-"When Cæsar's friends complained unto him of Antonius and Dolabella, that they pretended [i. e. intended] some mischief towards him, he answered; As for those fat men and smooth-combed heads (quoth he), I never reckon of them; but these pale-visaged and carrion-lean people, I fear them most; meaning Brutus and Cassius."

65. Such as sleep o' nights.-That is, on nights; as o'clock is on clock, and also as aboard is on board, aside on side, aloft on loft, alive in life, etc. In the older stages of the language the meanings that we now discriminate by on and in are confused, and are both expressed by an, on, un, in, or in composition by the contractions a or o. The form here in the original text is a-nights.

65. Yond Cassius.-Though yond is no longer in use, we still have both yon and yonder. The d is probably no proper part of the word, but has been added to strengthen the sound, as in the word sound itself (from the French son), and in many other cases. See, upon the origin of Yonder, Dr Latham's Eng. Lang. 375.

66. IVell given.-Although we no longer say absolutely well or ill given (for well or ill disposed), we still say given to study, given to drinking, etc.

67. Yet, if my name.-A poetic idiom for "Yet, if I, bearing the name I do." In the case of Cæsar the name was even more than the representative and most precise expression of the person; it was that in which his power chiefly resided, his renown. Every reader of Milton will remember the magnificent passage (P. L. ii. 964) :

"Behold the throne

Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread

Wide on the wasteful deep; with him enthroned

Sat sable-vested Night, eldest of things,

The consort of his reign; and by them stood

Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name

Of Demogorgon."

67. Liable to fear.-The word liable has been somewhat restricted in its application since Shakespeare's time.

We should scarcely now speak of a person as liable to fear. And see 249 for another application of it still farther away from our present usage.

67. Such men as he, etc.-In this and the following line we have no fewer than three archaisms, words or forms which would not and could not be used by a writer of the present day :-be (for are), at heart's ease (for in ease of mind), whiles (for while). It would be difficult to show that the language has not in each of these instances lost something which it would have been the better for retaining. But it seems to be a law of every language which has become thoroughly subdued under the dominion of grammar, that perfectly synonymous terms cannot live in it. If varied forms are not saved by having distinct senses or functions assigned to each, they are thrown off as superfluities and encumbrances. One is selected for use, and the others are reprobated, or left to perish from mere neglect. The logic of this no doubt is, that verbal expression will only be a correct representation of thought if there should never be any the slightest variation of the one without a corresponding variation of the other. But the principle is not necessarily inconsistent with the existence of various forms which should be recognized as differing in no other respect whatever except only in vocal character; and the language would be at least musically richer with more of this kind of variety. It is what it regards as the irregularity or lawlessness, however, of such logically unnecessary variation that the grammatical spirit hates. It would be argued that with two or more words of precisely the same signification we should have really something like a confusion of two or more languages.

67. For the present stage direction at the end of this speech, we have in the original text "Sennit. Exeunt Cæsar and his Traine."

69. What hath chanced to-day. So in 71; where, also,

most of the modern editions have "what hath chanced," Mr Collier's one-volume edition included, although had is the word in all the Folios. Instead of to chance in this sense we now usually say to happen. Chance is a French word (from the cas- of the Latin casus strengthened by the common expedient of inserting an n); happen, hap, and also happy, appear to be derivatives from a Welsh word, hap or hab, luck, fortune. The Original English verb was befeallan, from which also we have still. to befall.

78. Ay, marry, was't.—This term of asseveration, marry, which Johnson seems to speak of as still in common use in his day, is found in Chaucer in the form Mary, and appears to be merely a mode of swearing by the Holy Virgin.

78. Every time gentler than other. I do not know that this use of other will be admitted to be of the same nature with that which we have in Macbeth, i. 7, where the reading of the First Folio is "Vaulting ambition, which o'er-leaps itself, And falls on the other." The other in both passages ought perhaps to be considered as a substantive, as it still is in other cases, though it is no longer used exactly in this way. So in Meas. for Meas. iv. 4;—“ Every letter he hath writ hath disvouched other."

