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Enter FLAVIUS, MARULLUS, and a rabble of Citizens. Flav. Hence; home, you idle creatures, get you home; Is this a holiday? What! know you not,

Being

It appears from Peck's Collection of divers curious Hiftorical Pieces, &c. (appended to his Memoirs, &c. of Oliver Cromwell.) p. 14, that a Latin play on this fubject had been written. "Epilogus Cæfaris interfecti, quomodo in fcenam prodiit ea res, acta in Ecclefia Chrifti, Oxon. Qui epilogus a magistro Ricardo Eedes et fcriptus et in profcenio ibidem dictus fuit, A. D. 1582." Meres, whofe Wit's Commonwealth was publifhed in 1598, enumerates Dr. Eedes among the best tragic writers of that time. STEEVENS.

From fome words spoken by Polonius in Hamlet, I think it probable that there was an English play also on this subject, before Shakspeare commenced a writer for the stage.

Stephen Goffon in his School of Abuse, 1579, mentions a play entitled The Hiftory of Cæfar and Pompey.

William Alexander, afterwards earl of Sterline, wrote a tragedy on the story and with the title of Julius Cæfar. It may be prefumed that Shakspeare's play was pofterior to his; for lord Sterline, when he compofed his Julius Cæfar was a very young authour, and would hardly have ventured into that circle, within which the most eminent dramatick writer of England had already walked. The death of Cæfar, which is not exhibited but related to the audience, forms the catastrophe of his piece. In the two plays many parallel paffages are found, which might, perhaps, have proceeded only from the two authours drawing from the fame fource. However, there are fome reafons for thinking the coincidence more than accidental.

A paffage in The Tempeft, (p. 79,) feems to have been copied from one in Darius, another play of Lord Sterline's, printed at Edinburgh in 1603. His Julius Cæfar appeared in 1607, at a time when he was little acquainted with English writers; for both thefe pieces abound with scotticifms, which, in the fubfequent folio edition, 1637, he corrected. But neither The Tempeft nor the Julius Cæfar of our authour was printed till 1623. It should alfo be remembered, that our authour has feveral plays, founded on fubjects which had been previously treated by others. Of this kind are King John, K. Richard II. the two parts of King Henry IV. King Henry V. King Richard III. King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Measure for Measure, The Taming af the Shrew, The Merchant of Venice, and I believe, Hamlet, Timon of Albens, and Th● Second and Third Part

Being mechanical, you ought not walk,
Upon a labouring day, without the fign

Of your profeffion?-Speak, what trade art thou?
1. Cit. Why, fir, a carpenter.

Mar. Where is thy leather apron, and thy rule?
What doft thou with thy beft apparel on ?-
You, fir; what trade are you?

2. Cit. Truly, fir, in refpect of a fine workman, I am but, as you would fay, a cobler.

Mar. But what trade art thou? Answer me directly. 2. Cit. A trade, fir, that, I hope, I may use with a safe confcience; which is, indeed, fir, a mender of bad foals. Mar. What trade 3, thou knave? thou naughty knave,

what trade?

2. Cit. Nay, I befeech you, fir, be not out with me: yet, if you be out, fir, I can mend you.

Mar. What meanest thou by that? Mend me, thou faucy fellow?

2. Cit. Why, fir, cobble you.

Flav. Thou art a cobler, art thou?

2. Cit. Truly, fir, all that I live by is, with the awl: I meddle with no tradesman's matters, nor women's mat

of K. Henry VI.: whereas no proof has hitherto been produced, that any contemporary writer ever prefumed to new model a ftory that had already employed the pen of Shakspeare. On all these grounds it appears more probable, that Shakspeare was indebted to lord Sterline, than that lord Stirline borrowed from Shakspeare. If this reasoning be juft, this play could not have appeared before the year 1607. I believe it was produced in that year. See An Attempt to afcertain the order of Shak

fpeare's Plays, Vol. I.

The real length of time in Julius Cæfar, Mr. Upton obferves, is as follows: "About the middle of February A. U. C. 709, a frantick feftival, facred to Pan, and called Lupercalia, was held in honour of Cæfar, when the regal crown was offered to him by Antony. On the 15th of March in the fame year, he was flain. Nov. 27, A. U. C. 710, the triumvirs met at a fmall island, formed by the river Rhenus, near Bononia, and there adjusted their cruel profcription.-A. U. C. 711, Brutus and Caffius were defeated near Philippi." MALONE.

2 Marullus,] Old copy-Murellus. Corrected from Plutarch by Mr. Theobald. MALONE.

3 Mar. What trade, &c.] This fpeech in the old copy is given ta Flavius. The next fpeech but one fhews that it belongs to Marullus, to whom it was attributed, I think properly, by Mr. Capell. MALONE.

ters,

ters, but with awl. I am, indeed, fir, a furgeon to old fhoes; when they are in great danger, I re-cover them. As proper men as ever trod upon neats-leather, have gone upon my handy-work.

Flav. But wherefore art not in thy shop to-day?

Why dost thou lead these men about the streets?

2. Cit. Truly, fir, to wear out their fhoes, to get myfelf into more work. But, indeed, fir, we make holiday, to fee Cæfar, and to rejoice in his triumph.

