That you have no such mirrors, as will turn That you might see your shadow. I have heard, That you would have me seek into myself Cas. Therefore, good Brutus, be prepar❜d to hear: That of yourself which you yet know not of. [Flourish and Shout. Bru. What means this shouting? I do fear, the people Choose Cæsar for their king. 5 Johnson has erroneously given the meaning of allurement to stale in this place. To stale with ordinary oaths my love,' is 'to prostitute my love, or make it common with ordinary oaths,' &c. The use of the verb to stale here may be adduced as a proof that in a disputed passage of Coriolanus, Acti. Sc. 1, we should read stale instead of scale: see note there. Thus in Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour, Act ii. Sc. 1 : 'He's grown a stranger to all due respect, To stale himself in all societies, He makes my house here common as a mart.' Cas. In awe of such a thing as I myself. And bade him follow: so, indeed, he did. And stemming it with hearts of controversy. 6 Shakspeare probably remembered what Suetonius relates of Cæsar's leaping into the sea, when he was in danger by a boat being overladen, and swimming to the next ship with his Commentaries in his hand. Holland's Translation of Suetonius, 1606, p. 26. And in another passage, Were rivers in his way to hinder his passage, cross over them he would, either swimming, or else bearing himself upon blowed leather bottles.' Ibid. p. 24. But ere we could arrive the point propos'd, Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder Is now become a god; and Cassius is A wretched creature, and must bend his body, He had a fever when he was in Spain, And, when the fit was on him, I did mark Bru. Another general shout! 7 But ere we could arrive the point propos'd.' The verb arrive, in its active sense, according to its etymology, was formerly used for to approach, or come near. Milton several times uses it thus without the preposition. Thus in Paradise Lost, b. ii.: And in his Treatise of Civil Power, Lest a worse woe arrive him.' Shakspeare has it again in the Third Part of King Henry VI. Act v. So. 3 : those powers that the queen Hath rais'd in Gallia, have arriv'd our coast.' 8 This is oddly expressed, but a quibble, alluding to a coward flying from his colours, was intended. 9 Temperament, constitution. VOL. VIII. C C I do believe, that these applauses are For some new honours that are heap'd on Cæsar. Cas. Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world, Like a Colossus; and we petty men Walk under his huge legs 10, and peep about To find ourselves dishonourable graves. Men at some time are masters of their fates: Brutus, and Cæsar: What should be in that Cæsar? O! you and I have heard our fathers say, 10 12 But I the meanest man of many more, Or creep between his legs.' Spenser's Faerie Queene, b. iv. c. x. st. 19. 11 A similar thought occurs in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece :— 'What diapason's more in Tarquin's name Than in a subject's? Or what's Tullia More in the sound than should become the name Of a poor maid?' 12 Lucius Junius Brutus (says Dion Cassius) would as soon have submitted to the perpetual dominion of a dæmon, as to the lasting government of a king.' The eternal devil to keep his state in Rome, Bru. That you do love me, I am nothing jealous ; I would not, so with love I might entreat you, I will consider; what you have to say, I will with patience hear: and find a time Than to repute himself a son of Rome Is like to lay upon us. Cas. I am glad that my weak words Have struck but thus much show of fire from Brutus. Re-enter CESAR, and his Train. Bru. The games are done, and Cæsar is returning. Cas. As they pass by, pluck Casca by the sleeve; And he will, after his sour fashion, tell you What hath proceeded, worthy note, to-day. 13 i. e. guess. So in the Two Gentlemen of Verona :'But fearing lest my jealous aim might err.' 14 Ruminate on this, consider it at leisure. 15 As, according to Tooke, is an article, and means the same as that, which, or it: accordingly we find it often so employed by old writers; and particularly in our excellent version of the Bible. Thus Lord Bacon also in his Apophthegmes, No. 210:'One of the Romans said to his friend; what think you of such a one, as was taken with the manner in adultery?' Like other vestiges of old phraseology it still lingers among the common people: I cannot say as I did,' &c. for that I did. I will add an example from Langland, who flourished in the middle of the fourteenth century: The godes of the ground aren like to the grete wawes Piers Plouhman, ed. 1813, p. 168. |