Why all these things change, from their ordinance, To monstrous quality; why, you shall find, Now could I, Casca, name to thee a man Most like this dreadful night; That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars A man no mightier than thyself, or me, 8 In personal action; yet prodigious grown 3, CASCA. Tis Cæsar that you mean: Is it not, 9 CAS. Let it be who it is: for Romans now Have thewes and limbs like to their ancestors; But, woe the while! our fathers' minds are dead, And we are govern'd with our mothers' spirits; Our yoke and sufferance show us womanish. CASCA. Indeed, they say, the senators to-morrow Mean to establish Cæsar as a king: "Thei calculate, thei chaunt, thei charme, 'To conquere us that meane no harme." This author is speaking of women. STEEVENS. There is certainly no prodigy in old men's calculating from their past experience. The wonder is, that old men should not, and that children should. I would therefore [instead of old men, fools, and children, &c.] point thus: 8 66 Why old men fools, and children calculate." BLACKSTONE. PRODIGIOUS grown,] Prodigious is portentous. So, in Troilus and Cressida: "It is prodigious, there will be some change." See vol. viii. p. 406. STEEVENS. 9 Have THEWES and limbs --] Thewes is an obsolete word im plying nerves or muscular strength. It is used by Falstaff in The Second Part of King Henry IV. and in Hamlet: "For nature, crescent, does not grow alone "In thewes and bulk." The two last folios, [1664 and 1685,] in which some words are injudiciously modernized, read-sinews. STEEVENS. And he shall wear his crown by sea, and land, CAS. I know where I will wear this dagger then ; Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius: Therein, ye gods, you make the weak most strong; Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass, If I know this, know all the world besides, I can shake off at pleasure. So can I : CASCA. CAS. And why should Cæsar be a tyrant then? So vile a thing as Cæsar? But, O, grief! My answer must be made 2: But I am arm'd, The power to CANCEL his CAPTIVITY.] So, in Cymbeline, Act V. Posthumus speaking of his chains : 2 66 take this life, "And cancel these cold bonds." HENLEY. My ANSWER must be made:] I shall be called to account, and must answer as for seditious words. JOHNSON. So, in Much Ado About Nothing: "Sweet prince, let me go no further to mine answer; do you hear me, and let this count kill me." STEEVENS. And dangers are to me indifferent. CASCA. You speak to Casca; and to such a man, That is no fleering tell-tale. Hold my hand 3: 4 And I will set this foot of mine as far, CAS There's a bargain made. Now know you, Casca, I have mov'd already Of honourable-dangerous consequence; 5 In favour's like the work we have in hand, 3 Hold my hand:] Is the same as, "Here's 4 Be FACTIOUS for redress-] Factious seems here to mean active. JOHNSON. It means, I apprehend, embody a party or faction.' MALONE. Perhaps Dr. Johnson's explanation is the true one. Menenius, in Coriolanus, says: "I have been always factionary on the part of your general;" and the speaker, who is describing himself, would scarce have employed the word in its common and unfavourable sense. STEEVENS. ' In FAVOUR's like the work -] The old edition reads: Is favors, like the work." 66 I think we should read: "In favour's like the work we have in hand, "Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible." Favour is look, countenance, appearance. JOHNSON. To favour is to resemble. Thus Stanyhurst, in his translation of the third book of Virgil's Æneid, 1582: "With the petit town gates favouring the principal old portes." We may read It favours, or-Is favour'd-i. e. is an appearance or countenance like, &c. STEEVENS. Perhaps fev'rous is the true reading. So, in Macbeth : "Some say the earth "Was feverous, and did shake." REED. Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible. Enter CINNA. CASCA. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste. CAS. 'Tis Cinna, I do know him by his gait; He is a friend.-Cinna, where haste you so ? CAS. No, it is Casca; one incorporate To our attempts. Am I not staid for, Cinna? CIN. I am glad on't. this? What a fearful night is There's two or three of us have seen strange sights. CAS. Am I not staid for, Cinna? Tell me. CIN. You are. O, Cassius, if you could but win The noble Brutus to our party—— Yes, CAS. Be you content: Good Cinna, take this paper, And look you lay it in the prætor's chair, Where Brutus may but find it; and throw this CIN. All but Metellus Cimber; and he's gone CASCA. O, he sits high, in all the people's hearts: And that, which would appear offence in us, His countenance, like richest alchymy, Will change to virtue, and to worthiness. CAS. Him, and his worth, and our great need of him, You have right well conceited. Let us go, For it is after midnight; and, ere day, We will awake him, and be sure of him. [Exeunt. ACT II. SCENE I. The Same. BRUTUS's Orchard". Enter BRUTUS. BRU. What, Lucius! ho! I cannot, by the progress of the stars, 6-Brutus's ORCHARD.] The modern editors read garden, but orchard seems anciently to have had the same meaning. STEEVENS. That these two words were anciently synonymous, appears from a line in this play: 66 he hath left you all his walks, "His private arbours, and new planted orchards, In Sir T. North's translation of Plutarch, the passage which Shakspeare has here copied, stands thus: "He left his gardens and arbours unto the people, which he had on this side of the river Tyber." MALONE. Orchard was anciently written hort-yard; hence its original meaning is obvious. HENLEY. By the following quotation, however, it will appear that these words had in the days of Shakspeare acquired a distinct meaning. "It shall be good to have understanding of the ground where ye do plant either orchard or garden with fruite." A Booke of the Arte and Maner howe to plant and graffe all Sortes of Trees, &c. 1574, 4to.-And when Justice Shallow invites Falstaff to see his orchard, where they are to eat a "last year's pippin of his own graffing," he certainly uses the word in its present acceptation. VOL. XII. D |