which of you shall not? With this I depart; That, as I flew my best lover for the good of Rome, I have the fame dagger for myself, when it fhall please my country to need my death.

Cit. Live, Brutus, live! live!

1. Cit. Bring him with triumph home unto his house. 2. Cit. Give him a ftatue with his ancestors.

3. Cit. Let him be Cæsar.

4. Cit. Cæfar's better parts Shall be crown'd in Brutus.

1. Cit. We'll bring him to his house with shouts and clamours.

Bru. My countrymen,

2. Cit. Peace; filence! Brutus fpeaks. 1. Cit. Peace, ho!

Bru. Good countrymen, let me depart alone,
And, for my fake, ftay here with Antony:

Do grace to Cæfar's corpfe, and grace his speech
Tending to Cæfar's glories; which Mark Antony
By our permiffion is allow'd to make.

I do entreat you, not a man depart,
Save I alone, till Antony have spoke.

1. Cit. Stay, ho! and let us hear Mark Antony.
3. Cit. Let him go up into the publick chair;
We'll hear him:-Noble Antony, go up.
Ant. For Brutus' fake, I am beholding to you.
4. Cit. What does he fay of Brutus ?

3. Cit. He fays, for Brutus fake,

He finds himself beholding to us all.

[Exit.

4. Cit. 'Twere beft he speak no harm of Brutus here. i. Cit. This Cæfar was a tyrant.

3. Cit. Nay, that's certain:

We are bleft, that Rome is rid of him.

2. Cit. Peace; let us hear what Antony can say. Ant. You gentle Romans,

Cit. Peace, ho! let us hear him.

Ant. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;

I come to bury Cæfar, not to praise him.

4- as I flew my best lover-] See p. 283, n. 4. MALONE.

The

The evil, that men do, lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Cæfar! The noble Brutus
Hath told you, Cæfar was ambitious:
If it were fo, it was a grievous fault;
And grievously hath Cæfar anfwer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus, and the rest,
(For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men ;)
Come I to speak in Cæfar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus fays, he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.

He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ranfoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Cæfar feem ambitious?

When that the poor have cry'd, Cæfar hath wept
Ambition fhould be made of fterner stuff:

Yet Brutus fays, he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did fee, that, on the Lupercal,
I thrice prefented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refufe.

Was this ambition?

Yet Brutus fays, he was ambitious;
And, fure, he is an honourable man.
I fpeak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.

You all did love him once, not without cause ;
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have loft their reafon !-Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Cæfar,
And I muft paufe till it come back to me 5.

1. Cit. Methinks, there is much reafon in his fayings,

5 My heart is in the coffin there with Cafar,

And I must paufe till it come back to me.] Perhaps our authour recollected the following paffage in Daniel's Cleopatra, 1594:

"As for my love, fay, Antony hath all;

"Say, that my beart is gone into the

grave

"With him, in whom it refts, and ever fhall." MALONE.

Bb 3

Cit.

2. Cit. If thou confider rightly of the matter, Cæfar has had great wrong.

3. Cit. Has he, masters ?

I fear, there will a worse come in his place.

4.

Cit. Mark'd his words? He would not take the

crown;

ye

Therefore, 'tis certain, he was not ambitious.

1. Cit. If it be found fo, fome will dear abide it.
2. Cit. Poor foul! his eyes are red as fire with weeping.
3. Cit. There's not a nobler man in Rome, than Antony,
4. Cit. Now mark him, he begins again to fpeak.
Ant. But yesterday the word of Cæfar might
Have ftood against the world: now lies he there,
And none fo poor to do him reverence.
O mafters! if I were difpos'd to ftir
Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage,
I should do Brutus wrong, and Caffius wrong,
Who, you all know, are honourable men:
I will not do them wrong; I rather choose
Το wrong the dead, to wrong myself, and you,
Than I will wrong fuch honourable men.
But here's a parchment, with the feal of Cæfar,
I found it in his clofet, 'tis his will:

Let but the commons hear this teftament,
(Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read,)
And they would go and kifs dead Cæfar's wounds,
And dip their napkins' in his facred blood;
Yea, beg a hair of him for memory,

And, dying, mention it within their wills,
Bequeathing it, as a rich legacy,

Unto their iffue.

4. Cit. We'll hear the will: Read it, Mark Antony. Cit. The will, the will; we will hear Cæfar's wil

And none fo poor -] The meaneft man is now too high to do reverence to Cæfar. JOHNSON.

