They vanish tongue-ty'd in their guiltinefs.
Go you down that way towards the Capitol;
This way will I: Difrobe the images,

If you do find them' deck'd with ceremonies.
Mar. May we do fo?

You know, it is the feaft of Lupercal.
Flav. It is no matter; let no images
Be hung with Cæfar's trophies. I'll about,
And drive away the vulgar from the streets:
So do you too, where you perceive them thick.
Thefe growing feathers pluck'd from Cæfar's wing,
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch;

Who elfe would foar above the view of men,

And keep us all in fervile fearfulness.

8

SCENE II.

The fame.

[Exeunt.

Enter Cefar; Antony, for the courfe; Calphurnia, Portia, Decius, Cicero, Brutus, Caffius, Cafca, a Soothsayer, &c.

Caf. Calphurnia,

Cafca. Peace, ho! Cæfar speaks.

Caf.

7deck'd with ceremonies.] Ceremonies, for religious ornaments, Thus afterwards he explains them by Cafar's trophies; i. e. fuch as he had dedicated to the gods. WARBURTON. Cæfar's trophies, are, I believe, the crowns which were placed on his statues. So, in fir Tho. North's tranflation. There were fet up images of Cæfar in the city with diadems on their heads, like kings. Those the two tribunes went and pulled down." STEEVENS.

This perfon was not Decius, but Decimus Brutus. The poet (as Voltaire has done fince) confounds the characters of Marcus and Decimus. Decimus Brutus was the moft cherished by Cæfar of all his friends, while Marcus kept aloof, and declined fo large a fhare of his favours and honours, as the other had constantly accepted. Velleius Paterculus, fpeaking of Decimus Brutus,

B 4

fays,

Caf. Calphurnia,

Calp. Here, my lord.

Caf. Stand you directly in Antonius? 9 way,
When he doth run his courfe.Antonius.
Ant. Cæfar, my lord.

Caf. Forget not, in your speed, Antonius,
To touch Calphurnia: for our elders fay,
The barren, touched in this holy chase,
Shake off their steril curfe.

Ant. I fhall remember:

When Cæfar fays, Do this, it is perform❜d.
Caf. Set on; and leave no ceremony out.
Sooth. Cæfar.

Caf. Ha! Who calls?

Cafca. Bid every noise be still :-Peace yet again.
Caf. Who is it in the prefs, that calls on me?
I hear a tongue, fhriller than all the mufick,
Cry, Cæfar: Speak; Cæfar is turn'd to hear.

fays, ab iis quos miferat Antonius, jugulatus eft, justiffimafque optimè de fe merito, C. Cæfari pœnas dedit, cujus cum primus omnium amicorum fuiffet, interfector fuit, et fortunæ ex qua fructum tulerat, invidiam in auctorem relegabat, cenfebatque æquum quæ acceperat à Cæfare retinere, Cæfarem qui ille dederat periiffe." Lib. ii. c. 64.

Jungitur his Decimus, notiffimus inter amicos
"Cæfaris, ingratus, cui trans-Alpina fuiffet
"Gallia Cæfareo nuper commissa favore.
"Non illum conjuncta fides, non nomen amici

Deterrere potest.

"Ante alios Decimus, cui fallere, nomen amici "Præcipue dederat, ductorem fæpe morantem "Incitat.". -Supplem. Lucani, STEEVENS. Shakspeare's mistake of Decius for Decimus, arofe from the old tranflation of Plutarch. FARMER.

Lord Sterline has committed the fame mistake in his Julius Cafar. MALONE.

9 in Antonius' way.] The old copy generally reads Antonio, O&avio, Flavio. The players were more accustomed to Italian than Roman terminations, on account of the many ver- · fions from Italian novels, and the many Italian characters in dramatic pieces formed an the same originals. STEEVENS.

Seeth.

Sooth. Beware the ides of March.

Bru. A foothfayer, bids you beware the ides of March.

Caf. Set him before me, let me fee his face.

Caf. Fellow, come from the throng: Look upon Cæfar.

Caf. What fay'ft thou to me now? Speak once

again.

Sooth. Beware the ides of March.

Caf. He is a dreamer; let us leave him

pafs.

['Sennet. Exeunt Cæfar, and Train. Caf. Will you go fee the order of the course? Bru. Not I.

Caf. I pray you, do.

