Be factious for redress of all these griefs;
And I will set this foot of mine as far,

As who goes farthest.

CAS.

There's a bargain made.

Now know you, Casca, I have mov'd already
Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans,
To undergo, with me, an enterprize
Of honourable-dangerous consequence;
And I do know, by this, they stay for me
In Pompey's porch: For now, this fearful night,
There is no stir, or walking in the streets;
And the complexion of the element,
Is favour'd, like the work we have in hand,
Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible.

* Be factious for redress - Factious seems here to mean active. JOHNSON.

It means, I apprehend, embody a party or faction. MALONE. Perhaps Dr. Johnson's explanation is the true one. Menenius, in Coriolanus, says: "I have been always factionary on the part of your general;" and the speaker, who is describing himself, would scarce have employed the word in its common and unfavourable sense. STEEVENS.

$ Is favour'd, like the work] The old edition reads:

Is favors, like the work.

I think we should read :

In favour's like the work we have in hand,
Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible.

Favour is look, countenance, appearance. JOHNSON.

To favour is to resemble. Thus Stanyhurst, in his translation of the third Book of Virgil's Eneid, 1582:

" With the petit town gates favouring the principal old

portes."

We may read It favours, or-Is favour'd-i. e. is in appearance or countenance like, &c. See Vol. VI. p. 346, n. 6. STEEVENS.

Perhaps fev'rous is the true reading. So, in Macbeth : "Some say the earth

"Was feverous, and did shake." REED.

Enter CINNA.

CASCA. Stand close awhile, for here comes one

in haste.

CAS. 'Tis Cinna, I do know him by his gait; He is a friend. Cinna, where haste you so?

CIN. To find out you: Who's that? Metellus

Cimber?

CAS. No, it is Casca; one incorporate
To our attempts. Am I not staid for, Cinna?

CIN. I am glad on't. What a fearful night is

this?

There's two or three of us have seen strange sights.
CAS. Am I not staid for, Cinna? Tell me.
CIN.

You are. O, Cassius, if you could but win
The noble Brutus to our party-

Yes,

Cas. Be you content: Good Cinna, take this

paper,

And look you lay it in the prætor's chair,
Where Brutus may but find it; and throw this
In at his window: set this up with wax
Upon old Brutus' statue: all this done,
Repair to Pompey's porch, where you shall find us.
Is Decius Brutus, and Trebonius, there?

CIN. All but Metellus Cimber; and he's gone To seek you at your house. Well, I will hie, And so bestow these papers as you bade me.

CAS. That done, repair to Pompey's theatre.
[Exit CINNA.

Come, Casca, you and I will, yet, ere day,
See Brutus at his house: three parts of him
Is ours already; and the man entire,

Upon the next encounter, yields him ours.

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 Orchard.

Enter BRUTUS.

BRU. What, Lucius! ho!

I cannot, by the progress of the stars,

6

Brutus's orchard.] The modern editors read garden,

but orchard seems anciently to have had the same meaning.

STEEVENS.

That these two words were anciently synonymous, appears from a line in this play:

" - he hath left you all his walks,

" His private arbours, and new-planted orchards,
"On this side Tyber."

In Sir T. North's translation of Plutarch, the passage which Shakspeare has here copied, stands thus: "He left his gardens and arbours unto the people, which he had on this side of the river Tyber."

So also, in Barret's Alvearie, 1580: " A garden or an orchard, hortus." The truth is, that few of our ancestors had in the age

:

Give guess how near to day.-Lucius, I say !
I would it were my fault to sleep so soundly.-
When, Lucius, when?" Awake, I say: What, Lu-

cius!

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. BRU. It must be by his death: and, for my part,

[Exit.

of Queen Elizabeth any other garden but an orchard; and hence the latter word was considered as synonymous to the former.

MALONE.

The number of treatises written on the subject of horticulture, even at the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, very strongly controvert Mr. Malone's supposition relative to the unfrequency of gardens at so early a period. STEEVENS.

Orchard was anciently written hort-yard; hence its original meaning is obvious. HENLEY.

By the following quotation, however, it will appear that these words had in the days of Shakspeare acquired a distinct meaning. "It shall be good to have understanding of the ground where ye do plant either orchard or garden with fruite." A Booke of the Arte and Maner howe to plant and graffe all Sortes of Trees, &c. 1574, 4to. And when Justice Shallow invites Falstaff to see his orchard, where they are to eat a last year's pippin of his own graffing, he certainly uses the word in its present acceptation.

Leland also, in his Itinerary, distinguishes them: "At Morle in Derbyshire (says he) there is as much pleasure of orchards of great variety of frute, and fair made walks, and gardens, as in any place of Lancashire." HOLT WHITE.

7 When, Lucius, when?] This exclamation, indicating impatience, has already occurred in King Richard II: "When, Harry, when?" STEEVENS.

See Vol. XI. p. 12, n. 5. MALONE.

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

question.

It is the bright day, that brings forth the adder;

And that craves wary walking. Crown him?

That ;

And then, I grant, we put a sting in him,
That at his will he may do danger with.
The abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins
Remorse from power: And, to speak truth of

Cæsar,

I have not known when his affections sway'd
More than his reason. But 'tis a common proof,"
That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,
Whereto the climber-upward turns his face :
But when he once attains the upmost round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,1

• Remorse from power:] Remorse, for mercy.

WARBURTON.

Remorse (says Mr. Heath) signifies the conscious uneasiness arising from a sense of having done wrong; to extinguish which feeling, nothing hath so great a tendency as absolute uncontrouled power.

I think Warburton right. JOHNSON.

Remorse is pity, tenderness; and has twice occurred in that sense in Measure for Measure. See Vol. VI. p. 250, n. 7; and p. 388, n. 5. The same word occurs in Othello, and several other of our author's dramas, with the same signification.

9

STEEVENS.

- common proof,] Common experiment. Johnson.

Common proof means a matter proved by common experience. With great deference to Johnson, I cannot think that the word experiment will bear that meaning. M. MASON.

'But when he once attains the upmost round,

He then unto the ladder turns his back, &c.] So, in Daniel's Civil Wars, 1602: