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And Cæsar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Até by his side, come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines, with a monarch's voice,
Cry Havock, and let slip' the dogs of war;

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• And Cæsar's spirit, ranging for revenge, &c.]

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umbraque erraret Crassus inulta." Lucan, L. I.

"Fatalem populis ultro poscentibus horam
"Admovet atra dies; Stygiisque emissa tenebris
"Mors fruitur cœlo, bellatoremque volando
"Campum operit, nigroque viros invitat hiatu."

Stat. Theb. VIII.

Furiæ rapuerunt licia Parcis." Ibid.

STEEVENS.

Cry Havock,] A learned correspondent [Sir William Blackstone] has informed me, that, in the military operations of old times, havock was the word by which declaration was made, that no quarter should be given. In a tract intitled, The Office of the Constable and Mareschall in the Tyme of Werre, contained in the Black Book of the Admiralty, there is the following chapter:

"The peyne of hym that crieth havock and of them that followeth hym, etit. v."

"Item Si quis inventus fuerit qui clamorem inceperit qui

vocatur Havok."

"Also that no man be so hardy to crye Havok upon peyne that he that is begynner shall be deede therefore: & the remanent that doo the same or folow, shall lose their horse & harneis: and the persones of such as foloweth and escrien shall be under arrest of the Conestable and Mareschall warde unto tyme that they' have made fyn; and founde suretie no morr to offende; and his body in prison at the Kyng will-," JOHNSON.

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let slip-] This is a term belonging to the chase. Manwood, in his Forest Laws, c. xx. s. 9, says: "—that when any pourallee man doth find any wild beasts of the forest in his pourallee, that is in his owne freehold lands, that he hath within the pourallee, he may let slippe his dogges after the wild beastes, and hunt and chase them there," &c. REED.

Slips were contrivances of leather by which greyhounds were restrained till the necessary moment of their dismission. See King Henry V. Vol. XII. p. 369, n. 9. STEEVENS.

That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.

Enter a Servant.

You serve Octavius Cæsar, do you not?
SERV. I do, Mark Antony.

ANT. Cæsar did write for him to come to Rome.
SERV. He did receive his letters, and is coming:
And bid me say to you by word of mouth,-
O Cæsar!

[Seeing the Body.

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ANT. Thy heart is big, get thee apart and Passion, I see, is catching; for mine eyes, Seeing those beads of sorrow stand in thine, Began to water. Is thy master coming?

weep.

SERV. He lies to-night within seven leagues of Rome.

ANT. Post back with speed, and tell him what hath chanc'd:

Here is a mourning Rome, a dangerous Rome,

To let slip a dog at a deer, &c. was the technical phrase of Shakspeare's time. So, in Coriolanus:

"Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash,

"To let him slip at will."

By the dogs of war, as Mr. Tollet has elsewhere observed, Shakspeare probably meant fire, sword, and famine. So, in King Henry V:

"Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,

"Assume the port of Mars; and, at his heels,

"Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire, "Crouch for employment."

The same observation is made by Steele, in the Tatler, No. 137. MALONE.

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for mine eyes,] Old copy-from mine eyes. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. MALONE.

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