"-if thou PATH, thy native semblance on"-i. e. Walk on a trodden way, in thy true form. Drayton so uses the word, speaking of the river Wey:- any Where from the neighbouring hills her passage Wey doth path. Coleridge, not being aware, as he says, "that old writer had used path in the sense of to walk," thought that "there should be no scruple in treating this path as a mere misprint for put." "the FACE of men"-Johnson thus explains this passage; in which, with a view perhaps to imitate the abruptness of discourse, Shakespeare has constructed the latter part without any regard to the beginning: "The 'face of men' is the countenance, the regard, the esteem of the public; in other terms, honour and reputation or the face of men may mean the dejected look of the people. Thus Cicero In Catilinam:'-' Nihil horum ora vultusque moverunt." Gray may perhaps support Johnson's explanation:— And read their history in a nation's eyes. Mason thought we should read, "the faith of men;" to which, he says, the context evidently gives support: what other bond, Than secret Romans, that have spoke the word, And will not palter, etc. The speech is formed on the following passage in North's "Plutarch:"-"The conspirators having never taken oath together, nor taken or given any caution or assurance, nor binding themselves one to another by any religious oaths, they kept the matter so secret to themselves," etc. "-and men CAUTELOUS"-i. e. Wary, circumspect. "let us not break with him"-i. e. Let us not break the matter to him. The phrase is found taken in this sense in Sydney, Ben Jonson, and elsewhere in SHAKESPEARE; as in the Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, (act iii. scene 1.) 66 'Of fantasy, of dreams, and CEREMONIES," etc. "Ceremony" is here, as twice elsewhere in this play, used for the external and superstitious usages of any religion. It is a sense almost peculiar to Shakespeare, among the English writers, but corresponds with the use of the word in Latin. Thus Tacitus speaks of “caromoniam loci"-" the sanctity of the place." This peculiar use of the word may be added to those elsewhere pointed out, by Hallam and others, of the Poet's original use of common words, in their primitive Latin signification; showing a certain degree of classical acquirement. "That unicorns may be betray'd with trees," etc. "Unicorns" are said to have been taken by one who, running behind a tree, eluded the violent push the animal was making at him, so that his horn spent its force on the trunk, and stuck fast, detaining the animal till he was despatched by the hunter. This is alluded to by Spenser, ("Faerie Queene," book ii. chap. 5;) and by Chapman, in his "Bussy d'Ambois," (1607.) Bears are reported to have been surprised by means of a mirror, which they would gaze on, affording their pursuers an opportunity of taking the surer aim. This circumstance is mentioned by Claudian. Elephants were seduced into pitfalls, lightly covered with hurdles and turf, on which a proper bait to tempt them was placed. (See Pliny's "Natural History," book viii.) 46 go along BY HIM"-i. e. By his house; an old idiom resembling the French chez lui. "Let not our looks put on our purposes," etc. “Furthermore, the only name and great calling of Brutus did bring on the most of them to give consent to this conspiracy: who having never taken oaths together. nor taken or given any caution or assurance, nor binding themselves one to another by any religious oaths, they all kept the matter so secret to themselves, and could so cunningly handle it, that notwithstanding the gods did reveal it by manifest signs and tokens from above, and by predictions of sacrifices, yet all this would not be believed. Now Brutus, who knew very well that for his sake all the noblest, valiantest, and most courageous men of Rome did venture their lives, weigh ing with himself the greatness of the danger, when he was out of his house, he did so frame and fashion his countenance and looks that no man could discern that he had anything to trouble his mind. But when night came that he was in his own house, then he was clean changed; for either care did wake him against his will when he would have slept, or else oftentimes of himself he fell into such deep thoughts of this enterprise, casting in his mind all the dangers that might happen, that his wife, lying by him, found that there was some marvellous great matter that troubled his mind, not being wont to be in that taking, and that he could not well determine with himself. His wife, Portia, was the daughter of Cato, whom Brutus married, being his cousin, not a maiden, but a young widow, after the death of her first husband Bibulus, by whom she had also a young son called Bibulus, who afterwards wrote a book of the acts and jests