Not Erebus itself were dim enough

To hide thee from prevention.

Brutus rifes far above his friend and affociate Caffius, when, with a noble difdain, he rejects his propofal of fwearing to their refolution.

BRUTUS.

No, not on oath. If not the face of men,
The fufferance of our fouls, the time's abufe,

If these be motives weak, break off betimes,
And ev'ry man hence to his idle bed;
So let high-fighted tyranny rage on,

'Till each man drop by lottery. But if thefe,
As I am fure they do, bear fire enough

To kindle cowards, and to fteel with valour
The melting fpirits of women; then, countrymen,
What need we any fpur, but our own cause,
To prick us to redress? what other bond,
Than fecret Romans, that have spoke the word,

And will not palter? and what other oath,
Than honefty to honefty engag'd,

That this fhall be, or we will fall for it?

Swear priefts, and cowards, and men cautelous,

Old feeble carrions, and such suffering fouls
That welcome wrongs: unto bad causes fwear

Such

Such creatures as men doubt; but do not stain

The even virtue of our enterprize,

Nor th' infuppreffive mettle of our spirits,

To think, that or our caufe, or our performance,
Did need an oath when every drop of blood
That ev'ry Roman bears, and nobly bears,
Is guilty of a feveral bastardy,

If he doth break the smallest particle

Of any promise that hath past from him.

Is it not wonderful to see a poor player thus ennoble the fentiments, and give full expanfion to the magnanimity of the man styled the deliverer of Rome ?

Mr. Voltaire is fo little fenfible of the noble delicacy of this speech, that he says the confpirators are not Romans, but a parcel of country-fellows of a former age who confpire in a tippling-houfe.-Surely there is no partiality in faying our Author has given to Brutus Roman Sentiments, with a tincture of the Platonic Philofophy; and, befides these more general characteristics, has added many nice touches, which specify his perfonal qualities. We behold on the

ftage the Marcus Brutus of Plutarch rendered more amiable and more interesting. A peculiar gentleness of manners, and delicacy of mind, distinguish him from all the other confpirators; and we cannot refuse to concur with the confeffion of his enemies, and the words of Antony.

ANTONY.

This was the nobleft Roman of them all :

All the confpirators, fave only he,

Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar;
He, only, in a general honest thought,
And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle, and the elements

So mix'd in him, that nature might stand up, And fay to all the world; This was a Man! The following foliloquy, prophetic of the civil war, fubfequent to the death of Cæfar, spoken by Antony addreffing himself to the dead body, is fublime and folemn.

ANTONY.

O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,

That I am meek and gentle with these butchers.
Thou art the ruins of the noblest man,

That ever lived in the tide of times.

Woe

Woe to the hand that fhed this coftly blood!
Over thy wounds now do I prophefy,

Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips,
To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue,
A curfe fhall light upon the limbs of men;
Domestic fury, and fierce civil ftrife,
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy;

Blood and deftruction shall be so in use,
And dreadful objects fo familiar,

That mothers fhall but fmile, when they behold
Their infants quarter'd with the hands of war:
All pity choak'd with custom of fell deeds;
And Cæfar's fpirit raging for revenge,
With Até by his fide come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines, with a monarch's voice
Cry Havock, and let flip the dogs of war,

This speech fhews the fecret enmity Antony bears to the confpirators, and prepares us for the inflammatory oration, which at the obfequies of Cæfar he pronounces before the people. -I fhall cite it at length, for as this tragedy has been brought by Mr. Voltaire into a comparison with the Cinna of Corneille, and he is pleased to call our

R 4

English

English piece a monstrous fpectacle, and takes not the leaft notice of a fpeech which may be confidered as one of the finest pieces of rhetoric that is extant, I am defirous to fet it before the reader. It is prefumed that he will hardly find any thing monstrous in its form, or abfurd in its matter, but quite the reverse. I suppose a popular address and manner, in an oration defigned for the populace, would be deemed the most proper by the best critics in the art of rhetoric.

ANTONY.

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
I come to bury Cæfar, not to praise him.
The evil, that men do, lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones ;
So let it be with Cæfar! noble Brutus
Hath told you, Cæfar was ambitious;
If it were fo, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Cæfar answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus, and the rest,
For Brutus is an honourable man,
So are they all, all honourable men,
Come I to speak in Cæfar's funeral,

He