when at the University: "I did enact Julius Cæsar," says Polonius; "I was killed i' the Capitol; Brutus killed me;" to which the Prince replies, "It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there." So also, in Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 6: What Made the all-honoured, honest, Roman Brutus, Even Beaumont and Fletcher, in their Tragedy entitled The False One, in defending themselves from the imputation of having taken up the same subject which had been already brought on the stage in the present Play, say, Sure to tell Of Cæsar's amorous heats, and how he fell I' the Capitol, can never be the same To the judicious. In the old copies the only stage direction at the end of this speech is the word "Dies." 318. Ambition's debt is paid.—Its debt to the country and to justice. 324. [Publius, good cheer. - Cheer, Fr. chère, originally meant the countenance, aspect. She cast on me no goodly chere.-Gower, Conf. Am. All fancy-sick she is, and pale of cheer. Mid. N.'s Dr. iii. 2. He ended, and his words their drooping cheer Enlightened. Milton, P. L. vi. 496. Hence "to be of good cheer" is, literally, to wear a pleasant face, to look cheerful.] 324. Nor to no Roman else. Where, as here, the sense cannot be mistaken, the reduplication of the negative is a very natural way of strengthening the expression. It is common in the Saxon. 326. And let no man abide this deed. - Let no man be held responsible for, or be required to stand any consequences that may follow upon any penalty that may have to be paid on account of, this deed. Another form of the verb to abide is to aby; as in A Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2: If thou dost intend Never so little shew of love to her, Thou shalt aby it; — and in the same scene, a little before, "Lest to thy peril thou aby it dear;" and, a little after, "Thou shalt 'by this dear." So in the Old Version of the Psalms, iii. 26, "Thou shalt dear aby this blow." may be questioned whether abide in this sense has any connection with the common word. To aby has been supposed by some to be the same with buy. The original stage direction is Enter Trebonius. It 327. Where's Antony. — In the original text, "Where is Antony." 328. As it were doomsday. - The full expression would be "as if it were doomsday." - The doom of doomsday is the Saxon dóm, judgment, a deriva tive of déman (whence our deem), to judge. The Judges in the Isle of Man and in Jersey are called Deemsters. In Scotland formerly the Dempster of Court was the legal name for the common hangman; but the word also designated a species of judge. The Dempsters of Caraldstone in Forfarshire were so called as being hereditary judges to the great Abbey of Aberbrothock. Lord Hailes, under the year 1370, refers to an entry in the Chartulary recording that one of them had become bound to the Abbot and Abbey that he and his heirs should furnish a person to administer justice in their courts at an annual salary of twenty shillings sterling (facient ipsis deserviri de officio judicis, etc.).— Annals, ii. 336 [edit. of 1819]. 330. Why, he that cuts off, etc. The modern editors, generally, give this speech to Cassius; but it is assigned to Casca in all the old copies. [Hudson and White give it to Casca. The former remarks that it is strictly in keeping with what Casca says in 127.] 332. Stoop, then, and wash. So in Coriolanus, i. 10, we have "Wash my fierce hand in his heart." In both passages wash, which is a Saxon word (preserved also in the German waschen), is used in what is probably its primitive sense of immersing in or covering with liquid. Thus we say to wash with gold or silver. So in Antony and Cleopatra, v. 1, Octavius, on being told of the death of Antony, exclaims, "It is a tidings To wash the eyes of kings." The First Folio, and unborn,” palpably a 332. In states unborn. that only, has "In state typographical error, and as such now given up by everybody, but a reading which Malone, in his abject subservience to the earliest text, actually retained, or restored, interpreting it as meaning "in theatric pomp as yet undisplayed." 333. That now on Pompey's basis lies along.At the base of Pompey's statue, as in 425. — In the First Folio it is "lye along;" in the Second, "lyes." ["Lie along" for lie at full length, be prostrate, occurs in Judges vii. 13. For another instance in Shakespeare see Coriol. v. 6: "When he lies along," etc.] 334. The men that gave their country liberty.This is the reading of all the old copies, which Mr. Knight has restored, after their had been turned into our by the last century editors (Malone included), not only unnecessarily and unwarrantably, but also without notice. [Collier, Dyce, Hudson, and White have their.] 336. With the most boldest. - In the old version of the Psalms we are familiar with the form the most Highest; and even in the authorized translation of the Bible we have, in Acts xxvi. 5, "the most straitest sect of our religion." Nor is there anything intrinsically absurd in such a mode of expression. If we are not satisfied to consider it as merely an intensified superlative, we may say that the most boldest should mean those who are boldest among the boldest. So again in 425, "This was the most unkindest cut of all." In most cases, however, the double superlative must be regarded as intended merely to express the extreme degree more emphatically. Double comparatives are very common in Shakespeare. 338. Say, I love Brutus. - Mr. Knight has, apparently by a typographical error, "I lov'd." 338. May safely come to him, and be resolved.That is, have his perplexity or uncertainty removed. We might still say, have his doubts resolved. But we have lost the more terse form of expression, by which the doubt was formerly identified with the doubter. So again, in 425, Cæsar's blood is described by Antony as rushing out of doors, to be resolved If Brutus so unkindly knocked or no; and in 505 Brutus, referring to Cassius, asks of Lucilius, "How he received you, let me be resolved." [See heading of chaps. x. and xii. of Mark's Gospel.] Mr. Collier's MS. annotator appends the stage direc tion "Kneeling" to the first line of this speech, and "Rising" to the last. 338. [Thorough the hazards. - Thorough (or thorow, as it is sometimes spelt) and through are the same word; as also are thoroughly and throughly. Shakespeare used both forms, as the following examples will show: Over hill, over dale, Thorough bush, thorough briar, Over park, over pale, Thorough flood, thorough fire. Mid. N.'s Dream, ii. 1. How he glisters Thorough my rust! - Winter's Tale, iii. 2. See also 709. Examples of through need not be given. See 425, 458, etc. I am informed throughly of the case. Mer. of Ven., iv. I. You scarce can right me throughly, etc. Winter's Tale, ii. I. I'll be revenged Most throughly for my father. — Hamlet, iv. 5. I am throughly weary. Cymbeline, iii. 6. Nay, these are almost thoroughly persuaded. Coriolanus, i. 1. Compare also Bacon, Essay 5th-"that saileth, in the fraile barke of the flesh, thorow the waves of the world." Also, Essay 57th—“to looke backe upon anger, when the fitt is throughly over." In Numbers xxviii. 29, we have thorowout for throughout, in the edition of 1611. And in the Mer. of Ven. ii. 7, we have yet another of these old forms: The Hyrcanian deserts and the vasty wilds |