Boy! Lucius!-Varro! Claudius! Sirs, awake!- 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 cried'st 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. Clau. Bru. Go, and commend me to my brother Cassius; Bid him set on his powers betimes before, Enter OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, and their Army. Oct. Now, Antony, our hopes are answered. 1 They mean to warn us at Philippi here, Ant. Tut, I am in their bosoms, and I know With fearful bravery,2 thinking, by this face, Mess. Enter a Messenger. Prepare you, generals. The enemy comes on in gallant show; Oct. Upon the right hand I, keep thou the left. Oct. I do not cross you; but I will do so. [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. Bru. Words before blows; is it so, countrymen ? Ant. In your bad strokes, Brutus, you give good words. Witness the hole you made in Cæsar's heart, To warn is to summon. 2 "Fearful bravery." Fearful may in this instance bear its usual acceptation of tumorous. Cas. Antony, The posture of your blows are yet unknown;" But for your words, they rob the Hybla bees, And leave them honeyless. Ant. Not stingless too. Bru. O yes, and soundless, too; For you have stolen their buzzing, Antony, And very wisely, threat before you sting. Ant. Villains, you did not so, when your vile dag gers Hacked one another in the sides of Cæsar. You showed your teeth like apes, and fawned like hounds, And bowed like bondmen, kissing Cæsar's feet; If Cassius might have ruled. Oct. Come, come, the cause. If arguing make us sweat, The proof of it will turn to redder drops. Look; I draw a sword against conspirators; When think you that the sword goes up again.- Oct. So I hope; I was not born to die on Brutus' sword. Bru. O, if thou wert the noblest of thy strain, Young man, thou couldst not die more honorable. Cas. A peevish schoolboy, worthless of such honor, Joined with a masker and a reveller. Ant. Old Cassius still! 1 It should be, “is yet unknown;" but the error was probably the Poet's. 2 The old copy reads, two-and-thirty wounds. Theobald corrected the error. Oct. Come, Antony; away.― Defiance, traitors, hurl we in your teeth. If you dare fight to-day, come to the field; If not, when you have stomachs. [Exeunt OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, and their Army. Cas. Why now, blow, wind; swell, billow; and swim, bark! The storm is up, and all is on the hazard. This is my birth-day; as this very day Messala, Was Cassius born. Give me thy hand, Messala; Be thou my witness, that against my will, You know that I held Epicurus strong, This morning are they fled away and gone; Our army lies, ready to give up the ghost. Cas. I but believe it partly; For I am fresh of spirit, and resolved To meet all perils very constantly. 1 i. e. fore ensign; it probably means the chief ensign. Baret has “the former teeth [i. e. fore teeth], dentes primores." Bru. Even so, Lucilius. Cas. Now, most noble Brutus, The gods to-day stand friendly; that we may, Lovers in peace, lead on our days to age! But, since the affairs of men rest still uncertain, Let's reason with the worst that may befall. If we do lose this battle, then is this The very last time we shall speak together. What are you then determined to do ?1 Bru. Even by the rule of that philosophy, For fear of what might fall, so to prevent Cas. Then, if we lose this battle, You are contented to be led in triumph Thorough the streets of Rome? Bru. No, Cassius, no. Think not, thou noble Ro man, That ever Brutus will go bound to Rome; 3 1 i. e. I am resolved in such a case to kill myself.-What are you determined of? 2 "To prevent" is here used for to anticipate. By time is meant the full and complete time; the natural period. 3 This, though censured as ungrammatical, was the phraseology of the Poet's day, as might be shown by numerous examples. But Dryden and Pope have used it, and Johnson has sanctioned it in his Dictionary :-"Begin, v. n. I began, or begun." The fact is, that the past tense was, in our old language, written begon or begonne. VOL. VI. 11 |