And dip their napkins & in his sacred blood;
Yea, beg a hair of him for memory,
And, dying, mention it within their wills,
Bequeathing it, as a rich legacy,

Unto their issue.

4 CIT. We'll hear the will: Read it, Mark An

tony.

CIT. The will, the will; we will hear Cæsar's will. ANT. Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it;

It is not meet you know how Cæsar lov'd you.
You are not wood, you are not stones, but men ;
And, being men, hearing the will of Cæsar,
It will inflame you, it will make you mad:
'Tis good you know not that you are his heirs;
For if you should, O, what would come of it!
4 CIT. Read the will; we will hear it, Antony;
You shall read us the will; Cæsar's will.

ANT. Will you be patient? Will you stay a while ?

I have o'ershot myself, to tell you of it.
I fear, I wrong the honourable men,

Whose daggers have stabb'd Cæsar: I do fear it. 4 CIT. They were traitors: Honourable men! CIT. The will! the testament!

2 CIT. They were villains, murderers: The will! read the will!

ANT. You will compel me then to read the will? Then make a ring about the corpse of Cæsar, And let me show you him that made the will. Shall I descend? And will you give me leave? CIT. Come down.

8

their NAPKINS] i. e. their handkerchiefs. Napery was the ancient term for all kinds of linen. STEEVENS.

Napkin is the Northern term for handkerchief, and is used in this sense at this day in Scotland. Our author frequently uses the word. See vol. iv. p. 481. MALONE.

2 CIT. Descend.

[He comes down from the Pulpit.

3 CIT. You shall have leave.

4 CIT. A ring; stand round.

1 CIT. Stand from the hearse, stand from the body.

2 CIT. Room for Antony;-most noble Antony. ANT. Nay, press not so upon me; stand far off. CIT. Stand back! room! bear back!

ANT. If you have tears, prepare to shed them

now.

You all do know this mantle: I remember
The first time ever Cæsar put it on;

"Twas on a summer's evening, in his tent;

That day he overcame the Nervii :

Look! in this place, ran Cassius' dagger through:
See, what a rent the envious Casca made:
Through this, the well-beloved Brutus stabb'd;
And, as he pluck'd his cursed steel away,
Mark how the blood of Cæsar follow'd it;
As rushing out of doors, to be resolv'd
If Brutus so unkindly knock'd, or no;
For Brutus, as you know, was Cæsar's angel9:
Judge, O you gods, how dearly Cæsar lov'd him!
This was the most unkindest cut of all:

For when the noble Cæsar saw him stab,
Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms,
Quite vanquish'd him: then burst his mighty heart;
And, in his mantle muffling up his face,
Even at the base of Pompey's statua1,

9 For Brutus, as you know, was CESAR'S ANGEL:] This title of endearment is more than once introduced in Sidney's Arcadia. STEEVENS.

Does it not mean, that Cæsar put his trust in him as he would in his guardian angel? BoswELL.

1 Even at the base of Pompey's STATUA.] [Old copy-statue.] It is not our author's practice to make the adverb even, a dissyllable. If it be considered as a monosyllable, the measure is defective. I suspect therefore he wrote-at Pompey's statua. The

Which all the while ran blood", great Cæsar fell.
O, what a fall was there, my countrymen !
Then I, and you, and all of us fell down,
Whilst bloody treason flourish'd3 over us.
O, now you weep; and, I perceive, you feel
The dint of pity: these are gracious drops.
Kind souls, what, weep you, when you but behold
Our Cæsar's vesture wounded? Look you here,
Here is himself, marr'd, as you see, with traitors.

word was not yet completely denizened in his time. Beaumont, in his Masque, writes it statua, and its plural statuaes.

Statua was used as late as 1646, by John Hall, in his Horæ Vacivæ, or Essays, &c. "A too nice refusal of fame-some time is more ambitious than the acceptance; as in that of Cato; he had rather men should aske why his statua was not there than why it was." Yet, it must be acknowledged, that statue is used more than once in this play, as a dissyllable. MALONE.

See vol. iv. p. 119.

I could bring a multitude of instances in which statua is used for statue. Thus, in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, edit. 1632, 540:"and Callistratus by the helpe of Dædalus about Cupid's statua, made" &c. Again, 574: " - his statua was to be seene in the temple of Venus Elusina."