of Brutus, extant at this present day. This young lady being excellently well seen in philosophy, loving her husband well, and being of a noble courage, as she was also wise, because she would not ask her husband what he ailed before she had made some proof by herself, she took a little razor, such as barbers occupy to pare men's nails, and, causing her maids and women to go out of her chamber, gave herself a great gash withal in her thigh, that she was straight all of a gore of blood, and incontinently after a vehement fever took her by reason of the pain of her wound. Then perceiv-ing her husband was marvellously out of quiet, and that he could take no rest, even in her greatest pain of all she spake in this sort unto him:-I, being, O Brutus, (said she,) the daughter of Cato, was married unto thee; not to be thy bedfellow and companion in bed and at board only, like a harlot, but to be partaker also with thee of thy good and evil fortune. Now for thyself I can find no cause of fault in thee touching our match; but, for my part, how may I show my duty towards thee, and how much I would do for thy sake, if I cannot constantly bear a secret mischance or grief with thee which requireth secrecy and fidelity? I confess that a woman's wit commonly is too weak to keep a secret safely; but yet (Brutus) good education, and the company of virtuous men, have some power to reform the defect of nature. And for myself, I have this benefit moreover, that I am the daughter of Cato and wife of Brutus. This notwithstanding, I did not trust to any of these things before, until that now I have found by experience that no pain or grief whatsoever can overcome me. With these words she showed him her wound on her thigh, and told him what she had done to prove herself. Brutus was amazed to hear what she said unto him, and, lifting up his hands to heaven, he besought the gods to give him the grace he might bring his enterprise to so good pass that he might be found a husband worthy of so noble a wife as Portia: so he then did comfort her the best he could."-NORTH'S Plutarch. "The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes." This may have been suggested by Suetonius, who relates that a blazing star appeared for seven days together, during the celebration of games, instituted by Augustus, in honour of Julius. The common people believed that this indicated his reception among the gods; his statues were accordingly ornamented with its figure, and medals struck on which it was represented. One of them is engraved in Douce's "Illustrations," from whence this note is taken. Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, in his "Defensative against the Poison of supposed Prophesies," (1583,) says:-" Next to the shadows and pretences of experience, (which have been met with all at large,) they seem to brag most of the strange events which follow (for the most part) after blazing starres; as if they were the summonses of God to call princes to the seat of judgment. The surest way to shake their painted bulwarkes of experience is, by making plaine that neither princes always dye when comets blaze, nor comets ever (i. e. always) when princes dye." In this work is a curious anecdote of Queen Elizabeth, "then lying at Richmond, being dissuaded from looking on a comet; with a courage equal to the greatness of her state, she caused the windowe to be sette open, and said, Jacta est alea-The dice are thrown." Plus me, Calphurnia, luctus Et lacrymæ movere tuæ, quam tristia vatum Si nunc inciperem, quæ non mihi tempora posthac (Dum nec luce frui, nec mortem arcere licebit) "She dreamt to-night she saw my STATUE," etc. Reid, Coleridge, and Dyce, maintain that "statue" is here a misprint for statua, the ancient word for statue; and thus it is often printed in later editions. But the older copies have "statue," as here given. Both forms of the word were in use in the Poet's age, and the pronunciation of "statue," as now spelled, seems to have vibrated between the present modern two syllables and one more resembling the older form, or three syllables, sounding the final e, which here would make the line regularly metrical. "For tinctures, stains, relics, and cognizance." This speech, which is intentionally pompous, is somewhat confused. There are two allusions: one to coats armorial, to which princes make additions, or give new "tinctures," and new marks of "cognizance;" the other to martyrs, whose reliques are preserved with veneration. The Romans, says Decius, all come to you as to a saint, for reliques, as to a prince, for honours.-JOHNSON. "reason to my love is liable”—i. e. Reason, or propriety of conduct and language, is subordinate to my love.-JOHNSON. ACT III.