3 Pleb. O woeful day!

4 Pleb. O traitors, villains!

1 Pleb, O moft bloody fight!

2 Plb. We will be reveng'd: Revenge: About,feek,—burn,→→ Fire,-kill,-slay.—let not a traytor live.

Ant. Stay, countrymen.

1 Pleb. Peace there:-hear the noble Antony.

2 Pleb. We'll hear him, we'll follow him, we'll die with him. Ant. Good friends, fweet friends, let me not flir you up

To fuch a fudden flood of mutiny.

They, that have done this deed, are honourable;

What privaie griefs they have, alas, I know not,
That made them do it; they are wife, and honourable,
And will, no doubt, with reafons anfwer you.
I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts;
I am no orator, as Brutus is :

But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man,

That love my friend; and that they know full well
That gave me publick leave to fpeak of him,
For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech,
To ftir men's blood: I only speak right on;

I tell you that, which you yourselves do know;
Shew you
fweet Cæfar's wounds, poor, poor dumb mouths!
And bid them speak for me: But were 1 Brutus,
And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony
Would ruffle up your fpirits, and put a tongue
In every wound of Cæfar, that should move
The stones of Rome to rife and mutiny.
All. We'll mutiny.

1 Pleb. We'll burn the house of Brutus.

3 Pleb. Away then, come seek the confpirators.
Ant. Yet hear me, countrymen; yet hear me speak.
All. Peace, ho! Hear Antony, most noble Antony.
Ant. Why, friends, know you go to do you not what :
Wherein hath Cæfar thus deferv'd your loves?

Alas, you know not:-I must tell you then :

You have forgot the will I told you of..

All. Most true;the will;-let's ftay, and hear the will.
Ant. Here is the will, and under Cæsar's seal.

To every Roman citizen he gives

To

To every feveral man, feventy-five drachmas.

2 Pleb. Most noble Cæfar!-We'll revenge his death.
3 Pleb. O royal Cæfar!

Ant. Hear me with patience.

All. Peace, ho!

Ant. Moreover he hath left you all his walks,
His private arbours, and new-planted orchards,
On this fide Tiber; he hath left them you,
And to your heirs for ever; common pleasures,
To walk abroad and recreate yourselves.
Here was a Cetar: When comes fuch another?
1 Pleb. Never, never -Come, away, away:
We'll burn his body in the holy place,

And with the brands fire the traitors' houses.
Take up the body,

2 Pleb. Go, fetch fire.

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4 Pleb. Pluck down forms, windows, any thing.

[Exeunt Plebeians with the body*.

Such is Shakspeare in the veil of my barbarous profe: but he is beautiful even veiled; naked, he is beauty itself.

I do not oppose this speech to any one of the three speeches in Homer, but to all three together. Now chufe that speech in Virgil which pleases you beft: but when I mentioned the master-pieces of Homer, I meant to include all the most beautiful paffages that the Greek and Latin poetry can produce.

I have faid, that Shakspeare equals all writers in the part in which each of them excells. Demofthenes and Cicero were orators by profeffion. one of their orations fuperior to this?

Is there any You answer,

*The French tranflator has adopted in this scene the tranflation of M. de Tourneur, making one or two alterations for the better. + The reader must remember that the original was written in Italian.

that

that "there is." I afk, which it is, and how often you have read it?" Two hundred times."-And mine, how often? "Once only."-Young reader, I

do not accufe you of judging rafhly. I do not afk you to tranflate your favourite oration into Italian profe as bad as mine, nor to read my difcourfe two hundred times (which strict justice, however, would feem to require); I afk you only to read it once more, and to read it with attention.

You have then read it again, and you still prefer fome Greek or Latin oration. Excufe me, if I venture to infinuate that you are not yet apprized of all the beauties of the fpeech of Antony. What think you for inftance, of these words,

"which (Pompey's ftatue)

"All the while ran with blood."

"It is a filly conceit," say you; "how could the mar"ble which we fee in the Spada palace run with "blood? It is a manifeft abfurdity." Mighty well, this is one of the finest paffages in the speech. And firft, it is not Shakspeare who fays these words; it is Antony who fpeaks. He does not speak to you, bright fpirit, profound logician; he speaks to the Roman people. Besides, the circumftance is mentioned in all hiftories, and had without doubt fome foundation. Rome was then engaged with a thousand ideas of various prodigies occafioned by the death of Cæsar. It is poffible, that, to increase the number of them, Antony might invent this fable. But what appears to me more probable is, that fome pufillanimous fenator, who was not one of the confpirators, terrified by the

tumult,

ON SHAKSPEARE.

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tumult, might have feen fome of the blood of Cæfar which had spirted on the statue; he comes home much affrighted, and fays that the ftatue ran with blood; his family believe him, they spread the report, and Antony avails himself of it to fhew how much the Gods are interested for Cæfar. Suppofe what you will, it was an argument ad fuperftitionem, addreffed to the most fuperftitious people in the world.

But to what good purpose,

"Ev'n at the base of Pompey's statue?"

This is a fly stroke. Pompey had been openly the friend of the Senate, and Cæfar the declared friend of the people. Cæfar had always fupported the cause of the people against the Senate, and against Pompey. Thus these very artful words at once recalled to their memory all the oppreffions which they had fuffered, and all the kindness of Cæfar towards them; they faid, Cæfar, your protector, your conftant and faithful "friend, is fallen at the feet of his and your most cruel 66 enemy."

" "Twas on a fummer's evening,

"That day he overcame the Nervii;"

What think you of this circumftance?" There is nothing abfurd in it," you fay; "but it is trifling and "ufelefs." There is nothing ufelefs in this fpeech; but this word is one of the most eloquent that Antony has spoken. The Nervii had been fome of the most formidable enemies of Rome, and they had never been conquered till that day. The affembly which Antony compofed of citizens and of

1

harangued was entirely

the veterans of Cæfar. To the citizens thefe words

faid,

faid, "See that Cæfar who has delivered you from

your fears, who has given fafety to your wives and "children, and to yourselves the free enjoyment of "pleasures and repofe!" Thefe words faid to the foldiers: "See, maffacred by traitors, that Cæfar, who ❝ conducted you to glory; fee that Cæfar under whom you gathered all your laurels !"

Every line of this fpeech deferves an elogium; and, when you have examined it attentively, you will allow it, and will fay with me, that neither Demofthenes, nor Cicero, nor their glorious rival, the immortal Chatham, ever made a better.

You have obferved the addrefs with which Antony gives his hearers time to be mutually inflamed by the words which they addrefs to one another. But poffi. bly you may not have attended to the fuperior art with which Shakspeare has drawn the Roman people,

In general, the people are every where the people; but every people have also their own particular chạracter; and thofe of London, of Paris, and of Rome, have each a very different character. Those who have not feen Rome cannot imagine with what truth the people are drawn in this fpeech, and drawn fuch as we fee them at this day. The fame paffion, the fame violence in their emotions, the fame readiness to be inflamed, the fame difpofition to do every thing by the impulfe of a moment, and nothing by reafon; these are the diftinctive qualities of the people of Rome; and the words of Shakspeare, "burn, fire, kill, flay;" are the lines of the character of the Tranfteverins *,

This is the appellation at Rome of those who inhabit the quarter which is fituated beyond the Tyber. They are famous throughout ady for their wickednefs. French Tranflator.

I

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