Bru. Enter Brutus. WHAT, Lucius, ho! I cannot, by the progrefs of the ftars, Give guefs how near to day.-Lucius, I fay! I would it were my fault to fleep fo foundly.- Luc. Call'd you, my lord? Bru. Get me a taper in my ftudy, Lucius: When it is lighted, come and call me here. Luc. I will, my lord. Bru. It must be by his death: and for my part, I know no perfonal cause to spurn at him, But for the general. He would be crown'd: [Exita How that might change his nature, there's the queftion. The fo's, Enter Brutor in bis echard, It It is the bright day that brings forth the adder; And that craves wary walking. Crown him-that- The abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins → Remorfe from power: And to speak truth of Cafar, That lowliness is young Whereto the climber-upward turns his face: (Which hatch'd, would, as his kind, grow mifchievous) Remorse, for mercy. W.-Remorse fignifies the conscious uneafiness arifing from a sense of having done wrong; to extinguish which feeling, nothing hath fo great a tendency as abfolute uncontrouled power. Heath in loc. b The metaphor from the wardrobe, when the excellence of the fashion makes out for the defect of the colour. W. But Heath condemns this note of W. and fays, The fenfe is this; Since our quarrel to Cæsar will admit of no pretext, if we found it on the character in which he hath hitherto appeared, we muft reprefent it in this light, that if he should augment his power, which is the point he is evidently driving at, he would certainly run into these and thefe extremities, &c. Heath in loe. Enter Enter Lucius. Luc. The taper burneth in your closet, fir. [Gives him the letter. Bru. Get you to bed again, it is not day. Bru. Look in the calendar, and bring me word. Bru. The exhalations, whizzing in the air, [Opens the letter, and reads." Brutus, thou sleep'ft; awake, and fee thyself. Such inftigations have been often dropt, • Shall Rome-Thus muft I piece it out; Shall Rome ftand under one man's awe? What, Rome? The Tarquin drive when he was call'd a king. Speak, ftrike, redrefs- Am I entreated To fpeak, and ftrike ?-O Rome, I make thee promise, If the redrefs will follow, thou receiveft Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus. Enter Lucius. Luc. Sir, March is wafted fourteen days. [Knock within. を Bru. 'Tis good. Go to the gate, fomebody knocks. Since Caffius firft did whet me against Cæfar, Between the acting of a dreadful thing, [* Exit Luc. Are f P. alters thus, Am I entreated then, &c. followed by the rest, except J. and C. The 2d and 3d fo's, the for thee. h So the fo's and C; the rest, reeiv'ft. The fo's, R. and P. read fifteen days. It was wafted but fourteen days; this was the dawn of the 15th, when the boy made his report. T. * This direction first put in by T. I W. fays, “Kingdoms, in the Pagan "theology, befides their good, had their "evil genius's, likewife; reprefented "ruling principle in the human mind, "the exor of the Stoicks, the ras ❝tional and immortal part. By the "mortal inftruments, I understand the "whole tribe of paffions, affections; "and emotions, the fubordinate powers of the human conftitution, termed "mortal, because they were fuppofed to « be so, as deriving their origin from "the mortal body, and in great mea"fure depending upon it for their con"tinuance and prevalencý ; and termed " inftruments too, because in ordinary mortals, who have not reached the here, with the most daring ftretch of "heights of confummate undisturbed "fancy, as fitting in confultation with "ftoical wisdom, they are in most cases the confpirators, whom he calls their "the very principles which excite and « mortal inftruments.". But Heath says, "determine to action and execution, "By the genius, is meant the prefiding and the counsellors by which the " prefiding Are then in council; and the ftate of man, The nature of an infurrection. Enter Lucius. Luc. Sir, 'tis your brother Caffius at the door, Who doth defire to see you. Bru. Is he alone? Luc. No, fir, there are more with him. ments. It is certainly a good rule in criticism, to understand words in fuch a meaning as the author generally ufes them, provided they will make fenfe in the paffages where they are found. And why may not genius be here taken in the meaning in which Shakespeare generally ufes it, viz. an invifible being, prefiding over the affairs, not only of particular kingdoms, but of particular men? Allowing this, the meaning then will be, The genius that prefides over the man, and all the powers of body and mind that the man poffeffes, which are the infiru "prefiding principle suffers itself to be guided. These are reprefented as "being all of them, during the dreadful "period here defcribed, in a state of to"tal anarchy, fedition and mutual dif"fenfion, and the mind as torn and "convulfed by the various and contrary "efforts of hope, fear, ambition, felf"prefervation, private friendship, love " of the public, refentment, envy, and "in fhort every other passion that can "be fuppofed to influence the human "breaft on fo important and interefting "an occafion." Heath in loc. Mr. Smith, in Grey's notes, propofes_mrits of action, called morta! because inftrument for inftruments; and explains "the mortal inftrument, the man, with "all his bodily, that is, earthly paf"fions, fuch as envy, pride, &c. the "genius being the foul or fpitit," Gray in loc. But why fhould Shakespeare, in this place particularly, use genius for soul or Spirit Spirit would have measured as well; fo would foul with a small addis on, The foul, and all the mortal infiru belonging to the mortal man, are then in council, being drawn together by the importance of the business; and as, in an infurrection, the whole kingdom, from the fovereign to the lowest subject, is in an univerfal commotion; so it is in this little kingdom, man; the whole state of man, from his governing genius to his lowest faculty, is strenuously engaged, and exerted. m The fo's, mae. |