-SCENE I. "He is ADDRESS'D"-i. e. Ready. "Know, Cæsar doth not wrong: nor without cause Will he be satisfied." Ben Jonson ridicules this passage, in the Induction to the "Staple of News," and notices it in his Discoveries," as one of the lapses of Shakespeare's pen; but certainly without that malevolence which has been ascribed to him; and be it observed, that is almost the only passage in his works which can justly be construed into an attack on Shakespeare. He has been accused of quoting the passage unfaithfully; but Tyrwhitt surmised, and Gifford is decidedly of opinion, that the passage originally stood as cited by Jonson, thus: Met. Cæsar, thou dost me wrong. Cas. Cæsar, did never wrong, but with just cause. Tyrwhitt has endeavoured to defend the passage by observing, that "wrong" is not always a synonymous term for injury; and that Cæsar is meant to say, that he doth not inflict any evil or punishment but with just cause. "The fact seems to be, (says Gifford,) that this verse, which closely borders on absurdity, without being abso lutely absurd, escaped the Poet in the heat of composi tion; and being one of those quaint slips which are readily remembered, became a jocular and familiar phrase for reproving (as in the passage of Ben Jonson's Induction) the perverse and unreasonable expectations of the male or female gossips of the day." Mr. Collier, on the contrary, strenuously holds that "the passage, as it now stands, represents the lines written by Shakespeare, and was never liable to Ben Jonson's criticism;" it being evident that Ben Jonson spoke from memory shaken," as he confesses himself, "with age and sloth." "men are flesh and blood, and APPREHENSIVE"i. e. Intelligent; capable of apprehending. ["Casca stabs Cæsar"]-We retain this stage-direction as it is ordinarily given, though not in the old copies, which merely say, "They stab Cæsar." It has been formed by the later editors, from the accounts of Plutarch and Suetonius. "ET TU. BRUTE?-Then fall, Cæsar." Suetonius says, that when Cæsar put Metellus Cimber back, he caught hold of Cæsar's gowne, at both shoulders, whereupon, as he cried out, This is violence, Cas sius came in second, full a front, and wounded him a little beneath the throat. Then Cæsar, catching Cassius by the arme, thrust it through with his stile or writing punches; and with that, being about to leap forward, he was met with another wound and stayed." Being then assailed on all sides, "with three and twenty he was stabbed, during which time he gave but one groan, (without any word uttered,) and that was at the first thrust; though some have written that, as Marcus Brutus came running upon him, he said, and thou my sonne." (Holland's Translation, 1607.) Plutarch says that, on receiving his first wound from Casca, "he caught hold of Casca's sword, and held it hard; and they both cried out, Cæsar in Latin, O vile traitor Casca, what doest thou? and Casca in Greek, to his brother, Brother, help me. The conspirators, having then compassed him on every side," hacked and mangled him," etc.; " and then Brutus himself gave him one wound above the privities. Men report also, that Cæsar did still defend himself against the reste, running every way with his bodie; but when he saw Brutus with his sworde drawen, in his hande, then he pulled his gowne over his heade, and made no more resistance." Neither of these writers, therefore, furnished Shakespeare with this exclamation. It occurs in the "True Tragedie of Richard Duke of York," (1600;) on which he formed the Third Part of KING HENRY VI. : Et tu, Brute? Wilt thou stab Cæsar too? And is translated in Cæsar's Legend," Mirror for Magistrates," (1587 :")— And Brutus thou my sonne, quoth I, whom erst The words probably appeared originally in the old Latin play on the Death of Caesar. "Nor to no Roman else"-This use of two negatives, not to make an affirmative, but to deny more strongly, is common to Chaucer, Spenser, and other of our ancient writers. Dr. Hickes observes that, in the Saxon, even four negatives are sometimes conjoined, and still preserve a negative signification.-STEVENS. "Why he that cuts off twenty years of life Cuts off so many years of fearing death." Most modern editors, without any reason, assign these lines to Cassius; but the old copies put them in Casca's mouth, of whom they are sufficiently characteristic, cor responding with the reckless contempt of life he expresses in the first act: every bondian in his own hand bears The power to cancel his captivity. We now take leave of this peculiar and spiritedly drawn character. Stevens has well remarked that "Shakespeare knew that he had a sufficient number of heroes on his hands, and was glad to lose an individual in the crowd. It may be added, that the singularity of Casca's manners would have appeared to little advantage amidst the