Doft thou here lie?

CAS. Mark Antony,

ANT.

Pardon me, Caius Caffius:

The enemies of Cæfar fhall fay this;
Then, in a friend, it is cold modesty.

CAS. I blame you not for praising Cæfar so;
But what compact mean you to have with us?
Will you be prick'd in number of our friends;
Or fhall 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 Cæfar.
Friends am I with you all," and love you all;
Upon this hope, that you shall give me reasons,
Why, and wherein, Cæfar was dangerous.

BRU. Or elfe were this a favage spectacle:
Our reafons are fo full of good regard,
That were you, Antony, the fon of Cæfar,
You fhould be fatisfied.

ANT.
That's all I feek:
And am moreover fuitor, 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 fhall, Mark Antony.
CAS.

Brutus, a word with you.'

6 Friends am I with you all, &c.] This grammatical impropriety is ftill fo prevalent, as that the omiffion of the anomalous S, would give fome uncouthness to the found of an otherwise familiar expreffion. HENLEY.

Brutus, a word with you.] With you is an apparent interpolation of the players. In Act IV. fc. ii. they have retained the ellip tical phrafe which they have here deftroyed at the expence of

metre:

"He is not doubted.-A word, Lucilius;-." STERVENS,

You know not what you do; Do not confent,

That Antony speak in his funeral:

[Afide.

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 firft, And fhow the reafon of our Cæfar's death: What Antony fhall speak, I will protest He speaks by leave and by permiffion; And that we are contented, Cæfar fhall 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 Cæfar's
body.

You shall not in your funeral fpeech blame us,
But speak all good you can devife of Cæfar;
And fay, you do't by our permiffion;
Elfe fhall you not have any hand at all
About his funeral: And you fhall speak
In the fame pulpit whereto I am going,
After my speech is ended.

ANT.

I do defire no more.

Be it fo;

BRU. Prepare the body then, and follow us.

[Exeunt all but Antony.

ANT. O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, That I am meek and gentle with these butchers! Thou art the ruins of the noblest man,

That ever lived in the tide of times."

Woe to the hand that shed this coftly blood!

7

in the tide of times.] That is, in the course of times. JOHNSON.

8

Over thy wounds now do I prophecy,-
Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips,
To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue;-
A curfe fhall light upon the limbs of men;"
Domestick fury, and fierce civil strife,
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy:
Blood and deftruction fhall be fo in ufe,
And dreadful objects so familiar,

• Over thy wounds now do I prophecy,

Which, like dumb mouths, &c.] So, in A Warning for faire

Women, a tragedy, 1599:

66 I gave him fifteen wounds,

"Which now be fifteen mouths that do accufe me:
"In every wound there is a bloody tongue,

"Which will all fpeak although he hold his peace."

MALONE, A curfe fhall light upon the limbs of men ;] We fhould read: line of men;

i. e. human race. WARBURTON,

Sir Thomas Hanmer reads:

kind of men;

I rather think it should be,

the lives of men;

unless we read:

The uncommonnefs of the JOHNSON.

thefe lymms of men; That is, thefe bloodhounds of men. word lymm eafily made the change. Antony means that a future curfe fhall commence in diftempers feizing on the limbs of men, and be fucceeded by commotion, cruelty, and defolation all over Italy. So, in Phaer's Version of the third Æneid:

"The skies corrupted were,

to nought,

that trees and corne destroyed

"And limmes of men confuming rottes," &c. Sign. E. 1. edit. 1596. STEEVENS. By men the fpeaker means not mankind in general, but thofe Romans whofe attachment to the caufe of the confpirators, or wish to revenge Cæfar's death, would expofe them to wounds in the civil wars which Antony fuppofes that event would give rife to.-The generality of the curfe here predicted, is limited by the fubfequent words," the parts of Italy," and " in thefe confines."

MALONE.

2

That mothers shall but smile, when they behold
Their infants quarter'd with the hands of war;
All pity chok'd with custom of fell deeds:
And Cæfar's fpirit, ranging for revenge,
With Até by his fide, come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines, with a monarch's voice,
Cry Havock,' and let flip* the dogs of war;

Lucan, Lib. I.

2 And Cæfar's fpirit, ranging for revenge, &c.]
umbraque erraret Craffus inulta."
"Fatalem populis ultro pofcentibus horam
"Admovet atra dies; Stygiifque emissa tenebris
"Mors fruitur cælo, bellatoremque volando
"Campum operit, nigroque viros invitat hiatu."

Stat. Theb. VIII. Furiæ rapuerunt licia Parcis." Ibid. STEEVENS 3 Cry Havock,] A learned correfpondent [Sir William Blackftone] has informed me, that, in the military operations of old times, havock was the word by which declaration was made, that no quarter fhould be given. In a tract intitled, The Office of the Conftable and Marefchall in the Tyme of Werre, contained in the Black Book of the Admiralty, there is the following chapter:

"The peyne of hym that crieth havock and of them that followeth hym, etit. v."

Item Si quis inventus fuerit qui clamorem inceperit qui vocatur Havok."

"Alfo that no man be fo hardy to crye Havok upon peyne that he that is begynner fhall be deede therefore: & the remanent that doo the fame or folow, fhall lofe their horfe & harneis: and the perfones of fuch as foloweth and efcrien fhal be under arrest of the Coneftable and Marefchall warde unto tyme that they have made fyn; and founde furetie no morr to offende; and his body in prison at the Kyng wyll." JOHNSON.

See

p. 129, n. 3. MALONE.

that

let flip] This is a term belonging to the chase. Manwood, in his Foreft Laws, c. xx. f. 9. fays, when any pourallee man doth find any wild beafts of the foreft in his pourallee, that is in his owne freehold lands, that he hath within the pourallee, he may let flippe his dogges after the wild beaftes, and hunt and chase them there," &c. REED.

Slips were contrivances of leather by which greyhounds were reftrained till the neceffary moment of their difmiffion. See King Henry V. Vol. IX. p. 352, n. 6. STEEVENS.

That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.

Enter a Servant.

You ferve Octavius Cæfar, do you not?

SERV. I do, Mark Antony.

ANT. Cæfar did write for him, to come to Rome.

SERV. He did receive his letters, and is com

ing:

And bid me fay to you by word of mouth,—

O Cæfar!

[Seeing the body.

ANT. Thy heart is big; get thee apart and weep. Paffion, I see, is catching; for mine eyes,' Seeing those beads of forrow ftand in thine, Began to water. Is thy mafter coming?

SERV. He lies to-night within seven leagues of Rome.

ANT. Poft back with speed, and tell him what hath chanc'd:

Here is a mourning Rome, a dangerous Rome,

To let flip a dog at a deer, &c. was the technical phrase of Shakfpeare's time. So, in Coriolanus:

"Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash,

"To let him flip at will."

By the dogs of war, as Mr. Tollet has elsewhere obferved, Shakfpeare probably meant fire, fword, and famine. So, in King Henry V :

Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,

"Affume the port of Mars; and, at his heels,

"Leafb'd in like bounds, fhould famine, fword, and fire, "Crouch for employment."

The fame observation is made by Steele in the TATLER, No. MALONE.

137.

for mine eyes,] Old Copy-from mine eyes. Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE.