founded upon the original and exhaustless stores of the mind of our great dramatist, but advert to a few dates, which, we think, warrant the conclusion that Drayton, having heard Julius Cæsar' at a theatre, or seen it in manuscript, before 1603, applied to his own purpose, perhaps unconsciously, what, in fact, belonged to another poet.

"Drayton's 'Barons' Wars' first appeared in 1596, 4to., under the title of Mortimeriados.' Malone had a copy' y without date, and he and Steevens erroneously imagined that the poem had been originally printed in 1598. In the 4to. of 1596, and in the undated edition, it is not divided into books, and is in seven-line stanzas; and what is there said of Mortimer bears no likeness whatever to Shakespeare's expressions in 'Julius Cæsar.' Drayton afterwards changed the title from 'Mortimeriados' to 'The Barons' Wars,' and remodelled the whole historical poem, altering the stanza from the English ballad form to the Italian ottava rima. This course he took before 1603, when it came out in octavo, with the stanza first quoted, which contains so marked a similarity to the lines from 'Julius Cæsar.' We apprehend that he did so, because he had heard or seen Shakespeare's tragedy before 1603; and we think that strong presumptive proof that he was the borrower and not Shakespeare, is derived from the fact, that in the subsequent impressions of the 'Barons' Wars,' in 1605, 1607, 1608, 1610, and 1613, the stanza remained precisely as in the edition of 1603: but in 1619, after Shakespeare's death and before 'Julius Cæsar' was printed, Drayton made even a nearer approach to the words of his original, thus:

"He was a man, then boldly dare to say,
In whose rich soul the virtues well did suit;
In whom so mix'd the elements did lay,
That none to one could sovereignty impute;
As all did govern, so did all obey:

He of a temper was so absolute,

As that it seem'd, when Nature him began,

She meant to show all that might be in man.'”

We think it will be admitted that Mr. Collier has made out a very strong case,-all but proved, indeed, that in this instance Drayton was the borrower, and, as a consequence, that Shakespeare's tragedy is of an earlier date by some years than Malone and others had supposed.

The material incidents of this tragedy appear to have been derived from North's translation of Plutarch; but as there was a Latin play upon the subject of Cæsar-" Epilogus Cæsaris Interfecti," &c.-written by Dr. Richard Eedes, which was played at Christ's Church Coll., Oxford, in 1582, and an old anonymous play in English, of the same age, it is possible that Shakespeare may have incurred some obligations to one or both of these.

LUCILIUS, TITINIUS, MESSALA, YOUNG CATO, and VOLUMNIUS; Friends to Brutus and Cassius.

VARRO, CLITUS, CLAUDIUS, STRATO, LUCIUS, DARDANIUS; Servants to Brutus.

PINDARUS, Servant to Cassius.

CALPHURNIA, Wife to Julius Cæsar.

PORTIA, Wife to Brutus.

Senators, Citizens, Guards, Attendants, &c.

SCENE,-During a great part of the Play at Rome; afterwards at SARDIS; and near PHILIPPI

ACT I.

SCENE I.-Rome. A Street.

Enter FLAVIUS, MARULLUS, and a rabble of Citizens.
FLAV. Hence! home, you idle creatures, get you home;
Is this a holiday? What! know you not,

Being mechanical, you ought not walk

Upon a labouring day, without the sign

Of your profession?-Speak, what trade art thou? 1 CIT. Why, sir, a carpenter.

MAR. Where is thy leather apron and thy rule? What dost thou with thy best apparel on?—

You, sir, what trade are you?

2 CIT. Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but, as you would say, a cobbler.

MAR. But what trade art thou? Answer me directly."

2 CIT. A trade, sir, that I hope I may use with a safe conscience; which is, indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles.

be

MAR. What trade, thou knave? thou naughty knave, what trade? 2 CIT. Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me: yet if you out, sir, I can mend you.

MAR. What meanest thou by that? Mend me, thou saucy fellow? 2 CIT. Why, sir, cobble you.

FLAV. Thou art a cobbler, art thou?

2 CIT. Truly, sir, all that I live by is with the awl: I meddle with no tradesman's matters, nor women's matters, but with awl.d I am, indeed, sir, a surgeon to old shoes; when they are in great danger, I re-cover them. As proper men as ever trod upon neat's-leather have gone upon my handiwork.

FLAV. But wherefore art not in thy shop to-day?

Why dost thou lead these men about the streets?

