every Roman, but undoubtedly, adored by his defcendants.

This is truly Imitation, when the Poet gives us the just copies of all circumstances that accompanied the action he represents. Corneille's drama's are fantastic compofitions, void of historical truth, imitation of character, or reprefentation of manners. Some few lines from Seneca, ingrafted into the Cinna, have given it reputation. For, however custom may have taught a very ingenious and polite people to endure the infipid fcenes of l'amoureux et l'amoureuse, the fault has been in the Poets, not the fpectators all their critics have strongly condemned this mode of writing; and the public, by its approbation of this piece on account of the scenes between Augustus and Cinna, fhews plainly how much dialogues of a noble and manly kind would please. Unhappily, Seneca's Auguftus makes the Cinna of Corneille appear too mean and little. These borrowed ornaments never will affort perfectly well with the piece; they

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break in upon the harmony of sentiment, and the proportion of characters, and fall greatly short of the easy propriety, and becoming grace, of a perfect set of imitations defigned for, and fitted to the work, as in this tragedy of Julius Cæfar, where all the characters appear in due degrees of subordination to the Hero of the piece. Our Poet, to interest us the more for Brutus, takes every occafion to make Caffius a foil for him. In the next fcene he is represented by Cæfar in an unamiable light; the opportunity of fo fit an occafion is taken, to make some fine reflections on the malignant and envious nature of men, not softened by the joys of mirth, and the endearing intercourse of focial pleasures.

CESAR. (To ANTONY, apart.)

Let me have men about me that are fat,

Sleek-headed men, and such as fleep a-nights:
Yond Caffius has a lean and hungry look;

He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous,
ANTONY.

Fear him not, Cæfar, he's not dangerous;

He is a noble Roman, and well given.

SAR,

CÆSAR.

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

I do not know the man I fhould avoid,

So foon as that (pare Caffius. He reads much;
He is a great obferver; and he looks

Quite through the deeds of men. He loves no plays,
As thou do'ft, Antony; he hears no mufic;
Seldom he smiles, and smiles in fuch a fort,
As if he mock'd himself, and scorn'd his spirit,
That could be mov'd to fmile at any thing.
Such men as he be never at heart's ease,

Whilft they behold a greater than themselves ;
And therefore are they very dangerous.

Cafca's blunt recital of the offer of a crown to Cæfar, in the next scene, is much cenfured by the critic, accustomed to the decorums of the French theatre. It is not improbable the Poet might have in his eye fome person of eminence in his days, who was distinguished by fuch manners. Many allusions and imitations which please at the time, are loft to pofterity, unless they point at tranfactions and perfons of the first conse

quence.

quence.

Whether we approve fuch a character on the stage or not, we must allow his narration represents the defigns of Cæfar's party, and the aversion of the Roman people to that Royalty, which he affected; and it was right to avoid engaging the parties in more deep difcourfe, as Shakespear intended, by a fort of hiftorical procefs, to fhew how Brutus was led on to that act, to which his nature was averfe.

The first scene of the second act presents Brutus debating with himself, upon the point on which Caffius had been urging him. Caffius in his foliloquy, fcene third, act first, feems to intimate, that refentment had a fhare in his desire to take off Cæfar. Brutus, on the contrary, informs us, that no perfonal motives fway him, but fuch as are derived. from an hereditary averfion to tyranny, and the pledge, which the virtue of his ancestors had given the common-wealth, that a Brutus would not suffer a king in Rome ; these confiderations compel him to take the following refolution:

BRUTUS.

It must be by his death; and, for my part,
I know no perfonal cause to fpurn at him ;
But for the general. He would be crown'd;
How that might change his nature, there's the question.
It is the bright day that brings forth the adder;
And that craves wary walking: Crown him-that-
And then I grant we put a sting in him,
That at his will we may do danger with.

Th' abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins
Remorfe from power: and to speak truth of Cæsar,
I have not known when his affections fway'd
More than his reason. But 'tis a common proof,
That lowlinefs is young ambition's ladder,
Whereto the climber upward turns his face;
But when he once attains the upmost round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, fcorning the base degrees
By which he did afcend. So Cæfar may :

Then, left he may, prevent.

How averfe he is to the means, by which he is to deliver his country from the danger apprehended, appears in the following words:

BRUTUS.