Yet now they fright me. There is one within,
Besides the things that we have heard and seen,
Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch.
A lioness hath whelped in the streets;

And graves have yawn'd, and yielded up their dead 2:
Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds,
In ranks, and squadrons, and right form of war3,
Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol:

The noise of battle hurtled in the air,
Horses did neigh, and dying men did groan;
And ghosts did shriek, and squeal about the streets.
O Cæsar! these things are beyond all use,

And I do fear them.

Cæs.
What can be avoided,
Whose end is purpos'd by the mighty gods?
Yet Cæsar shall go forth; for these predictions
Are to the world in general, as to Cæsar.

Cal. When beggars die, there are no comets seen; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes 5.

2 Shakspeare has adverted to this again in Hamlet:-
'A little ere the mighty Julius fell

The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the streets of Rome.'

3 Visæ per cœlum concurrere acies, rutilantia arma, et subito nubium igne collucere,' &c.-Tacitus Hist. b. v.

4 To hurtle is to clash or move with violence and noise. See As You Like It, vol. iii. p. 195, note 29.

5 This may have been suggested by Suetonius, who relates that a blazing star appeared for seven days together during the celebration of games, instituted by Augustus, in honour of Julius. The common people believed that this indicated his reception among the gods, his statues were accordingly ornamented with its figure, and medals struck on which it was represented; one of them is engraved in Mr. Douce's Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 82; from whence this note is taken. Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, in his Defensative against the Poison of supposed Prophecies, 1583, says, 'Next to the shadows and pretences of experience (which have been met with all at large), they seem to brag most of the strange events which follow (for the

Cæs. Cowards die many times before their deaths 6; The valiant never taste of death but once.

Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,

It seems to me most strange that men should fear; Seeing that death, a necessary end,

Will come, when it will come.

Re-enter a Servant.

What say the augurers?

Serv. They would not have you to stir forth to-day. Plucking the entrails of an offering forth,

They could not find a heart within the beast.

Cæs. The gods do this in shame of cowardice: Cæsar should be a beast without a heart, If he should stay at home to-day for fear. No, Cæsar shall not: Danger knows full well, That Cæsar is more dangerous than he.

most part) after blazing starres; as if they were the summonses of God to call princes to the seat of judgment. The surest way to shake their painted bulwarkes of experience is, by making plaine that neither princes always dye when comets blaze, nor comets ever (i. e. always) when princes dye.' In this work is a curious anecdote of Queen Elizabeth,' then lying at Richmond, being dissuaded from looking on a comet; with a courage equal to the greatness of her state she caused the windowe to be sette open, and said, jacta est alea—the dice are thrown.'

64 When some of his friends did counsel him to have a guard for the safety of his person, he would never consent to it; but said, it was better to die once than always to be afraid of death.' -North's Plutarch.

Lord Essex, in a letter to Lord Rutland, observes, That as he which dieth nobly doth live for ever, so he that doth live in fear doth die continually.'-And Marston, in his Insatiate Countess, 1613:

Fear is my vassal; when I frown he flies:

A hundred times in life a coward dies.'

7 'Johnson remarks, That the ancients did not place courage in the heart.' Mr. Douce observes, that he had forgotten his classics strangely, as he has shown by several extracts from Virgil and Ovid.

We were two lions litter'd in one day,
And I the elder and more terrible;

And Cæsar shall go forth 9.

Cal.

Alas, my lord,
Your wisdom is consum'd in confidence.

Do not go forth to-day: Call it my fear,
That keeps you in the house, and not your own.
We'll send Mark Antony to the senate-house;
And he shall say, you are not well to-day:
Let me, upon my knee, prevail in this.

Cæs. Mark Antony shall say, I am not well;
And, for thy humour, I will stay at home.

Enter DECIUS.

Here's Decius Brutus, he shall tell them so.
Dec. Cæsar, all hail! Good morrow, worthy

Cæsar:

I come to fetch you to the senate-house.

