Mar. What mean'st 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. I am, indeed, sir, a surgeon to old shoes; when they are in great danger, I recover them. As proper men as ever trod upon neat's leather, have gone upon my handy work. 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? What tributaries follow him to Rome, Το 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, 1 The Tyber being always personified as a god, the feminine gender is here, strictly speaking, improper. Milton says that— the river of bliss 6 Rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber streams.' But he is speaking of the water, and not of its presiding power To hear the replication of your sounds, And do you now put on your best attire? And do you now strew flowers in his way, Run to your houses, fall upon your knees, Flav. Go, go, good countrymen, and, for this fault, Assemble all the poor men of your sort2; Draw them to Tyber banks, and weep your tears Into the channel, till the lowest stream Do kiss the most exalted shores of all. [Exeunt Citizens. See, whe'r3 their basest metal be not mov'd; You know, it is the feast of Lupercal. or genius. Malone observes that Drayton describes the presiding powers of the rivers of England as females; Spenser more classically represents them as males. 2 Condition, rank. 3 Whether. 4 Honorary ornaments; tokens of respect. 5 We gather from a passage in the next scene what these trophies were. Casca there informs Cassius that Marullus and Flavius, for pulling scarfs off Cæsar's images, are put to silence. Will make him fly an ordinary pitch; Who else would soar above the view of men, [Exeunt. SCENE II. The same. A Publick Place. Enter, in Procession, with Musick, CESAR, AnTONY, for the course; CALPHURNIA, PORTIA, DECIUS, CICERO, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, and CASCA, a great Crowd following, among them a Soothsayer. Cæs. Stand you directly in Antonius' way 2, When he doth run his course. Antonius. 1 This person was not Decius but Decimus Brutus. The poet (as Voltaire has done since) confounds the characters of Marcus and Decimus. Decimus Brutus was the most cherished by Cæsar of all his friends, while Marcus kept aloof, and declined so large a share of his favours and honours as the other had constantly accepted. Lord Sterline has made the same mistake in his tragedy of Julius Cæsar. The error has its source in North's translation of Plutarch, or in Holland's Suetonius, 1606. 2 The old copy reads Antonio's way:' in other places we have Octavio, Flavio. The players were more accustomed to Italian than Latin terminations, on account of the many versions from Italian novels, and the many Italian characters in dramatic pieces formed on the same originals. The correction was made by Pope. The allusion is to a custom at the Lupercalia, the which (says Plutarch) in olde time men say was the feaste of shepheards or heardsmen, and is much like unto the feast Lyceians in Arcadia. But howsoever it is, that day there are diverse noble men's sonnes, young men (and some of them magistrates themselves that govern them) which run naked through the city, striking in sport them they meet in their way with leather thongs. And many noblewomen and gentlewomen also go of Ant. Cæsar, my lord. Cæs. Forget not, in your speed, Antonius, To touch Calphurnia: for our elders say, The barren, touched in this holy chase, Shake off their steril curse. Ant. I shall remember: When Cæsar says, Do this, it is perform❜d. Sooth. Cæsar. Cæs. Ha! who calls? [Musick. Casca. Bid every noise be still :-Peace yet again. [Musick ceases. Cæs. Who is it in the press, that calls on me? I hear a tongue, shriller than all the musick, 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. Cæs. Set him before me, let me see his face. Cæs. What say'st thou to me now? Speak once Sooth. Beware the ides of March. Cæs. He is a dreamer; let us leave him;—pass. [Sennet3. Exeunt all but BRU. and CAS. purpose to stand in their way, and doe put forth their handes to be stricken, persuading themselves that being with childe they shall have good deliverie; and also being barren, that it will make them conceive with child. Cæsar sat to behold that sport upon the pulpit for orations, in a chayre of gold, apparelled in triumphant manner. Antonius, who was consul at that time, was one of them that ronne this holy course.' North's translation. 3 See King Henry VIII. Act ii. Sc. 4, note 1. 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: Bru. Which give some soil, perhaps, to my behaviours: Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war, Cas. Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your passion*, By means whereof, this breast of mine hath buried Cas. 'Tis just: And it is very much lamented, Brutus, 4 i. e. the nature of the feelings which you are now suffering. Thus in Timon of Athens : 'I feel my master's passion,' |