: believe me for mine honour; and have respect to mine honour, that you may believe: censure me in your wisdom; and awake your senses that you may the better judge. If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Cæsar's, to him I say, that Brutus' love to Cæsar was no less than his. If then that friend demand, why Brutus rose against Cæsar, this is my answer,-Not that I loved Cæsar less, but that I loved Rome more. Had you rather Cæsar were living, and die all slaves; than that Cæsar were 11 countrymen, and lovers! &c.] There is no where, in all Shakspeare's works, a stronger proof of his not being what we call a scholar than this; or of his not knowing any thing of the genius of learned antiquity. This speech of Brutus is wrote in imitation of his famed laconick brevity, and is very fine in its kind; but no more like that brevity, than his times were like Brutus's. The ancient laconick brevity was simple, natural, and easy; this is quaint, artificial, jingling, and abounding with forced antitheses. In a word, a brevity, that for its false eloquence would have suited any character, and for its good sense would have become the greatest of our author's time; but yet, in a style of declaiming, that sits as Brutus as our author's trowsers or collar-band would have WARBURTON. ill upon done. I cannot agree with Warburton that this speech is very fine in its kind. I can see no degree of excellence in it, but think it a very paltry speech for so great a man, on so great an occasion. Yet Shakspeare has judiciously adopted in it the style of Brutusthe pointed sentences and laboured brevity which he is said to have affected. M. MASON. This artificial jingle of short sentences was affected by most of the orators in Shakspeare's time, whether in the pulpit or at the bar. The speech of Brutus may therefore be regarded rather as an imitation of the false eloquence then in vogue, than as a specimen of laconick brevity. STEEVENS. As Cæsar loved me, I dead, to live all free men? weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honour him: but, as he was ambitious, I slew him: There is tears, for his love; joy, for his fortune; honour, for his valour; and death, for his ambition. Who is here so base, that would be a bondman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so rude, that would not be a Roman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so vile, that will not love his country? If any, speak; for him have I offended. pause for a reply. I CIT. None, Brutus, none. Several speaking at once. BRU. Then none have I offended. I have done no more to Cæsar, than you shall do to Brutus. The question of his death is enrolled in the Capitol: his glory not extenuated, wherein he was worthy; nor his offences enforced, for which he suffered death. Enter ANTONY and Others, with CESAR'S Body. Here comes his body, mourned by Mark Antony: who, though he had no hand in his death, shall receive the benefit of his dying, a place in the commonwealth; As which of you shall not? With this I depart; That, as I slew my best lover2 for the 2 -as I slew my best LOVER-] So, in Coriolanus, Act V. Sc. II. : I tell thee, fellow, 66 "The general is my lover." So, in the Merchant of Venice, vol. v. p. 97 : "How dear a lover of my lord your husband." Again, in the same play, p. 99: "Being the bosom lover of my lord." MALONE. This term, which cannot but sound disgustingly to modern ears, as here applied, Mr. Malone considers (see Coriolanus, Act V. Sc. II.) as the language of Shakspeare's time; but this opinion, from the want of contemporary examples to confirm it, may admit of a doubt. It is true it occurs several times in our good of Rome, I have the same dagger for myself, when it shall please my country to need my death. 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 3 Shall now be crown'd in Brutus 3. author, who probably found it in North's Plutarch's Lives, and transferred a practice sanctioned by Lycurgus, and peculiar to Sparta, to Rome, and to other nations. It was customary in the former country for both males and females to select and attach themselves to one of their own sex, under the appellation of lovers and favourers. These, on one part, were objects to imitate, and on the other, to watch with constant solicitude, in order to make them wise, gentle, and well conditioned. "To the lovers" (says Mr. Dyer, in his revision of Dryden's Plutarch, vol. i. p. 131,) they (the elders of Lacedemon) imputed the virtues or the vices which were observed in those they loved; they commended them if the lads were virtuous, and fined them if they were otherwise. They likewise fined those who had not made choice of any favourite. And here we may observe Lycurgus did not copy this instruction from the practice observed in Crete, thinking without doubt such an example of too dangerous a tendency." Strabo, 1. x. REED. See In my note on the passage quoted from The Merchant of Venice, vol. v. p. 99, I have already produced the contemporary authority of Ben Jonson in a letter to Dr. Donne. Again, in his Discoveries [vol. ix. p. 118, Gifford's edit.]: "Many foolish lovers wish the same to their friends which their enemies would." Again, the Dedication of his Silent Woman to Sir Francis Stuart, concludes, "Your unprofitable but true lover." Again, in Lupsette's Exhortation to Yonge Men, 1538: "My good Withepol (Edmund Withepol,] take heed to my lesson. I am in doubte whether you have any other lover that can and wyll shewe you a like tale." I could add a multitude of other quotations to the same effect; but Mr. Reed's whimsical fancy of the term being borrowed from North's Plutarch, is, I trust, already sufficiently overthrown. MALONE. 3 Shall Now be crown'd in Brutus.] As the present hemistich, without some additional syllable, is offensively unmetrical, the adverb-now, which was introduced by Sir Thomas Hanmer, is here admitted. STEEVENS. |