Of honourable-dangerous consequence; And I do know, by this, they stay for me In Pompey's porch; for now, this fearful night, In favour's 13, like the work we have in hand, Enter CINNA. Casca. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste. Cas. "Tis Cinna, I do know him by his gait: Cas. No, it is Casca; one incorporate Cin. I am glad on't. What a fearful night is this! You are. O, Cassius, if you could but win The noble Brutus to our party Cas. Be you content: Good Cinna, take this And look you lay it in the prætor's chair, Yes, paper, Where Brutus may but find it; and throw this Repair to Pompey's porch, where you shall find us. Cin. All but Metellus Cimber; and he's gone To seek you at your house. And so bestow these papers Well, I will hie, as you bade me. Cas. That done, repair to Pompey's theatre. [Exit CINNA. 13 The old copy reads, 'Is favours. Favour here is put for appearance, look, countenance: to favour is to resemble. Come, Casca, you and I will, yet, ere day, Casca. O, he sits high in all the people's hearts: And that, which would appear offence in us, His countenance, like richest alchymy, Will change to virtue, and to worthiness. Cas. Him, and his worth, and our great need of him, You have right well conceited. Let us go, For it is after midnight; and, ere day, We will awake him, and be sure of him. [Exeunt. ACT II. SCENE I. The same. Brutus's Orchard1. Enter BRUTUS. Bru. What, Lucius! ho!— I cannot, by the progress of the stars, Give guess how near to day.-Lucius, I say!- 1 Orchard and garden appear to have been synonymous with our ancestors. In Romeo and Juliet Capulet's garden is twice called orchard. The word was anciently written hort-yard; but it is a mistake to suppose this points at the Latin hortus. The word is from the Saxon optgeand, which is itself put for pyrtgeard, a place for herbs. In a subsequent scene of this play orchard is again used for garden: he hath left you all his walks, His private arbours, and new planted orchards On this side Tyber.' 2 See vol. i. p. 25; and note on King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 2. Enter LUCIUS. Luc. Call'd you, my lord? Bru. Get me a taper in my study, Lucius: When it is lighted, come and call me here. Luc. I will, my lord. [Exit. Bru. It must be by his death: and, for my part, I know no personal cause to spurn at him, But for the general. He would be crown'd::How that might change his nature, there's the ques tion. It is the bright day, that brings forth the adder; And then, I grant, we put a sting in him, 3 Shakspeare usually uses remorse for pity, tenderness of heart. 4 i. e. a matter proved by common experience. 5 'The aspirer once attain'd unto the top, Cuts off those means by which himself got up: Fashion it thus; that what he is, augmented, And kill him in the shell. Re-enter LUCIUS. Luc. The taper burneth in your closet, sir. Searching the window for a flint, I found This paper, thus seal'd up; and, I am sure, It did not lie there, when I went to bed. Bru. Get you to bed again, it is not day. Is not to-morrow, boy, the ides of March? Luc. I know not, sir. Bru. Look in the calendar, and bring me word. Luc. I will, sir. [Exit. Bru. The exhalations, whizzing in the air, Give so much light, that I may read by them. [Opens the Letter, and reads. Such instigations have been often dropp'd up. Shall Rome, &c. Thus, must I piece it out; Rome? My ancestors did from the streets of Rome The Tarquin drive, when he was call'd a king. 6 As his kind,' like the rest of his species. Thus in Antony and Cleopatra:- You must think this, look you, the worm [i. e. serpent] will do his kind.' 7 The old copy erroneously reads, the first of March.' The correction was made by Theobald; as was the following. : To speak, and strike? O Rome! I make thee pro mise, If the redress will follow, thou receivest Re-enter LUCIUS. Luc. Sir, March is wasted fourteen daysR. [Knock within. [Exit LUCIUS. Bru. "Tis good. Go to the gate; somebody knocks. Since Cassius first did whet me against Cæsar, I have not slept. Between the acting of a dreadful thing The nature of an insurrection 10. 8 Here again the old copy reads, fifteen. This was only the dawn of the fifteenth when the boy makes his report. 9 The old copy reads: 'Are then in council, and the state of a man,' &c. 10 There is a long and fanciful, but erroneous note by Warburton on this passage, which is curious, as being one of his earliest comments on Shakspeare, addressed to Concanen, when, in league with Theobald and others, he made war against Pope. The following note, by the Rev. Mr. Blakeway, is quite of another character, and takes with it my entire concurrence and approbation : 'The genius, and the mortal instruments,' &c. Mortal is assuredly deadly; as it is in Macbeth : Come, you spirits, That tend on mortal thoughts.' By instruments, I understand our bodily powers, our members: as Othello calls his eyes and hands his speculative and active instruments; and Menenius, in Coriolanus, Act i. Sc. 1, speaks of the cranks and offices of man, The strongest nerves, and small inferior veins.' So intending to paint, as he does very finely, the inward conflict |