Bru. I am not gamefome; I do lack fome
Of that quick fpirit that is in Antony.
Let me not hinder, Caffius, your defires;
I'll leave you.

part

Caf. Brutus, I do obferve you now of late:
I have not from your eyes that gentleness,
And fhew of love, as I was wont to have:
You bear too ftubborn and too strange a hand
Over your friend that loves you.

Bru. Caffius,

2

Be not deceiv'd: If I have veil'd my look,
I turn the trouble of my countenance

1 Sennet.] I have been informed that fennet is derived from Jennefte, an antiquated French tune formerly used in the army; but the Dictionaries which I have confulted exhibit no fuch word.

In Decker's Satiromaflix, 1602:

"Trumpets found a flourish, and then a fennet." In the Dumb Show, preceding the first part of Hieronimo, 1605, is "Sound a fignate and pafs over the stage.'

In Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of Malta, a fynnet is called a flourish of trumpets, but I know not on what authority. See a note on K. Henry VIII. act II. fc. iv. Vol. VII. p. 243. be a corruption from fonata, Ital. STEEVENS. -ftrange a band] Strange, is alien, unfamiliar, fuch as might become a ftranger. JoHNSON.

Sennet may

2

Merely

Merely upon myself. Vexed I am,

3

Of late, with paffions of fome difference,
Conceptions only proper to myself,

Which give fome foil, perhaps, to my behaviours:
But let not therefore my good friends be griev'd;
(Among which number, Caffius, be you one)
Nor conftrue any further my neglect,

Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war,
Forgets the fhews of love to other men.

Caf. Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your paffion;

By means whereof, this breaft of mine hath bury'd
Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations.
Tell me, good Brutus, can you fee your face?
Bru. No, Caffius: for the eye fees not itself,
But by reflection, by fome other things.
Caf. 'Tis juft:

And it is very much lamented, Brutus,
That you have no fuch mirrors, as will turn
Your hidden worthiness into your eye,

That you might fee your fhadow. I have heard,
Where many of the beft refpect in Rome,
(Except immortal Cæfar) fpeaking of Brutus,
And groaning underneath this age's yoke,
Have wifh'd that noble Brutus had his eyes.
Bru. Into what dangers would you lead me, Caffius,

3 paffions of fome difference,] With a fluctuation of difcordant opinions and defires. JOHNSON.

So, in Coriolanus, act V. fc. iii :

-thou haft fet thy mercy and thy honour

"At difference in thee," STEEVENS.

4 The eye fees not itself.] So, fir John Davies in his poem on The Immortality of the Soul, 1599:

Is it because the mind is like the eye,

Through which it gathers knowledge by degrees;
Whofe rays reflect not, but spread outwardly;
Not feeing itself, when other things it fees?

Again, in Marfton's comedy of the Fawne, 1606:
"Thus few frike fail until they run on fhelf;
"The eye fees all things but its proper felf."

STEEVENS.

That

That you would have me feek unto myself
For that which is not in me?

Caf. Therefore, good Brutus, be prepar'd to hear:
And, fince you know you cannot see yourself
So well as by reflection, I, your glass,

Will modeftly discover to yourself

That of yourself which yet you know not of.
And be not jealous of me, gentle Brutus:
Were I a common laugher, or did use
5 To ftale with ordinary oaths my love
To every new protester; if you
you know
That I do fawn on men, and hug them hard,
And after scandal them; or if you know
That I profefs myself in banqueting

To all the rout, then hold me dangerous.

[Flourish, and fhout.

Bru. What means this fhouting? I do fear, the people

Choose Cæfar for their king.

Caf. Ay, do you fear it?

Then must I think you would not have it fo.

Bru. I would not, Caffius; yet I love him well :But wherefore do you hold me here fo long? What is it that you would impart to me? If it be ought toward the general good, Set honour in one eye, and death i' the other, • And I will look on both indifferently:. For, let the gods so speed me, as I love The name of honour more than I fear death. Caf. I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,

5 To ftale with ordinary oaths my love, &c.] To invite every new protefter to my affection by the ftale or allurement of customary oaths. JOHNSON.

• And I will look on both indifferently;] Dr. Warburton has a long note on this occafion, which is very trifling. When Brutus first names honour and death, he calmly declares them indifferent; but as the image kindles in his mind, he fets honour above life. Is not this natural? JOHNSON,