BRU. Come hither, good Volumnius: list a word. VOL. What says my lord? BRU. Why, this, Volumnius': The ghost of Cæsar hath appear'd to me Two several times by night: at Sardis, once; VOL. Not so, my lord. BRU. Nay, I am sure it is, Volumnius. Thou see'st the world, Volumnius, how it goes; Our enemies have beat us to the pit: It is more worthy to leap in ourselves, Than tarry till they push us. Good Volumnius, Thou know'st, that we two went to school together; Even for that our love of old, I pray thee, Hold thou my sword-hilts, whilst I run on it. VOL. That's not an office for a friend, my lord. [Alarum still. CLI. Fly, fly, my lord; there is no tarrying here. BRU. Farewell to you ;-and you ;-and you, Volumnius. Strato, thou hast been all this while asleep; 4 my SWORD-HILTS.] So in the old copy, and rightly. So before, p. 144: "That ran through Cæsar's bowels, search this bosom. Again, in Richard III. : 66 Take him over the costard with the hilts of thy sword.” Again, in The Mirror for Magistrates, 1587 : 66 -a naked sword he had, "That to the hilts was all with blood imbrued." Mr. Rowe and the other modern editors read, agreeably to the language of the present time,-my sword's hilt. MALONE. Thus also, in King Henry V. : "And hides a sword from hilts unto the point," &c. Falstaff also, in King Henry IV. Part I. says: "Seven, by these hilts; I am a villain else." STEEVENS. Farewell to thee too, Strato 5.-Countrymen, So, fare you well at once; for Brutus' tongue Night hangs upon mine eyes; my bones would rest, That have but labour'd to attain this hour. [Alarum. Cry within; Fy, fly, fly. CLI. Fly, my lord, fly. BRU. Hence; I will follow ". [Exeunt CLITUS, DARDANIUS, and VOLUM NIUS. I pr'ythee, Strato, stay thou by thy lord: Thy life hath had some smatch of honour in it: BRU. Farewell, good Strato.-Cæsar, now be still: I kill'd not thee with half so good a will. [He runs on his Sword, and dies. Alarum. Retreat. Enter OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, MESSALA, LUCILIUS, and their Army. OCT. What man is that? 5 Farewell to thee too, Strato.] Thus the modern editions: I think, rightly. The old folio reads: Farewell to thee, to Strato, Countrymen." JOHNSON. The correction was made by Mr. Theobald. MALONE. 6 Hence; I will follow THEE.] Thee, which is wanting in the old copy, was supplied, for the sake of metre, by Sir Thomas Hanmer. So, in Hamlet: "Go on, I'll follow thee." STEEVENS. MES. My master's man.-Strato, where is thy master? STRA. Free from the bondage you are in, Mes sala; The conquerors can but make a fire of him; And no man else hath honour by his death. Luc. So Brutus should be found.-I thank thee, Brutus, That thou hast prov'd Lucilius' saying true'. Fellow, wilt thou bestow thy time with me? 7 That thou hast prov'd Lucilius' saying true.] See p. 150. STEEVENS. 8 — ENTERTAIN them.] i. e. receive them into my service. So, in King Lear: “ You, sir, I entertain for one of my hundred." STEEVENS. 9 Ay, if Messala will PREFER me to you.] To prefer seems to have been the established phrase for recommending a servant. So, in The Merchant of Venice, Act III. Sc. II. : 66 Shylock thy master, spoke with me this day, "And hath preferr'd thee —;" 66 wher he & Again, in the Countess of Dorset's Memoirs: his daughter preferd William Pond to searve my lady." Seward's Anecdotes, vol. iv. p. 316. REed. To prefer is to recommend in its general sense. Thus, in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, edit. 1632, p. 261: "Bessardus Bisantinus preferres the smoake of Juniper to melancholy persons, which is in great request with us at Oxford to sweeten our chambers." The same word is used by Chapman in his version of the 23d Iliad; and signifies to advance: 66 Now every way I erre "About this broad-door'd house of Dis. O helpe then to preferre 66 My soule yet further." In the eighteenth Iliad, to prefer, apparently means, to patronize: 66 she did so still prefer "Their quarrel." STEEVENS. OCT. Do so, good Messala'. MES. How died my master, Strato? STRA. I held the sword, and he did run on it. MES. Octavius, then take him to follow thee, That did the latest service to my master. ANT. This was the noblest Roman of them all: All the conspirators, save only he 2, Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar; So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up, I Do so, Messala.] Old copy, neglecting the metre—“ Do so, good Messala." STEEVENS. 2 - save only he, &c.] So, in the old translation of Plutarch: "For it was sayd that Antonius spake it openly diuers tymes, that he thought, that of all them that had slayne Cæsar, there was none but Brutus only that was moued to do it, as thinking the acte commendable of it selfe: but that all the other conspirators did conspire his death, for some priuate malice or enuy, that they otherwise did beare vnto him." STEEVENS. So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up, And say to all the world, This was a man!] So, in The Barons' Wars, by Drayton, canto iii. : "He was a man (then boldly dare to say) "In whose rich soul the virtues well did suit ; "In whom so mix'd the elements all lay, "That none to one could sov'reignty impute; "He of a temper was so absolute, "As that it seem'd, when nature him began, This poem was published in the year 1598. The play of our author did not appear before 1623. STEEVENS. Drayton originally published his poem on the subject of The Barons' Wars, under the title of Mortimeriados, the lamentable Civil Warres of Edward the Second and the Barrons: Printed by J. R. for Humphrey Lownes, and are to be solde at his shop at the west end of Paules Church. It is in seven-line stanzas, and was, I believe, published before 1598. The quarto copy before me has no date. But he afterwards new-modelled the piece entirely, and OCT. According to his virtue let us use him, To part the glories of this happy day. [Exeunt*. threw it into stanzas of eight lines, making some retrenchments and many additions and alterations throughout. An edition of his poems was published in 8vo. in 1602; but it did not contain The Barons' Wars in any form. They first appeared with that name in the edition of 1608, in the preface to which he speaks of the change of his title, and of his having new-modelled his There, the stanza quoted by Mr. Steevens appears thus : "Such one he was, (of him we boldly say,) "In whose rich soule all soveraigne powres did sute, "So mixt, as none could sovereigntie impute; "As all did govern, yet all did obey; "His lively temper was so absolute, poem. "That 't seem'd, when heaven his modell first began, In the same form is this stanza exhibited in an edition of Drayton's pieces, printed in 8vo. 1610, and in that of 1613. The lines quoted by Mr. Steevens are from the edition in folio printed in 1619, after Shakspeare's death. In the original poem, entitled Mortimeriados, there is no trace of this stanza; so that I am inclined to think that Drayton was the copyist, as his verses origi nally stood. In the altered stanza he certainly was. He perhaps had seen this play when it was first exhibited, and perhaps between 1613 and 1619 had perused the MS. But after all it is not improbable that both poets were indebted to Ben Jonson, who has this passage in Cynthia's Revells, acted in 1600, and printed in 1601, Act II. Sc. III. [Vol. ii. p. 266, Gifford's edit.] "A creature of a most perfect and divine temper: one in whom the humours and elements are peaceably met without emulation of precedency." MALONE. 4 Of this tragedy many particular passages deserve regard, and the contention and reconcilement of Brutus and Cassius is universally celebrated; but I have never been strongly agitated in perusing it, and think it somewhat cold and unaffecting, compared with some other of Shakspeare's plays : his adherence to the real story, and to Roman manners, seem to have impeded the natural vigour of his genius. JOHNSON. Gildon has justly observed, that this tragedy ought to have |