To hear the replication of your founds, And do you now put on your beft attire? Run to your houses, fall upon your knees, [Exeunt Commoners. If you do find them decked with ceremonies. You know it is the feaft of Lupercal. Flav. It is no matter, let no images Who elfe would foar above the view of men, [Exeunt feverally. Enter CESAR, ANTONY for the Course, CALPHURNIA, PORCIA, DECIUS, CICERO, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, CASCA, a Soothsayer. Caf Calphurnia,---- Cafca. Peace, ho! Cæfar fpeaks. Caf. Calphurnia,--- Calp. Here, my Lord. Caf. Stand you directly in Antonius' way, When he doth run his courfe Ant. Cæfar, my Lord. -Antonius, Caf. Forget not in your fpeed, Antonius, To touch Calphurnia; for our elders fay, The barren, touched in this holy chase, Shake off their fterile curfe.: Ant. I fhall remember. When Cæfar fays, Do this, it is perform'd. Caf. Ha! who calls? Cafe. Bid every noife be ftill; peace yet again. Cef. Who is it in the prefs that calls on me? I hear a tongue, fhriller than all the mufick, Cry, Cæfar. Speak; Cæfar is turn'd to hear. Sooth. Beware the Ides of March. Cef What man is that? Bru. A foothfayer bids you beware the Ides of March. Caf. Set him before me, let me fee his face. Cafca. Fellow, come from the throng, look upon Cæfar. Caf. What fay'ft thou to me now? fpeak once again. Sooth. Beware the Ides of March. Caf. He is a dreamer, let us leave him; pafs. [Exeunt Cæfar and Train. Manent BRUTUS and CASSIUS. Caf. Will you go fee the order of the course? Caf. I pray you, do. Bru. I am not gamefome; I do lack some part Of that quick spirit that is in Antony: Caf. Brutus, I do observe you now of late; Bru. Caffius, Be not deceived. If I have veiled my look, Which give fome foil, perhaps, to my behaviour: Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war, Caf. Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your paffion; By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried And it is very much lamented, Brutus, That you might fee your fhadow. I have heard, Κ Bru.Into what dangers would you lead me, Caffius, That you would have me feek into myfelf, For that which is not in me? Caf.Therefore, good Brutus, be prepared to hear; That of yourself, which yet you know not of. To all the rout, then hold me dangerous. [Flourish and fhout, Bru. What means this fhouting? I do fear, the Chufe Cæfar for their King. Caf. Ay, do you fear it? [people Then must I think you would not have it fo. Bru. I would not, Caffius; yet I love him well: But wherefore do you hold me here so long? What is it that you would impart to me? If it be aught toward the general good, Set Honour in one eye, and Death i' th' other, And I will look on Death indifferently: (3) (3) And I will look on both indifferently;] What a contradiction to this are the lines immediately fucceeding? If he loved honour, more than he feared death, how could they be, both indifferent to him? Honour thus is but in equal balance to death, which is not speaking at all like Brutus; for in a foldier of any ordinary pretenfion, it should always preponderate. We muft certainly read; And I will look on death indifferently. What occafioned the corruption, I prefume, was the tran fcribers imagining the abverb indifferently must be applied to For let the gods fo fpeed me, as I love The name of Honour, more than 1 fear Death. In awe of fuch a thing as I myself. And fwim to yonder point?"-Upon the word, Accoutred as I was, I plunged in, And bid him follow: fo, indeed, he did. two things opposed. But the ufe of the word does not demand it, nor does Shakespeare always apply it fo. In the prefent paffage it fignifies neglectingly, without fear or concern; and so Cafca afterwards, again in this act, employs it : And dangers are to me indifferently. i. 2. I weigh them not; am not deterred on the score of danger. Mr Warburton. (4) For once upon a raw and guy day,] This may, per haps, appear a very odd amufement for two of the greatest men in Rome. But it appears this was an ufual exercise for the nobility that delighted in the hardy ufe of arms, and were not enervated, from this paffage of Horace, l. 1 ode 8. Cur times flavum Tiberium tangere? Upon which Hermannus Figulus makes this comment? Natare. Nam Roma prima adolefcentia juvenes, præter cæteras gymnafticas difciplinas, etiam natare difcebant, ut ad belli munera firmiores aptiorefq; effent. And he puts us in mind from Suetonius, how expert a fwimmer Julius Cæfar was. Mr Warburton. |