Enter the Ghost of CESAR.

Luc. My lord?

How ill this taper burns!-Ha! who comes here?
I think it is the weakness of mine eyes
That shapes this monstrous apparition.

It comes upon me!-Art thou anything?
Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil,
That mak'st my blood cold, and my hair to stare?
Speak to me what thou art.

GHOST. Thy evil spirit, Brutus.
BRU.

Why com'st thou ? GHOST. To tell thee, thou shalt see me at Philippi.

BRU. Well then I shall see thee again? (3) GHOST. Ay, at Philippi. BRU. Why, I will see thee at Philippi then.[Ghost vanishes. Now I have taken heart thou vanishest : Ill spirit, I would hold more talk with thee.Boy! Lucius!-Varro! Claudius!-Sirs, awake! Claudius!

Luc. The strings, my lord, are false.

BRU. He thinks he still is at his instrument.— Lucius, awake!

Enter OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, and their Army.

OCT. Now, Antony, our hopes are answered: You said the enemy would not come down, But keep the hills and upper regions; It proves not so: their battles are at hand; They mean to warn us at Philippi here, Answering before we do demand of them.

ANT. Tut, I am in their bosoms, and I know Wherefore they do it: they could be content To visit other places; and come down With fearful bravery, thinking, by this face," To fasten in our thoughts that they have courage; But 't is not so.

ANT. Octavius, lead your battle softly on, Upon the left hand of the even field. OCT. Upon the right hand I; keep thou the left. ANT. Why do you cross me in this exigent? OCT. I do not cross you; but I will do so. [March.

Drum. Enter BRUTUS, CASSIUS, and their Army; LUCILIUS, TITINIUS, MESSALA, and others.

BRU. They stand, and would have parley.
CAS. Stand fast, Titinius: we must out and talk.
OCT. Mark Antony, shall we give sign of

OCT. Not that we love words better, as you do. BRU. Good words are better than bad strokes, Octavius.

ANT. In your bad strokes, Brutus, you give good words:

Witness the hole you made in Cæsar's heart,
Crying, Long live! hail Cæsar !

a

CAS. Antony, The posture of your blows are yet unknown; But for your words, they rob the Hybla bees, And leave them honeyless.

ANT.

Not stingless too.
BRU. O, yes, and soundless too;
For you have stol'n their buzzing, Antony,
And, very wisely, threat before you sting.

ANT. Villains, you did not so, when your vile daggers

Hack'd one another in the sides of Cæsar;
You show'd your teeth like apes, and fawn'd like
hounds,

And bow'd like bondmen, kissing Cæsar's feet;
Whilst damned Casca, like a cur, behind
Struck Cæsar on the neck. O, you flatterers!
CAS. Flatterers !-Now Brutus, thank your-
self:

This tongue had not offended so to-day,
If Cassius might have rul'd.

OCT. Come, come, the cause: if arguing make us sweat,

The proof of it will turn to redder drops.
Look, I draw a sword against conspirators;
When think you that the sword goes up again?-
Never, till Cæsar's three-and-thirty wounds
Be well aveng'd; or till another Cæsar
Have added slaughter to the sword of traitors.
BRU. Cæsar, thou canst not die by traitors'
hands,

Unless thou bring'st them with thee.

Ост.

So I hope;

I was not born to die on Brutus' sword.
BRU. O, if thou wert the noblest of thy strain,
Young man, thou couldst not die more honour-
able.

CAS. A peevish" schoolboy, worthless of such honour,

Join'd with a masker and a reveller!

ANT. Old Cassius still!
Ост.

Come, Antony; away!—

The posture of your blows are yet unknown;] The commentators have all something to say on the grammatical irregularity in this line, but are mute upon what is of far more importance, the exceptional use of "posture." Elsewhere Shakespeare always employs the word in its ordinary sense of attitude, position, &c.; but here, if not a misprint, it must be taken to mean quality or composition.

b A peevish schoolboy,-] Although there are one or two passages in these plays where "peevish" implies foolish, childish, &c., the editors are certainly not justified in attributing this signification to the word in every instance where it occurs. In nine cases out of ten, indeed, the poet uses it, as here, in the sense of headstrong, stubborn, wilful, the meaning which it usually carried in his time. For example,

Defiance, traitors, hurl we in your teeth!
If you dare fight to-day, come to the field;
If not, when you have stomachs.