succeeding varieties of tumult and war.' "— who else is RANK"-Johnson explains this:"Who else may be supposed to have overtopped his equals, and grown too high for the public safety." This explanation derives support from the speech of Oliver, in As You LIKE IT, (act i. scene 1,) when incensed at the high bearing of his brother Orlando:-" Is it even so? begin you to grow upon me? I will physic your rankness." "Our arms, in strength of malice, and our hearts," etc. Thus the old copies: To you (says Brutus) our swords have leaden points; our arms, strong in the deed of malice they have just performed, and our hearts united like those of brothers in the action, are yet open to receive you with all possible regard. The supposition that Brutus meant, their hearts were of brothers' temper in respect of Antony, seems to have misled those who have commented on this passage before. For 66 in strength of," Mr. Pope substituted exempt from; and was too hastily followed by other editors. If alteration were necessary, it would be easier to read Our arms no strength of malice, etc. STEVENS. "Your voice shall be as strong as any man's," etc. Mr. Blakeway observes, that Shakespeare has maintained the consistency of Cassius's character, who, being selfish and greedy himself, endeavours to influence Antony by similar motives. Brutus, on the other hand, is invariably represented as disinterested and generous, and is adorned by the Poet with so many good qualities, that we are almost tempted to forget that he was an assassin. "and crimson'd in thy LETHE"-" Lethe" is used by old writers for death. Thus in Heywood's "Iron Age," (1632:)— It The proudest nation that great Asia nurs d appears to have been used as a word of one syllable in this sense, and is derived from the Latin lethum. Our ancient language was also enriched with the derivatives lethal, lethality, lethiferous, etc. Lethal lingered till lately, and perhaps still lingers, in the legal language of the Scottish criminal courts. "O world! thou wast the forest to this hart; And this indeed, O world! the heart of thee." I doubt the genuineness of the last two lines;-not because they are vile; but first, on account of the rhythm, which is not Shakespearian, but just the very tune of some old play, from which the actor might have interpolated them;-and secondly, because they interrupt, not only the sense and connection, but likewise the flow both of the passion, and (what is with me still more decisive) of the Shakespearian link of association. As with many another parenthesis or gloss slipped into the text, we have only to read the passage without it, to see that it never was in it. I venture to say there is no instance in Shakespeare fairly like this. Conceits he has; but they not only rise out of some word in the lines before, but also lead to the thought in the lines following. Here the conceit is a mere alien: Antony forgets an image, when he is even touching it, and then recollects it, when the thought last in his mind must have led him away from it.-Coleridge. the word by which declaration was made that no quarter should be given. Thus, in an old tract cited by him, one chapter is headed, "The peyne (i. e. punishment) of him that crieth Havock." "No ROME of safety"-There is a play upon the words Rome" and room, of old sounded alike, with the sound of oo, and still retaining the same sound in many English mouths; though on this side of the Atlantic that sound of "Rome" is so seldom heard, that the jingle may require explanation to many readers. SCENE II. "-Romans, countrymen, and lovers," etc. This speech has been censured by learned critics, as being an endeavour (in Warburton's language) "to imitate the famed laconic brevity," but wholly unsuccessful; being (according to Stevens) "an artificial jingle of short sentences," and to be regarded “as an imitation of the false eloquence in vogue," at the bar and in the pulpit, in the Poet's own day. But the truth is that the Poet, guided by Plutarch, in North's folio, or some other authority, appears to have had a better understanding of Brutus's oratorical taste than these critics, scholars as they undoubtedly were. Plutarch informs us (as North translates him) that Brutus, in his Greek composition, "counterfeited that brief, compendious manner of speech of the Lacedemonians." Of this the following examples are given, which are certainly much in the taste and manner that Shakespeare has here given to the speech to the people. "He wrote unto the Pergamenians in this sort: I understand you have given Dolabella money; if you have done it willingly, you confess you have offended me; if against your wills, show it then by giving me willingly." Another time again unto the Samians: "Your counsels be long; your doings be