Mar. Wherefore rejoice? What conqueft 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,

Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft
Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have fat
The live-long day, with patient expectation,
To fee great Pompey pass the streets of Rome:
And when you faw his chariot but appear,
Have you not made an universal fhout,
That Tyber trembled underneath her banks,
To hear the replication of your founds,

Made

4 — but with awl ] I have already observed in a note on Love's Labour's Loft, p. 362, n. 8, that where our author ufes words equivocally, he impofes fome difficulty on his editor with refpect to the mode of exhibiting them in print. Shakspeare, who wrote for the ftage, not for the clofet, was contented if his quibble fatisfied the ear. I have, with the other modern editors, printed here with awl, though in the first folio, we find withal; as in the preceding page, bad foals, inftead of bad fouls, the reading of the original copy.

The allufion contained in the fecond clause of this fentence, is again repeated in Coriolanut, A&t IV. Sc. v.-" 3. Serv. How, fir, do you meddle with my mafter? Cor. Ay, 'tis an honefter fervice than to meddle with thy mistress." MALONE.

Shakspeare might have adopted this quibble from the ancient ballad, intitled, The Three merry Coblers:

"We have awle at our command,

"And still we are on the mending hand.' STEEVENS. $ber banks,] As Tyber is always reprefented by the figure of a man, the feminine gender is improper.

STEVENS.

X 3

Drayton,

Made in her concave shores?

And do you now put on your beft attire?
And do you now cull out a holiday?
And do you now ftrew flowers in his way,
That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood?
Be gone;

Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,
Pray to the gods to intermit the plague
That needs muft light on this ingratitude.

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

[Exeunt Citizens.

Draw them to Tyber banks, and weep your tears
Into the channel, till the loweft ftream
Do kifs the most exalted fhores of all.
See, whe'r their baseft metal be not mov'd;
They vanish tongue-ty'd in their guiltinefs.
Go you down that way towards the Capitol;
This way will I: Difrobe the images,
If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies
Mar. May we do fo?

You know, it is the feaft of Lupercal.

Flav. It is no matter; let no images
Be hung with Cæfar's trophies *. I'll about,
And drive away the vulgar from the streets:
So do you too, where you perceive them thick.

Thefe growing feathers pluck'd from Cæfar's wing,
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch;

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

[Exeunt.

Drayton, in his Polyolbion, frequently defcribes the rivers of England as females, even when he speaks of the prefiding power of the stream. Spenfer on the other hand, reprefents them more claffically, as males. MALONE.

6 See, whe'r]Whether, thus abbreviated, is used by Ben Jonfon. STEEV. See Vol. IV. p. 469, n. I. MALONE.

7-deck'd with ceremonies.] With honorary ornaments; tokens of refpect. MALONE.

Bebung with Cafar's trophies.] Cæfar's trophies, are, I believe, the crowns which were placed on his ftatues. So, in fir Tho. North's tranflation. There were fet up images of Cæfar in the city with diadems on their heads like kings, Thofe the two tribunes went and pulled down."

STEEVENS.
SCENE

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The fame. A publick Place.

Enter, in proceffion, with mufick, CESAR; ANTONY, for the courfe; CALPHURNIA, POR TIA, DECIUS, CICERO, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, and CASCA, a great crowd following; among them a Soothsayer.

Caj. Calphurnia,

Cafea. Peace, ho! Cæfar speaks.

Caf. Calphurnia,

Cal. Here, my lord.

Caf. Stand you directly in Antonius' way, When he doth run his course 9.-Antonius.

[Mufick ceafes.

Ant.

8 This perfon was not Decius, but Decimus Brutus. The poet (as Voltaire has done fince) confounds the characters of Marcus and Deci 772243. Decimus Brutus was the most cherished by Cæfar of all his friends, while Marcus kept aloof, and declined fo large a fhare of his favours and honours, as the other had conftantly accepted. Velleius Paterculus, fpeaking of Decimus Brutus, fays," ab iis quos miferat Antonius, jugulatus eft, juftiffimafque optimè de fe merito, C. Cæfari panas dedit, cujus cum primus omnium amicorum fuiffet, intersector fuit, et fortunæ ex qua fructum tulerat, invidiam in auctorem relegabat, cenfebatque æquum quæ acceperat a Cæfare retinere, Cæfarem qui illa dederat periiffe." Lib. ii. c. 64.

"Jungitur his Decimus, notiffimus inter amicos

"Cæfaris, ingratus, cui trans-Alpina fuiflet
"Gallia Cæfareo nuper commiffa favore.

"Non illum conjuncta fides, non nomen amici
"Deterrere potest."

"Ante alios Decimus, cui fallere, nomen amici
"Præcipue dederat, ductorem fæpe morantem
"Incitat.-Supplem. Lucani." STEEVENS.

Shakspeare's mistake of Decius for Decimus, arofe from the old tranflation of Plutarch. FARMER.

Lord Sterline has committed the fame mistake in his Julius Cæfar: and in Holland's Translation of Suetonius, 1606, which I believe Shakspeare had read, this perfon is likewife called Decius Brutus. MALONE. 9 Stand you directly in Antonius' way,

When be doth run bis courfe.] The old copy generally reads Antonio, Octavio, Flavio. The players were more accustomed to Italian than to Roman terminations, on account of the many verfions from Italian novels, and the many Italian characters in dramatick pieces formed on the fame originals. STEEVENS.

The

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