Unto fome monftrous ftate. Now could I, Casca, A man no mightier than thyself, or me, Cafca. 'Tis Cæfar that you mean: Is it not, Caffius? 8 Have thews and limbs like to their ancestors; Cafca. Indeed, they say, the senators to-morrow And he shall wear his crown, by fea, and land, Caf. I know where I will wear this dagger then; If I know this, know all the world befides, So 7 Cafca. So can Ï: every bondman in his own hand bears prodigious grown,] Prodigious is portentous. STEEVENS. 8 Have thewes and limbs-] Thewes is an obfolete word implying nerves or mufcular ftrength. It is used by Falstaff in the Second Part of K. Henry IV. and in Hamlet: "For nature, crefcent, does not grow alone "In thewes and bulk." The two laft folios, in which fome words are injudiously modernized, read finews. STEEVENS. Y 4 The The power to cancel his captivity. Caf. And why fhould Cæfar be a tyrant then? So vile a thing as Cæfar? But, O, grief! Cafea. You fpeak to Cafca: and to fuch a man, Caf. There's a bargain made. Now know you, Casca, I have mov'd already In Pompey's porch: For now, this fearful night, Is favour'd like the work3 we have in hand, Moft 9 My answer must be made :] I fhall be called to account, and muft enfwer as for feditious words. JoHNSON. ·Hold my band:] is the fame as, Here's my band. JoHNSON. 2 Be factious for redress-] Factious feems here to mean active. JOHNSON. It means, I apprehend, embody a party or faction. MALONE. 3 Is favour'd like the work-] The old edition reads: Is favors, like the work I think we should read: In favour's like the work we have in band, Favour is lock, countenance, appearance. JOHNSON. To Moft bloody, firy, and moft terrible. Enter CINNA. Cafca. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in hafte. Caf. 'Tis Cinna, I do know him by his gait; He is a friend.-Cinna, where haste you so? Cin. To find out you; Who's that? Metellus Cimber? Caf. No, it is Cafca; one incorporate To our attempts. Am I not staid for, Cinna ? Cin. I am glad on't. What a fearful night is this? There's two or three of us have seen strange fights. Caf. Am I not ftaid for? Tell me. Cin. Yes, You are. O, Caffius, if you could but win The noble Brutus to our party paper, Caf. Be you content: Good Cinna, take this Cin. All but Metellus Cimber; and he's gone [Exit CINNA. Come, Cafca, you and I will, yet, ere day, To favour is to refemble. Thus Stanyhurft in his tranflation of the Third Book of Virgil's Æneid, 1582: "With the petit town gates favouring the principal old portes." We may read It favours, or-Is favour'd-i. e. is in appearance or Countenance like, &c. STEEVENS, Caf. Caf. Him, and his worth, and our great need of him, You have right well conceited. Let us go, For it is after midnight; and, ere day, We will awake him, and be fure of him. SCENE I. ACT II. The fame. Brutus's Orchard. [Exeunt. Enter BRUTUS. Bru. What, Lucius! ho! I cannot, by the progress of the stars, Give guefs how near to day.-Lucius, I fay!- Luc. Call'd you, my lord? Bru. Get me a taper in my ftudy, Lucius: When it is lighted, come and call me here. Luc. I will, my lord. Bru. It must be by his death: and, for my part, I know no perfonal cause to spurn at him, But for the general. He would be crown'd : [Exit. How that might change his nature, there's the question. 4- Brutus's orchard.] The modern editors read garden, but orchard feems anciently to have had the fame meaning. STEEVENS.. That these two words were anciently fynonymous, appears from a line in this play : "he hath left you all his walks,' "His private arbours, and new-planted orchards, "On this fide Tiber." In Sir T. North's Tranflation of Plutarch, the paffage which Shakfpeare has here copied, ftands thus: "He left his gardens and arbours unto the people, which he had on this fide of the river Tyber." So alfo in Barret's Alvearie, 1580: "A garden or an orchard, hortus." -The truth is, that few of our ancestors had in the age of Queen Elizabeth any other garden but an orchard; and hence the latter word was confidered as fynonymous to the former. MALONE. 5 When, Lucius, when?] This was a common expreffion of impatience in Shakspeare's time. See Vol. V. p. 9. n. 8. MALONE, It is the bright day, that brings forth the adder; Then, left he may, prevent. And, fince the quarrel Which, hatch'd, would, as his kind', grow mischievous; Re-enter LUCIUS. Luc. The taper burneth in your closet, fir. 6 Remorse from power:] Remorse, for mercy. WARBURTON. See Vol. II. p. 37, n. 5; p. 112, n. 1; Vol. III. p. 74, n. 3; Vol. IV. p. 205, n. 2, and p. 544, n. I. In all these paffages it means, tendernefs, pity, &c. MALONE. Remorfe is pity, and has twice occurred in that sense in Measure for Meafure, Act II. and A&t V. STEEVENS. 1 - common proof,] It is proved by common experience. MASON. 8 But when be once attains the upmost round, He then unto the ladder turns bis back, &c.] So, in Daniel's Civil Wars, 1602: "The afpirer, once attain'd unto the top, "Cuts off thofe means by which himfelf got up: MALONE. -as bis kind,-1 According to his nature. JOHNSON. Perhaps rather, as all thofe of his kind, that is, nature. MALONE. Searching |