And talk to you sometimes? Dwell I but in the suburbs Of your good pleasure? If it be no more, Portia is Brutus' harlot, not his wife. Bru. You are my true and honourable wife ; As dear to me, as are the ruddy drops That visit my sad heart.4 Por. If this were true, then should I know this secret. I grant, I am a woman;5 but, withal, Here also we find our author and Lord Sterline walking over the same ground: 2 "I was not, Brutus, match'd with thee, to be "A partner only of thy board and bed; 66 "With chains of mutual love together ty'd, "As those that have two breasts, one heart, two souls, one will." Julius Cæsar, 1607. Malone. comfort your bed,] “is but an odd phrase, and gives as odd an idea," says Mr. Theobald. He therefore substitutes, consort. But this good old word, however disused through modern refinement, was not so discarded by Shakspeare. Henry VIII, as we read in Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, in commendation of Queen Katharine, in publick said: "She hathe beene to me a true obedient wife, and as comfortable as I could wish." Upton. In the book of entries at Stationers' Hall, I meet with the following, 1598: "A Conversation between a careful Wife and her comfortable Husband." Steevens. In our marriage ceremony, the husband promises to comfort his wife; and Barrett's Alvearie, or Quadruple Dictionary, 1580, says, that to comfort is, "to recreate, to solace, to make pastime." Collins. 3 ———— in the suburbs -] Perhaps here is an allusion to the place in which the harlots of Shakspeare's age resided. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Monsieur Thomas: "Get a new mistress, "Some suburb saint, that sixpence, and some oaths, 4 As dear to me. &c.] These glowing words have been adopted by Mr. Gray in his celebrated Ode: "Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart." I grant, I am a woman; &c.] So, Lord Sterline: Steevens. "As those whose tongues import our greatest pow'rs, "For secrets still bad treasurers esteem'd, "Of others' greedy, prodigal of ours ; A woman that lord Brutus took to wife: Teil me your counsels, I will not disclose them: Here, in the thigh: Can I bear that with patience, Bru. O ye gods, Render me worthy of this noble wife! [Knocking within. The secrets of my heart. All my engagements I will construe to thee, Enter LUCIUS and LIGARIUS. [Exit POR. Lucius, who 's that, knocks ?8 Luc. Here is a sick man, that would speak with you. Bru. Caius Ligarius, that Metellus spake of.— Boy, stand aside.-Caius Ligarius! how? Lig. Vouchsafe good morrow from a feeble tongue. Bru. O, what a time have you chose out, brave Caius, "Good education may reform defects, "And I this vantage have to a vertuous life, "I m Cato's daughter, and I'm Brutus wife." Malone. A woman well-reputed, Cato's daughter.] By the expression wellreputed, she refers to the estimation in which she was held, as being the wife of Brutus; whilst the addition of Cato's daughter, implies that she might be expected to inherit the patriotic virtues of her father. It is with propriety therefore, that she immediately asks: "Think you, I am no stronger than my sex, Being so father d, and so husbanded ?" Henley. All the charactery] i. e. all that is character'd on, &c. The word has already occurred in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Steevens. See Vol. III, p. 151, n. 3. Malone. 8 ·who's that, knocks?] i. e. who is that, who knocks? Our poet always prefers the familiar language of conversation to grammatical nicety. Four of his editors, however, have endeavoured to destroy this peculiarity, by reading-who's there that knocks? and a fifth has, who's that, that knocks? Malone. To wear a kerchief?9 'Would you were not sick! Bru. Such an exploit have I in hand, Ligarius, Lig. By all the gods that Romans bow before, Bru. A piece of work, that will make sick men whole. Lig. But are not some whole, that we must make sick? Bru. That must we also. What it is, my Caius, I shall unfold to thee, as we are going To whom it must be done. Lig. Set on your foot; And, with a heart new-fir'd, I follow you, Bru. Follow me then. [Exeunt.