Like a South wind I've sung thro' all these A thousand April showers fall in my bosom! captives, [tars, A murderer, a hated Cæsar: Oh! Oh, torments, torments, torments! Pains above pains! If ye be any thing but dreams, and ghosts, And truly hold the guidance of things mortal; Have in yourselves times past, to come, and present; ['em, Fashion the souls of men, and make flesh for Weighing our fates and fortunes beyond reason; [giveness! Be more than all, ye gods 54, great in forBreak not the goodly frame ye build in anger, For you are things, men teach us, without passions. [me! Give me an hour to know ye in! Oh, save But so much perfect time ye make a soul iu, Take this destruction from me!-No, ye cannot; The more I would believe ye, more I suffer. My brains are ashes! now my heart, my eyes! Friends, I go, I go! More air, more air!-I'm mor tal! [Dies. Proc. Take in the body. Oh, Licinius, The misery that we are left to suffer! No pity shall find us. Licin. Our lives deserve none. "Would I were chain'd again to slavery, any hope of life! With Proc. A quiet grave, [thing. Or a consumption now, Licinius, And if that cannot save us, we have swords. Proc. Yes, but we dare not die. Licin. Think any thing; I'll follow. Proc. How now? what news? Mess. Shift for yourselves; ye're ost else. The soldier is in arms, for great Accius, ['em, And their lieutenant-general, that stopp'd Cut in a thousand picces: They march hither. Beside, the women of the town have murder'd Phorba and loose Ardelia, Casar's she-bawds. Licin. Then here's no staying, Proculus ! Proc. Oh, Cæsar, That we had never known thy lusts! Let's fly, And where we find no woman's man let's die. [Exeunt. SCENE III. Enter Marimus. Mar. Gods, what a sluice of blood have I let open! My happy ends are come to birth; he's dead, And I reveng'd; the empire's all a-fire, And desolation every where inhabits. And shall I live, that am the author of it, To know Rome, from the awe o' th' world, the pity? [ing; My friends are gone before too, of my send- Or any third, holds half their worthiness, First smile upon the sacrifice I've sent ye, Somewhat too sudden to mine own destrucThis great end of my vengeance may grow greater: Why may not I be Cæsar? Yet no dying: Why should not I catch at it? Fools and children [tain'd it, Have had that strength before me, and ob 53 Away with that prodigious body.] Thus read all the editions; but as there seems no eause for applying the epithet prodigious to the body of Aretus, it is probable that this reading is corrupt, and that the original was perfidious. 54 Be more than all the gods, great in forgiveness.] If this be the true reading, the sense scems very obscure; but the slight change I have made will clear it: 'Be more than all, ye gods.' are great in creating and governing us, be greater still in forgiving us. Seward. And, as the danger stands, my reason bids me; I will, I dare. My dear friends, pardon me ; Stand and defy bad fortunes. If I rise, SCENE IV. [Exit. -than the furious North, [Exit. fend us! Gods de [en'd. 'Tis not a time to pray now; let's be strength Enter Afranius. 3 Sen. How now, Afranius? What good Afr. A Cesar! 1 Sen. Oh, who? [news? Afr. Lord Maximus is with the soldier, And all the camp rings, Cæsar, Cæsar, Cæsar!' [nour. He forc'd the empress with him, for more ho2 Sen. A happy choice: Let's meet him. 3 Sen. Biessed fortune! 1 Sen. Away, away! Make room there, room there, room! [Exeunt Senators. Flourish. [Within] Lord Maximus is Cæsar, Cæsar, Hail, Cæsar Maximus! [Cæsar! Afr. Oh, turning people! Oh, people excellent in war, and govern'd! When he ploughs up the sea, and makes him brine.] Mr. Sympson tells me, that this pas sage puzzled him even to vexation; and something like it happened to me. In conclusion, we both retain the old reading, but differ toto calo in the explanation. He says, brine in the Saxon signifies fire, and, allowing therefore its genuine signification, that the sentiment is noble. I think his solution extremely ingenious, but that our Authors would not use a common word and apply it to its common subject, (as brine was as much used in their age for seawater, as it is at present) and design it to be understood in its old and totally-obsolete signification. I therefore, though perhaps from self-partiality, prefer the solution which occurred to me before I received this. Every one knows that the spray of the sea in stormy weather tinges the whole incumbent atmosphere, and makes it taste salt and briny. I suppose, therefore, the Poets by a small grammatical inaccuracy to have made the relative him in the last line relate to the North-wind, and not to its immediate antecedent the sea; so that the sense will then be tuil as nervous and poetical. More raging than the North-wind, when he ploughs up the sea, and turns himself and the whole air into brine.' Seward. These gentlemen have gone about it, and about it,' for uncouth allusions, when it required a deal of ingenuity to overlook the Poets' meaning. The sea is the antecedent to him. Every one knows that strong winds (assisted by the sun) produce brine: Afranius, therefore, by a fine rhetorical figure, says, The people are more raging than the North-wind, even when he is so furious as to render the whole sea brine.' Or the loud falls of Nile. I must give way, Enter Maximus, Eudoxia, Senators, and Sol- Sen. Room for the emperor! Lead to the palace; there my thanks, in ge- I'll shower among ye all. Gods, give me life, that dures a current, 56 Hope this.] Former editions. 