CAS. The morning comes upon us: We'll leave you, Brutus:

And, friends, difperfe yourselves: but all remember What you have faid, and fhow yourselves true Ro

mans.

BRU. Good gentlemen, look fresh and merrily; Let not our looks put on our purposes; But bear it as our Roman actors do, With untir'd spirits, and formal conftancy: And fo, good-morrow to you every one.

[Exeunt all but Brutus.

Boy! Lucius!-Faft afleep? It is no matter;
Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of flumber :
Thou haft no figures, nor no fantasies,
Which bufy care draws in the brains of men ;
Therefore thou fleep'ft fo found.

1;

POR.

Enter PORTIA.

Brutus, my lord!

BRU. Portia, what mean you? Wherefore rife

you now?

It is not for your health, thus to commit

Your weak condition to the raw-cold morning. POR. Nor for yours neither. You have ungently, Brutus,

Stole from my bed: And yesternight, at fupper,
You fuddenly arofe, and walk'd about,

Mufing, and fighing, with your arms across :
And when I afk'd you what the matter was,

5 Let not our looks -] Let not our faces put on, that is, wear or how our defigns. JOHNSON.

6 Thou haft no figures, &c.] Figures occurs in the fame fenfe in the First Part of Henry IV. A& I. fc. iii:

"He apprehends a world of figures." HENLEY.

You ftar'd upon me with ungentle looks:
I urg'd you further; then you scratch'd your head,
And too impatiently stamp'd with your foot:
Yet I infifted, yet you answer'd not;

But, with an angry wafture of your hand,
Gave fign for me to leave you: So I did;
Fearing to ftrengthen that impatience,
Which feem'd too much enkindled; and, withal,
Hoping it was but an effect of humour,
Which fometime hath his hour with every man.
It will not let you eat, nor talk, nor fleep;
And, could it work fo much upon your shape,
As it hath much prevail'd on your condition,"
I fhould not know you, Brutus.
Brutus. Dear
Dear my lord,
Make me acquainted with your caufe of grief.

BRU. I am not well in health, and that is all. POR. Brutus is wife, and, were he not in health, He would embrace the means to come by it.

BRU. Why, fo I do :-Good Portia, go to bed. POR. Is Brutus fick? and is it phyfical To walk unbraced, and fuck up the humours Of the dank morning? What, is Brutus fick; And will he steal out of his wholesome bed, To dare the vile contagion of the night? And tempt the rheumy and unpurged air To add unto his ficknefs? No, my Brutus ; You have fome fick offence within your mind, Which, by the right and virtue of my place, I ought to know of: And, upon my knees, I charm you, by my once commended beauty,

8

on your condition,] On your temper; the difpofition of your mind. See Vol. IX. p. 494, n. 5. MALONE.

8 I charm you,] Thus the old copy. Mr. Pope and Sir Thomas Hanmer read-charge, but unneceffarily. So, in Cymbeline:

By all your vows of love, and that great vow
Which did incorporate and make us one,
That you unfold to me, yourself, your half,
Why you are heavy; and what men to-night
Have had refort to you: for here have been
Some fix or feven, who did hide their faces
Even from darkness.

BRU.

Kneel not, gentle Portia. POR. I fhould not need, if you were gentle

Brutus.

Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus,
Is it excepted, I fhould know no fecrets
That appertain to you? Am I yourself,
But, as it were, in fort, or limitation;

To keep with you at meals, comfort your bed,*

'tis your graces

"That from my muteft confcience to my tongue

" Charms this report out." STEEVENS.

To keep with you at meals, &c.] "I being, O Bratus, (fayed fhe) the daughter of Cato, was married vnto thee, not to be thy beddefellowe and companion in bedde and at borde onelie, like a harlot; but to be partaker alfo with thee, of thy good and cuill fortune. Nowe for thy felfe, I can finde no cause of faulte in thee touchinge our matche: but for my parte, how may I fhowe my duetie towards thee, and how muche I woulde doe for thy fake, if I can not conftantlie beare a fecrete mischaunce or griefe with thee, which requireth fecrecy and fidelitie? I confeffe, that a woman's wit commonly is too weake to keep a fecret fafely: but yet, Brutus, good education, and the companie of vertuous men, haue fome power to reforme the defect of nature. And for my felfe, I haue this benefit moreouer: that I am the daughter of Cato, and wife of Brutus. This notwithstanding, I did not truft to any of thefe things before: vntil that now I have found by experience, that no paine nor grife whatfoeuer can ouercome me. With thofe wordes The showed him her wounde on her thigh, and tolde him what the had done to proue her felfe." Sir Thomas North's Tranflation of Plutarch. STEEVENS.

