such, so, as, that (or this) be all etymologically of the same or nearly the same signification, they would naturally, till custom regulated their use, and assigned a distinct function to each, be interchangeable one with another. Thus in 129 we have “ To such a man That is no fleering tell-tale." Mr. Collier, however, prints, we may presume upon the authority of his MS. corrector, “under such hard conditions."

57. Is like.-This form of expression is not quite, but nearly, gone out. We now commonly say is likely.

58. I am glad that my weak words.--In this first line of the speech of Cassius and the last of the

preceding speech of Brutus we have two hemistichs, having no prosodical connexion. It was never intended that they should form one line, and no torturing can make them do so.

Re-enter Cæsar.-In the original text it is Enter.

60. What hath proceeded.—That is, simply, happened,-a sense which the verb has now lost.

61. I will do so, etc.—Throughout the Play, the ius of Cassius (as also of Lucilius) makes sometimes only one syllable, sometimes two, as here.

62. Being crossed in conference, etc.-If the being and conference be fully enunciated, as they will be in any but the most slovenly reading, we have two supernumerary syllables in this verse, but both so short that neither the mechanism nor the melody of the line is at all impaired by them.

65. Let me have men about me, etc.—Some of the expressions in this speech are evidently suggested by those of North in his translation of Plutarch's Life of Cæsar :-“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. Well 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 resi ed, 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.

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, however, most of the modern editions have“ what hath chanced,” Mr. Collier's one-volume edition included. 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 Anglo-Saxon 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. This use of other appears to have been formerly common. So in Macbeth, i. 7, the First Folio has “ Vaulting ambition, which o'er-leaps itself, And falls on the other,”— which, although rejected by most of the modern editors, is probably the true reading. The other in both passages ought probably to be considered as a substantive, as it still is in other cases, though it is no longer used exactly in this way.

82. The rabblement shouted. The first three Folios have howted, the Fourth houted. The common read. ing 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 indi. cates itself; but, as it is adopted by Mr. Collier, it probably has the support of his MS. annotator. Yet, if it has, he has not thought it worth mentioning in his Notes and Emendations.

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 supernume . rary 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.

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."

95. Marullus and Flavius.In this instance the