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:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

Brutus, and Cæsar: What should be in that Cæsar?
Why should that name be sounded more than yours?
Write them together, yours is as fair a name;
Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well 11;
Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with them,
Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Cæsar. [Shout.
Now in the names of all the gods at once,
Upon what meat doth this our Cæsar feed,
That he is grown so great? Age, thou art sham'd:
Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!
When went there by an age, since the great flood,
But it was fam'd with more than with one man?
When could they say, till now, that talk'd of Rome,
That her wide walks encompass'd but one man?
Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough,
When there is in it but one only man.

O! you and I have heard our fathers say,

There was a Brutus 12 once, that would have brook'd

10

But I the meanest man of many more,

Yet much disdaining unto him to lout,

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,
As easily as a king.

Bru. That you do love me, I am nothing jealous;
What you would work me to, I have some aim 13;
How I have thought of this, and of these times,
I shall recount hereafter; for this present,

I would not, so with love I might entreat you,
Be
further mov'd. What you have said,
have to say,

any

I will consider; what you

I will with patience hear: and find a time

Both meet to hear, and answer, such high things.
Till then, my noble friend, chew upon this 14;
Brutus had rather be a villager,

Than to repute himself a son of Rome
Under these hard conditions as 15 this time

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
As [which] wyndes and wederes walwen aboute.'
Piers Plouhman, ed. 1813, p. 168.

Bru. I will do so:-But, look you, Cassius,
The angry spot doth glow on Cæsar's brow,
And all the rest look like a chidden train:
Calphurnia's cheek is pale; and Cicero
Looks with such ferret and such fiery eyes,
As we have seen him in the Capitol,

Being cross'd in conference by some senators.
Cas. Casca will tell us what the matter is.
Caes. Antonius.

Ant. Cæsar.

Cæs. Let me have men about me that are fat; Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o'nights: Yond' Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous. Ant. Fear him not, Cæsar, he's not dangerous 16: He is a noble Roman, and well given.

Cas. 'Would he were fatter:-But I fear him not: Yet if my name were liable to fear,

I do not know the man I should avoid

So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much;
He is a great observer, and he looks

Quite through the deeds of men: he loves no plays,
As thou dost, Antony; he hears no musick 17:
Seldom he smiles; and smiles in such a sort,
As if he mock'd himself, and scorn'd his spirit

16 When Cæsar's friends complained unto him of Antonius and Dolabella, that they pretended some mischief towards him, he answered, As for those fat men and smooth-combed heads (quoth he), I never reckon of them; but these pale-visaged and carrion-lean people, I fear them most; meaning Brutus and Cassius.'-North's Plutarch, 1579.

And in another place :—‹ Cæsar had Cassius in great jealousy, and suspected him much; whereupon he said on a time to his friends, What will Cassius do, think you? I like not his pale looks.'

17 Shakspeare considered this as an infallible mark of an austere disposition. The reader will remember the passage in The Merchant of Venice so often quoted:-

The man who hath no music in himself
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.'

That could be mov'd to smile at any thing.
Such men as he be never at heart's ease,
Whiles they behold a greater than themselves;
And therefore are they very dangerous.
I rather tell thee what is to be fear'd,
Than what I fear, for always I am Cæsar.
Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf,
And tell me truly what thou think'st of him.

[Exeunt CESAR and his Train. CASCA stays
behind.

Casca. You pull'd me by the cloak; Would you speak with me?

Bru. Ay, Casca; tell us what hath chanc'd to-day, That Cæsar looks so sad.

Casca. Why you were with him, were you not? Bru. I should not then ask Casca what hath chanc'd.

Casca. Why, there was a crown offer'd him 18: and being offer'd him, he put it by with the back of his hand, thus; and then the people fell a' shouting.

Bru. What was the second noise for?

Casca. Why, for that too.

Cas. They shouted thrice? What was the last cry for?

Casca. Why, for that too.

Bru. Was the crown offer'd him thrice?

Casca. Ay, marry, was't, and he put it by thrice, every time gentler than other; and at every putting by, mine honest neighbours shouted.

Cas. Who offered him the crown?

Casca. Why, Antony.

Bru. Tell us the manner of it, gentle Casca.

18 Thus in the old translation of Plutarch: ·

he cáme to Cæsar, and presented him a diadem wreathed about with laurel.'

Casca. I can as well be hanged, as tell the manner of it: it was mere foolery. I did not mark it. I saw Mark Antony offer him a crown;-yet 'twas not a crown neither, 'twas one of these coronets ;and, as I told you, he put it by once; but, for all that, to my thinking, he would fain have had it. Then he offered it to him again; then he put it by again: but, to my thinking, he was very loath to lay his fingers off it. And then he offered it the third time; he put it the third time by: and still as he refused it, the rabblement hooted, and clapped their chopped hands, and threw up their sweaty night-caps, and uttered such a deal of stinking breath because Cæsar refused the crown, that it had almost choked Cæsar; for he swooned, and fell down at it: And for mine own part, I durst not laugh, for fear of opening my lips, and receiving the bad air.

Cas. But, soft, I pray you: What? did Cæsar

'swoon?

Casca. He fell down in the market-place, and foamed at mouth, and was speechless.

Bru. 'Tis very like: he hath the falling-sickness. Cas. No, Cæsar hath it not; but you, and I, And honest Casca, we have the falling-sickness.

Casca. I know not what you mean by that; but, I am sure, Cæsar fell down. If the tag-rag people did not clap him, and hiss him, according as he pleased, and displeased them, as they use to do the players in the theatre, I am no true 19 man.

Bru. What said he, when he came unto himself? Casca. Marry, before he fell down, when he perceiv'd the common herd was glad he refused the crown, he plucked me ope his doublet, and offered them his throat to cut.-An I had been a

19 i. e. no honest man.