687. The posture of your blows are yet unknown.— This is the reading of all the old copies. The grammatical irregularity is still common. Mr. Collier prints "is yet," which is perhaps one of the corrections of his MS. annotator. One would be inclined rather to suspect the word posture. It seems a strange word for what it is evidently intended to express.

690. Whilst damned Casca.-This is the reading of all the Folios. Mr. Collier has While.

690. Struck Cæsar on the neck.-O you flatterers! -The word in the old text is strook (as in 348). There is the common prosodical irregularity of a superfluous short syllable.

691. Flatterers !-Now, Brutus, thank yourselfThe prosodical imperfection of this line consists in the want of the first syllable. It is a hemistich extending to four feet and a half.

692. The proof of it.-That is, the proof of our arguing. And by the proof must here be meant the arbitrement of the sword to which it is the prologue or prelude. It is by that that they are to prove what they have been arguing or asserting.

692. Look; I draw a sword, etc.-It is perhaps as well to regard the Look as a hemistich (of half a foot); but in the original edition it is printed in the same line with what follows.

692. Never till Cæsar's three and thirty wounds.— Theobald changed this to "three and twenty,"-" from the joint authorities," as he says, " of Appian, Plutarch, and Suetonius." And he may be right in believing that the error was not Shakespeare's. The "thirty," however, escapes the condemnation of Mr. Collier's MS. annotator.

692. Have added slaughter to the sword of traitors. -This is not very satisfactory; but it is better, upon the whole, than the amendment adopted by Mr. Collier on the authority of his MS. annotator-"Have added slaughter to the word of traitor ;"—which would seem to be an admission on the part of Octavius (impossible in the circumstances) that Brutus and Cassius were as yet free from actual treasonable slaughter, and traitors only in word or name.

693. Cæsar, thou canst not die by traitors' hands.— In the standard Variorum edition, which is followed by many modern reprints, this line is strangely given as "Cæsar, thou canst not die by traitors." It is right in all Mr. Knight's and Mr. Collier's editions.

695. O, if thou wert the noblest of thy strain.— Strain, or strene, is stock or race. The word is used several times by Shakespeare in this sense, and not only by Chaucer and Spenser, but even by Dryden, Waller, and Prior. The radical meaning seems to be anything stretched out or extended, hence a series either of progenitors, or of words or musical notes or sentiments.

695. Thou could'st not die more honorable.-This is not Shakespeare's usual form of expression, and we may be allowed to suspect that he actually wrote honorably (or honourablie).

698. The original Stage Direction is, "Exit Octavius, Antony, and Army."

700. Ho! Lucilius, etc.-This is given as one verse in the original, and nothing is gained by printing the Ho! in another line by itself, as the modern editors do. The verse is complete except that it wants the first syllable,―a natural peculiarity of an abrupt com

mencement or rejoinder. So in 691.—In the original edition this speech is followed by the stage direction, "Lucillius and Messala stand forth ;" and there is no other after 701.

704. As this very day.-We are still familiar with this form of expression, at least in speaking. We may understand it to mean As is, or as falls, this very day; or rather, perhaps, as if, or as it were, this very day.

704. On our former ensign.—Former is altered to forward, it seems, by Mr. Collier's MS. annotator; and the correction ought probably to be accepted. Former would hardly be the natural word unless it were intended to be implied that there were only two ensigns or standards.

704. Who to Philippi here consorted us.-Shakespeare's usual syntax is to consort with; but he has consort as an active verb in other passages as well as here.

704. This morning are they fled away, and gone.Vid. 374.

704. As we were sickly prey.—As if we were.--Vid. 57.

706. To meet all perils.-So in the First Folio. The other Folios have peril.

708. Lovers in peace.--Vid. 260.

708. But since the affairs of men rest still uncertain.-"Rests still incertaine" is the reading in the original edition.

708. Let's reason with the worst that may befall.--The abbreviation let's had not formerly the vulgar or slovenly air which is conceived to unfit it now for dignified composition. We have had it twice in

T

Brutus's impressive address, 187. Shakespeare, however, does not frequently resort to it,-rather, one would say, avoids it.--To befall as a neuter or intransitive verb is nearly gone out both in prose and verse; as is also to fall in the same sense, as used by Brutus in the next speech.

709. Even by the rule, etc.-The pointing of this passage in the early editions is amusing:

"Even by the rule of that Philosophy,

By which I did blame Cato, for the death

Which he did give himselfe, I know not how:
But I do find it," etc.

The construction plainly is, I know not how it is, but I do find it, by the rule of that philosophy, etc., cowardly and vile. The common pointing of the modern editors, which completely separates "I know not how," etc. from what precedes, leaves the "by the rule" without connexion or meaning. It is impossible to suppose that Brutus can mean "I am determined to do by the rule of that philosophy," etc.

709. The term of life.-That is, the termination, the end, of life. The common reading is "the time of life," which is simply nonsense; term is the emendation of Mr. Collier's MS. annotator, and is produced by Mr. Collier as new; but the same emendation had also been made conjecturally by Capel, though it failed to obtain the acquiescence of subsequent editors. For to prevent see 147 and 161. "To prevent the term of life,” says Mr. Collier (Notes and Emendations, 403), means, as Malone states, to anticipate the end of life; but still he strangely persevered in printing time for term." Did not Mr. Collier himself do the same thing?

709. To stay the providence of those high powers.To stay is here to await, not, as the word more commonly means, to hinder or delay.—"Some high powers" is the common reading; those is the correction of Mr. Collier's MS. annotator, and might almost have been assumed on conjecture to be the true word.

711. No, Cassius, no: etc.-There has been some controversy about the reasoning of Brutus in this dialogue. Both Steevens and Malone conceive that there is an inconsistency between what he here says and his previous declaration of his determination not to follow the example of Cato. But how did Cato act? He slew himself that he might not witness and outlive the fall of Utica. This was, merely "for fear of what might fall," to anticipate the end of life. It did not follow that it would be wrong, in the opinion of Brutus, to commit suicide in order to escape any certain and otherwise inevitable calamity or degradation, such as being led in triumph through the streets of Rome by Octavius and Antony.

It is proper to remark, however, that Plutarch, upon whose narrative the conversation is founded, makes Brutus confess to a change of opinion. Here is the passage, in the life of Brutus, as translated by Sir Thomas North:-"Then Cassius began to speak first, and said: The gods grant us, O Brutus, that this day win the field, and ever after to live all the rest of our life quietly, one with another. But, sith the gods have so ordained it, that the greatest and chiefest [things] amongst men are most uncertain, and that, if the battle fall out otherwise to day than we wish or look for, we shall hardly meet again, what art thou then determined to do ? to fly ? or die? Brutus an

we may