STEEVENS.

2 Which all the while ran blood,] The image seems to be, that the blood of Cæsar flew upon the statue, and trickled down it. JOHNSON. Shakspeare took these words from Sir Thomas North's translalation of Plutarch: " against the very base whereon Pompey's image stood, which ran all a gore of blood, till he was slain."

3

treason FLOURISH'D-] Rome and Juliet:

66

STEEVENS.

i. e. flourished the sword. So, in

And flourishes his blade in spite of me." STEEVENS. 4 The DINT of pity:] Is the impression of pity.

The word is in common use among our ancient writers. So, in Preston's Cambyses :

"Your grace therein may hap receive, with other for your parte,

"The dent of death," &c.

Again, ibid. :

"He shall dye by dent of sword, or else by choking rope." STEEVENS.

5 Here is himself, MARR'D, as you see, with traitors.] To mar seems to have anciently signified to lacerate. So, in Solyman

1 CIT. O piteous spectacle!

2 CIT. O noble Cæsar!

3 CIT. O woful day!

4 CIT. O traitors, villains!

1 Cır. O most bloody sight!

2 CIT. We will be revenged: revenge; about,seek,—burn,—fire,-kill,-slay!-let not a traitor

live.

ANT. Stay, countrymen.

1 CIT. Peace there :-Hear the noble Antony. 2 CIT. We'll hear him, we'll follow him, we'll die with him.

ANT. Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up

To such a sudden flood of mutiny.

They, that have done this deed, are honourable;
What private griefs they have, alas, I know not,
That made them do it; they are wise and honour-
able,

And will, no doubt, with reasons answer you.
I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts;
I am no orator, as Brutus is:

But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man,
That love my friend; and that they know full well
That gave me publick leave to speak of him.
For I have neither writ, nor words, nor worth,

and Perseda, a tragedy, 1599, Basilisco feeling the end of his dagger, says:

"This point will mar her skin."

To mar sometimes signified to deface, as in Othello : "Nor mar that whiter skin of hers than snow: and sometimes to destroy, as in Timon of Athens : "And mar men's spurring."

Ancient alliteration always produces mar as the opposite of make. STEEvens.

6 For I have neither WRIT,] I have no penned or premeditated oration. JOHNSON.

So, in King Henry VI. Part II. :

Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech,
To stir men's blood: I only speak right on;

I tell you that, which you yourselves do know ; Show you sweet Cæsar's wounds, poor, poor dumb mouths,

And bid them speak for me: But were I Brutus,
And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony
Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue
In every wound of Cæsar, that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.
CIT. We'll mutiny.

1 CIT. We'll burn the house of Brutus.

3 CIT. Away then, come, seek the conspirators.

"Now, my good lord, let's see the devil's writ." i. e. writing. Again, in Hamlet: “ the law of writ and the liberty."-The editor of the second folio, who altered whatever he did not understand, substituted wit for writ. Wit in our author's time had not its present signification, but meant understanding. Would Shakspeare make Antony declare himself void of common intelligence? MALONE.

The first folio (and, I believe, through a mistake of the press,) has-writ, which in the second folio was properly changed into -wit. Dr. Johnson, however, supposes that by writ was meant a "penned and premeditated oration."

But the artful speaker, on this sudden call for his exertions, was surely designed, with affected modesty, to represent himself as one who had neither wit, (i. e. strength of understanding) persuasive language, weight of character, graceful action, harmony of voice, &c. (the usual requisites of an orator) to influence the minds of the people. Was it necessary, therefore, that, on an occasion so precipitate, he should have urged that he had brought no written speech in his pocket? since every person who heard him must have been aware that the interval between the death of Cæsar, and the time present, would have been inadequate to such a composition, which indeed could not have been produced at all, unless, like the indictment of Lord Hastings in King Richard III. it had been got ready through a premonition of the event that would require it.

What is styled the devil's writ in King Henry VI. Part II. is the deposition of the dæmon, written down before witnesses on the stage. I therefore continue to read with the second folio, being unambitious of reviving the blunders of the first. STEEVENS.