There is so hot a summer in my bofom,
That all my bowels crumble up to duft :
I am a scribbled form, drawn with a pen
Upon a parchment, and against this fire
Do I shrink up.

Poifon'd, ill fare! dead, forsook, cast off;

Drink, drink, drink, colder, colder

And

Than snow on Scythian mountains: oh my heart-strings
Danubius

I'll have brought through my body:

And Volga, on whose face the North-wind freezes,
I am an hundred hells, an hundred piles

Already to my funeral are flaming,

Shall I not drink?

Like Nero,

But far more terrible and full of flaughter,
I' th' midst of all my fire, I'll fire the empire:
A thousand fans, a thousand fans to cool me:
Invite the gentle winds, Eudoxia.

More drink,

A thousand April showers fall in my bosom;
How dare ye let me be tormented thus? &

:

See Act. 5. S. 2.

But, in another play of theirs---- A wife for a month, is a poison
ing scene, which better deserves to be compar'd with this of our
author, and which Mr. Serward observes, every reader of
taste will acknowledge superior to it." Alphonso, long a prey to
melancholy, is poison'd with a hot, brenning potion, and in the
midst of his tortures, raves thus.

Give me more air, more air, air blow, blow, blow,
Open thou eastern gate, and blow upon me:
Distill thy cold dews, O thou icy moon,
And rivers run through my afflicted spirit.
I am all fire, fire, fire: the raging dog-star
Reigns in my bloood: oh which way shall I turn me?
Etna, and all her flames, burn in my head;
Fling me into the ocean or I perish :

Dig, dig, dig, dig, until the springs fly up;

The cold, cold springs, that I may leap into them,
And bathe my fcorch'd limbs in their purling pleasuress

Or shoot me into the higher region,

Where treasures of delicious snow are nourish'd,

:

And banquets of sweet hail.

Rug

And none of you will bid the winter come
To thrust his icy fingers in my maw;
Nor let my kingdom's rivers take their course
Through my burn'd bosom: nor intreat the north
To make his bleak winds kiss my parched lips,
And comfort me with cold.

Rug. Hold him fast, fryar,
Oh how he burns!

SCENE X. England, invincible, if unanimous.

England never did, nor ever shall

Lye at the proud foot of a conqueror,
But when it first did help to wound itself.
Now these her princes are come home again,
Come the three corners of the world in arms;
And we shall shock them.-Nought shall make us rue,
If England to itself do rest but true.

P

JULIUS

[92]

Julius Cæfar.

ACT I. SCENE III.

(1) W

PATRIOTIS M.

to me?

THAT is it, that you would impart
If it be aught towards the general good,

Set honour in one eye, and death i' th' 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.

Caffius, in Contempt of Cæfar.

I was born free as Cæfar, so were you'; We both have fed as well; and we can both

(1) What, &c.] "How agreeable to his stoic character, does Shakespear make Brutus speak here? Cicero de Fin. iii. 16. Quid enim illi ΑΔΙΑΦΟΡΟΝ dicunt, id mihi ita occurrit, ut indifferens dicerem. One of the great divisions of things among the stoics was into good, bad, indifferent: virtue, and whatever partook of virtue, was good: vice, bad: but what partook of neither virtue, nor vice, being not in our power, was indifferent: such as honour, wealth, death, &c. But of these indifferent things, some might be esteemed more than others; as here Brutus says, I love the name of honour, more than I fear death. See Cicero de Fin. iii. 15. 16. The stoics never destroyed choice among indifferent things. This being premised, let us fee Brutus's speech.-" If it be aught (says he) towards the general good, (προς το ολον προς την ποι λιν) as I am a part of that whole, a citizen of that city: my principles lead me to pursue it: this is my end, my good: whatever comes in competition with the general good, will weigh nothing: death and honour are to me things of an indifferent nature: but however I freely acknowledge, that of these indifferent things, honour has my greatest esteem, my choice and love: the very name of honour I love, more than I fear death." Upton's Obfervations on Shakespear, p. 314.

Endurė

Endure the winter's cold, as well as he.
(2) For once upon a raw and gusty day,
The troubled Tyber chafing with his shores,
Cæfar says to me, "dar'st thou, Caffius, now
Leap in with me into this angry flood,
And swim to yonder point?" - Upon the word,
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in,
And bid him follow; so, indeed, he did.
The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it
With lufty finews; throwing it aside,
And stemming it with hearts of controversy.
But ere we could arrive the point propos'd,
Cæfar cry'd, " help me, Caffius, or I fink."
I as Æneas, our great ancestor,
Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder
The old Anchises bear, so, from the waves of Tyber
Did I the tired Cæfar: and this man

(2) For once, &c.] It is too well known that swimming was a usual exercise with the hardy and noble Romans, to infift upon it here: Horace makes it a mark of effeminacy to neglect it: and complains to Lydia, that she had enervated Sybaris, by making him afraid even to touch the yellow Tyber's stream---

Cur timet flavum Tyberim tangere?

See ode 8. 1. 1.

Julius Cæfar was remarkable for his excellence in swimming: Beaumont and Fletcher, in their False one, thus nobly defcribe one - of the most illuftrious incidents of his life--

But got near the sea,
In which his navy anchor'd, in one hand
Holding a scroll he had, above the waves,
And in the other grasping faft his sword,
As it had been a trident forg'd by Vulcan
To calm the raging ocean; he made away
As if he had been Neptune: his friends, like
So many Tritons follow'd: their bold shouts
Yielding a chearful musick; we shower'd darts
Upon 'em, but in vain: they reach'd their ships,
And in their safety we are funk: for Cæfar
Prepares for war.

See the latter end of Act 5.

The reader is defired to refer to the 10gth page of the ist volume.

Is