8 The old reads, 'We heare,' &c. The emendation was made by Theobald. Upton proposed to read, We are,' &c.

9 Steevens observes, that any speech of Cæsar, throughout this scene, will appear to disadvantage, if compared with the following, put into his mouth by May in the seventh book of his Supplement to Lucan:

Plus me Calphurnia luctus,

Et lachrymæ movere tuæ, quam tristia vatum
Responsa, infaustæ volucres, aut ulla dierum
Vana superstitio poterant. Ostenta timere
Si nunc inciperem, quæ non mihi tempora posthac
Anxia transirent? quæ lux jucunda maneret?
Aut quæ libertas? frustra servire timori
(Dum nec luce frui, nec mortem arcere licebit)
Cogar, et huic capiti quod Roma veretur, aruspex
Jus dabit, et vanus semper dominabitur augur.'

"There cannot (says Mr. Boswell) be a stronger proof of Shakspeare's want of classical knowledge than the boastful language he has put into the mouth of the most accomplished man of all antiquity, who was not more admirable for his achievements, than for the dignified simplicity with which he has recorded them.'

Cæs. And you are come in very happy time,
To bear my greeting to the senators,
And tell them, that I will not come to-day:
Cannot, is false; and that I dare not, falser:
I will not come to-day: Tell them so, Decius.
Cal. Say, he is sick.

Cæs.

Shall Cæsar send a lie? Have I in conquest stretch'd mine arm so far, To be afeard to tell gray-breads the truth; Decius, go tell them, Cæsar will not come.

Dec. Most mighty Cæsar, let me know some cause,
Lest I be laugh'd at, when I tell them so.
Cæs. The cause is in my will, I will not come ;
That is enough to satisfy the senate.
But, for your private satisfaction,

Because I love you, I will let you know;
Calphurnia here, my wife, stays me at home:
She dreamt to-night she saw my statua 10,
Which, like a fountain, with a hundred spouts,
Did run pure blood; and many lusty Romans
Came smiling, and did bathe their hands in it.
And these doth she apply for warnings and portents,
And evils imminent; and on her knee
Hath begg'd, that I will stay at home to-day.

Dec. This dream is all amiss interpreted;

It was a vision, fair and fortunate:

Your statue spouting blood in many pipes,
In which so many smiling Romans bath'd,

10 The old copy reads statue; but it has been shown by Mr. Reed beyond controversy that statua was pronounced as a trisyllable by our ancestors, and hence generally written statua. Thus in Lord Bacon's Advancement of Learning, ed. 1633, p. 88: It is not possible to have the true pictures or statuaes of Cyrus, Alexander, Cæsar, no, nor of the kings or great personages of much later years.' Again: " without which the history of the world seems to be as the statua of Polyphemus, with his eye out.'

Signifies that from you great Rome shall suck
Reviving blood: and that great men shall press
For tinctures, stains, relicks, and cognizance 11.
This by Calphurnia's dream is signified.

Cas. And this way have you well expounded it.
Dec. I have, when you have heard what I can say:
And know it now: The senate have concluded
To give, this day, a crown to mighty Cæsar.

If

you shall send them word, you will not come, Their minds may change. Besides, it were a mock Apt to be render'd, for some one to say,

Break up

the senate till another time,

When Casar's wife shall meet with better dreams.
If Cæsar hide himself, shall they not whisper,
Lo, Cæsar is afraid?

Pardon me, Cæsar; for my dear, dear love
To your proceeding bids me tell you this;
And reason to my love is liable 12.

Cæs. How foolish do your fears

phurnia?

I am ashamed I did yield to them.-
Give me my robe, for I will go :-

seem now, Cal

Enter PUBLIUS, BRUTUS, LIGARIUS, METellus,
CASCA, TREBONIUS, and CINNA.

And look where Publius is come to fetch me.
Pub. Good morrow, Cæsar.

Cæs.

Welcome, Publius.— What, Brutus, are you stirr'd so early too?— Good morrow, Casca.-Caius Ligarius,

Cæsar was ne'er so much your enemy,

11 At the execution of several of our ancient nobility, martyrs, &c. we are told that handkerchiefs were tinctured with their blood, and preserved as affectionate or salutary memorials of the deceased.

12 And reason, or propriety of conduct and language, is subordinate to my love.'