meddle with no tradesman's matters', nor women's matters, but with awl. I am indeed, sir, a surgeon 2 to old shoes; when they are in great danger, I recover3 them. As proper4 men as ever trod upon neat's-leather have gone upon my handiwork.

Flav. But wherefore art not in thy shop to-day? Why dost thou lead these men about the streets?

2 Cit. Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes, to get myself into more work. But, indeed, sir, we make holiday to see Cæsar, and to rejoice in his triumph.5

Mar. Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home?

What tributaries follow him to Rome,

To

grace in captive bonds his chariot-wheels?

You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things! O, you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,

1 No tradesman's matters.] The text here is uncertain. Some read 'no trade, man's matters nor woman's matters;' what follows in the original is 'but withal I am, indeed,' &c.

2 Surgeon.] The original meaning of surgeon (a corruption of chirurgeon) is a manual operator; Greek, cheir, the hand, and ergon, work.

3 Recover.] That is, by patchwork; a play on the word.

Proper.] Goodly, peculiarly handsome. The parents of Moses hid him because they saw he was a proper child.' Heb. xi. 23. So Richard III., speaking of his personal appearance, says he is regarded as 'a marvellous proper man.' Act I. Sc. 2.

5 His triumph.] His triumphal procession through the city to the Capitol. This was Cæsar's fifth and last triumph, and was in celebration of his victory over Cnæus Pompey and Sextus Pompey, the sons of Pompey the Great, at the battle of Munda, in Spain, in the year of Rome 708, B.C. 45. The triumph was celebrated in the beginning of the year following; Cæsar having been appointed consul for the next ten years, and dictator for life.

Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft 2
Have you climbed up to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The livelong day, with patient expectation,
To see great Pompey pass3 the streets of Rome :
And when you saw his chariot but appear,
Have you not made a universal shout,
That Tiber trembled underneath her banks*,
To hear the replication of your sounds
Made in her concave shores?

And do you now put on your best attire ?
And do you now cull out a holiday?
And do you now strew flowers in his way
That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood?7
Be gone!

Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,

Pray to the gods to intermits the plague

1 Knew you not Pompey?] Have you forgotten how you acknowledged Pompey's services?

2 Many a time and oft.] An emphatic tautology, as in the phrase 'for ever and ever,' ' again and again.'

3 Pass.] Pass along.

Her banks.] The feminine personification of rivers is not so frequent as the masculine; but in consequence of the word his being formerly the possessive neuter as well as masculine, its use in personification is not so certain as that of her. Milton very commonly employs the feminine personification.

5 Replication.] Reverberation from shore to shore.

• Cull.] To cull, from the French cueillir, to gather, means to set apart, to select approvingly, to choose.

1 Over Pompey's blood.] His offspring. Cnæus Pompey was taken and beheaded after the battle of Munda.

8 To intermit.] Here used for to withhold. Pray to the gods that they may spare you the infliction of a plague. The infinitive

6

1

That needs must light on this ingratitude.

Flav. Go, go, good countrymen, and, for this fault, Assemble all the poor men of your sort;

2

[Ex. Citizens.

Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears
Into the channel, till the lowest stream
Do kiss 3 the most exalted shores of all.
See whe'r their basest metal be not mov'd!
They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.
Go you down that way towards the Capitol;
This way will I: Disrobe the images,

If

you do find them decked with ceremonies.5 Mar. May we do so?

You know it is the feast of Lupercal.6

mood has various significations: very often it is used adverbially, as we make holiday to see Cæsar;' sometimes substantively, as 'forget not to touch;' sometimes adjectively, as 'I am to blame: here it is adverbial to pray.

1 Needs.] For of needs, that is, of necessity; adverb.

Weep your tears.] Analogous to such phrases as 'to dream a dream,' 'to die the death,' 'to sleep the sleep.' To weep tears, is, however, an unusual phrase; shed is the more common verb. Milton speaks of 'tears such as angels weep.' P. L., i. 620.

Do kiss.] For does kiss. Till what is now the lowest part of the stream, rise and reach as high as what is now the highest watermark.

See, whe'r.] This contraction of whether is not uncommon in the older poets. See how dispositions, even so debased as theirs, have been affected! Conscious of their guilt, they say not a word, but hasten away.

5 Ceremonies.] Ceremonious ornaments; scarfs and diadems. According to Plutarch, it was after the offer of the crown by Antony, that Flavius and Marullus 'disrobed the images,' See Extr. from Plutarch, 3 and 18.

• The feast of Lupercal.] The Lupercal was a sacred enclosure on the Palatine Hill, where a frantic festival, sacred to the god Pan, and called Lupercalia, was held in February. The Luperci, or priests

Flav. It is no matter; let no images
Be hung with Cæsar's trophies. I'll about,

And drive away the vulgar from the streets :
So do you, too, where you perceive them thick.
These growing feathers plucked from Cæsar's wing,
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch;

Who else would soar1 above the view of men,
And keep us all in servile fearfulness.

SCENE II.-The same. A Public Place.

[Exeunt.

Enter, in procession, with music, CÆSAR; ANTONY, for the Course2; CALPHURNIA,3 PORTIA, DECIUS4, CICERO, Brutus,

of Pan, ran up and down the streets naked, having only a narrow girdle round them, and waving in their hands a thong of goat's-hide, with which they struck those whom they met, particularly married women, who presented themselves to the blow, because it was supposed to avert barrenness. At the Lupercalia, this year, A. U. C. 709, there was a company of Julian flamens or priests, raised to equal dignity with the other priests of Pan, and therefore the festival was in some measure in honour of Julius Cæsar, who presided over it, sitting in a golden chair before the rostra or orator's pulpit. Hence Marullus questioned the warrantableness of 'disrobing the images' on such an occasion.

1 Who else would soar.] The antecedent to who is him. This relative clause does not form an inseparable adjunct to him, but is so loosely connected with it that who may be resolved into as he. Relative clauses of this kind are of frequent occurrence, and are not of an adjective character as others are. See the Editor's 'Analysis of

Sentences,' ch. iv., §§ 1 and 5.

2 Antony, for the Course.] Marcus Antonius held the consulship with Cæsar this year. He was chief of the Julian Luperci, and here enters for the course, that is, prepared for running the course. 3 Calphurnia.] Properly Calpurnia, Cæsar's third wife.

Decius.] Our author here copied Plutarch's error of Decius for Decimus. But he has himself erred in regarding Marcus Brutus,

CASSIUS, and CASCA, a great crowd following; among them

1

Cæs. Stand you directly 1 in Antonius' way, When he doth run his course.

Ant. Cæsar, my lord.

Antonius,

Cas. Forget not, in your speed, Antonius, To touch Calphurnia: for our elders say, The barren, touched in this holy chase, Shake off their sterile curse.

Ant.

I shall remember:

When Cæsar says Do this, it is performed.

Cæs. Set on; and leave no ceremony out. [Music. Sooth. Cæsar.

Cos. 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,
Cry, Cæsar: Speak; Cæsar is turned to hear.
Sooth. Beware the ides of March.2

instead of this Decimus Brutus, as the special favourite of Cæsar. Marcus was rather disposed to decline such a profusion of favours as was accepted by Decimus.

1 Directly.] This adverb modifies the succeeding adverbial preposition phrase.

2 Beware the ides.] That is, beware of the ides. See Extracts from Plutarch, 8. Beware is not a verb, but the verb be prefixed to the adjective ware, meaning be aware or wary. In Acts xiv. 6, we