Here alfo we find our author and lord Sterline walking over the fame ground:

And talk to you fometimes? Dwell I but in the

fuburbs '

Of your good pleasure? If it be no more,

Portia is Brutus' harlot, not his wife.

BRU. You are my true and honourable wife;
As dear to me, as are the ruddy drops
That vifit my fad heart."

POR. If this were true, then should I know this fecret.

"I was not, Brutus, match'd with thee, to be
"A partner only of thy board and bed;
"Each fervile whore in thofe might equal me,
"That did herself to nought but pleasure wed.
"No;-Portia fpous'd thee with a mind t' abide
Thy fellow in all fortunes, good or ill;

86

"With chains of mutual love together ty'd,

"As thofe that have two breasts, one heart, two fouls, one will." Julius Cæfar, 1607. MALONE.

comfort your bed,] "is but an odd phrafe, and gives as odd an idea," fays Mr. Theobald. He therefore fubftitutes, confort. But this good old word, however difufed through modern refinement, was not fo difcarded by Shakspeare. Henry VIII. as we read in Cavendish's Life of Wolfey, in commendation of queen Katharine, in publick faid, "She hathe beene to me a true obedient wife, and as comfortable as I could wish." UPTON.

In the book of entries at Stationers' Hall, I meet with the following: 1598. "A Converfation between a careful Wyfe and her comfortable Hufband." STEEVENS.

In our marriage ceremony, the hufband promifes to comfort his wife; and Barrett's Alvearie, or Quadruple Dictionary, 1580, fays, that to comfort is, to recreate, to folace, to make paftime."

66

COLLINS.

3 in the fuburbs-] Perhaps here is an allufion to the place in which the harlots of Shakspeare's age refided. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Monfieur Thomas:

"Get a new mistress,

"Some fuburb faint, that fixpence, and fome oaths,
"Will draw to parley." STEEVENS.

As dear to me, &c.] Thefe glowing words have been adopted

by Mr. Gray in his celebrated Ode:

"Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart."

STEEVENS.

I

grant,

4

I am a woman; but, withal, A woman that lord Brutus took to wife: grant, I am a woman; but, withal,

I

A woman well-reputed; Cato's daughter.'
Think you, I am no stronger than my fex,
Being fo father'd, and fo husbanded?

Tell me your counfels, I will not disclose them:
I have made strong proof of my conftancy,
Giving myself a voluntary wound

Here, in the thigh: Can I bear that with patience, And not my husband's fecrets?

BRU.

O ye gods,

. Render me worthy of this noble wife!

[Knocking within.

Hark, hark! one knocks: Portia, go in a while ; And by and by thy bofom fhall partake

The fecrets of my heart.

All my engagements I will conftrue to thee,

All the charactery" of my fad brows:-
Leave me with hafte.

[Exit PORTIA.

I grant, I am a woman; &c.] So, Lord Sterline:
"And though our sex too talkative be deem'd,

"As thofe whofe tongues import our greatest pow'rs, "For fecrets ftill bad treasurers esteem'd,

"Of others' greedy, prodigal of ours;

"Good education may reform defects,

"And I this vantage have to a vertuous life,

"Which others' minds do want and mine refpects,
"I'm Cato's daughter, and I'm Brutus' wife."

MALONE.

5 A woman well-reputed; Cato's daughter.] By the expreffion well-reputed, the refers to the estimation in which fhe was held, as being the wife of Brutus; whilft the addition of Cato's daughter, implies that he might be expected to inherit the patriotic virtues of her father. It is with propriety therefore, that the immediately afks, Think you I am no ftronger than my fex,

Being fo father'd, and so husbanded? HENLEY.

All the charactery] i. e. all that is character'd on, &c.