82. The rabblement shouted.-The first three Folios have howted, the Fourth houted. The common reading is hooted. But this is entirely inconsistent with the context. The people applauded when Cæsar refused the crown, and only hissed or hooted when they thought he was about to accept it. Shouted was substituted on conjecture by Hanmer, and almost indicates itself; but it has also the support of Mr Collier's MS. annotator.

82. Their chopped hands. In the old copies chopt. Mr Collier, however, has chapped.

82. For he swooned.-Swoonded is the word in all the Folios.

83. Did Cæsar swoon?-Here swound is the word in all the Folios.

85. 'Tis very like: he hath the falling sickness.-Like is likely, or probable, as in 57. I am surprised to find Mr Collier adhering to the blundering punctuation of the early copies, ""Tis very like he hath," etc. Cæsar's infirmity was notorious; it is mentioned both by Plutarch

and Suetonius.

86. And honest Casca, etc.-The slight interruption to the flow of this line occasioned by the supernumerary syllable in Casca adds greatly to the effect of the emphatic we that follows. It is like the swell of the wave before it breaks.

87. If the tag-rag people.-In Coriolanus, iii. 1, we have "Will you hence, before the tag return." This," says Nares, "is, perhaps, the only instance of tag without his companions rag and bobtail, or at least one of them."

87. No true man.-No honest man, as we should now say. Jurymen, as Malone remarks, are still styled "good men and true."

89. He plucked me ope his doublet.-Though we still use to ope in poetry, ope as an adjective is now obsolete. As for the me in such a phrase as the present, it may be considered as being in the same predicament with the my in My Lord, or the mon in the French Monsieur. That is to say, it has no proper pronominal significancy, but merely serves (in so far as it has any effect) to enliven or otherwise grace the expression. How completely the pronoun is forgotten,—or we may say, quiescent-in such a case as that of Monsieur is shown by the common phrase "Mon cher monsieur." Vid. 205 and 471.

The best commentary on the use of the pronoun that we have here is the dialogue between Petrucio and his servant Grumio, in Tam. of Shrew, i. 2:—“ Pet. Villain, I say, knock me here soundly. Gru. Knock you here, sir? Why, sir, what am I, sir, that I should knock you

I

and

here, sir? Pet. Villain, I say, knock me at this gate, rap me well, or I'll knock your knave's pate. Gru. My master is grown quarrelsome: I should knock you first, And then I know after who comes by the worst. . . . Hortensio. How now, what's the matter? ... Gru. Look you, sir, he bid me knock him, and rap him soundly, sir: Well, was it fit for a servant to use his master so? . . . Pet. A senseless villain!-Good Hortensio, I bade the rascal knock upon your gate, And could not get him for my heart to do it. Gru. Knock at the gate ?-O heavens! Spake you not these words plain,Sirrah, knock me here, Rap me here, knock me well, and knock me soundly?' And come you now with-knocking at the gate?"

89. A man of any occupation.-This is explained by Johnson as meaning "a mechanic, one of the plebeians to whom he offered his throat." But it looks as if it had more in it than that. In the Folios it is "and I had been a man;" and again in 95 "and I tell you." So also Bacon writes (Essay 23rd) :-" Certainly it is the nature of extreme self-lovers, as they will set an house on fire, and it were but to roast their eggs;" and (Essay 40th) :—' "For time is to be honoured and respected, and it were but for her daughters, Confidence and Reputation." 95. Marullus and Flavius.-In this instance the Marullus is Murrellus in the First Folio (instead of Murellus, as elsewhere).

97. I am promised forth.-An old phrase for I have an engagement.

102. He was quick mettle.—This is the reading of all the old copies. Mr Collier, however, in his regulated text, has mettled, but not, it would appear, on the authority of his MS. corrector. I have allowed the distinction made by the modern editors between metal and mettle to stand throughout the Play, although there can be little doubt that the latter form is merely a corruption of the former, and that the supposed two words are the same.