Bru. What was the second noise for? Casc. Why, for that too. Cas. They shouted thrice: what was the last cry for? Bru. Was the crown offered him thrice? Casc. Ay, marry, was 't, and he put it by thrice, every time gentler than the other; and at every putting by mine honest neighbors shouted. Cas. Who offered him the crown? Casc. Why, Antony. Bru. Tell us the manner of it, gentle Casca. Casc. I can as well be hanged as tell the manner of it: it was mere foolery, I did not mark it. I saw Mark Anthony offer him a crown: - yet 't was not a crown neither, 't was one of these coronets; and, as I told you, he put it by once; but for all that, to my thinking, he would fain have had it. Then he offered it to him again; then he put it by again; but, to my thinking, he was very loath to lay his fingers off it. And then he offered it the third time; he put it the third time by: and still as he refused it, the rabblement shouted, and clapped their chapped hands, and threw up their sweaty night-caps, and uttered such a deal of stinking breath, because Cæsar refused the crown, that it had almost choked Cæsar; for he swooned, and fell down at it. Bru. What said he when he came unto himself? Casc. Marry, before he fell down, when he perceived the common herd was glad he refused the crown, he plucked me ope his doublet, and offered them his throat to cut. When he came to himself again, he said, if he had done, or said, anything amiss, he desired their worships to think it was his infirmity. Cas. ..... I will this night, In several hands, in at his windows throw, As if they came from several citizens, Writings, all tending to the great opinion That Rome holds of his name; wherein obscurely Cæsar's ambition shall be glanced at.” —. Act I. Sc. 2. Here, it is not possible that Bacon could have followed Shakespeare, the Advancement being older than the play; but, on the other hand, it is possible, so far as the date is concerned, that Shakespeare may have seen the Advancement as well as Plutarch's Antony (in North's translation 1), from which some part of the story seems to have been taken. But the play follows the ideas of Bacon rather 1 Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans, translated out of French into English by Thomas North, Knight (dedicated to Q. Eliz. 16 Jan. 1579) London ed. 1631, p. 917. than those of Plutarch, and adopts the very peculiarities of Bacon's expressions, wherein they differ from North's Plutarch; as, for instance, in these: "he put it by with the back of his hand, thus," in the play, and "he put it off thus," in Bacon; "what was that last cry for?” and “. finding the cry weak and poor"; "it was mere foolery" and " in a kind of jest"; "he was very loath to lay his fingers off it,” and "he put it off thus"; while these particular expressions are not used in North's Plutarch. Again, North's Plutarch speaks of "a laurell crowne having" a royal band or diademe wreathed about it, which in old time was the ancient marke and token of a king”; in the play, it is called "a crown," or "one of these coronets," but never a diadem; while in Bacon, it is "the style and diadem of a king": whence it would seem clear that Bacon followed Plutarch rather than the play. 66 Again, the phrase "tell us the manner of it" finds a repetition in this from Bacon, "the bed we call a hot bed, and the manner of it is this." Casca can as well be hanged as tell the manner of it"; and then, they "uttered such a deal of stinking breath," also not in Plutarch; which sounds. very much like Bacon's saying of the crowd and throng that attended the procession when he took his seat in Chancery, that "there was much ado and a great deal of world, hell to me, or purgatory, at least." Indeed, the whole style and manner of the scene, and the thought, expression, language, and manner of the whole play, are so decidedly Baconian, that it is scarcely possible to doubt, either that the story of Plutarch passed through his pen into this scene, or that the play was written by him; a conclusion that is especially confirmed by the purely classical character of the piece, and by the consideration that William Shakespeare could have had but little pretensions to learning and skill in that kind. But if there be a lingering doubt in any mind, it must certainly be removed by a comparison of these further passages from the Essay of Friendship (first printed in 1612) with the second act of the play: — "With Julius Cæsar, Decimus Brutus had obtained that interest, as he set him down in his testament for heir in remainder after his nephew. And this was the man that had power with him to draw him forth to his death. For when Cæsar would have discharged the Senate, in regard of some ill presages, and especially a dream of Calpurnia; this man lifted him gently by the arm out of his chair, telling him he hoped he would not dismiss the Senate till his wife had dreamt a better dream." For I can give his humour the true bent; And I will bring him to the Capitol.". - Act II. Sc. 1. Caes. The cause is in my will; I will not come: That is enough to satisfy the Senate; But, for your private satisfaction, Dec. This dream is all amiss interpreted: It was a vision, fair and fortunate. Your statue spouting blood in many pipes, Caes. And this way you have well expounded it. Dec. I have, when you have heard what I can say: 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 Cæsar's wife shall meet with better dreams.'" The Essay continues: Act II. Sc. 2. "And it seemeth his favor was so great, as Antonius in a letter which is recited verbatim in one of Cicero's Philippics, calleth him venefica, witch; as if he had enchanted Cæsar. . . . The like or more was between Septimius Severus and Plautianus. For he forced his eldest son to marry the daughter of Plautianus; and would often maintain Plautianus in doing affronts to his son; and did write also in a letter to the Senate, by these words: I love the man so well, as I wish he may over-live me." And the same thing appears in the play thus: "Cas. Decius, well urg'd. I think it is not meet, § 4. THE SOOTHSAYER. In the Natural History (Sylva Sylvarum), Bacon goes into some curious investigations of "the force of imagination," and of the means whereby one mind may be affected by another through the imagination; and, in the course of the work, he gives some illustrations of his experiments touching the emission of immateriate virtues from the minds and spirits of men," as in jugglers, soothsayers, witches, and the like. 66 He begins by saying that "imagination is of three kinds : the first joined with belief of that which is to come"; and under this head he proceeds thus: "The problem therefore is, whether a man constantly and strongly believing that such a thing shall be, .... it doth help anything to the effecting of the thing itself. And here again one must warily distinguish; for it is not meant, as hath been partly said before, that it should help by making a man more stout, or more industrious, in which kind a constant belief doth much, but merely by a secret operation, or binding, or changing the spirit of another; for whatsoever a man imagineth doubtingly, or with fear, must needs do hurt, if imagination hath any power at all." And of all this we have an exemplification in the "Julius Cæsar," where Cæsar bids the soothsayer come forward and repeat his warning, confronting him face to face, as if to try the courage and faith of the soothsayer himself in his own prophecy, thus: "Sooth. Cæsar! Caes. Ha! Who calls? Casca. Bid every noise be still. Peace yet again! [Music ceases. Caes. Who is it in the press that calls on me? I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music, Cœs. What man is that? Bru. A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March. Casc. Fellow, come from the throng: look upon Cæsar. Speak once again. Cæs. He is a dreamer; let us leave him:-pass." Act 1. Sc. 2. The resemblance here might appear to be somewhat farfetched, if it were not confirmed by the more direct allusion, and more explicit identity, afforded in the play of Antony and Cleopatra, in reference to this same overmastering spirit and another soothsayer. In the Natural History (not printed until after his death), he tells the story of Cleopatra's soothsayer, thus: "940. There was an Egyptian soothsayer, that made Antonius believe that his genius (which otherwise was brave and confident) was, in the presence of Octavianus Cæsar, poor and cowardly; and therefore, he advised him to absent himself as much as he could and remove far from him. This soothsayer was thought to be suborned by Cleopatra, to make him live in Egypt, and other remote places from Rome. Howsoever, the conceit of a predominant or mastering spirit of one man over another, is ancient, and received still, even in vulgar opinion." |