Fashion it thus; that what he is, augmented, And kill him in the fhell. Enter Lucius. Luc. The taper burneth in your clofet, Sir: [Gives him the letter. Bru. Look in the kalendar, and bring me word. Bru. The exhalations, whizzing in the air, [Exit. [Opens the letter, and reads. Brutus, thou sleep'ft; awake, and fee thy felf: Brutus, thou fleep'ft: awake. Such inftigations have been often dropt, Shall Rome thus muft I piece it out, Shall Rome ftand under one man's awe? what! Rome? 2 Is not to morrow, boy, the FIRST of March] We should read IDES: For we can never fuppofe the fpeaker to have loft fourteen days in his account. He is here plainly ruminating on what the foothfayer told Cæfar [A& I. Scene 2.] in his prefence, [-Beware the Ides of March.] The boy comes back and says, Sir, March is wafted fourteen days. So that the morrow was the Ides of March, as he fuppofed. For March, May, July, and October had fix nones each, fo that the fifteenth of March was the Ides of that month. My My ancestors did from the ftreets of Rome To fpeak, and ftrike? O Rome! I make thee promise, Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus! 3 Enter Lucius. Luc. Sir, March is wafted fourteen days. [knocks within. [Exit Lucius. Bru. 'Tis good. Go to the gate; fome body knocks: Since Caffius first did whet me against Cæfar, I have not flept. • 4 Between the acting of a dreadful thing, · And 3 Sir, March is wafted fifteen days.] The editors are mightily mistaken: It was wafted but fourteen days; this was the dawn of the fifteenth, when the boy makes his report. 4 Between the acting of a dreadful thing, And the firft motion, &c.] That nice critic, Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus, complains that, of all kind of beauties, thofe great ftrokes, which he calls the terrible graces, and which are fo frequent in Homer, are the rareft to be found in the following writers. Amongst our countrymen it feems to be as much confined to the British Homer. This description of the condition of confpirators, before the execution of their defign, has a pomp and terror in it that perfectly aftonishes. The excellent Mr. Addifon, whofe modefty made him fometimes diffident in his own genius, but whofe true judgment always led him to the fafeft guides, (as we may fee by thofe many fine ftrokes in his Cato borrowed from the Philippics of Cicero) has paraphrafed this fine defcription; but we are no longer to expect thofe terrible graces which animate his original. O think, what anxious moments pass between Fill'd up with horror all, and big with death. Cato. I fhall make two remarks on this fine imitation. The firft is, that the fubjects of the two confpiracies being fo very different, (the fortunes of Cafar and the Roman Empire being concerned in the one; and that of a few auxiliary troops only in the other) Mr. Addison could not, with propriety, bring in that magnificent circum And the first motion, all the interim is • Like a phantafma, or a hideous dream : The Genius, and the mortal inftruments Are then in council; and the state of man, • Like to a little Kingdom, fuffers then • The nature of an infurrection. Enter Lucius. Luc. Sir, 'tis your brother Caffius at the door, Who doth defire to fee Bru. Is he alone? you. Luc. No, Sir, there are more with him. circumftance which gives one of the terrible graces of ShakeSpear's defcription; The Genius, and the Mortal Inftruments Are then in Council For Kingdoms, in the Pagan Theology, befides their good, had their evil Genius's, likewife; reprefented here, with the most daring ftretch of fancy, as fitting in confultation with the confpirators, whom he calls their Mortal Inftruments. But this, as we fay, would have been too pompous an apparatus to the rape and defertion of Syphax and Sempronius. The other thing obfervable is, that Mr. Addifon was fo ftruck and affected with thefe terrible graces in his original, that inftead of imitating his author's fentiments, he hath, before he was aware, given us only the copy of his own impreffions made by them. For, Oh, 'tis a dreadful interval of time, Fill'd up with Horror all, and big with death, are but the affections raised by fuch forcible Images as these, All the Intrim is Like a Phantafma, or a hideous Dream. the State of Man Like to a little Kingdom, fuffers then Comparing the troubled mind of a confpirator to a flate of Anarchy, is juft and beautiful; but the intrim, or interval, to an hideous vifion, or a frightful dream, holds fomething fo wonderfully of truth, and lays the foul fo open, that one can hardly think it poffible for any man, who had not fome time or other been en gaged in a confpiracy, to give fuch force of colouring to Nature. Luc. Luc. No, Sir, their Hats are pluckt about their ears, And half their faces buried in their Cloaks; That by no means I may difcover them By any mark of favour. Bru. Let them enter. They are the faction. "O Confpiracy! [Exit Lucius. "Sham'ft thou to fhew thy dang'rous brow by night, "When Evils are moft free? O then, by day "Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough, "To mask thy monftrous vifage? feek none, Confpiracy; "Hide it in Smiles and Affability: "For if thou path, thy native femblance on, "Not Erebus itself were dim enough "To hide thee from prevention. Enter Caffius, Cafca, Decius, Cinna, Metellus, and Trebonius. Caf. I think, we are too bold upon your Reft; Good morrow, Brutus, do we trouble you? Bru. I have been up this hour, awake all night. Know I these men, that come along with you? [Afide, Caf. Yes, every man of them; and no man here, But honours you: and every one doth wifh, You had but that opinion of your self, Which every noble Roman bears of you. This is Trebonius. Bru. He is welcome hither, Caf. This, Decius Brutus. Bru. He is welcome too. Caf. This, Cafca; this, Cinna; And this, Metellus Cimber. Bru. They are all welcome. What watchful cares do interpofe themselves Be Betwixt your eyes and night? [They whisper. Dec. Here lies the Eaft: doth not the day break here? Cafca. No. Cin. O pardon, Sir, it doth; and yon grey lines, That fret the Clouds, are meffengers of day. Cafca. You fhall confefs, that you are both deceiv'd: Bru. Give me your hands all over, one by one. Bru. "No, not an oath: if that the Fate of men, 5 No, not an Oath: if that the FACE of men, &c.] The confpirators propofe an oath as the fanction of their mutual faith. This, Brutus, very much in character, opposes: Because an oath was the usual cement of those lawless cabals, which have not virtue enough in themselves to keep their members together: On this confideration his argument against an oath turns: And the motives he thought fufficient to preferve faith amongst them, were thefe: The fufferance of their fouls, i. e. their commiferation for expiring liberty: The time's abufe, i. e. the general corruption of manners which had reduced publick liberty to this condition; and which, that liberty restored, would reform. But now, what is The FACE of men? Did he mean they had honest looks. This was a poor and low observation, unworthy Brutus, and the occafion, and the grandeur of his fpeech: Befides, it is foreign to the turn and argument of his difcourfe, which is to fhew the strong cement of the confederacy, from the juftice of their caufe, not from the natural honour of the confpirators. His argument ftands thus, You require an oath to keep us together; but fure the firong motives that drew us into confederacy will keep us confederated. Thefe motives he enumerates; but The FACE of men not being one of these motives muft needs be a corrupt reading. Shakespear, without question, wrote, If that the FATE of men, Or of mankind, which, in the ideas of a Roman, was involved in the fate of their Republick. And this was the principal motive which engaged the God-like Brutus in the undertaking. "The |