gedy, declaring their wars, out of which event is evicted the proposition, Only a just man is a freeman.' Sir William Davenant and John Dryden altered Shakespeare's Cæsar in 1719, for performance at the Theatre-Royal, and prefaced the publication of it with a Life of Cæsar, abstracted from Plutarch and Suetonius. John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, Marquis of Normandy, and Duke of Buckingham, aided, or at least, abetted by Pope, divided the play into two parts, and produced it as the Tragedy of Fulius Cæsar, altered with a prologue and chorus, and the Tragedy of Marcus Brutus, both published in quarto, in 1722. The original is considerably vulgarised. The scene, which is only in Shakespeare's play described by Casca, of the offering of the crown, is represented; that between Brutus and Portia is extended; Cæsar is shown at home boastful and proud, yet afraid and superstitious; the incidents of the sacrifices and omens constitute a scene; the assassination takes place in the fourth act; and the mischief set afoot by Antony closes the first play. The second begins on the day before the battle of Philippi, and ends with it. The principal Shakespearian incidents preservedconsiderably weakened in force and terseness-are the quarrelscenes between Brutus and Cassius, and the suicide of the conspirators. So we find that within a century after its first publication, this splendid play was reduced to rant, fustian, and prosaic tediousness, and interspersed with odes to be sung in chorus, of which Pope, apparently approving of the change, furnished two. It is believed, however, by the best authorities, that though the Duke of Buckingham's dramas were presented posthumously to the public in type, they were never represented on the stage. Society was scarcely even then so stupid as to set aside Shakespeare for Sheffield.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF THE DRAMATIS PERSONE.

1. CAIUS JULIUS CÆSAR, son of Caius Julius Cæsar and Aurelia, was born 12th July 100 B.C., in the sixth consulship of his uncle Caius Marius, to whose party he naturally became attached. When only seventeen he married Cornelia, daughter of Lucius Cinna, the leader of the Marians. Sulla commanded him to put her away; he refused, and was proscribed. He concealed himself among the Sabines till his friends won his pardon reluctantly from Sulla, who saw' that there were many Mariuses in him.' He served his first campaign in Asia, and at the taking of Mitylene, B.C. 80, gained a civic crown for saving the life of a fellow-soldier. On Sulla's death, B.C. 78, he

returned to Rome, and began to take part in public life as a candidate for popular favour. He served as quæstor in Spain B.C. 68, was chosen ædile for B.C. 65, and in B.C. 63 was Pontifex Maximus. In the last-named year, while he was prætor-elect, Catiline's conspiracy, in which some thought he was implicated, occurred. After acting as prætor B.C. 62, he went as proprætor into Further Spain, and there began, by his victories over the Lusitanians, that career of generalship which proved him to be one of the master warriors of mankind. In B.C. 60 he was, along with L. Calpurnius Bibulus, elected consul; and on entering upon office, he became a partner in that formidable coalition of wealth, power, and talent, known as the first triumvirate, and so took the earliest public step for the attainment of those ambitious designs regarding imperial dominion which he had long cherished. During his consular year, B.C. 59, he, giving no place or power to his colleague Bibulus, proposed and passed many popular measures. By a vote of the people, proposed by the tribune Vatinius, supported by Crassus and Pompey, the provinces of Transalpine Gaul, Cisalpine Gaul, and Illyrium, with the command of six legions, were conferred on him for five years. Before setting out to his province, Cæsar allied himself more closely to Pompey by giving him his daughter Julia in marriage, and strengthened his own cause-having divorced his second wife Pompeia, because 'Cæsar's wife should be above suspicion'-by a third marriage, choosing this time Calpurnia, daughter of Lucius Calpurnius Piso, who was to be his successor in the consulship. During the next nine years, Cæsar was employed in the subjugation of that vast tract of country now constituting the countries of Switzerland, France, and Belgium, besides having twice (B.C. 55 and 54) visited Britain, and gained the submission of the southlying portion of that island. In B.C. 50, Cæsar, who had neither been unmindful or unwatchful of affairs in the capital, was again upon the Roman side of the Alpine chain, possessed of boundless treasure, a devoted army, and a resourceful spirit. Military prowess then formed the best means of attaining political power. Pompey saw this as clearly as Cæsar, and resolved to checkmate the conqueror of Gaul. In B.C. 49 a law was passed commanding Cæsar to disband his army, on a date fixed by the senate, and ordaining that, failing to do so, he should be held as an enemy of the state. Cæsar refused, crossed the Rubicon, and soon made himself master of all Italy. The civil war thus inaugurated, was terminated at the battle of Pharsalia, 4th August B.C. 48, when Pompey was defeated,

