Lay'st thou thy leaden mace upon my boy, That plays thee musick?-Gentle knave, good night; I will not do thee so much wrong to wake thee. If thou dost nod, thou break'st thy instrument; I'll take it from thee; and, good boy, good night. Let me see, let me see;-Is not the leaf turn'd down, Where I left reading? Here it is, I think. [He sits down. Enter the Ghost of CÆSAR. How ill this taper burns! Ha!-who comes here? It comes upon me :-Art thou any thing? 7 thy leaden mace-] A mace is the ancient term for a sceptre. So, in The Arraignment of Paris, 1584: Again: 66 look upon my stately grace, "Because the pomp that 'longs to Juno's mace," &c. -because he knew no more "Fair Venus' Ceston, than dame Juno's mace." Again, in Marius and Sylla, 1594: 66 proud Tarquinius "Rooted from Rome the sway of kingly mace." Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. I. c. x: "Who mightily upheld that royal mace." STEEVENs. Shakspeare probably remembered Spenser in his Fairy Queen, B. I. cant. iv. st. 44: "When as Morpheus had with leaden mase, • Let me see, “Arrested all that courtly company." HOLT WHIte. let me see ;] As these words are wholly unme-trical, we may suppose our author meant to avail himself of the common colloquial phrase-Let's see, let's see. STEEvens. That mak'st my blood cold, and my hair to stare? Speak to me, what thou art. - GHOST. Thy evil spirit, Brutus. GHOST. To tell thee, thou shalt see me at Philippi. BRU. Well; Then I shall see thee again?? 9 Then I shall see thee again?] Shakspeare has on this occasion deserted his original. It does not appear from Plutarch that the Ghost of Caesar appeared to Brutus, but " a wonderful straunge and monstruous shape of a body." This apparition could not be at once the shade of Cæsar, and the evil genius of Brutus. "Brutus boldly asked what he was, a god, or a man, and what cause brought him thither. The spirit answered him, I am thy euill spirit, Brutus; and thou shalt see me by the citie of Philippes. Brutus being no otherwise affrayd, replyed againe vnto it: well, then I shall see thee agayne. The spirit presently vanished away; and Brutus called his men vnto him, who tolde him that they heard no noyse, nor sawe any thing at all." See the story of Cassius Parmensis in Valerius Maximus, Lib. I. c. vii. STEEVENS. The words which Mr. Steevens has quoted, are from Plutarch's Life of Brutus. Shakspeare had also certainly read Plutarch's account of this vision in the Life of Cæsar: " Above all, the ghost that appeared unto Brutus, showed plainly that the goddes were offended with the murther of Cæsar. The vision was thus. Brutus being ready to pass over his army from the citie of Abydos to the other coast lying directly against it, slept every night, (as his manner was,) in his tent; and being yet awake, thinking of his affaires, he thought he heard a noyse at his tentdore, and looking towards the light of the lampe that waxed very dimme, he saw a horrible vision of a man, of a wonderfull greatnes and dreadful looke, which at the first made him marvelously afraid. But when he sawe that it did him no hurt, but stoode by his bedde-side, and said nothing, at length he asked him what he was. The image aunswered him, I am thy ill angel, Brutus, and thou shalt see me by the citie of Philippes. Then Brutus replyed agayne, and said, Well, I shall see thee then. Therewithall the spirit presently vanished from him.” GHOST. Ay, at Philippi. [Ghost vanishes. BRU. Why, I will see thee at Philippi then.Now I have taken heart, thou vanishest: Ill spirit, I would hold more talk with thee.— Boy! Lucius!-Varro! Claudius! Sirs, awake!Claudius! Luc. The strings, my lord, are false. BRU. He thinks, he still is at his instrument.Lucius, awake. Luc. My lord! BRU. Didst thou dream, Lucius, that thou so cry'dst out? Luc. My lord, I do not know that I did cry. BRU. Yes, that thou didst: Didst thou see any thing? Luc. Nothing, my lord. BRU. Sleep again, Lucius.-Sirrah, Claudius! Fellow thou! awake. VAR. My lord. CLAU. My lord. BRU. Why did you so cry out, sirs, in VAR. CLAU. Did we, my lord? BRU. your sleep? Ay; Saw you any thing? VAR. No, my lord, I saw nothing. It is manifest from the words above printed in Italicks, that Shakspeare had this passage in his thoughts as well as the other. MALONE. That lights grew dim, or burned blue, at the approach of spectres, was a belief which our author might have found examples of in almost every book of his age that treats of supernatural appearances. See King Richard, Vol. XIV. p. 506, n. 9. STEEVENS. CLAU Nor I, my lord. BRU. Go, and commend me to my brother Cassius; OCT. Now, Antony, our hopes are answered: You said, the enemy would not come down, But keep the hills and upper regions; It proves not so: their battles are at hand; They mean to warn us' at Philippi here, 1 John: warn us-] To warn is to summon. So, in King "Who is it that hath warn'd us to the walls?” Shakspeare uses the word yet more intelligibly in King Richard III: "And sent to warn them to his royal presence." Throughout the books of the Stationers' Company, the word is always used in this sense; "Receyved of Raufe Newbery for his fyne, that he came not to the hall when he was warned, according to the orders of this house." Again, in a Letter from Lord Cecil to the Earl of Shrewsbury. See Lodge's Illustrations, &c. Vol. III. 206: “I pray yor Le, Answering before we do demand of them. ANT. Tut, I am in their bosoms, and I know Wherefore they do it: they could be content To visit other places; and come down With fearful bravery,2 thinking, by this face, To fasten in our thoughts that they have courage; But 'tis not so. MESS. Enter a Messenger. Prepare you, generals: The enemy comes on in gallant show; Their bloody sign of battle is hung out, And something to be done immediately. ANT. Octavius, lead your battle softly on, OCT. Upon the right hand I, keep thou3 the left. [March. therefore, let him be privatly warned, without any other notice (to his disgrace) to come up" &c. STEEVENS. 2 With fearful bravery,] That is, with a gallant show of courage, carrying with it terror and dismay. Fearful is used here, as in many other places, in an active sense-producing fear-intimidating. MALONE. So, in Churchyard's Siege of Leeth, 1575: "They were a feare unto the enmyes eye." I believe, however, that in the present instance, fearful bravery requires an interpretation that may be found in Sidney's Arcadia, Lib. II: " -her horse, faire and lustie; which she rid so as might show a fearefull boldnes, daring to doe that which she knew that she knew not how to doe." STEEVENS. 3 3 keep thou-] The tenour of the conversation evidently requires us to read-you. RITSÓN. |