GHOST. Ay, at Philippi. [Ghost vanishes. BRU. Why, I will see thee at Philippi then. Now I have taken heart, thou vanishest : Luc. The strings, my lord, are false. BRU. He thinks, he still is at his instrument.Lucius, awake. Luc. My lord! BRU. Didst thou dream, Lucius, that thou so cry'dst out? Luc. My lord, I do not know that I did ery. BRU. Yes, that thou didst: Didst thou see any thing? Luc. Nothing, my lord. BRU. Sleep again, Lucius.-Sirrah, Claudius! Fellow thou! awake. VAR. My lord. CLAU. My lord. BRU. Why did you so cry out, sirs, in your sleep? VAR. CLAU. Did we, my lord ? BRU. Ay; Saw you any thing? VAR. No, my lord, I saw nothing. It is manifest from the words above printed in Italicks, that Shakspeare had this passage in his thoughts as well as the other. MALONE. That lights grew dim, or burned blue, at the approach of spectres, was a belief which our author might have found examples of in almost every book of his age that treats of supernatural appearances. See King Richard, Vol. XIV. p. 506, n. 9. STEEVENS. CLAU. Nor I, my lord. BRU. Go, and commend me to my brother Cassius; Bid him set on his powers betimes before, And we will follow. VAR. CLAU. It shall be done, my lord. [Exeunt. 1 ACT V. SCENE I. The Plains of Philippi. Enter OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, and their Army. Oct. Now, Antony, our hopes are answered: You said, the enemy would not come down, But keep the hills and upper regions; It proves not so: their battles are at hand; They mean to warn us1 at Philippi here, 1 John: warn us-] To warn is to summon. So, in King "Who is it that hath warn'd us to the walls?" Shakespeare uses the word yet more intelligibly in King Richard III: " And sent to warn them to his royal presence." Throughout the books of the Stationers' Company, the word is always used in this sense; " Receyved of Raufe Newbery for his fyne, that he came not to the hall when he was warned, according to the orders of this house." Again, in a Letter from Lord Cecil to the Earl of Shrewsbury. See Lodge's Illustrations, &c. Vol. III. 206: "I pray yor LP, Answering before we do demand of them. ANT. Tut, I am in their bosoms, and I know Wherefore they do it: they could be content To visit other places; and come down With fearful bravery, thinking, by this face, To fasten in our thoughts that they have courage; But 'tis not so. MESS. Enter a Messenger. Prepare you, generals : The enemy comes on in gallant show; ANT. Octavius, lead your battle softly on, Ост. Upon the right hand I, keep thou3 the left. ANT. Why do you cross me in this exigent? Oct. I do not cross you; but I will do so. [March. therefore, let him be privatly warned, without any other notice (to his disgrace) to come up" &c. STEEVENS. 2 With fearful bravery, That is, with a gallant show of courage, carrying with it terror and dismay. Fearful is used here, as in many other places, in an active sense-producing fear-intimidating. MALONE. So, in Churchyard's Siege of Leeth, 1575: "They were a feare unto the enmyes eye." I believe, however, that in the present instance, fearful bravery requires an interpretation that may be found in Sidney's Arcadia, Lib. II: "-her horse, faire and lustie; which she rid so as might show a fearefull boldnes, daring to doe that which she knew that she knew not how to doe." STEEVENS. 3 -keep thou-] The tenour of the conversation evidently requires us to read-you. RITSON. Drum. Enter BRUTUS, CASSIUS, and their Army; LUCILIUS, TITINIUS, MESSALA, and Others. BRU. They stand, and would have parley. CAS. Stand fast, Titinius: We must out and talk. Ост. Mark Antony, shall we give sign of battle? ANT. No, Cæsar, we will answer on their charge. Make forth, the generals would have some words. Ocr. Stir not until the signal. BRU. Words before blows: Is it so, countrymen? Oct. Not that we love words better, as you do. BRU. Good words are better than bad strokes, Octavius. ANT. In your bad strokes, Brutus, you give good words: Witness the hole you made in Cæsar's heart, CAS. Antony, The posture of your blows are yet unknown; And leave them honeyless. ANT. Not stingless too. BRU. O, yes, and soundless too; * The posture posture of your blows are yet unknown;] It should be -is yet unknown. But the error was certainly Shakspeare's. MALONE, Rather, the mistake of his transcriber or printer; which therefore ought, in my opinion, to be corrected. Had Shakspeare been generally inaccurate on similar occasions, he might more justly have been suspected of inaccuracy in the present instance. STEEVENS. ANT. Villains, you did not so, when your vile daggers Hack'd one another in the sides of Cæsar: You show'd your teeth like apes, and fawn'd like hounds, And bow'd like bondmen, kissing Cæsar's feet; Whilst damned Casca, like a cur, behind, Struck Cæsar on the neck. O flatterers!6 CAS. Flatterers!-Now, Brutus, thank yourself:" This tongue had not offended so to-day, If Cassius might have rul'd. Ост. Come, come, the cause: If arguing make us sweat, The proof of it will turn to redder drops. Look; I draw a sword against conspirators; 5 - Casca,] Casca struck Cæsar on the neck, coming like a degenerate cur behind him. JOHNSON. 6 terers! - O flatterers!] Old copy, unmetrically, O you flatSTEEVENS. 7 Flatterers!-Now, Brutus, thank yourself:] It is natural to suppose, from the defective metre of this line, that our author wrote: 8 Flatterers! Now, Brutus, you may thank yourself. STEEVENS. -three and twenty wounds-) [Old copy-three and thirty; but I have ventured to reduce this number to three and twenty, from the joint authorities of Appian, Plutarch, and Suetonius: and I am persuaded, the error was not from the poet but his transcribers. THEOBALD. Beaumont and Fletcher have fallen into a similar mistake, in their Noble Gentleman : " So Cæsar fell, when in the Capitol, RITSON. |