At your best leisure, this his humble suit.

Art. O, Cæsar! read mine first; for mine's a suit That touches Cæsar nearer. Read it, great Cæsar. Ces. What touches us ourself shall be last serv'd. Art. Delay not, Cæsar; read it instantly.

Cæs. What is the fellow mad?

Pub.

Sirrah, give place.

Cas. What! urge you your petitions in the street? Come to the Capitol.

CESAR enters the Capitol, the rest following. All the Senators rise.

Pop. I wish, your enterprize to-day may thrive.

Cas. What enterprize, Popilius?

Pop.

Bru. What said Popilius Lena?

Fare you well. [Advances to CÆSAR.

Cas. He wish'd, to-day our enterprize might thrive.

I fear, our purpose is discovered.

Bru. Look, how he makes to Cæsar: mark him.
Cas. Casca, be sudden, for we fear prevention.-

Brutus, what shall be done? If this be known,
Cassius or Cæsar never shall turn back,

For I will slay myself.

Bru.

Cassius, be constant:

Popilius Lena speaks not of our purposes;

For, look, he smiles, and Cæsar doth not change.
Cas. Trebonius knows his time; for, look you,

Brutus,

He draws Mark Antony out of the way.

[Exeunt ANTONY and TREBONIUS. CÆSAR and the Senators take their Seats.

Dec. Where is Metellus Cimber? Let him go, And presently prefer his suit to Cæsar.

Bru. He is address'd": press near, and second him.

10 He is ADDRESS'D :] i. e. He is ready. So in Vol. iv. p. 425, “Our navy is address'd," &c.

Cin. Casca, you are the first that rears your hand. Cæs. Are we all ready1? what is now amiss, That Cæsar and his senate must redress?

Met. Most high, most mighty, and most puissant

Cæsar,

Metellus Cimber throws before thy seat

An humble heart :

[Kneeling.

Cæs. I must prevent thee, Cimber. These couchings, and these lowly courtesies?, Might fire the blood of ordinary men, And turn pre-ordinance, and first decree, Into the law of children. Be not fond, To think that Cæsar bears such rebel blood, That will be thaw'd from the true quality

With that which melteth fools; I mean, sweet words, Low-crooked curtesies, and base spaniel fawning.

Thy brother by decree is banished:

If thou dost bend, and pray, and fawn for him,
I spurn thee like a cur out of my way.

Know, Cæsar doth not wrong; nor without cause
Will he be satisfied1.

Are we all ready?] Ritson, with some plausibility, would make these words the conclusion of Cinna's speech; but we adhere to the old copies, as no deviation from the ancient distribution is absolutely required. Cæsar, by the words, “Are we all ready?" may mean, is the senate yet prepared to proceed? 2 These COUCHINGS, and these lowly courtesies,] The Rev. Mr. Barry recommends the substitution of crouchings, on the ground that it suits the sense better, and was an easy misprint. This is certainly true; but an intelligible meaning is to be obtained from the old reading, and it is, in such cases, our principle to adhere to the text of the old copies.

3 Into the Law of children.] A clear misprint in all the old copies of lane for "law." When, as formerly, "law" was spelt with a final e, nothing could be easier than such a mistake.

• Know, Cæsar doth not wrong; nor without cause

Will he be satisfied.] A question has arisen, whether this passage has reached us in the shape in which Shakespeare originally wrote it; and the doubt has been produced by the misquotation of it in Ben Jonson's "Explorata, or Discoveries," which were written, not only after the publication of the folio, 1623, but after the appearance of John Taylor's collected pieces, (which Ben Jonson calls "The Water-rhimer's Works,”) in 1630. Ben Jonson, after asserting that Shakespeare "many times fell into those things could not escape laughter," adds this :-" As when he said in the person of Cæsar, one speaking to him, 'Cæsar, thou dost me wrong,' he replied, 'Cæsar did never wrong, but

Met. Is there no voice more worthy than my own, To sound more sweetly in great Cæsar's ear, For the repealing of my banish'd brother?

Bru. I kiss thy hand, but not in flattery, Cæsar; Desiring thee, that Publius Cimber may

Have an immediate freedom of repeal.

Cæs. What, Brutus !

Cas.

Pardon, Cæsar; Cæsar, pardon:

As low as to thy foot doth Cassius fall,

To beg enfranchisement for Publius Cimber.
Cæs. I could be well mov'd, if I were as you;
If I could pray to move, prayers would move me;
But I am constant as the northern star,

Of whose true, fix'd, and resting quality,
There is no fellow in the firmament.
The skies are painted with unnumber'd sparks,
They are all fire, and every one doth shine;
But there's but one in all doth hold his place:
So, in the world; 'tis furnish'd well with men,
And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive;
Yet in the number I do know but one
That unassailable holds on his rank,
Unshak'd of motion: and, that I am he,
Let me a little show it, even in this,

That I was constant Cimber should be banish'd,
And constant do remain to keep him so.