and Cæsar became, in fact, possessed of dictatorial power. The murder of Pompey in Egypt by order of the ministers of Ptolemy, 24th September B.C. 48, and the defeat of Scipio and Cato at Thapsus, 6th April B.C. 46, left him rivalless as the ruler of Rome. In his absence, though managed under his instructions, Cæsar was chosen dictator for two years, and on his return celebrated four magnificent triumphs, commemorative of his victories in Gaul, Pontus, Egypt, and Africa. Honours were heaped on him with no stinted hand. He was hailed as 'father of his country,' the month Quintilis (in which he was born) was called July after him, and he was worshipped as a demi-god. He was created imperator or commander of the armies of the state, consul, tribune, censor (prefectus morum), etc., and all other public offices were filled up by his nominees or on his recommendation. However elated by success, he neither proscribed nor massacred, but by a general amnesty opened the way to confidence, peace, and progress, provided his personal pre-eminence were preserved. He set himself to the consolidation of his power, and gave his earliest efforts to measures of public utility. Even then, however, he was only chief of a party, not master of the state. He desired to place himself clearly above competition or emulation, and so wished to be made king. He stamped out the lingering power of the Pompeian faction at Munda, 17th March B.C. 45. In October he marched in triumph through Rome-dictator during life. Envy looked grudgingly on his greatness; jealousy carped at his progress; conspiracy threw the world into a whirl of confusion again by his assassination, 15th March B.C. 44. Orator, historian, statesman, general, sovereign, 'the foremost man of all the world' perished in the senate by the hands of friends become foemen.

2. OCTAVIUS CÆSAR.-Caius Octavius, son of Caius Octavius and of Atia, niece of Caius Julius Cæsar, was born at Velitræ, in Latium, in the consulship of Cicero, 23d September B.C. 63. His father died when he was four years of age, and Julia, Cæsar's sister, his grandmother, took him under her charge. He was weakly in boyhood but precocious, and Julia, while carefully training his mind, assiduously devoted herself to the management of his health. She succeeded in both. On her demise, in his twelfth year, Caius Octavius delivered a funeral oration over his grandmother. Lucius Marcus Philippus, who had married Atia, took him into his house, and under his mother's care there, his culture was continued. He assumed the toga virilis at the age of sixteen, and was then chosen a member of the College of

