JULIUS CÆSAR.

ACT I. SCENE I.

Rome. A Street.

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 mechanical, you ought not walk, Upon a labouring day, without the sign Of your profession ?-Speak, what trade art thou ?

i Cit. Why, sir, a carpenter.

Mar. Where is thy leather apron, and thy rule ? What dost thou with thy best apparel on ?-You, sir; what trade are you?

2 Cır. Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but, as you would say, a cobler. Mar. But what trade art thou ? Answer me di.

rectly. 1 Cit. A trade, sir, that, I hope, I may use with a safe conscience; which is, indeed, sir, a mender of bad soals.

· Marullus.] Old copy-Murellus. I have, upon the authorito of Plutarch, &c. given to this tribune his right name, Marullus. THEOBALD.

a mender of bad soals.] Fletcher has the same quibble in his Woman Pleas'd :

mark me, thou serious sowter,
“ If thou dost this, there shall be no more shoe-mending ;

Every man shall have a special care of his own soul,
And carry in his pocket his two confessors." Malone.

2

Mar. What trade, thou knave; thou naughty

knave, what trade? 2 Cır. Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me : yet, if you be out, sir, I can mend you.

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

2 Cit. Why, sir, cobble you.
Flav. Thou art a cobbler, art thou ?

2 Cır. Truly, sir, all that I live by is, with the awl: I meddle with no tradesman's matters, nor women's matters, but with awl . I am, indeed, sir,

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

4 Mar. What meanest thou by that ?] As the Cobler, in the preceding speech, replies to Flavius, not to Marullus, 'tis plain, I think, this speech must be given to Flavius. THEOBALD.

I have replaced Marullus, who might properly enough reply to a saucy sentence directed to his colleague, and to whom the speech was probably given, that he might not stand too long unemployed upon the stage. Johnson.

I would give the first speech to Marullus, instead of transferring the last to Flavius. Ritson.

Perhaps this, like all the other speeches of the Tribunes, (to whichsoever of them it belongs) was designed to be metrical, and originally stood thus : “ What mean'st by that ? Mend me, thou saucy fellow?”

STEEVENS. 5 I meddle with no TRADESMAN's matters, nor women's matters, but with awl.] This should be: “I meddle with no trade, man's matters, nor woman's matters, but with awl." FARMER.

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." STEÉVENS. I have already observed in a note on Love's Labour's Lost, vol. iv. p. 348, that where our author uses words equivocally, he imposes some difficulty on his editor with respect to the mode of exhibiting them in print. Shakspeare, who wrote for the stage, 'not for the closet, was contented if his quibble satisfied the ear. I have, with the other modern editors, printed herewith awl, though in the first folio, we find withal ; as in the pre

a surgeon to old shoes; when they are in great danger, I re-cover them. As proper men as ever trod upon neats-leather, have gone upon my handywork.

Flav. But wherefore art not in thy shop to-day? Why dost thou lead these men about the streets ?

2 Cır. Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes, to get myself into more work. But, indeed, sir, we make holiday, to see Cæsar, and to rejoice in his triumph, MAR. Wherefore rejoice? What conquest 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

up

to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The live-long day, with patient expectation,
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome :
And when you saw his chariot but appear, ,
Have you not made an universal shout,
That Tyber trembled underneath her banks,

you climb'd

ceding page, bad soals, instead of bad souls, the reading of the original copy

The allusion contained in the second clause of this sentence, is again repeated in Coriolanus, Act IV. Sc. V.:-“3 Serv. How, sir, do you meddle with my master ? Cor. Ay, 'tis an honester service than to meddle with thy mistress.” Malone.

6 – HER banks,] As Tyber is always represented by the figure of a man, the feminine gender is iniproper. Milton says, that

the river of bliss “ Rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber stream.” But he is speaking of the water, and not of its presiding power or genius. Steevens.

Drayton, in his Polyolbion, frequently describes the rivers of

To hear the replication of your sounds,
Made in her concave shores ?
And do you now put on your best attire ?
And do you now cull out a holiday ?
And do you now strew 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 must light on this ingratitude.
Flav. Go, go, good countrymen, and, for this

fault,
Assemble all the poor men of your sort;
Draw them to Tyber banks, and weep your tears
Into the channel, till the lowest stream
Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.

[Ereunt Citizens.
See, whe'r' their basest metal be not mov'd;
They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.
Go you down that way towards the Capitol;
This way will I: Disrobe the images,
If

you do find them deck'd with ceremonies 8

MAR. May we do so ?
You know, it is the feast of Lupercal.

Flav. It is no matter; let no images

England as females, even when he speaks of the presiding power of the stream. Spenser, on the other hand, represents them more classically, as males. MALONE.

The presiding power of some of Drayton's rivers were females ; like Sabrina, &c. Steevens.

7 See, whe'r-] Whether, thus 'abbreviated, is used by Ben Jonson :

“ Who shall doubt, Donne, whe'r I a poet be,
“ When I dare send my epigrams to thee.” Steevens.

deck'd with CEREMONIES.] Ceremonies, for religious ora naments. Thus afterwards he explains them by Cæsar's Trophies ; 1. e. such as he had dedicated to the gods. WARBURTON. Ceremonies are honorary ornaments ; tokens of respect.

MALONE,

8

Be hung with Cæsar's trophies'. I'll about,
And drive away the vulgar from the streets :
So do you too, where you perceive them thick.
These growing feathers pluck'd from Cæsar's wing,
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch;
Who else would soar above the view of men,
And keep us all in servile fearfulness. [Exeunt.

Enter, in Procession, with Musick, CÆSAR; An

tony, for the course ; Calphurnia, Portia, DeCIUS, CICERO, Brutus, Cassius, and Casca, a great Croud following ; among them a Soothsayer. Cæs. Calphurnia, Casca.

Peace, ho! Cæsar speaks.

[Musick ceases. 9 Be hung with Cæsar's TROPHIES.] Cæsar's trophies, are, I believe, the crowns which were placed on his statues. So, in Sir Thomas North's translation : 5. There were set up images of Cæsar in the city with diadems on their heads, like kings. Those the two tribunes went and pulled down.” STEEvens.

What these trophies really were, is explained by a passage in the next scene, where Casca informs Cassius, that “ Marullus and Flavius, for pulling scarfs off Cæsar's images, are put to silence." M. Mason.

* This person was not Decius, but Decimus Brutus. The poet (as Voltaire has done since) confounds the characters of Marcus and Decimus. Decimus Brutus was the most cherished by Cæsar of all his friends, while Marcus kept aloof, and declined so large a share of his favours and honours, as the other had constantly accepted. Velleius Paterculus, speaking of Decimus Brutus, says :- .“ ab iis, quos miserat Antonius, jugulatus est; justissimasque optimè de se merito viro C. Cæsari pænas dedit. Cujus cum primus omnium amicorum fuisset, interfector fuit, et fortunæ ex qua fructum tulerat, invidiam in auctorem relegabat, censebatque æquum, quæ acceperat à Cæsare retinere : Cæsarem, quia illa dederat, perisse.” Lib. ii. c. lxiv. :