329. As it were doomsday.—Assuming the proper meaning of as to be what was explained in the note on 44, as it were will mean literally no more than that it were, and there will be no express intimation of the clause being suppositive or conditional; that will be left to be merely inferred from the obvious requirements of the context, as many things in language continually are where no doubt can exist. The full expression would be “as if it were doomsday.”—The doom of doomsday is no doubt the same word with deem, and means essentially only thought or judging, whether favourable or unfavourable. The Judges in the Isle of Man and in Jersey are called Deemsters, meaning, apparently, only pronouncers of judgment upon the cases brought before them. On the other hand, however, in Scotland formerly the Dempster of Court was the legal name for the common hangman. This might suggest a possible connexion between deem or doom and the Latin damno (or demno, as in condemno). We continue to use deem indifferently; but another word originally of the same general signification, censure, has within the last two centuries lost its old sense, and has come to be restricted to that of pronouncing an unfavourable judgment. The other sense, however, is still retained in census, recension, and censor, with its derivative censorship (as it is in the French forms for the two last-mentioned, censeur and censure)

331. 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. We may suspect a misprint,-for not only is it more in the manner of Cassius, but it does not seem to be so suitable

to the comparatively subordinate position of Casca at the present moment;-still, considerations of this kind are not decisive enough to warrant us in departing from the only text which claims to be of authority. No alteration is made by Mr. Collier's MS. corrector. But it certainly would be nothing more than what we should expect that some confusion should have taken place in the printing of this play between Cassius and Casca, as well as between Lucilius and Lucius.

331. Stoop, then, and wash.—So in Coriolanus, i. 10, we have "Wash my fierce hand in his heart." In both passages wash, which is an 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."

333. In states unborn.-The First Folio, and that only, has "In state unborn,"-palpably a 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."

334. That now on Pompey's basis lies along.-At the base of Pompey's statue, as in 425.-In the copy of the First Folio before me it is "lye along;" but I do not find such a variation anywhere noticed,-not even in Jennens's collation. Lyes is the word in the Second Folio.

335. 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.

337. 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. The most boldest should mean those who are boldest among the boldest. So again in 425; “ This was the most unkindest cut of all."

339. Say, I love Brutus.-Mr. Knight has, apparently by a typographical error, “I lov'd.”

339. 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.”Mr. Collier's MS. annotator appends the stage direction "Kneeling” to the first line of this speech, and

Rising” to the last.

340. Tell him, so please him come unto this place.For the meaning of so here, see the note on “So with love I might entreat you,” in 57. There is an ellipsis

of the usual nominative (it) before the impersonal verb (please); and the infinitive come also wants the customary prefix to. “So please him come” is equivalent to If it please (or may please) him to come.

342. I know that we shall have him well to friend.So in Cymbeline, i. 5, Iachimo says, “Had I admittance and opportunity to friend." To friend is equivalent to for friend. The German form of to (zu) is used in a somewhat similar manner: Das werde mich zu eurem Freunde machen (That will make me your friend).

343. Falls shrewdly to the purpose. --The purpose is the intention; to the purpose is according to the intention, as away from the purpose, or beside the purpose, is without any such coincidence or conformity; and to fall shrewdly to the purpose may be explained as being to fall upon that which it is sought to hit with mischievous sharpness and felicity of aim. Vid. 186.

344. The original heading is “ Enter Antony.”

345. O mighty Cæsar! dost thou lie so low ?–Mr. Collier states, in his Notes and Emendations, p. 400, that a stage direction of his MS. annotator requires Antony, on his entrance with this line, to kneel over the body, and to rise when he comes to “I know not, gentlemen, what you intend,” etc.

345. Who else is rank ?—Is of too luxuriant growth, too fast-spreading power in the commonwealth.

345. As Cæsar's death's hour.—This is the reading of all the old copies. Mr. Collier prints“ death hour.”

345. Nor no instrument.—Here the double negative, while it occasions no ambiguity, is palpably much

more forcible than either and no or nor any would have been.

345. Of half that worth as.--Vid. 44.

345. I do beseech ye, if you bear me hard.—See note on Bear me hard in 105.—The present line affords a remarkable illustration of how completely the old declension of the personal pronoun of the second person has become obliterated in our modern English. In Anglo-Saxon ye (ge) is always nominative, and you (eów) accusative; being the very reverse of what we have here.

345. Live a thousand years.--Suppose I live; If I live; Should I live. But, although the suppression of the conditional conjunction is common and legitimate enough, that of the pronoun, or nominative to the verb, is hardly so defensible.

345. So apt to die.—Apt is properly fit, or suited, generally, as here. So formerly they said to apt in the sense both of to adapt and of to agree. I apprehend, however, that such an expression as apt to die (for ready or prepared to die) would have been felt in any stage of the language to involve an unusual extension of the meaning of the word, sounding about as strange as aptus ad moriendum would do in Latin. We now, at all events, commonly understand the kind of suitableness or readiness implied in apt as being only that which consists in inclination, or addictedness, or mere liability. Indeed, we now commonly use disposed or inclined in cases in which apt was the customary word in the English of the last century; as in Smollett's Count Fathom, Vol. II. ch. 27, “I am apt to believe it is the voice of heaven.” By the substantive aptitude, again, we mostly understand an active fitness. The