slow; consider the end." In another epistle he wrote unto the Patarians: "The Xanthians despising my good will, have made their country a grave of despair; the Parthians that put themselves under my protection have lost no jot of their liberty; and therefore whilst you have liberty, either chuse the judgment of the Patarians, or the fortune of the Xanthians." Shakespeare's idea of Brutus's style of eloquence seems also supported by other authorities, and especially by the celebrated Dialogue on the Causes of the Decline of Roman Eloquence," ascribed, though perhaps erroneously, to Tacitus. This tract, I think there is one indication that Shakespeare had read, either in the ori ginal or in some translation. (See note on the last scene of this play: "This was the noblest Roman of them all," etc.) It is said in that dialogue that Brutus's style was censured as "otiosum et disjunctum." The disjunctum, the broken-up style without oratorical continuity, is precisely that assumed by the dramatist. "Even at the base of Pompey's STATUE"-In this passage, and in a previous instance, the word statua has been substituted for the English word, as printed in the folios. What we may gain in harmony we lose in simplicity of expression, by this alteration. (See p. 46..) I have neither WIT"-The folio of 1623 has writ; that of 1632, wit." Writ, Johnson explained as a prepared writing; but, receiving "wit" in the sense of understanding, we take writ to be a misprint, for the reasons well stated by Stevens: "The artful speaker, on this sudden call for his exertions, was designed, with affected modesty, to represent himself as one who had neither wit, (i. e. strength of understanding,) persuasive language, weight of character, graceful action, harmony of voice, etc., (the usual requisites of an orator,) to influence the minds of the people. Was it necessary, therefore, that, on an occasion so precipitate, he should have urged that he had brought no written speech in his pocket? since every person who heard him must have been aware that the interval between the death of Cæsar, and the time present, would have been inadequate to such a compo sition, which indeed could not have been produced at all, unless, like the indictment of Lord Hastings, in KING RICHARD III., it had been got ready through a premonition of the event that would require it." "On THIS side Tiber"-" This scene (says Theobald) lies in the Forum, near the Capitol, and in the most frequented part of the city; but Cæsar's gardens were very remote from that quarter: Trans Tiberim longe cubat is, prope Casaris hortos, says Horace; and both the Naumachia and gardens of Cæsar were separated from the main city by the river, and lay out wide in a line with Mount Janiculum." He would therefore read, "on that side Tiber." But Dr. Farmer has shown that Shakespeare's study lay in the old translation of Plutarch: "He bequethed unto every citizen of Rome seventy-five drachmas a man, and left his gardens and arbours unto the people, which he had on this side of the river Tyber." ACT IV.-SCENE I. "A Room in Antony's House." The triumvirs, it is well known, did not meet at Rome to settle their proscription, but upon an island in the river Larinus. Of this Shakespeare was not ignorant, for in North's "Plutarch," which he had so diligently studied, it is said, "They met all three in an island envyroned around about with a little river." But it is evident that he places his scene at Rome, by Lepidus being sent to Cæsar's house, and told that he shall find his confederates "or here, or at the Capitol." "On objects, arts, and imitations," etc. In the original there is a full point at the end of this line; and in modern editions there is a semicolon, which equally answers the purpose of separating the sense from what follows. This separation has created a difficulty. Theobald wants to know why a man is to be called a barren-spirited fellow that feeds on objects and arts; and he proposes to read abject orts. Stevens maintains that objects and arts were unworthy things Shakespeare has already woven this circumstance into the character of Justice Shallow:-" He came ever in the rearward of the fashion; and sung those tunes that he heard the carmen whistle."