To stay the providence of some high powers, That govern us below. CAS. Then, if we lose this battle,1 You are contented to be led in triumph BRU. No, Cassius, no: think not, thou noble Roman, That ever Brutus will go bound to Rome; Cas. For ever, and for ever, farewell, Brutus! BRU. Why then, lead on.-O, that a man might know a parenthesis to clear it. The construction is this: I am determined to act according to that philosophy which directed me to blame the suicide of Cato; arming myself with patience, &c. JOHNSON Then, if we lose this battle,] Cassius, in his last speech, having said-If we do lose this battle, the same two words might, in the present instance, be fairly understood, as they derange the metre. I would therefore read only : Cas. Then, if we lose, You are contented &c. Thus, in King Lear: "King Lear hath lost, he and his daughter ta'en :-." i. e. hath lost the battle. STEEVENS. the ides of March begun;] Our author ought to have written began. For this error, I have no doubt, he is himself answerable. MALONE. See p. 397, n. 4. STEEVENS. 1 The end of this day's business, ere it come! And then the end is known. -Come, ho! away! [Exeunt. SCENE II. The same. The Field of Battle. Alarum. Enter BRUTUS and MESSALA. BRU. Ride, ride, Messala, ride, and give these bills 3 Unto the legions on the other side: [Loud Alarum. Let them set on at once; for I perceive 3 [Exeunt. give these bills-) So, in the old translation of Plutarch: "In the meane tyme Brutus that led the right winge, sent little billes to the collonels and captaines of private bandes, in which he wrote the worde of the battell," &c. STEEVENS. 1 SCENE III. The same. Another Part of the Field. Alarum. Enter CASSIUS and TITINIUS. CAS. O, look, Titinius, look, the villains fly! TIT. O Cassius, Brutus gave the word too early: Enter PINDARUS. PIN. Fly further off, my lord, fly further off; Mark Antony is in your tents, my lord! Fly therefore, noble Cassius, fly far off. Cas. This hill is far enough. Look, look, Titi nius; * This hill is far enough. &c.] Thus, in the old translation of Plutarch: "So, Cassius him selfe was at length compelled to flie, with a few about him, vnto a little hill, from whence they might easely see what was done in all the plaine: howbeit Cassius him self sawe nothing, for his sight was verie bad, sauing that he saw (and yet with much a doe) how the enemies spoiled his campe before his eyes. He sawe also a great troupe of horsemen, whom Brutus sent to aide him, and thought that they were his enemies that followed him: but yet he sent Titinius, one of them that was with him, to goe and know what they were. Brutus' horsemen sawe him comming a farre of, whom when Are those my tents, where I perceive the fire? TIT. They are, my lord. CAS. Titinius, if thou lov'st me, Mount thou my horse, and hide thy spurs in him, Till he have brought thee up to yonder troops, And here again; that I may rest assur'd, Whether yond' troops are friend or enemy. Trr. I will be here again, even with a thought.5 [Exit. CAS. Go, Pindarus, get higher on that hill;" they knewe that he was one of Cassius' chiefest friendes, they showted out for joy: and they that were familiarly acquainted with him, lighted from their horses, and went and imbraced him. The rest compassed him in rounde about a horsebacke, with songs of victorie and great rushing of their harnes, so that they made all the field ring againe for joy. But this marred all. For Cassius thinking in deed that Titinius was taken of the enemies, he then spake these wordes: desiring too much to liue, I haue liued to see one of my best freendes taken, for my sake, before my face. After that, he gotte into a tent where no bodye was, and tooke Pindarus with him, one of his freed bondmen, whom he reserued ever for suche a pinche, since the cursed battell of the Parthians, where Crassus was slaine, though he notwithstanding scaped from that ouerthrow; but then casting his cloke ouer his head, & holding out his bare neck vnto Pyndarus, he gaue him his head to be striken off. So the head was found seuered from the bodie: but after that time Pyndarus was neuer seene more." STEEVENS. 5 even with a thought.] The same expression occurs again in Antony and Cleopatra: "That, which is now a horse, even with a thought * Go, Pindarus,] This dialogue between Cassius and Pindarus, is beautifully imitated by Beaumont and Fletcher, in their tragedy of Bonduca, Act III. sc. v. 7 STEEVENS. - get higher on that hill ;] Our author perhaps wrote on this hill; for Cassius is now on a hill. But there is no need of My sight was ever thick; regard Titinius, [Exit PINDARUS. This day I breathed first: time is come round, PIN. [Above.] O my lord!' CAS. What news? PIN. Titinius is Enclosed round about with horsemen, that -and, hark! They shout for joy. [Shout. Come down, behold no more. change. He means a hillock somewhat higher than that on which he now is. The editor of the second folio arbitrarily reads-thither for higher, and all the subsequent editors adopted his alteration. MALONE. Mr. Malone has sufficiently justified the reading in the text; and yet the change offered by the second folio is not undefensible. STEEVENS. 8 time is come round,] So, in King Lear, the Bastard, dying, says: 9 "The wheel is come full circle." STEEVENS. - Sirrah, what news?] Sirrah, as appears from many of our old plays, was the usual address in speaking to servants, and children. Mr. Pope, not adverting to this, reads-Now, what news? See Vol. X. p. 244, n. 5. MALONE. 1 O my lord! &c.] Perhaps this passage, designed to form a single verse, originally stood thus: Pin. Cas. Pin. O my good lord! What news? Titinius is. |