57 For [Exit. Seward. Licippus. Any device that's handsome, A Cupid, or the god o' th' place, will do it, Where he must take the fasces. Pau. Or a Grace. Licippus. A good Grace has no fellow. Will not his name yield something? Maximus, Licippus. Get him wheels too; "Twill be a cruel carriage eise. Licippus. By any means, some songs; but Pau. A Grace must do it. Licippus. Why, let a Grace then. And in a robe of blue too, as I take it. That could paint nothing but a ramping lion; So all his learned fancies are Blue Graces. [Aside. Pou. What think you of a sea-nymph? and a Heaven? Licippus. Why, what should she do there, man? There's no water. Pau. By th' mass, that's true; it must be a Grace; and yet, Methinks, a rainbow Licippus. And in blue? [dle Hanging in arch above him, and i' ti' mid- Pau. No, no; it must be a Grace. Coming from hell Licippus. In blue too? Pan. Tis the better:--- And, as be rises, full of fires-▬▬▬▬ Will not that spoil his lute-strings, Paulus? And crossing of his arms-- Licippus. How can he play then? Pau. It shall be a Grace; I'll do it. [sible, And with as good a grace as thou canst pos Seward. When he is swell'd and high crackt, and farewel.] Corrected in 1750. 58 There's a prescription.] Former editions, corrected by all the three. Were it fact, that prescription was the reading of the former editions,' it would not have required any great ingenuity in all the three,' to have seen that it should be proscription; which word, however, appears in the second folio. In the same style, we are told, that the former editions read (p. 280, line 33) here instead of heard; (p. 281, last line but one) clad instead of call'd; (p. 286, line 33) vain of filing instead of vein of fidding; (p. 331, ie 11) ground instead of groun'd; (p. 356, line 5) thy life instead of thyself; and that the proper words have been inserted or proposed by one or other of the three, though the second folio has the true reading in every one of these instances, and both folios in some of them !!! Eud. What love, sir, Can I return for this, but my obedience? The sorrows for ny dead lord, fare ye well! That sacred head, Eudoxia makes for Cæsar. I am, methinks, too much in love with fortune; But with you, ever royal sir, my maker, Eud. Now, of my troth, you have bought Max. No, Pau. Yes; and all up, and ready. Licippus. The, empress does you simple honour, Paulus; The wreath your Blue Grace must present, she made. But, hark you, for the soldiers? Pau. That's done too : I'll bring 'em in, I warrant you. Pau. The same Grace serves for both. I must to th' cup-board; and 59 be sure, good Paulus, fcleanly. Your Grace be fasting, that he may hang If there should need another voice, what Pau. I'll hang another Grace in. [then? Licippus. Grace be with you! [Exeunt. Your grace be fasting, that he may hang cleanly.] This probably refers to a custom of suspending them gods, goddesses, graces, &c. in ropes, which might make the caution of being fasting in order to hang cleanly, perfectly necessary and very humorous. Seward. SCENE VIII. A synnet, with trumpets: A banquet prepared, with musick. Enter, in state, Maximus, Eudoxia, Senators, Gentlemen, and Soldiers, rods and axes borne before them. S Sen. Hail to thy imperial honour, sacred And from the old Rome take these wishes. Let him begin with Numa, stand with Cato, SONG. Honour, that is ever living, Honour, that is ever giving, Honour, that sees all, and knows Both the cbbs of man, and flows; Honour, that rewards the best, Sends thee thy rich labour's rest; Thou hast studied still to please her, Therefore now she calls thee Cæsar. Chorus. Hail, hail, Cæsar, hail, and stand, And thy name out-live the land! Noble fathers, to his brows Bind this wreath, with thousand vows! All. Stand to eternity! Max. I thank ye, fathers; And as I rule, may it still grow or wither! Now, to the banquet; ye are all my guests; This day be liberal, friends; to wine we give it, [beauty. And smiling pleasures. Sit, my queen of Fathers, your places. These are fair wars, soldiers, And thus I give the first charge to ye all. SONG. 60 God Lyæus, ever young, Go God Lizus, ever young.] First folio. Seward, Lycus. Dance upon the mazer's brim, God of youth, let this day here Envy of conquer'd nations, nobly come, And, to the fulness of your warlike noise, Let your feet move; make up this hour of joys. Come, come, I say; range your fair troop at large, And your high measure turn into a charge. 3 Sen. The emperor's grown heavy with his wine. Afr. The senate stays, sir, for your thanks. 3 Sen. Great Cæsar! Eud. I have my wish! Afr. Will't please your grace speak to him? Eud. Yes; but he will not hear, lords. 3 Sen. Stir him, Lucius; The senate inust have thanks. 2 Sen. Your Grace! Sir! Cæsar! [dead! End. Did I not tell you he was well? He's 3 Sen. Dead? Treason! guard the court! let no man pass! Soldiers, your Casar's murder'd. Eud. Make no tumult, Nor arm the court; ye have his killer with A subject not for swords, but pity. Heaven, 3 Sen. Speak, bloody woman! Second folio, and octavo 1711, Lyeus; and Mr. 61 Mazer's brim.] Mazer significs the old-fashion flat silver cup. —and your swords Seward. The heaviest way of death.] Mr. Theobald and Mr. Sympson both agree with me in discarding this word, the context plainly requiring a word of almost opposite signification; and we all prefer readiest as the best amongst several words that have occurred all pretty near the trace of the letters, as easiest, happiest; and Mr. Theobald adds heavenliest. Seward. |