Cin. O Cæsar !--

Cæs.

Hence! Wilt thou lift up Olympus? Dec. Great Cæsar,Cæs.

Doth not Brutus bootless kneel?

with just cause.'” (Edit. fo. 1640, p. 98.) It is very evident that Ben Jonson was only speaking from memory, shaken (as he confesses in the same work) with age now, and sloth;" because Metellus had not said, "Cæsar, thou dost me wrong," nor any thing like it, though that might have been the upshot of his complaint. We have little doubt that the folio, 1623, represents the passage as it was written by Shakespeare, and that it was never in fact liable to the criticism of Ben Jonson, though he had ridiculed the same expression in the Induction to his "Staple of News," which was acted in 1625, and printed in vol. ii. of the folio edition, with the date of 1631.

Casca. Speak, hands, for me.

[CASCA stabs CESAR in the Neck.

CESAR catches

hold of his Arm. He is then stabbed by several other Conspirators, and last by MARCUS BRUTUS". Cæs. Et tu, Brute?—Then fall, Cæsar.

[Dies. The Senators and People retire in confusion. Cin. Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!— Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets.

Cas. Some to the common pulpits, and cry out, "Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement !"

Bru. People, and senators! be not affrighted. Fly not; stand still:-ambition's debt is paid. Casca. Go to the pulpit, Brutus.

Dec.

Bru. Where's Publius?

And Cassius too.

Cin. Here, quite confounded with this mutiny. Met. Stand fast together, lest some friend of Cæsar's Should chance

Bru. Talk not of standing.-Publius, good cheer: There is no harm intended to your person,

Nor to no Roman else; so tell them, Publius.

Cas. And leave us, Publius; lest that the people, Rushing on us, should do your age some mischief. Bru. Do so :-and let no man abide this deed, But we, the doers.

5 --

and last by Marcus Brutus.] The old stage-direction is merely, "They stab Cæsar," but more particularity seems necessary. The modern stage-direction has been formed, by Malone and other editors, from the accounts of Plutarch and Suetonius.

* Et tu, Brute ?] It has been a question whence Shakespeare obtained the words, Et tu, Brute? which, for the sake of emphasis, and without regard to propriety, he puts into the mouth of Cæsar. The probability is, that he found them in some earlier play on the same subject, which earlier play is quoted, or at all events referred to, in "The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York," 1594, where this line occurs,

"Et tu, Brute? Wilt thou stab Cæsar, too?"

It is also met with (as Malone remarks) in the very same words in a poem called "Acolastus his Afterwit," by S. Nicholson, 1600. Malone supposed that Et tu, Brute appeared originally in the old Latin play upon the death of Caesar: this is very possible, but quite as likely that Shakespeare took it from some anterior English drama, containing the line quoted in "The True Tragedy" and in "Acolastus."

Re-enter TREBONIUS.

Cas. Where's Antony?

Tre.

Fled to his house amaz'd.

Men, wives, and children, stare, cry out, and run,
As it were doomsday.

Bru.
Fates, we will know your pleasures.—
That we shall die, we know; 'tis but the time,
And drawing days out, that men stand upon.
Casca. Why, he that cuts off twenty years of life,
Cuts off so many years of fearing death.

Bru. Grant that, and then is death a benefit:
So are we Cæsar's friends, that have abridg'd
His time of fearing death.-Stoop, Romans, stoop,
And let us bathe our hands in Cæsar's blood
Up to the elbows, and besmear our swords;
Then walk we forth, even to the market-place,
And, waving our red weapons o'er our heads,
Let's all cry, Peace! Freedom! and Liberty!

Cas. Stoop then, and wash.-How many ages hence, Shall this our lofty scene be acted over,

In states unborn', and accents yet unknown?

Bru. How many times shall Cæsar bleed in sport, That now on Pompey's basis lies along,

No worthier than the dust?

Cas.

So oft as that shall be,

So often shall the knot of us be call'd
The men that gave their country liberty.
Dec. What! shall we forth?

Ay, every man away :

Cas.
Brutus shall lead; and we will grace his heels
With the most boldest and best hearts of Rome.

Enter a Servant.

Bru. Soft! who comes here? A friend of Antony's. Serv. Thus, Brutus, did my master bid me kneel;

7 In STATES unborn,] The first folio has, state; corrected in the second folio.