shall remedy this," Warwick replies "Roam thither, then." This little fact is not without its significance in reference to the claim of that Play to be laid at Shakespeare's door. [Staunton quotes Prime, Commentary on Galatians, p. 122, 1587: "Rome is too narrow a Room for the church of God."]

56. But one only man. In the original text "but one onely man," probably indicating that the pronunciation of the numeral and of the first syllable of the adverb was the same.

57. That you do love me, I am nothing jealous.— I am nowise jealous, doubtful, suspicious, in regard to its being the fact that you love me. This seems to be the grammatical resolution of a construction which, like many similar ones familiar to the freer spirit of the language two centuries ago, would now scarcely be ventured upon.

57. I have some aim. —Aim, in old French eyme, esme, and estme, is the same word with esteem (from the Latin aestimatio and aestimare), and should therefore signify properly a judgment or conjecture of the mind, which is very nearly its meaning here. We might now say, in the same sense, I have some rotion. In modern English the word has acquired the additional meaning of an intention to hit, or catch, or in some other way attain, that to which the view is directed. It does not seem impossible that the French name for the loadstone, aimant, may be from the same root, although it has usually been considered to be a corruption of adamant. A ship's reckonings are called in French estimes, which is undoubtedly the same word with our aims. In the French of the early part of the sixteenth century we find esme and esmé (or esmez, as it was commonly written) confounded with the totally different aimer,

to love. Rabelais, for instance, writes bien aymez for bien esmez, well disposed. See Duchat's Note on liv. i., ch. 5.

57. For this present. - So in the Absolution, "that those things may please him which we do at this present." This expression, formerly in universal use and good repute, now remains only a musty law phrase, never admitted into ordinary composition except for ludicrous effect.

This

57. So with love I might entreat you. form of expression is still preserved both in our own language and in German. Thus (John i. 25), "Warum taufest du denn, so du nicht Christus bist?" or, "So Gott will" (If God please). The conjunction thus used is commonly said to be equivalent to if. But so, according to Horne Tooke (D. of P. 147), is merely the Maso-Gothic demonstrative pronoun, and signifies properly this or that. In German, though commonly, as with ourselves, only an adverb or conjunction, it may still be also used pronominally; as Das Buch, so ihr mir gegeben habt (the book which you gave me). Upon this theory, all that so will perform in such a passage as the present will be to mark and separate the clause which it heads by an emphatic introductory compendium - That (or this), namely, that with love I might, etc.; and the fact of the statement in the clause being a supposition, or assumption, will be left to be inferred. The First Folio points, blunderingly, "I would not so (with love I might intreat you)."

57. Chew upon this. We have lost the Saxon word in this application; but we retain the metaphor, only translating chew into the Latin equivalent, ruminate.

57. Brutus had rather be .. than to repute. [See on had as lief, 54.] The to before repute is, apparently, to be defended, if at all, upon the ground that had rather is equivalent in import to would prefer, and that, although it is only an auxiliary before be a villager, it is to be taken as a common verb before to repute. It is true that, as we have seen (1), the to was in a certain stage of the language sometimes inserted, sometimes omitted, both after auxiliaries and after other verbs; but that was hardly the style of Shakespeare's age. We certainly could not now say "I had rather to repute;" and I do not suppose that any one would have directly so written or spoken then. The irregularity is softened or disguised in the passage before us by the intervening words. [See page 381.]

as, or those.

This is

as where

that.

So

57. Under these hard conditions as. the reading in all the old copies; these we should now say such· in 129 we have “ To such a man That is no fleering tell-tale." Although those as, or that. as, is common, however, these - as is certainly at any rate unusual. I should suspect the true reading to be" under those hard conditions." See 44.

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 connection. [See 54, 55.]

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 line, but both so short that neither the mechanism nor the melody of the verse 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. [The prefix a- or an- is essentially identical with on-. An-, with its abbreviation a-, is said to characterize the dialects of the southern counties of England, while on- and o- mark the northern dialects. In many instances the two forms remain side by side, as in aboard and on board, afire and on fire, aground and on ground (2 Henry IV. iv. 4), a high (Richard III. iv. 4) and on high, afoot and on foot, asleep and on sleep

(Acts xiii. 36), abed and on bed (Chaucer, C. T. 6509), alive and on live (C. T. 5587). Compare also Saxon forms like on-weg and a-weg, away. In ado, the a- is equivalent to to. So in a-work (2 Henry IV. iv. 3; 2 Chron. ii. 18). See Bible

Word-Book, Wedgwood, Nares, etc.]

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. [As we have in Saxon geond illuc, and no yon, it is not likely that yond has gained a d, but rather that yon has lost one. It may be that yon is an old form which has come down to us orally, though not found in literature. The root is the same as in the German jener, Gothic jains.]

=

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. [Would he were fatter. - White prints 'would, as he does again in 218, and as some other editors have done in these and similar passages. But even if the would is equivalent to I would, there is no reason for the apostrophe, which is used only when a part of the word has been cut off, as in 't is for it is.]

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 magnifi cent passage (P. L. ii. 964), –