Had you an healthful ear to hear of it.

Cai. By all the Gods the Romans bow before, I here difcard my ficknefs. Soul of Rome! Brave fon, deriv'd from honourable loins! Thou, like an Exorcift, haft conjur'd up My mortified fpirit. Now bid me run, And I will ftrive with things impoffible; Yea, get the better of them. What's to do? Bru. A piece of work, that will make fick men whole.

Cai. But are not fome whole, that we muft make fick?

Bru. That we must also. What it is, my Caius, I fhall unfold to thee, as we are going, To whom it muft be done.

Cai. Set on your foot,

And with a heart new-fir'd I follow you,"
To do I know not what: but it fufficeth,
That Brutus leads me on.

Bru. Follow me then.

SCENE IV.

Changes to Cæfar's Palace..

[Exeunt.

Thunder and Lightning. Enter Julius Cæfar.

Caf.NOR heav'n, nor earth, have been at peace

to-night;

Thrice hath Calphurnia in her fleep cry'd out,
Help, ho! they murder Cafar." Who's within ?

Serv. My Lord?

Enter a Servant.

Caf. Go bid the priests do prefent facrifice,

And bring me their opinions of fuccefs.

Serv. I will, my Lord.

Enter Calphurnia.

Cal. What mean you, Cæfar? think you to walk forth?

You shall not ftir out of your houfe to-day.

Caf. Cæfar fhall forth. The things that threatned

me,

Ne'er lookt but on my back, when they shall fee
The face of Cafar, they are vanished.

Cal. Cafar, I never ftood on ceremonies,
Yet now they fright me. There is one within,
Befides the things that we have heard and seen,
Recounts moft horrid fights feen by the Watch.
A lioness hath whelped in the ftreets,

And Graves have yawn'd, and yielded up their dead;
Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds,

In ranks and fquadrons and right form of war,
Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol :

The noise of battle hurtled in the air;
Horfes did neigh, and dying men did groan;

And Ghofts did fhriek, and fqueal about the ftreets.
O Cafar! thefe things are beyond all ufe,

And I do fear them.

Caf. What can be avoided,

Whofe end is purpos'd by the mighty Gods?
Yet Cafar fhall go forth: for thefe predictions
Are to the world in general, as to Cæfar.

Cal. When beggars die, there are no comets feen; The heav'ns themfelves blaze forth the death of Princes.

Cafar. Cowards die many times before their deaths, The valiant never tafte of death but once.

Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,

It feems to me moft ftrange that men fhould fear,
Seeing that (7) death, a neceffary end,

Will come, when it will come.

(7)-death, a neceffary end, &c.] This is a fentence derived from the Stoical doctrine of predeftination, and is therefore improper in the mouth of Cæfar.

Enter

Enter Servant.

What fay the Augurs?

Serv. They would not have you to ftir forth to-day. Plucking the entrails of an Offering forth,

They could not find a heart within the beast.

[Exit Servant. Caf. The Gods do this (8) in fhame of cowardife: Cæfar fhould be a beaft without a heart,

If he should stay at home to-day for fear.
No, Cafar fhall not; Danger knows full well,
That Cæfar is more dangerous than he;
(9) We were two lions litter'd in one day,
And I the elder and more terrible;

Cal. Alas, my Lord,

r own.

Your wisdom is confum'd in confidence:
Do not go forth to-day; call it my fear,
That keeps you in the house, and not your
We'll fend Mark Antony to the Senate-houfe,
And he will fay, you are not well to-day :
Let me, upon my knee, prevail in this.

Caf. Mark Antony fhall fay, I am not well;
And, for thy humour I will stay at home.

SCENE V.

Enter Decius.

Here's Decius Brutus, he fhall tell them for

(8)-in fhame of cowardife:] The ancients did not place courage but wifdom in the heart.

(9) In old editions,

We heard two lions

-We heare

-The first folio,

に

The copies have been all corrupt, and the paffage, of course, unintelligible. But the flight alteration, I have made, reftores fenfe to the whole; and the fentiment will neither be unwor thy of Shakespeare, nor the boaft too extravagant for Cæfar in a vein of vanity to utter: that he and Danger were two twin whelps of a lion, and he the elder, and more terrible of the two.

