PERSONS represented. Julius Cæfar. Octavius Cæfar, Marcus Antonius, M. Æmil. Lepidus,. Triumvirs, after the Death of Cicero, Publius, Popilius Lena, Senators. Marcus Brutus, Lucilius, Titinius, Meffala, Young Cato, and Volumnius; Friends to Brutus and Caffius. Varro, Clitus, Claudius, Strato, Lucius, Dardanius; Servants to Brutus. Pindarus, Servant to Caffius. Calphurnia, Wife to Cæfar. Portia, Wife to Brutus. Senators, Citizens, Guards, Attendants, &c. SCENE, during a great part of the play, at Rome : afterwards at Sardis; and near Philippi. JULIUS CESAR. ACT I. SCENE I. Rome. A Street. Enter FLAVIUS, MARULLUS, and a rabble of FLAV. Hence; home, you idle creatures, get you home; Is this a holiday? What! know you not, your profeffion?-Speak, what trade art thou? 1. CIT. Why, fir, a carpenter. MAR. Where is thy leather apron, and thy rule? What doft thou with thy beft apparel on?— You, fir; what trade are you? 2 Cır. Truly, fir, in refpect of a fine workman, I am but, as you would fay, a cobler. MAR. But what trade art thou? Answer me directly. 2. CIT. A trade, fir, that, I hope, I may use with a fafe confcience; which is, indeed, fir, a mender of bad foals.3 Marullus,] Old copy-Murellus. I have, upon the authority of Plutarch, &c. given to this tribune his right name, Marullus. THEOBALD. 3 a mender of bad foals.] Fletcher has the fame quibble in his Women Pleas'd: VOL. XII. R MAR. What trade, thou knave? thou naughty knave, what trade? + 2. CIT. Nay, I befeech you, fir, be not out with me: yet, if you be out, fir, I can mend you. MAR. What meanest thou by that?' Mend me, thou faucy fellow? 2. CIT. Why, fir, cobble you. FLAV. Thou art a cobler, art thou? 2. Cır. Truly, fir, all that I live by is, with the awl: I meddle with no tradefman's matters, nor women's matters, but with awl." I am, indeed, 66 mark me, thou ferious fowter, "If thou doft this, there fhall be no more fhoe-mending; Every man fhall have a special care of his own foul, "And carry in his pocket his two confeffors." MALONE. 4 Mar. What trade, &c.] This fpeech in the old copy is given to Flavius. The next fpeech but one fhews that it belongs to Marullus, to whom it was attributed, I think properly, by Mr. Capell. MALONE. 5 Mar. What meaneft thou by that?] As the Cobler, in the preceding fpeech, replies to Flavins, not to Marullus, 'tis plain, I think, this fpeech must be given to Flavius. THEOBALD. I have replaced Marullus, who might properly enough reply to a faucy fentence directed to his colleague, and to whom the fpeech was probably given, that he might not ftand too long unemployed upon the ftage. JOHNSON. I would give the firft fpeech to Marullus, inftead of transferring the last to Flavius. RITSON. Perhaps this, like all the other fpeeches of the Tribunes, (to whichfoever of them it belongs) was defigned to be metrical, and originally flood thus: What meant by that? Mend me, thou jaucy fellow? STEEVENS. 6 I meddle with no tradefman's matters, nor women's matters, but with awl.] This fhould be, "I meddle with no trade,-man's matters, nor woman's matters, but with awl," FARMER. Shakspeare might have adopted this quibble from the ancient ballad, intitled, The Three Merry Coblers: fir, a furgeon to old fhoes; when they are in great danger, I re-cover them. As proper men as ever trod upon neats-leather, have gone upon my handywork. FLAV. But wherefore art not in thy shop to-day? Why dost thou lead these men about the streets? 2. CIT. Truly, fir, to wear out their fhoes, to get myself into more work. But, indeed, fir, we make holiday, to fee Cæfar, and to rejoice in his triumph. MAR. Wherefore rejoice? What conqueft brings he home? What tributaries follow him to Rome, Το grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels? O, you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome, "We have awle at our command, "And still we are on the mending hand." STEEVENS. I have already observed in a note on Love's Labour's Loft, Vol. V. p. 252, n. 6, that where our author ufes words equivocally, he impofes fome difficulty on his editor with refpect to the mode of exhibiting them in print. Shak fpeare, who wrote for the stage, not for the closet, was contented if his quibble fatisfied the ear. I have, with the other modern editors, printed here-with awl, though in the first folio, we find withal; as in the preceding page, bad foals, inftead of bad fouls, the reading of the original copy. The allufion contained in the second clause of this fentence, is again repeated in Coriolanus, Act IV. fc. v. 3. Serv. How, fir, do you meddle with my mafter? Cor. Ay, 'tis an honefter service than to meddle with thy mistress." MALONE. And when you faw his chariot but appear, And do you now put on your best attire? And do you now ftrew flowers in his way, Run to your houfes, fall upon your knees, FLAV. Go, go, good countrymen, and, for this fault, Affemble all the poor men of your fort; Do kifs the most exalted shores of all. [Exeunt Citizens. See, whe'r their basest metal be not mov'd; 7 her banks,] As Tiber is always reprefented by the figure of a man, the feminine gender is improper. Milton fays, that the river of blifs "Rolls o'er Elyfian flowers her amber ftream." But he is fpeaking of the water, and not of its prefiding power or genius. STEEVENS, Drayton, in his Polyolbion, frequently defcribes the rivers of England as females, even when he speaks of the prefiding power of the fream. Spenfer on the other hand, reprefents them more claffically, as males. MALONE. The prefiding power of fome of Drayton's rivers were females; like Sabrina &c. STEEVENS. See, whe'r] Whether, thus abbreviated, is used by Ben Jonfon: "Who fhall doubt, Donne, whe'r I a poet be, See Vol. VIII. p. 39, n. 3. MALONE, STEEVENS. |