[Exeunt OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, and their Army. CAS. Why now, blow, wind; swell, billow; and swim, bark!

The storm is up, and all is on the hazard.
BRU. Ho, Lucilius! hark, a word with you.
LUCIL.
My lord?
[BRUTUS and LUCILIUS converse apart.
CAS. Messala,-

MES.

CAS.

What says my general?

Messala,

This is my birthday; as this very day
Was Cassius born. Give me thy hand, Messala:
Be thou my witness that, against my will,
As Pompey was, am I compell'd to set
Upon one battle all our liberties.
You know that I held Epicurus strong,
And his opinion now I change my mind,
And partly credit things that do presage.
Coming from Sardis, on our former ensign
Two mighty eagles fell; and there they perch'd,
Gorging and feeding from our soldiers' hands,
Who to Philippi here consorted us :
This morning are they fled away and gone;
(1)
And in their steads do ravens, crows, and kites,
Fly o'er our heads, and downward look on us,
As we were sickly prey; their shadows seem
A canopy most fatal, under which

Our army lies, ready to give up the ghost.
MES. Believe not so.
CAS.

I but believe it partly;

[Advancing.

For I am fresh of spirit, and resolv'd
To meet all perils very constantly.
BRU. Even so, Lucilius.
CAS.
Now, most noble Brutus,
The gods to-day stand friendly, that we may,
Lovers in peace, lead on our days to age!
But, since the affairs of men rest still incertain,
Let's reason with the worst that may befall.
If we do lose this battle, then is this
The very last time we shall speak together:
What are you, then, determined to do?

BRU. Even by the rule of that philosophy
By which I did blame Cato for the death
Which he did give himself:--I know not how,
But I do find it cowardly and vile,

"A peevish, self-will'd harlotry it is."

Romeo and Juliet, Act IV. Sc. 2. "And when she's froward, peevish, sullen, sour," &c. Taming of the Shrew, Act V. Sc. 2. "Being wrong'd, as we are, by this peevish town," &c. King John, Act II. Sc. 2. on our former ensign-] "Former" meant foremost or fore. In proof of this, Ritson quotes the following from Adlyngton's translation of Apuleius, 1596:-"First hee instructed me to sit at the table upon my taile, and howe I should leape and daunce, holding up my former feete."

For fear of what might fall, so to prevent
The time of life :-arming myself with patience,
To stay the providence of some high powers,
That govern us below.

CAS.
Then, if we lose this battle,
You are contented to be led in triumph
Thorough the streets of Rome?

BRU. No, Cassius, no: think not, thou noble
Roman,

That ever Brutus will go bound to Rome;
He bears too great a mind. But this same day
Must end that work the ides of March begun; (2)
And whether we shall meet again I know not.
Therefore our everlasting farewell take :-
For ever, and for ever, farewell, Cassius!
If we do meet again, why, we shall smile;
If not, why, then, this parting was well made.
CAS. For ever, and for ever, farewell, Brutus !
If we do meet again, we'll smile indeed ;
If not, 't is true this parting was well made.
BRU. Why then, lead on.-0, that a man
might know

The end of this day's business ere it come!
But it sufficeth that the day will end,
And then the end is known.-Come, ho! away!
[Exeunt.

PIN. Fly further off, my lord, fly further off! Mark Antony is in your tents, my lord! Fly therefore, noble Cassius, fly far off!

CAS. This hill is far enough. Look, look,
Titinius ;

Are those my tents where I perceive the fire?
TIT. They are, my lord.

CAS.
Titinius, if thou lov'st me,
Mount thou my horse, and hide thy spurs in him,
Till he have brought thee up to yonder troops,
And here again; that I may rest assur'd
Whether yond troops are friend or enemy.
TIT. I will be here again, even with a thought.
[Exit.
CAS. Go, Pindarus, get higher on that hill;
My sight was ever thick; regard Titinius,
And tell me what thou not'st about the field.—
[Exit PINDARUs.
This day I breathed first time is come round,
And where I did begin, there shall I end;
My life is run his compass.-Sirrah, what news?
PIN. [Above.] O my lord!

It would not be difficult to find persons even now, perhaps, who indulge the visionary notion that their life will terminate on the same day of the week or month or at the same place that it began. Shakespeare seems to have been impressed by this superstition, for he has twice or thrice adverted to it. Curiously enough, too, he might have said of his own existence, "The wheel is come full circle," for he died on the same day of the same month in which he was born, and at the same place.