-STEVENS. "Our best friends made, our means stretch'd," etc. We reprint this line as in the first folio. It certainly gives one the notion of being imperfect; but it is not necessarily so, and may be taken as a hemistich. The second folio has pieced it out rather botchingly: Our best friends made, and our best means stretch'd out. This is the common reading. Malone reads:Our best friends made, our means stretch'd to the utmost. SCENE III. "Within the tent of Brutus." This is not given as a separate scene in the original; the stage-direction in the folios being "Exeunt; Manent, Brutus and Cassius." But, with reference to the construction of the modern stage, the present arrangement is necessary. In the Shakespearian theatre Brutus and Cassius evidently retired to the second stage. "Enter Brutus and Cassius." The manner in which the Poet has worked up every slight hint of his original, in this noble scene, affords a study to the critic. The story is thus told in North's "Plutarch:" "About that time Brutus sent to pray Cassius to come to the city of Sardis, and so he did. Brutus, understanding of his coming, went to meet him with all his friends. There, both armies being armed, they called them both emperors. Now, as it commonly happeneth in great affairs between two persons, both of them having many friends, and so many captains under them, there ran tales and complaints betwixt them. Therefore, before they fell in hand with any other matter, they went into a little chamber together, and bade every man avoid, and did shut the doors to them. Then they began to pour out their complaints one to the other, and grew hot and loud, earnestly accusing one another, and at length fell both a weeping. Their friends that were without the chamber hearing them loud within, and angry between themselves, they were both amazed and afraid also lest it should grow to further matter: but yet they were commanded that no man should come to them. Notwithstanding one Marcus Phaonius, that had been a friend and follower of Cato while he lived, and took upon him to counterfeit a philosopher, not with wisdom and discretion, but with a certain bedlam and frantic motion: This Phaonius at that time, in despite of the door-keepers, came into the chamber, and with a certain scoffing and mocking gesture, which he counterfeited of purpose, he rehearsed the verses which old Nestor said in Homer: * My lords, I pray you, hearken both to me, For I have seen more years than such ye three. Cassius fell a laughing at him: but Brutus thrust him out of the chamber, and called him dog and counterfeit cynic. Howbeit, his coming in broke their strife at that tíme, and so they left each other. The self-same night Cassius prepared his supper in his chamber, and Brutus brought his friends with him. ** The next day after, Brutus, upon complaint of the Sardians, did coudemn and noted Lucius Pella for a defamed person, for that he was accused and convicted of robbery and pilfery in his office. This judgment much misliked Cassius: and therefore he greatly reproved Brutus, for that he would show himself so * * * straight and severe in such a time, as was meeter to bear a little than to take things at the worst. Brutus in contrary manner answered that he should remember the ides of March, at which time they slew Julius Cæsar, who neither pilled nor polled the country, but only was a favourer and suborner of all them that did rob and spoil by his countenance and authority." "I know no part of Shakespeare that more impresses on me the belief of his genius being superhuman, than this scene between Brutus and Cassius. In the Gnostic heresy, it might have been credited with less absurdity than most of their dogmas, that the Supreme had employed him to create, previously to his function of representing, characters."-COLERIDGE. "every NICE offence should bear HIS comment”— "Nice" was, in the language of old Gower and Chaucer, trifling, silly; nearly answering to, and supposed to be derived from, the French niais. This sense has long been obsolete, and Shakespeare seems to have been the very last writer who used it, as here, and in ROMEO AND JULIET:-" The letter was not nice." "His comment" for its, is also an obsolete form of old English expression, once quite common. "What villain touch'd his body, that did stab, And not for justice?" This is far from implying that any of those who touched Cæsar's body were villains. On the contrary, it is an indirect way of asserting that there was not one man among them, who was base enough to stab him for any cause but that of justice.-MALONE. "Brutus, BAIT not me"-So the original. Theobald proposed and Stevens reads bay, conceiving that the repetition of the word used by Brutus is necessary to the spirit of the reply. It strikes me otherwise. The allusion to the dog "baying the moon" is seized on in the reply, and called out by the word bait, (as dogs bait a bear or other animal :)—" Do not assail me." "COMPANION, hence"-" Companion" is used as a term of reproach in many of the old plays; as we say at present, fellow. So, in KING HENRY IV., (Part II.,) Dol Tearsheet says to Pistol: -I scorn you, scurvy companion, etc. STEVENS. "thy leaden MACE"-A "mace" is the ancient term for a sceptre. So, in the " Arraignment of Paris," (1584:)— - the pomp that 'longs to Juno's