272. "Such men as he be never at heart's ease."

The using, thus, the subjunctive "be," instead of the indicative are, is an error that, I think, should be silently repaired in the text. Notwithstanding it was the practice of our author, as well as others of his time, why should mistakes confessed, be perpetuated when they can be corrected without any inconvenience?

"Why, you were with him, were you not?» The measure, here, is unnecessarily interrupted · I would read,

"That Cæsar looks so sad.

"Why, for that too

"Was the crown offer'd (him) thrice?"

"Why" and "him" should both be ejected.

273. "I durst not laugh for fear of opening my lips, and receiving the bad air."

Casca was not in quite such piteous case as a certain sea-sick traveller, who, in excuse for the intolerable clamour he made, observed, that his neighbour above him was vomiting on his face, while he himself was so sick that he could not keep his mouth shut.

275. "With better appetite.".

This hemistic might be accommodated in the

following line, dismissing from the latter three useless words-" for this time :"

"I will come home to you; or, if you will, "Come home with me, and I will wait for you.”

This must be wrong: if Cassius went with Brutus, Brutus could not wait. I would propose : "I will go home to you; or, if you will, "Come home to me, and I will wait for you." "From that it is dispos'd: therefore 'tis meet."

The grammar and the metre both require correction. We might read:

"From that it is dispos'd to; so 'tis meet."

276. "Cæsar doth bear me hard; but he loves Brutus :

"If I were Brutus now, and he were Cassius,

"He should not humour me."

Cassius is a selfish moralist; he would not be tempted to betray his friend, though he advises Brutus to do so.

SCENE III.

281. "Why birds, and beasts, from quality and kind."

This line should certainly be placed, as Dr. Johnson proposes, after the line which now follows it.

Infus'd them with these spirits," &c.

"Infused," for inspired, endued. The same abuse of this word occurs in The Tempest, where Prospero tells Mirando, he has "infus'd her with a fortitude."

583. "He were no lion, were not Romans hinds."

Hinds," here, is equivocal: the beasts so called, and peasants.

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Such a man,

"That is no fleering tell-tale.”

This inaccuracy has occurred more than once before; the pronoun instead of the comparative conjunction.

284. "Be factious for redress.".

Mr. Malone is clearly right in his explanation of "be factious,"-combine, strengthen your party. Mr. Steevens gives no support to Dr. Johnson's interpretation, (be active) in the passage from Coriolanus, where "factionary, on the part of your general," is to be understood exactly in the sense that Mr. Malone gives; i. e. of the same party or faction with your general: and one would hardly have supposed that Mr. Steevens was to be told, that "faction," in such instances, is not used in the unfavourable sense:

"Her faction will be full as strong as our's.” Henry VI. Second Part. 286. "Will change to virtue, and to worthiness." The harmony of Shakspeare's versification is so varied, that the cadences falling exactly on the same places, in different lines, is remarkable. In Hamlet there is a verse completely consonant to this:

"She turns to favour and to prettiness."

"Whereto the climber-upward turns his face."

The compounding thus, with a hyphen, "climber" and " upward," alters, I think, and impairs, the sense; if it be, indeed, a compound, the latter part is superfluous; for he who climbs, necessarily goes upward: but the meaning of the passage, as I conceive it, is, that young Ambition, while mounting, directs his view to the upper part of the ladder, which (as soon as he has availed himself of the entire use of it) he turns his back upon, and then looks to the clouds. The mistake arises from a supposed antithesis between "face" and "back," but the only opposition intended is in the progress of Ambition's climbing, from the bottom to the top of the ladder, from lowly complacency to exalted arrogance.

is

This is badly expressed. That "he may, admitted, absolutely; and it is not the hypothesis that is to be subverted, but the probable effect that is to be prevented: it should be, "then lest he do;" i. e. lest he practically accomplish what his condition indicates.

The familiarity of this false expression, for I have taken, or ta'en, should not protect it from condemnation.

291. "Sir, March is wasted fourteen days."

The measure might be filled up thus:

Sir, March is wasted now, full fourteen days." Between the acting of a dreadful thing "And the first motion, all the interim is “Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream: "The genius, and the mortal instruments, "Are then in council," &c.

I do not perceive that Dr. Johnson's explanation of "the genius and the mortal instruments" is right (the power that watches for the protection of the conspirator, and the passions which excite him to a deed of honour and danger.) I rather think this is the meaning :-The imagination, the purpose, or device, and the means of effecting it, are then in consultation with each other: "a dreadful thing," though put though put thus, generally, implies, in the speaker's mind, the intended assassination; and hence "the mortal instruments."

296. "To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, conspiracy."

I would pro

This far exceeds the measure. pose, with the ejection of a word that the con

struction may spare,

"To mask thy monstrous visage? None conspiracy."

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297. This, Casca; this, Cinna."

The metre here falls into disorder. I would repair it in this manner: