Re-enter ANTONY.

BRU. But here comes Antony.-Welcome, Mark Antony.

ANT. O mighty Cæsar! Dost thou lie so low? Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, Shrunk to this little measure ?-Fare thee well.I know not, gentlemen, what you intend, Who else must be let blood, who else is rank1: If I myself, there is no hour so fit

As Cæsar's death's hour; nor no instrument

Of half that worth, as those your swords, made rich With the most noble blood of all this world.

I do beseech ye, if you bear me hard,

Now, whilst your purpled hands do reek and smoke,
Fulfil your pleasure. Live a thousand years,
I shall not find myself so apt to die:

No place will please me so, no mean of death,
As here by Cæsar, and by you cut off,
The choice and master spirits of this age.
BRU. O Antony! beg not your death of us.

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who else is rank :] Who else may be supposed to have overtopped his equals, and grown too high for the publick safety. JOHNSON.

I rather believe the meaning is, who else is too replete with blood? In our author's Venus and Adonis it is used to express exuberance:

"Rain added to a river that is rank,

"Perforce will force it overflow the bank."

So, in King John, Act V. Sc. IV. :

"And like a bated and retired flood

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Leaving our rankness and irregular course." MALONE. In The Tempest we have

66

whom to trash

"For overtopping."

I conceive Dr. Johnson's explanation therefore to be the true The epithet rank is employed, on a similar occasion in King Henry VIII.:

one.

"Ha! what, so rank?"

and without allusion to a plethora. STEEVENS.

Though now we must appear bloody and cruel,
As, by our hands, and this our present act,
You see we do; yet see you but our hands,
And this the bleeding business they have done :
Our hearts you see not, they are pitiful;
And pity to the general wrong of Rome
(As fire drives out fire, so pity, pity,)
Hath done this deed on Cæsar. For your part,
To you our swords have leaden points, Mark An-

tony:

Our arms, in strength of malice, and our hearts, Of brothers' temper, do receive you in

With all kind love, good thoughts, and reverence. Cas. Your voice shall be as strong as any man's, In the disposing of new dignities'.

5 As fire drives out fire, &c.] So, in Coriolanus :

"One fire drives out one fire; one nail one nail." MALONE. Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona :

"Even as one heat another heat expels,

"Or as one nail by strength drives out another."

STEEVENS.

6 Our arms, in STRENGTH of malice,] Thus the old copies : "To you (says Brutus) our swords have leaden points: our arms, strong in the deed of malice they have just performed, and our hearts united like those of brothers in the action, are yet open to receive you with all possible regard." The supposition that Brutus meant, "their hearts were of brothers' temper in respect of Antony," seems to have misled those who have commented on this passage before. For in strength of," Mr. Pope substituted exempt from;" and was too hastily followed by other editors. If alteration were necessary, it would be easier to read:

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"Our arms no strength of malice." STEEvens. One of the phrases in this passage, which Mr. Steevens has so happily explained, occurs again in Antony and Cleopatra :

"To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts,
"With an unslipping knot."

Again, ibid. :

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'The heart of brothers governs in our love!"

The counterpart of the other phrase is found in the same play: "I'll wrestle with you in my strength of love."

7. Your voice shall be as strong as any man's,

MALONE.

In the disposing of new dignities.] Here, as Mr. Blakeway

BRU. Only be patient, till we have appeas'd
The multitude, beside themselves with fear,
And then we will deliver you the cause,

Why I, that did love Cæsar when I struck him,
Have thus proceeded.

ANT. I doubt not of your wisdom. Let each man render me his bloody hand: First, Marcus Brutus, will I shake with you ;Next, Caius Cassius, do I take your hand ;— Now, Decius Brutus, yours;-now yours, Metellus;

Yours, Cinna;-and, my valiant Casca, yours ;— Though last, not least in love, yours, good Trebonius.

