Are then in council; and the state of man, The nature of an insurrection. Re-enter LUCIUS. Luc. Sir, 'tis your brother Cassius? at the door, Who doth desire to see you. Bru. Is he alone? Luc. No, sir, there are more with him. Bru. Do you know them? Luc. No, sir; their hats are pluck'd about their ears, And half their faces buried in their cloaks, That by no means I may By any mark of favour.i Bru. discover them Let them enter. [Exit Luc. They are the faction. O conspiracy! Sham'st thou to show thy dangerous brow by night, Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, conspiracy; Hide it in smiles, and affability: For if thou path thy native semblance on,2 into the succeeding vowel, an advantage which cannot be obtained in favour of the present restoration offered from the first folio. Steevens. Neither our author, nor any other author in the world, ever used such words as either, brother, lover, gentle, &c. as monosyllables; and though whether is sometimes so contracted, the old copies on that occasion usually print-where. It is, in short, morally impossible that two syllables should be no more than one. Ritson. 8 Like a phantasma, ] "Suidas maketh a difference between phantasma and phantasia, saying that phantasma is an imagination, or appearance, or sight of a thing which is not, as are those sightes whiche men in their sleepe do thinke they see: but that phantasia is the seeing of that only which is in very deeds." Lavaterus, 1572. Henderson. "A phantasme," says Bullokar, in his English Expositor, 1616, ❝ is a vision, or imagined appearance.” Malone. 9 sister. 1 your brother Cassius-] Cassius married Junia, Brutus' Steevens. · any mark of favour.] Any distinction of countenance. See Vol. III, p. 432, n. 2. Steevens. Johnson. For if thou path, thy native semblance on,]. If thou walk in thy true form. Johnson. The same verb is used by Drayton in his Polyolbion, Song II: Not Erebus itself were dim enough To hide thee from prevention. Enter CASSIUS, CASCA, DECIUS, CINNA, METELLUS CIMBER, and TREBONIUS. Cas. I think, we are too bold upon your rest: Bru. I have been up this hour; awake, all night. Which every noble Roman bears of you. Bru. Cas. This Decius Brutus. Cas. This, Casca; this, Cinna; He is welcome hither. He is welcome too. They are all welcome. [They whisper. Bru. Betwixt your eyes and night? Cas. Shall I entreat a word? Dec. Here lies the east: Doth not the day break here? Casca. No. Cin. O, pardon, sir, it doth; and yon grey lines, That fret the clouds, are messengers of day. Casca. You shall confess, that you are both deceiv'd. Here, as I point my sword, the sun arises; Which is a great way growing on the south, Some two months hence, up higher toward the north "Where, from the neighbouring hills, her passage Wey doth path." Again, in his Epistle from Duke Humphrey to Elinor Cobham : "Pathing young Henry's unadvised ways." Steevens. 3 do interpose themselves &c.] For the sake of measure I am willing to think our author wrote as follows, and that the wordthemselves is an interpolation: What watchful cares do interpose betwixt Your eyes and night? Cas, Shall I entreat a word? Steevens. Bru. Give me your hands all over, one by one. Bru. No, not an oath: If not the face of men,4 ▲ No, not an oath: If not the face of men, &c.] Dr. Warburton would read fate of men; but his elaborate emendation is, I think, erroneous. The face of men is the countenance, the regard, the esteem of the publick; in other terms, honour and reputation; or the face of men may mean the dejected look of the people. Johnson. So, Tully in Catilinam-Nihil horum ora vultusque moverunt? Shakspeare formed this speech on the following passage in Sir T. North's translation of Plutarch:-" The conspirators having never taken oaths 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," &c. Steevens. I cannot reconcile myself to Johnson's explanation of this passage, but believe we should read: - If not the faith of men, &c. which is supported by the following passages in this very speech: 66 What other bond "Than secret Romans, that have spoke the word, t when every drop of blood "That