Enter LUCIUS.

Luc. Sir, March is wafted fourteen days. (9)

[Knocks within.

Bru. 'Tis good. Go to the gate; fomebody

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
Like a phantafma, or a hideous dream :
The genius, and the mortal inftruments
Are then in council; and the state of man,
Like to a little kingdom, fuffers then
The nature of an infurrection.

(9) Sir, March is wasted fifteen days.] The editors are flightly mistaken it was wafted but fourteen days; this was the dawn of the 15th, when the boy makes his report. (10) Since Caffius first did whet me against Cæfar,

I have not fept.]

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 laft fcene with Caffius, faid, that he would on the morrow stay at home for Caffius, and becaufe Caffius here comes home to him) this was the day immediately fucceeding that on which Caflius opened the fecret of the confpiracy to him. But, however any circum ftances 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 such 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 observe, from the first Act, that Caflius opened the plot to him on the feaft of the Eupercalia, which folemnity was held in February and Cæfar was not affaffinated, as has been obferved, till the middle of March. Some of the critics, 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 February): if fo, the interval betwixt that, and the time when Calar was murdered, is twenty-nine days.

:

Enter LUCIUS.

Luc. Sir; 'tis your brother Caffius at the door, Who doth defire to fee you.

Bru. Is he alone?

Luc. No, Sir, there are more with him.

Bru. Do you know them?"

Luc. No, Sir, their hats are plucked about their And half their faces buried in their cloaks; [ears, That by no means I may discover them

By any mark of favour.

Bru. Let them enter.

They are the faction. O Confpiracy!

[Exit Luc.

Shameft thou to fhew thy dangerous brow by night, When evils are most free? O then, by day

Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough

To mark thy menftrous vifage? feek none, ConHide it in fimiles and affability:

[fpiracy;

For if thou path, thy native femblance on,

Not Erebus itself were din enough

To hide thee from prevention.

Enter CASSIUS, CASCA, DECIUS, CINNA, METELLUS, and TREBONIUS.

Caf. I think we are too bold upon your rest;
Good-morrow, Brutus; do we trouble your
Bru. I have been up this hour, awake all night.
Know I thefe men that come along with you?
[Afide.
Caf Yes, every man of them; and no man here
But honours you: and every one doth with
You had but that opinion of yourself,
Which every noble Roman bears of you.
This is Trebonius.

Bru. He is welcome hither.
Caf. This, Decius Brutus.

Bra. He is welcome too.

Cat. This, Cafca; this, Cinna: And this, Metellus Cimber.

Bru. They are all welcome.

What watchful cares do in rpose themselves

Betwixt your eyes and night?

Caf. Shall I entreat a word?

[They whisper.

Dec. Here lyes the Eaft; doth not the day break here? (11)

Cafca. No.

Cin. O pardon, Sir, it doth: and yon grey lines That fret the clouds, are metfengers of day.

66

Cafca. You fhall confefs that you are both deceived:

Here, as I point my fword, the fun arifes,

(11) Here lyes the Eaft :] Mr Rymer, in his examination of the tragedies of the laft age, p. 153, has left an invidious and paltry remark on this paffage.. "Here the Roman Senators, (fays he), the midnight before Cæfar's death, "(met in the garden of Brutus to fettle the matter of their confpiracy) are gazing up to the stars, and have no more "in their heads than to wrangle about which is the Ea "and Weft This is directly, as Bays tells us, to fhew the "world a pattern here, how men fhould talk of bufinefs. "But it would be a wrong to the Poet, not to inform the "reader, that on the ftage the fpectators fee Brutus and

Caffius all this while at whifper together."--I cannot help having the utmoft contempt for this poor ill-judged fneer. It fhews the height of good manners and politeness in the confpirators, while Brutus and Caffius whisper, to fart any occafional topic, and talk ectempore, rather than feem to liften to, or be defirous of overhearing what Cassius draws Brutus afide for. And, if I am not miftaken, there is a piece of art fhewn in this whifper, which our caviller either did not, or would not, fee into. The audience are

already apprifed of the fubject on which the faction meet: and therefore this whifper is an artifice, to prevent the preliminaries of what they knew beforehand being formally repeated.

Which is a great way growing on the fouth,
Weighing the youthful season of the year.
Some two months hence, up higher toward the North :
He first prefents his fire; and the high East
Stands, as the Capite! directly here.

Bru. Give me your hands all over, one by one.
Caf. And let us fwear our refolution.

Bru. No, not an oath; if that the face of men,
The fufferance of our fouls, the times abufe,----.
If these be motives weak, break off betimes;
And every man hence to his idle bed:
So let high-fighted tyramy range on, (12)
'Till each inan 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 redrefs? what other bond,

Than fecret Romans, that have spoke the word,
And will not palter? and what other oath,
Than honefty to honefty engaged,

That this fhall be, or we will fall for it?
Swear priests and cowards, and men cautelous,
Old feeble carrions, and fuch fuffering fouls
That welcome wrongs: unto bad caufes, fwear
Such creatures as men doubt; but do not stain

(12) So let high-fighted tyranny- -] Though I have not difturbed this epithet in the text, yet I fufpect our Poet either wrote, as Mr Warburton hinted to me, high-fieged, or, elfe, high-feated So Caffius, in the former act, fays;

And after this, let Cæfar feat him fure.

So in Macbeth;

-and our high-placed Macbeth

Shall live the leafe of Nature.

And again;

Great tyranny, lay thou thy bafis fure. And in many other paffages.

The even virtue of our enterprise,

Nor the infuppreflive mettle of our fpirits;
To think that or our caufe, or our performance,
Did need an oath: when every drop of blood,
That every Roman bears, and nobly bears,
Is guilty of a feveral baftardy,

If he doth break the fmalleft particle
Of any promise that hath paft from him.

Caf. But what of Ciceró? fhall we found him?
I think he will stand very ftrong with us.
Cafca. Let us not leave him out.

Gin. No, by no means.

Met. O let us have him, for his filver hairs
Will purchafe us a good opinion,

And buy mens voices to commend our deeds:
It fhall be faid, his judgment ruled our hands;
Our youths and wildnefs fhall no whit appear,
But all be buried in his gravity.

Bru. Oname him not; let us not break with him; For he will never follow any thing

That other men begin.

Caf. Then leave him out.

Cafca. Indeed he is not fit.

[Cæfar?

Dec. Shall no man elfe be touched, but only. Caf. Decius, well urged; I think it is not meet, Mark Antony, fo well beloved of Cæfar, Should out-live Cæfar: we shall find of him A fhrewd contriver. And you know his means, If he improve them, may well stretch fo far, As to annoy us all; which to prevent, Let Antony and Cæfar fall together.

[Caffius,

Bru. Our courfe will feem too bloody, Caius To cut the head off, and then hack the limbs; Like wrath in death,. and envy afterwards: For Antony is but a limb of Cæfar.

Let us be facrificers, but not butchers, Caius;