Gentlemen all,-alas! what shall I

say? My credit now stands on such slippery ground,

That one of two bad ways you must conceit me,
Either a coward or a flatterer.-

That I did love thee, Cæsar, O, tis true:
If then thy spirit look upon us now,

Shall it not grieve thee, dearer than thy death,
To see thy Antony making his peace,
Shaking the bloody fingers of thy foes,
Most noble! in the presence of thy corse?
Had I as many eyes as thou hast wounds,
Weeping as fast as they stream forth thy blood,
It would become me better, than to close
In terms of friendship with thine enemies.

observes, Shakspeare has maintained the consistency of Cassius's character, who, being selfish and greedy himself, endeavours to influence Antony by similar motives. Brutus, on the other hand, is invariably represented as disinterested and generous, and is adorned by the poet with so many good qualities that we are almost tempted to forget that he was an assassin. Boswell.

8 Though last, not least in love,] So, in King Lear:

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Although the last, not least in our dear love."

The same expression occurs more than once in plays exhibited before the time of Shakspeare. MALONE.

Pardon me, Julius !-Here wast thou bay'd, brave

hart;

Here didst thou fall; and here thy hunters stand, Sign'd in thy spoil, and crimson'd in thy lethe o. O world! thou wast the forest to this hart;

And this, indeed, O world, the heart of thee.How like a deer, stricken by many princes,

Dost thou here lie?

CAS. Mark Antony,-

ANT.

Pardon me, Caius Cassius:

The enemies of Cæsar shall say this;
Then, in a friend, it is cold modesty.

CAS. I blame you not for praising Cæsar so ;
But what compact mean you to have with us?
Will you be prick'd in number of our friends;
Or shall we on, and not depend on you?

ANT. Therefore I took your hands; but was, indeed, Sway'd from the point, by looking down on Cæsar. Friends am I with you all, and love you all : Upon this hope, that you shall give me reasons, Why, and wherein, Cæsar was dangerous.

BRU. Or else were this a savage spectacle:

Our reasons are so full of good regard,
That were you, Antony, the son of Cæsar,
You should be satisfied.

*First folio, hart.

8 - crimson'd in thy LETHE.] Lethe is used by many of the old translators of novels, for death; and in Heywood's Iron Age,

Part II. 1632:

"The proudest nation that great Asia nurs'd,
"Is now extinct in lethe."

'Again, in Cupid's Whirligig, 1616:

"For vengeance' wings bring on thy lethal day." Dr. Farmer observes, that we meet with lethal for deadly in the information for Mungo Campbell. STEEVENS.

9 FRIENDS am I with you all, &c.] This grammatical impropriety is still so prevalent, as that the omission of the anomalous S, would give some uncouthness to the sound of an otherwise familiar expression. HENLEY.

ANT.

That's all I seek:

And am moreover suitor, that I may
Produce his body to the market-place;
And in the pulpit, as becomes a friend,
Speak in the order of his funeral.
BRU. You shall, Mark Antony.

CAS.

Brutus, a word with you1. You know not what you do; Do not consent,

That Antony speak in his funeral:

[Aside.

Know you how much the people may be mov'd
By that which he will utter?

BRU.

By your pardon ;I will myself into the pulpit first,

And show the reason of our Cæsar's death:
What Antony shall speak, I will protest
He speaks by leave and by permission ;
And that we are contented, Cæsar shall
Have all true rites, and lawful ceremonies.
It shall advantage more, than do us wrong.

CAS. I know not what may fall; I like it not.
BRU. Mark Antony, here, take you Cæsar's

body.

You shall not in your funeral speech blame us,
But speak all good you can devise of Cæsar;
And say, you do't by our permission;
Else shall you not have any hand at all
About his funeral: And you shall speak
In the same pulpit whereto I am going,
After my speech is ended.

ANT.

I do desire no more.

Be it so;

Brutus, a word WITH YOU.] With you is an apparent interpolation of the players. In Act IV. Sc. II. they have retained the elliptical phrase which they have here destroyed at the expence of

metre:

"He is not doubted.-A word, Lucilius-." STEEvens.