Pontiffs. Julius Cæsar entertained great affection for him, and in some measure superintended his education for public life. He was present in his uncle's camp, at the battle of Munda, B.C. 45. Here, and at this time, the dictator adopted him into the family of the Cæsars, and made him his heir. On their return to Rome, Julius decided on sending Caius Octavius to Apollonia, in Epirus, to pursue his military education, preparatory to taking him, as a pupil in training, on the expedition he was then planning against the Parthians. He was in Apollonia, when the dictator was assassinated, and he, immediately on receiving the news, hastened off to Italy with a few attendants, assumed the name of Cæsar under his uncle's will, and, encouraged by the support of the veteran soldiery, resolved to avenge the assassination, and to assert his claim to the sovereignty he had held. In presence of the prætor, he formally accepted the dangerous but valuable inheritance Cæsar bequeathed to him; and, in the long, keen, complicated struggle which ensued, played his part with a cool astuteness and calm ability, which baffled the intriguers who were on the alert in Rome, for opportunity and power. When, under the walls of Mutina, the contending forces first met, Antony was soon compelled to betake himself to the other side of the Alps. On his accession to the consulship, B.C. 43, Octavius saw that new combinations were possible, and he prudently proposed the second triumvirate. The opposition was completely broken by the battles at Philippi, B.C. 42; and Octavius, during the next nine years, inflexibly pursued such plans as rid him of all antagonists except Antony. Then, bracing himself for a final contest, by the action at Actium, 2d September B.C. 31, he overcame Antony, and acquired sovereign supremacy in the Roman empire. After a reign of almost unexampled prosperity, he died at Nola, 19th August B.C. 14.

3. MARCUS ANTONIUS, son of Marcus Antonius Creticus and of Julia, sister of Lucius Julius Cæsar, was born in B.C. 83. His father, dying while he was yet young, he was brought up by Lentulus, who became the husband of Julia, and who was put to death by Cicero, as one of the conspirators along with Catiline. Antony and Cicero were thereafter enemies. In his early years he gave headlong scope to his passions, and became involved in debt through his extravagance. In B.C. 58, he went to Syria, and there, under Gabinius, served with considerable distinction. He accompanied Cæsar into Gaul, B.C. 54, and by his aid was chosen quæstor, B.C. 52. He linked himself then to Cæsar's

fortunes, and became one of his most zealous partisans. He was tribune of the plebs, B.C. 49, and put his veto on the law requiring the disbanding of Cæsar's army. He commanded the left wing of Cæsar's army at the battle of Pharsalia, B.C. 48. He was consul along with Cæsar B.C. 44, and thrice offered him the kingly crown at the Lupercalia. After Cæsar's assassination he endeavoured to succeed to his power, but found an unexpected rival in Cæsar's grandnephew, adopted son and heir, Caius Octavius, who joined the senate to crush his competitor. When he went to Cisalpine Gaul, to wrest that province from Decimus Brutus, the senate declared Antony a public enemy, and sent Octavius to carry on the war against him. Octavius defeated him at Mutina; but when Antony, now joined by Lepidus with a fresh army, again took the field, Octavius planned the second triumvirate, by which the imperial government should be vested for five years in himself and his antagonists. This was agreed to, and a proscription arranged. Octavius and Antony at Philippi crushed the conspirators in favour of republicanism, and Antony went to Asia, as his share of the Roman dominion. In Egypt he became the slave of Cleopatra and his passions. From this debasement he was recalled for a short time by his marriage with Octavia, his co-triumvir's sister; but he speedily returned to his besotment, sent Octavia back, and became in character and state an Eastern despot. Octavius saw that his opportunity had now come, and at Actium he crushed him. On his defeat at the sea-fight, Antony fled with Cleopatra to Alexandria, and there, when Octavius sat down before it, in siege, he terminated his strange life by suicide, B.C. 30.

4. M. ÆMILIUS LEPIDUS, son of Marcus Lepidus, who was consul B.C. 78, and strove to rescind the laws of Sulla. This Lepidus was ædile B.C. 52, prætor, 49, and along with Cæsar, whom he had supported in the civil war, consul, 46. He was appointed by Cæsar, B.C. 44, to the government of Gaul Narbonensis and Nearer Spain. As one of his guest-friends, he supped with Cæsar on the evening before his assassination. Having the command of an army in the neighbourhood of Rome at this time, he lent efficient aid to Antony in his endeavour to seat himself in Cæsar's sovereignty. He was chosen Pontifex Maximus in succession to the dictator, and went to his government thereafter. espoused the cause of Antony, in opposition to the senate, after his defeat at Mutina. He became a member of the triumvirate, among whom the government of the world was

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