* 9 O, what a time have you chose out, brave Caius, To wear a kerchief?] So, in Plutarch's Life of Brutus, translated by North: 66 Brutus went to see him being sicke in his bedde, and sayed unto him, O Ligarius, in what a time art thou sicke ? Ligarius rising up in his bedde, and taking him by the right hande, sayed unto him, Brutus, (sayed he) if thou hast any great enterprise in hande worthie of thy selfe, I am whole." Lord Sterline also has introduced this passage into his Julius Cæsar: "By sickness being imprison'd in his bed "Whilst I Ligarius spied, whom pains did prick, "He answer'd straight, as I had physick brought, "If worthy of thyself thou wouldst do aught, "Then Brutus I am whole, and wholly thine." Malone. 1 Thou, like an exorcist, hast conjur'd up My mortified spirit.] Here, and in all other places where the word occurs in Shakspeare, to exorcise means to raise spirits, not to lay them; and I believe he is singular in his acceptation of it. See Vol. V, p. 309, n. 5. Malone. M. Mason. The same. SCENE II. A Room in Cæsar's Palace. Thunder and Lightning. Enter CESAR, in his Night-gown. Cas. Nor heaven, nor earth, have been at peace to- Thrice hath Calphurnia in her sleep cried out, Serv. My lord? Cas. Go bid the priests do present sacrifice, And bring me their opinions of success. Serv. I will, my lord. Enter CALPHURNIA. [Exit. Cal. What mean you, Cæsar? Think you to walk forth? You shall not stir out of your house to-day. Cas. Cæsar shall forth: The things that threaten'd me, Ne'er look'd but on my back; when they shall see The face of Cæsar, they are vanished. Cal. Cæsar, I never stood on ceremonies,2 Yet now they fright me. There is one within, Besides the things that we have heard and seen, Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch. A lioness hath whelped in the streets; And graves have yawn'd, and yielded up their dead :3 2 Cæsar, I never stood on ceremonies,] i. e. I never paid a ceremonious or superstitious regard to prodigies or omens. The adjective is used in the same sense in The Devil's Charter, 1607: "The devil hath provided in his covenant, "I should not cross myself at any time: The original thought is in the old translation of Plutarch: "Calphurnia, until that time, was never given to any fear or superstition." Steevens. 3 And graves have yawn'd and yielded up their dead: &c.] So, in a funeral Song in Much Ado about Nothing: "Graves yawn, and yield your dead." Again, in Hamiet: "A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, "The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead "Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets." Malone. Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds, The noise of battle hurtled in the air,5 And I do fear them. Cas. What can be avoided, Whose end is purpos'd by the mighty gods? Cal. When beggars die, there are no comets seen ; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.8 4 Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds, In ranks, and squadrons, and right form of war,] So, in Tacitus, Hist. B. V: *** Visæ per cœlum concurrere acies, rutilantia arma, et subito nubium igne collucere" &c. Steevens. Again, in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, 1590: "I will persist a terror to the world; "Making the meteors that like armed men Malone. 5 The noise of battle hurtled in the air,] To hurtle is, I suppose, to clash, or move with violence and noise. So, in Selimus, Emperor of the Turks, 1594: "Here the Polonian he comes hurtling in, "Under the conduct of some foreign prince." Again, ibid: "To toss the spear, and in a warlike gyre "To hurtle my sharp sword about my head." Shakspeare uses the word again in As you Like it: in which hurtling, 66 "From miserable slumber I awak'd." Steevens. To hurtle originally signified to push violently; and, as in such an action a loud noise was frequently made, it afterwards seems to have been used in the sense of to clash. So, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, v. 2618: "And he him hurtleth with his hors adoun." Malone. 6 Horses did neigh,] Thus the second folio. Its blundering predecessor reads: "Horses do neigh. Steevens. 7 And ghosts did shriek, and squeal about the streets.] So, in Lodge's Looking Glasse for London and England, 1598: "The ghosts of dead men howling walke about, VOL. XIV. Todd. |