I think, it is the weakness of mine eyes, Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil, That mak'st my blood cold, and my hair to stare? Speak to me, what thou art. GHOST. Thy evil spirit, Brutus. BRU. Why com'st thou ? GHOST. To tell thee, thou shalt see me at Phi lippi. BRU. Well; Then I shall see thee again?? 9 Then I shall see thee again?] Shakspeare has on this ocsion deserted his original. It does not appear from Plutarch that the Ghost of Cæsar appeared to Brutus, but "a wonderful straunge and monstruous shape of a body." This apparition could not be at once the shade of Cæsar, and the evil genius of Brutus. 66 Brutus boldly asked what he was, a god, or a man, and what cause brought him thither. The spirit answered him, I am thy euill spirit, Brutus; and thou shalt see me by the citie of Philippes. Brutus being no otherwise affrayd, replyed againe vnto it: well, then I shall see thee agayne. The spirit presently vanished away; and Brutus called his men vnto him, who tolde him that they heard no noyse, nor sawe any thing at all.” See the story of Cassius Parmensis in Valerius Maximus, lib. i. c. vii. STEEVENS. 66 The words which Mr. Steevens has quoted, are from Plutarch's Life of Brutus. Shakspeare had also certainly read Plutarch's account of this vision in the Life of Cæsar : Above all, the ghost that appeared unto Brutus, showed plainly that the goddes were offended with the murther of Cæsar. The vision was thus. Brutus being ready to pass over his army from the citie of Abydos to the other coast lying directly against it, slept every night (as his manner was,) in his tent, and being yet awake, thinking of his affaires, he thought he heard a noyse at his tent-dore, and looking towards the light of the lampe that waxed very dimme, he saw a horrible vision of a man, of a wonderfull greatnes and dreadful looke, which at the first made him marvelously afraid. But when he sawe that it did him no hurt, but stoode by his bedde-side, and said nothing, at length he asked him what he was. The image aunswered him, I am thy ill angel, Brutus, and thou shalt see me by the citie of Philippes. Then Brutus replyed agayne, and said, GHOST. Ay, at Philippi. BRU. Why, I will see thee at Philippi then.— Now I have taken heart, thou vanishest: Ill spirit, I would hold more talk with thee.- 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 cry. 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? Nor I, my lord. VAR. No, my lord, I saw nothing. Well, I shall see thee then. Therewithall the spirit presently vanished from him." It is manifest from the words above printed in Italicks, that Shakspeare had in his thoughts this passage, which relates the very event which he describes, 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 III. Act V. Sc. III. STEEVENS. Enter OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, and their Army. 1 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 2, thinking, by this face, -WARN US] To warn is to summon. So, in King John : "Who is it that hath warn'd us to the walls?" Shakspeare 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 yo' L', 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: 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 ; OCT. Upon the right hand I, keep thou3 the left. [March. 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. OCT. 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. OCT. 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: 66 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 тHOυ-] The tenour of the conversation evidently requires us to read-you. RITSON. Witness the hole you made in Cæsar's heart, CAS. ANT. Not stingless too. BRU. O, yes, and soundless too; For you have stol'n their buzzing, Antony, 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; 4 The 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. What transcriber or printer, finding the sentence right, would industriously construct it wrong. More correct writers than our poet have been guilty of this error where a plural noun immediately precedes the verb, although it be not the nominative case by which it is governed. I have already pointed out various instances of a similar inaccuracy in Shakspeare in a note on Love's Labour's Lost, vol. iv. p. 389. MALONE. 5 Casca,] Casca struck Cæsar on the neck, coming like a degenerate cur behind him. JOHNSON. O flatterers!] Old copy, unmetrically,-O you flatterers! STEEVENS. Flatterers!-Now, Brutus, thank yourself:] It is natural to |