THEOBALD.

Dec.

Dec. Cæfar, all hail! Good morrow, worthy Cafar I come to fetch you to the Senate-house.

Caf. And you are come in very happy time,
To bear my Greeting to the Senators,

And tell them that I will not come to-day :
Cannot, is falfe; and that I dare not, falfer;
I will not come to-day. Tell them fo, Decius.
Cal. Say, he is fick.

Caf. Shall Cafar fend a lye?

Have I in conqueft ftretcht mine arm fo far,
To be afraid to tell Grey-beards the truth?
Decius, go tell them, Cafar will not come.
Dec. Moft mighty Cafar, let me know fome caufe,
Left I be laugh'd at, when I tell them fo.

Caf. The caufe is in my will, I will not come;
That is enough to fatisfy the Senate..

But for your private fatisfaction,
Because I love you, I will let you

know.

Calphurnia here, my wife, ftays me at home:
She dreamt last night, the faw my Statue,
Which, like a fountain with an hundred fpouts,
Did run pure blood: and many lufty Romans
Came fmiling, and did bathe their hands in it.
These she applies for warnings and portents,
And evils imminent; and on her knee
Hath begg'd, that I will stay at home to-day.
Dec. This Dream is all amifs interpreted;
It was a Vilion fair and fortunate:

Your Statue, spouting blood in many pipes,
In which fo many fmiling Romans bath'd,
Signifies, that from You great Rome fhall fuck
Reviving blood; (1) and that Great Men fhall prefs

(1)-and that Great Men fball prefs

For

For tinctures, ftains, relicks, and cognisance.] That this dream of the ftatue's fpouting blood fhould fignify, the increase of power and empire to Rome from the influence of Cæfar's arts and arms, and wealth and honour to the noble Ro mans through his beneficence, expreffed by the words, From you, great Rome fall fuck reviving blood, is intelligible enough. But how these great men fhould literally prefs for tinctures, ftains, relicks, and cognisance, when the spouting blood was only a fymbolical vifion, I am at a lofs to apprehend. Here the circum

ftances

For tinctures, ftains,, relicks, and cognisance.
This by Calphurnia's Dream is fignify'd.

Caf. And this way have you well expounded it. Dec. I have, when you have heard what I can say; And know it now, the Senate have concluded To give this day a Crown to mighty Cafar.

If

you fhall fend them word you will not come, Their minds may change. Befides it were a mock Apt to be render'd, for fome one to say,

Break up the Senate 'till another time,

"When Cæfar's Wife fhall meet with better Dreams."
If Cafar hide himself, fhall they not whisper,
"Lo, Cafar is afraid!"

Pardon me, Cafar; for my dear, dear, love
To your proceeding bids me tell you this:
(2) And reafon to my love is liable.

ftances of the dream, and the interpretation of it, are confounded with one another. This line therefore,

For tinctures, ftains, relicks, and cognisance,

moft needs be in way of fimilitude only; and if fo, it appears that fome lines are wanting between this and the preceding: which want fhould, for the future, be marked with afterifks. The fenfe of them is not difficult to recover, and, with it the propriety of the line in queftion. The speaker had faid, the Statue fignified, that by Cafar's influence Reme fhould flourish and increase in empire, and that great men fhould prefs to him to partake of his good fortune, juft as men run with handkerchiefs, &c. to dip them in the blood of martyrs, that they may partake of their merit. It is true, the thought is from the Chriftian Hiftory; but fo fmall an anachronifm is nothing with our poet. Befides, it is not my interpretation which introduces it, it was there before: For the line in queftion can bear no other fenfe than as an allufion to the blood of the Martyrs, and the fuperftition of fome Churches with regard to it. WARB

I am not of opinion that any thing is loft, and have therefore marked no omiffion. The fpeech, which is intentionally pompous, is fomewhat confufed. There are two allufions; one to coats armorial to which princes make additions, or give new tinctures, and new marks of cognisance; the other to martyrs, whofe reliques are preferved with veneration. The Romans, fays Brutus, all come to you as to a faint, for reliques, as to prince, for

(2) And reafon, &c. And reafon, or propriety of conduct and language, is fubordinate to my love, paland to 1750g gul