Never lacks power to difmifs it felf. If I know this; know all the world befides, Cafca. So can I : So every bondman in his own hand bears Caf. And why fhould Cæfar be a tyrant then? So vile a thing as Cæfar? But, oh grief! Cafea. You fpeak to Cafca, and to fuch a man, And I will fet this foot of mine as far, Caf. There's a bargain made. Now know you, Cafca, I have mov'd already Is feav'rous, like the work we have in hand; (7) Hold, my Hand] This Comma muft cer tainly be remov'd. Cafea bids Caffius take his Hand, as it were to bind their League and Amity. So afterwards, in this Play; Give me thy Hand, Meffala. Enter Enter Cinna. Cafca. Stand close a while, for here comes one in hafte. Caf. 'Tis Cinna, I do know him by his gate; He is a friend. Cinna, where hafte you fo? Cin. To find out you: who's that, Metellus Cimber? To our attempts. Am I not ftaid for, Cinna? Cin. Yes, you are. O Caffius! could you win the noble Brutus Caf. Be you content. Good Cinna, take this paper; Repair to Pompey's porch, where you fhall find us. Gin. All, but Metellus Cimber, and he's gone [Exit Cinna. Come, Cafca, you and I will, yet, ere day, Upon the next encounter yields him ours. Will change to virtue, and to worthiness. Caf. Him, and his worth, and our great need of him, You have right well conceited; let us go, For it is after mid-night; and, ere day, We will awake him, and be fure of him. [Exeunt. ACT ACT II. SCENE, BRUTUS's Garden. W Enter Brutus. BRUTUS. HAT, Lucius! ho! I cannot by the progrefs of the stars fay! I would, it were my fault to fleep fo foundly. Luc. Call'd you, my lord? Bru. Get me a taper in my Study, Lucius: When it is lighted, come and call me here. Luc. I will, my lord. [Exit. Bru. It must be by his death: and, for my part, I know no personal cause to spurn at him; How that might change his nature, there's the queftion. that— It is the bright day, that brings forth the adder; By By which he did afcend: fo Cæfar may : Fater Lucius. Luc. The taper buineth in your clofet, Sir: [Gives him the letter. Bru. Look in the kalendar, and bring me word. Bru. The exhalations, whizzing in the air, [Exit... [Opens the letter, and reads. pronounce a (8) Is not to morrow, Boy, the firft of March] I dare palpable Blunder here, which None of the Editors have ever been aware of. Brutus enquires whether the first of March be come, and the Boy brings him word 'tis wafted: 15 Days: Allowing Brutus to be a moft contemplative Man, and his Thoughts taken up with high Matters, yet I can never agree, that he fo little knew how Time went, as to be mistaken a whole Fortnight in the Reckoning. I make no Scruple to affert, the Poet wrote Ides. But how could Ides, may it not be objected, be corrupted into firft? What Similitude in the Traces of the Letters? This Difficulty may very easily be folv'd, by only fuppofing that the Word: Ides in the Manufcript Copy happen'd to be wrote contractedly thus, js: The Players knew the Word well enough in the Contraction; but when the MSS came to the Prefs, the Compofitors were not fo well informed in it: They knew, that jst frequently flood for firft; and blunderingly thought that j: was meant to do fo too: and thence was deriv'd the Corruption of the Text: But that the Poet wrote Ides, we have This in Confirmation. Brutus makes the Enquiry on the Dawn of the very Day, in which Cafar was kill'd in the Capitol. Now 'tis very well known, that this was on the 15th Day, which is the Ides, of March. ledge, that my Friend Mr. Warburton likewise started this very EmenI ought to acknow. dation, and communicated it to Me by Letter. Brutus Brutus, thou fleep'ft; awake, and fee thy felf: Shall Rome, Brutus, thou fleep'ft: awake. Such inftigations have been often dropt, Shall Rome thus mult I piece it out, "Shall Rome ftand under one man's awe? what! Rome? My ancestors did from the ftreets of Rome "The Tarquin drive, when he was call'd a King. Speak, frike, redressam I entreated then To speak, and strike? O Rome! I make thee promise, If the redress will follow, thou receiv'st Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus! Enter Lucius. Luc. Sir, March is wafted fourteen days. (9) [knocks within. Bru. 'Tis good. Go to the gate; fome body knocks: [Exit Lucius. Since Caffius firft did whet me against Cæfar, (10) I have not flept. Between the acting of a dreadful thing, And the first motion, all the interim is (9) Sir, March is wafted fifteen days.] The Editors_are flightly miftaken: It was wafted but 14 Days; this was the Dawn of the 15th, when the Boy makes his Report. (10) Since Caffius firft did whet me against Cæfar, I have not flept.] This is not to be taken literally: but only that it had, at Fits, broke his Reft. Some Readers might, perhaps, imagine, that, (because Brutus, in his last Scene with Caffius, faid, that he would on the Morrow ftay at home for Caffius; and because Caffius here comes home to him) this was the Day immediately fucceeding That, on which Caffius open'd the Secret of the Confpiracy to him. But, however any Circumftances in any preceding Lines may countenance fuch an Opinion, it would be a great Diminution to the fedate Character of Brutus, to be let into a Plot of fuch serious Moment one day, and to be ready to put it in Execution on the Next. The Poet intended no fuch rafh Conduct. We are to obferve, from the first Act, that Caffius open'd the Plot to him on the Feaft of the Lupercalia, which Solemnity was held in February and Cefar was not affaffin'd, as has been obferv'd, till the Middle of March. Some of the Criticks, with what Certainty I dare not pretend to fay, fix down this Feaft to the XVth before the Calends of March ; ( i. e. the 15th of Febr.) if so, the Interval betwixt that, and the Time when Cafar was murther'd, is 29 Days. |