And bring us word, unto Octavius' tent,

How everything is chanc'd.

SCENE V. Another Part of the Field.

[Exeunt.

Enter BRUTUS, DARDANIUS, CLITUS, STRATO, and VOLUMNIUS. BRU. Come, poor remains of friends, rest on this rock. CLI. Statilius show'd the torchlight; but, my lord,

He came not back; he is or ta'en, or slain.

BRU. Sit thee down, Clitus: Slaying is the word; It is a deed in fashion. Hark thee, Clitus.

[Whispering.

CLI. What I, my lord? No, not for all the world.
BRU. Peace then, no words.

CLI.

BRU. Hark thee, Dardanius.
DAR.

CLI. O, Dardanius!

DAR. O, Clitus!

I'll rather kill myself.

[Whispers i im.

Shall I do such a deed?

CLI. What ill request did Brutus make to thee?
DAR. To kill him, Clitus. Look, he meditates.
CLI. Now is that noble vessel full of grief,

That it runs over even at his eyes.

BRU. Come hither, good Volumnius: list a word.
VOL. What says my lord?

BRU.

Why, this, Volumnius:

The ghost of Cæsar hath appear'd to me

Two several times by night: at Sardis, once;
And, this last night, here in Philippi fields.
I know my hour is come.

VOL.

Not so, my lord.
BRU. Nay, I am sure it is, Volumnius.

Thou seest the world, Volumnius, how it goes;
Our enemies have beat us to the pit:

It is more worthy to leap in ourselves,

Than tarry till they push us. Good Volumnius,

Thou know'st that we two went to school together;
Even for that our love of old, I prithee,

Hold thou my sword-hilts, whilst I run on it.

VOL. That's not an office for a friend, my lord.

[Alarum still

CLI. Fly, fly, my lord; there is no tarrying here.

BRU. Farewell to you-and you;—and you, Volumnius.— Strato, thou hast been all this while asleep; Farewell to thee too, Strato.-Countrymen, My heart doth joy that yet, in all my life, I found no man but he was true to me. I shall have glory by this losing day, More than Octavius and Mark Antony By this vile conquest shall attain unto.

So, fare you well at once; for Brutus' tongue

Hath almost ended his life's history:

Night hangs upon mine eyes: my bones would rest,

That have but labour'd to attain this hour.

CLI. Fly, my lord, fly!

BRU.

[Alarum. Cry within; Fly, fly, fly!

Hence; I will follow.

[Exeunt CLITUS, DARDANIUS, and VOLUMNIUS.

I prithee, Strato, stay thou by thy lord:

Thou art a fellow of a good respect;

Thy life hath had some smatch of honour in it:
Hold then my sword, and turn away thy face,

While I do run upon it. Wilt thou, Strato?

STRA. Give me your hand first: Fare you well, my lord. BRU. Farewell, good Strato.-Cæsar, now be still:

I kill'd not thee with half so good a will.

[He runs on his sword, and dies

Alarum. Retreat. Enter OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, MESSALA, LUCILIUS, and their army.

OCT. What man is that?

MES. My master's man.-Strato, where is thy master? STRA. Free from the bondage you are in, Messala;

The conquerors can but make a fire of him;

For Brutus only overcame himself,

And no man else hath honour by his death.

LUC. So Brutus should be found.-I thank thee, Brutus,

That thou hast prov'd Lucilius' saying true.

OCT. All that serv'd Brutus, I will entertain them.

Fellow, wilt thou bestow thy time with me?

STRA. Ay, if Messala will prefer me to you.

OCT. Do so, good Messala.
MES.

How died my master, Strato? STRA. I held the sword, and he did run on it.

MES. Octavius, then take him to follow thee, That did the latest service to my master.

ANT. This was the noblest Roman of them all:
All the conspirators, save only he,

Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar;
He only, in a general honest thought,
And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle; and the elements
So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up,
And say to all the world, "This was a man!"

OCT. According to his virtue let us use him,
With all respect and rites of burial.
Within my tent his bones to-night shall lie,
Most like a soldier, order'd honourably.—
So, call the field to rest: and let's away
To part the glories of this happy day.

[Exeuni

VARIOUS READINGS.

"Fast asleep! It is no matter; Enjoy the heavy honey-dew of slumber." ACT II., Sc. 1.

The original has "honey-heavy dew." "The compositor was guilty of a transposition," says Mr. Collier. "Honey-dew is a well known glutinous deposit upon the leaves of trees." Such is the manuscript emendation.

Poor guilty compositor! He should have carried his notion of language a hundred years forward; rejected all Shakspere's compound epithets, and believed that he had no intention of describing the sweet heaviness of sleep, but thought only of glueing-up eyes.

"CINNA. Casca, you are the first that rears your hand.

CASCA. Are we all ready?

CESAR.

What is now amiss,

That Cæsar, and his Senate, must redress?" ACT III., Sc. 1.

In the original Cæsar says, Are we all ready?" Mr. Collier's corrections give the words to Casca; as Ritson also did.

The distribution seems plausible. But Brutus has just said of Cæsar, "he is address'd," which means "he is ready." Casar, being ready himself, looks to the senate, and says "Are we all ready?"

"BRUTUS. I had rather be a dog, and bait the moon,

Than such a Roman.

CASSIUS.

Brutus, bait not me."

The Manuscript Corrector has bait in both places. Steevens proposed to read bay in both. The original has "bay the moon," and "bait not me."

ACT IV., Sc. 3.

The Corrector and Steevens both go upon the assumption that Cassius should catch at a word, when his soul was agonised by a masterthought. To bay is to bark, which is clearly right, applied to a dog. To bait is to worry, to attack, as in Midsummer Night's Dream'— "To bait me with this foul derision."

"All the conspirators, save only he,
Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar;
He only, in a generous, honest thought
Of common good to all, made one of them."

The original has—

"He only, in a general honest thought,

And common good to all."

The MS. Corrector gives generous. "The scribe mis-heard," says Mr. Collier.

(ACT V., Sc. 5.)

The other conspirators had personal motives of envy. Brutus, only, had a thought for the general welfare. The introduction of generous sounds very modern.

GLOSSARY.

ADDRESS'D. Act III., Sc. 1.

"He is address'd."

Address'd is ready, prepared. So in 'Love's Labour's Lost'— "He and his competitors in oath

Were all address'd to meet you."

ARE. Act V., Sc. 1.

"The posture of your blows are yet unknown." When a plural noun in the genitive case immediately preceded the verb, the writers of Shakspere's time frequently disregarded the real singular nominative; and such a construction as the above must not be imputed to grammatical ignorance, but to a licence warranted by the best examples. ARRIVE. Act I., Sc. 2.

"But ere we could arrive the point propos'd.”

Milton has a similar use of the verb arrive without the preposition at, in

BROUGHT. Act I., Sc. 3.

"Ere he arrive

The happy isle."

Brought you Cæsar home?"

Brought is here used for accompanied. To bring one on his way is to accompany him.