mace. Again, Spenser, in his "Fairy Queen :”— When as Morpheus had with leaden mase, "How ill this taper burns!" * "But as they both prepared to pass over again out of Asia into Europe, there went a rumour that there appeared a wonderful sign unto him. Brutus was a careful man, and slept very little. After he had slumbered a little after supper, he spent all the rest of the night in despatching of his weightest causes, and after he had taken order for them, if he had any leisure left him, he would read some book till the third watch of the night, at what time the captains, petty captains, and colonels, did use to come unto him. So, being ready to go into Europe, one night (when all the camp took quiet rest) as he was in his tent with a little light, thinking of weighty matters, he thought he heard one come in to him, and, casting his eye towards the door of his tent, that he saw a wonderful, strange, and monstrous shape of a body coming towards him, and said never a word. So Brutus boldly asked what he was, a god or a man, and what cause brought him thither. The spirit answered him, I am thy evil spirit, Brutus, and thou shalt see me by the city of Philippes. Brutus, being no otherwise afraid, replied again unto it, Well, then, I shall see thee again. The spirit presently vanished away; and Brutus called his men unto him, who told him that they heard no noise, nor saw anything at all. Thereupon Brutus returned again to think on his matters as he did before: and when the day brake he went unto Cassius, to tell him what vision had appeared unto him in the night."-NORTH's Plutarch. This is the account given in the life of Brutus. M the life of Cæsar, the spirit is spoken of as "the ghost;" and it is added that Brutus " thought he heard a noise at his tent door, and looking towards the light of a lamp, that waxed very dim, he saw a horrible vision of a man of wonderful greatness and dismal fear." It is evident that the Poet was anxious to lose no incident of this scene. ACT V.-SCENE I. "WARN us at Philippi"-" Warn" was the old word, both technical and colloquial, for summon, of which the English editors give various examples from old writers, as of an obsolete word. It is, however, in the United States, one of those words brought over by the generation next after Shakespeare's, which has preserved its ancient sense, especially in New England, where town meetings, jurymen, etc., are still said to be "legally warned.” "FEARFUL bravery"-Though "fearful" is often used, by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, in an active sense, for producing fear, or terrible, it may in this instance bear its usual acceptation of timorous, or, as it was sometimes expressed, false-hearted. Thus in a passage, cited by Stevens, from Sydney's " Arcadia," (book ii.:)" Her horse faire and lustie; which she rid so as might show a fearful boldness, daring to do that which she knew that she knew not how to doe." "The posture of your blows ARE yet unknown," etc. Malone and Stevens dispute whether this be an error of the Poet or his printers, while Knight well remarks:— "Where a plural noun being a genitive case immediately precedes the verb, it is not at all uncommon, in the writers of Shakespeare's time, to disregard the real singular nominative. Such a construction is not to be imputed to grammatical ignorance, but to a license warranted by the best examples. Our language, in becoming more correct, has lost something of its spirit." * # "Be thou my witness that, against my will," etc. "When they raised their camp, there came two eagles, that, flying with a marvellous force, lighted upon two of the foremost ensigns, and always followed the soldiers, which gave them meat and fed them until they came near to the city of Philippes; and there one day only before the battle they both flew away. And yet, further, there were seen a marvellous number of fowls of prey that fed upon dead carcases. The which began somewhat to alter Cassius' mind from Epicurus' opinions, and had put the soldiers also in a marvellous fear; thereupon Cassius was of opinion not to try this war at one battle, but rather to delay time, and to draw it out in length. But Brutus, # There in contrary manner, did alway before, and at that time also, desire nothing more than to put all to the hazard of battle, as soon as might be possible. upon it was presently determined they should fight battle the next day. So Brutus all supper-time looked with a cheerful countenance, like a man that had good hope, and talked very wisely of philosophy, and after supper went to bed. But touching Cassius, Messala reporteth that he supped by himself in his tent with a few friends, and that all supper-time he looked very sadly, and was full of thoughts, although it was against |