2 CIT. Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes, to get myself into more work. But, indeed, sir, we make holiday, to see Cæsar, and to rejoice in his triumph.

MAR. Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home?

MARULLUS,-] A correction first made by Theobald, the old text having throughout, Murellus.

b - directly.] Explicitly, without ambiguity.

What trade, thou knave? &c.] In the old copies this speech is erroneously assigned to Flavius.

d I meddle with no tradesman's matters, &c.] Farmer conjectured that the true reading is, "I meddle with no trade, man's matters," &c.; and, substituting trades for trade, we incline to his opinion.

Wherefore rejoice? &c.] "This was in the beginning of R. c. 44 (a u. c. 709), when Cæsar, having returned from Spain in the preceding October, after defeating the Sons of Pompey at the Battle of Munda (fought 17 March, B. c. 45), had been appointed Consul for the next ten years, and Dictator for life. The festival of the Lupercalia, nt which he was offered and declined the crown, was celebrated 13th February, B. c. 44

What tributaries follow him to Rome,

To grace in captive bonds his chariot-wheels?

You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!
O, you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,
Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft
Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The live-long day, with patient expectation,
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome:
And when you saw his chariot but appear,
Have you not made an universal shout
That Tiber trembled underneath her banks,
To hear the replication of your sounds,
Made in her concave shores?

And do you now put on your best attire?
And do you now cull out a holiday?
And do you now strew flowers in his way,
That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood?
Be gone!

Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,
Pray to the gods to intermit the plague

That needs must light on this ingratitude.

FLAV. Go, go, good countrymen, and, for this fault,
Assemble all the poor men of your sort;

Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears
Into the channel, till the lowest stream
Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.—
See, whêr their basest metal be not mov'd;
They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.
Go you down that way towards the Capitol ;
This way will I disrobe the images,

If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies."
MAR. May we do so?

You know it is the feast of Lupercal.

FLAV. It is no matter; let no images
Be hung with Cæsar's trophies. I'll about,
And drive away the vulgar from the streets:

So do you too, where you perceive them thick.

These growing feathers pluck'd from Cæsar's wing

Will make him fly an ordinary pitch;

Who else would soar above the view of men,

[Exeunt Citizens.

And keep us all in servile fearfulness.

Exeunt.

and he was assassinated 15th March following, being then in his fifty-sixth year."CRAIK'S English of Shakespeare, p. 71.

with ceremonies.] See note (c), p. 515. Vol. II.

SCENE II.-The same. A public Place.

Enter, in procession, with music, CÆSAR; ANTONY, for the course; CALPHURNIA, PORTIA, DECIUS, CICERO, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, and CASCA, a great crowd following; among them a Soothsayer.

CES. Stand you directly in Antonius' way, When he doth run his course. (1)—Antonius,— ANT. Cæsar, my lord..

CES. Forget not, in your speed, Antonius, To touch Calphurnia; for our elders say, The barren, touched in this holy chase, Shake off their sterile curse.

I shall remember:

ANT.
When Cæsar says, Do this, it is perform'd.

CES. Set on; and leave no ceremony out.

SOOTH. Cæsar!

CES. Ha! Who calls?

[Music ceases. Calphurnia,

[Music.

CASCA. Bid every noise be still:-peace yet again! [Music ceases.

CES. Who is it in the press that calls on me?

I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music,

Cry, Cæsar. Speak; Cæsar is turn'd to hear.
SOOTH. Beware the ides of March.

CÆS.

What man is that?

BRU. A soothsayer, bids you beware the ides of March.
CES. Set him before me; let me see his face.
CAS. Fellow, come from the throng: look upon Cæsar.
CES. What say'st thou to me now? speak once again.
SOOTH. Beware the Ides of March.

CES. He is a dreamer; let us leave him ;-pass.

[Sennet. Exeunt all but BRUTUS and CASSIUS.

CAS. Will you go see the order of the course?

BRU. Not I.

CAS. I pray you, do.

BRU. I am not gamesome: I do lack some part

Of that quick spirit that is in Antony.

Let me not hinder, Cassius, your desires;

I'll leave you.

CAS. Brutus, I do observe you now of late:

• Bid every noise be still:-peace yet again!] If this did not originally form a continuation of Cæsar's previous speech, the regulation we presume to have been :

"CASCA. Bid every noise be still :-peace yet!

CÆS.

Who is it," &c.

Again!

The Ides of March.] The Ides (Idus) fell on the 15th of March, May, July, and October, and on the 13th of the remaining months.