7

their napkins.-] i. e. their handkerchiefs. Napery was the ancient term for all kinds of linen. STEEVENS.

Napkin is the northern term for bandkerchief, and is used in this fenfe at this day in Scotland. Our authour frequently uses the word. See Vol. III. p. 211, n. 9. and Vol. IV. p. 337, n. 7. MALONE.

Ant.

Ant. Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it; It is not meet you know how Cæfar lov'd you. You are not wood, you are not ftones, but men; And, being men, hearing the will of Cæfar, It will inflame you, it will make you mad: 'Tis good you know not that you are his heirs ; For if you fhould, O, what would come of it!

4. Cit. Read the will; we will hear it, Antony; You fhall read us the will; Cæfar's will.

Ant. Will you be patient? Will you stay a while? I have o'er-fhot myfelf, to tell you of it.

I fear, I wrong the honourable men,

Whofe daggers have stabb'd Cæfar: I do fear it. 4. Cit. They were traitors: Honourable men! Cit. The will! the teftament!

2. Cit. They were villains, murderers: The will! read the will!

Ant. You will compel me then to read the will? Then make a ring about the corpfe of Cæfar, And let me fhew you him that made the will. Shall I defcend? And will you give me leave? Cit. Come down.

2. Cit. Defcend. [He comes down from the pulpit. 3. Cit. You fhall have leave.

4. Cit. A ring; ftand round.

1. Cit. Stand from the hearse, ftand from the body. 2. Cit. Room for Antony;-moft noble Antony. Ant. Nay, prefs not fo upon me; stand far off.

Cit. Stand back! room! bear back!

Ant. If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. You all do know this mantle: I remember

The first time ever Cæfar put it on;

'Twas on a fummer's evening, in his tent;
That day he overcame the Nervii :-

Look! in this place, ran Caffius' dagger through:
See, what a rent the envious Casca made:
Through this, the well-beloved Brutus ftabb'd;
And, as he pluck'd his curfed steel away,
Mark how the blood of Cæfar follow'd it;
As rushing out of doors, to be resolv’d

Bb 4

If

If Brutus fo unkindly knock'd, or no;

For Brutus, as you know, was Cæfar's angel:
Judge, O you gods, how dearly Cæfar lov'd him!
This was the most unkindeft cut of all:

For when the noble Cæfar faw him ftab,
Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms,
Quite vanquish'd him: then burft his mighty heart;
And, in his mantle muffling up his face,
Even at the bafe of Pompey's ftatue',

Which all the while ran blood 2, great Cæfar fell.
O, what a fall was there, my countrymen!
Then 1, and you, and all of us fell down,
Whilft bloody treason flourish'd over us.
O, now you weep; and, I perceive, you feel
The dint of pity 3: thefe are gracious drops.
Kind fouls, what, weep you, when you but behold
Our Cæfar's vefture wounded? Look you here!
Here is himself, marr'd, as you fee, with traitors *.

8 For Brutus, as you know, was Cæfar's angel:] This title of endearment is more than once introduced in Sidney's Arcadia. STEEV.

Even at the base of Pompey's statue,] It is not our authour's practice to make the adverb even, a diffyllable. If it be confidered as a monofyllable, the measure is defective. I fufpect therefore he wrote-at Pompey's flatua. The word was not yet completely denizen'd in his time. Beaumont, in his Mafque, writes it ftatua, and its plural ftatuaes. Yet, it must be acknowledged, that ftatue is ufed more than once in this play, as a diffyllable. MALONE.

2 Which all the while ran blood,] The image feems to be, that the blood of Cæfar flew upon the ftatue, and trickled down it. JOHNSON. So, in fir T. North's tranflation of Plutarch, (the quotation is Mr. Steevens's,)"-against the very base whereon Pompey's image stood, which ran all a gore blood, till he was flain." MALONE.

3 The dint of pity:] is the impreffion of pity. The word is in common ufe among our ancient writers. So, in Prefton's Cambyfes :

"Your grace therein may hap receive, with others for your parte, "The dent of death, &c."

Again, ibid:

He shall dye by dent of fword, or els by choking rope."
STEEVENS.

4 Here is bimfelf, marr'd, as you fee, with traitors.] To mar feems to have anciently fignified to lacerate. So, in Solyman and Perfeda, a tragedy, 1599, Bafilifco feeling the end of his dagger, fays:

This point will mar her skin," MALONE.