every Roman bears, and nobly bears, "Is guilty of a several bastardy, "If he do break the smallest particle Of any promise that hath pass'd from him.” Both of which prove, that Brutus considered the faith of men as their firmest security in each other. M. Mason. In this sentence, [i. e. the two first lines of the speech] as in several others, Shakspeare, with a view perhaps to imitate the abruptness and inaccuracy of discourse, has constructed the latter part without any regard to the beginning. "If the face of men, the sufferance of our souls, &c. If these be not sufficient; if these be motives weak," &c. Se, in The Tempest: "I have with such provision in mine art, If the Mr. M. Mason would read-if not the faith of men-. text be corrupt, faiths is more likely to have been the poet's word; which might have been easily confounded by the ear with face, the word exhibited in the old copy. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: 66 the manner of their deaths? "I do not see them bleed." Again, in King Henry VI, P III: "And with their helps only defend ourselves." Again, more appositely, in The Rape of Lucrece: You, fair lords, quoth she, "Shall plight your honourable faiths to me." Malone. If these be motives weak, break off betimes, To kindle cowards, and to steel with valour That this shall be, or we will fall for it? 5 Till each man drop by lottery.] Perhaps the poet alluded to the custom of decimation, i. e. the selection by lot of every tenth soldier, in a general mutiny, for punishment. He speaks of this in Coriolanus: "By decimation, and a tithed death, "Take thou thy fate." Steevens. And will not palter?] And will not fly from his engagements. Cole, in his Dictionary, 1679, renders to palter, by tergiversor. In Macbeth it signifies, as Dr. Johnson has observed, to shuffle with ambiguous expressions: and, indeed, here also it may mean to shuffle; for he whose actions do not correspond with his promises is properly called a shuffler. Malone. 7 Swear priests, &c.] This is imitated by Otway: 8 "When you would bind me, is there need of oaths?" &c. Venice Preserved. Johnson. cautelous,] Is here cautious, sometimes insidious. So, in Woman is a Weathercock, 1612: «Yet warn you, be as cautelous not to wound my integrity.' Again, in Drayton's Miseries of Queen Margaret: "Witty, well-spoken, cautelous, though young." Again, in the second of these two senses in the romance of Kynge Appolyn of Thyre, 1610: "— a fallacious policy and cautelous wyle." Again, in Holinshed, p. 945: ". the emperor's councell thought by a cautell to have brought the king in mind to sue for a licence from the pope." Steevens. Bullokar, in his English Expositor, 1616, explains cautelous thus: "Warie, circumspect;" in which sense it is certainly used here. Malone. Nor the insuppressive mettle of our spirits, If he do break the smallest particle Of any promise that hath pass'd from him? Cas. But what of Cicero? Shall we sound him? Cin. No, by no means. And buy men's voices to commend our deeds: Bru. O, name him not; let us not break with him; For he will never follow any thing That other men begin. Cas. Then leave him out. Casca. Indeed, he is not fit. Dec. Shall no man else be touch'd, but only Cæsar? Cas. Decius, well urg'd:-I think, it is not meet, Mark Antony, so well belov'd of Cæsar, Should outlive Cæsar: We shall find of him If he improves them, may well stretch so far, As to annoy us all: which to prevent, Let Antony, and Cæsar, fall together. Bru. Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius. To cut the head off, and then hack the limbs ; Like wrath in death, and envy afterwards :2 For Antony is but a limb of Cæsar. 9 The even virtue of our enterprize,] The calm, equable, temperate spirit that actuates us. Malone. Thus in Mr. Pope's Eloisa to Abelard: 1 "Desires compos'd, affections ever even,—. Steevens. -opinion,] i. e. character. So, in King Henry IV, P. 1: 2— The quotation is Mr. Reed's. See Vol. VIII, p. 328, n. 5. Steevens. and envy afterwards:] Envy is here, as almost always in Shakspeare's plays, malice. See Vol. XI, p. 240, n. 7; and p. 273, Malone. n. 6. |