Bru.

Thou haft defcrib'd

A hot friend cooling: Ever note, Lucilius,
When love begins to ficken and decay,
It useth an enforced ceremony.

There are no tricks in plain and simple faith :
But hollow men, like horses hot at hand,
Make gallant show and promise of their mettle:
But when they should endure the bloody fpur,
They fall their crefts, and, like deceitful jades,
Sink in the trial. Comes his army on?

Luc. They mean this night in Sardis to be quarter'd;

The greater part, the horse in general,

Are come with Caffius.

BRU.

[March within.

Hark, he is arriv'd:—

March gently on to meet him.

Enter CASSIUS and Soldiers.

CAS. Stand, ho!

BRU. Stand ho! Speak the word along.

WITHIN. Stand.

WITHIN. Stand.

WITHIN. Stand.

CAS. Most noble brother, you have done me

wrong.

BRU. Judge me, you gods! Wrong I mine ene

mies?

And, if not fo, how should I wrong a brother? CAS. Brutus, this fober form of yours hides wrongs; And when you do them

BRU.

Caffius, be content, Speak your griefs foftly,-I do know you well:

6

6 - your griefs-] i. e. your grievances. See Vol. IV. p. 76, n. 7, and Vol. VIII. p. 557, n. 5. MALONE.

Before the eyes of both our armies here,
Which should perceive nothing but love from us,
Let us not wrangle: Bid them move away;
Then in my tent, Caffius, enlarge your griefs,
And I will give you audience.

CAS.

Pindarus,

Bid our commanders lead their charges off
A little from this ground.

BRU. Lucilius, do the like; and let no man Come to our tent, till we have done our conference. Let Lucius and Titinius guard our door. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Within the tent of Brutus.

Lucius and Titinius at fome diftance from it.

Enter BRUTUS and CASSIUS.

CAS. That you have wrong'd
have wrong'd me, doth appear in
this:

You have condemn'd and noted Lucius Pella,
For taking bribes here of the Sardians;
Wherein, my letters, praying on his fide,
Because I knew the man, were flighted off.

BRU. You wrong'd yourself, to write in fuch a cafe.

CAS. In fuch a time as this, it is not meet

7-do the like ;] Old copy-" do you the like;" but without regard to metre. STEEVENS.

That every nice offence' fhould bear his comment.
BRU. Let me tell you, Caffius, you yourself
Are much condemn'd to have an itching palm;
To fell and mart your offices for gold,

To undefervers.

CAS.

I an itching palm?

You know, that you are Brutus that speak this,
Or, by the gods, this fpeech were elfe your last.
BRU. The name of Caffius honours this corrup-
tion,

And chastisement doth therefore hide his head.
CAS. Chaftisement!

BRU. Remember March, the ides of March remember!

Did not great Julius bleed for justice' fake?
What villain touch'd his body, that did ftab,
And not for juftice? What, fhall one of us,
That ftruck the foremost man of all this world,
But for fupporting robbers; fhall we now
Contaminate our fingers with base bribes?
And fell the mighty space of our large honours,
For fo much trash, as may be grasped thus?—
I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon,
Than fuch a Roman.

every nice offence] i. e. fmall trifling offence.

So, in Romeo and Juliet, A& V:

WARBURTON.

"The letter was not nice, but full of charge
"Of dear import." STEEVENS.

8 What villain touch'd his body, that did ftab,

And not for justice?] This queftion is far from implying that any of those who touch'd Cæfar's body, were villains. On the contrary, it is an indirect way of afferting that there was not one man among them, who was base enough to stab him for any cause but that of juftice. MALONE.

CAS.

2

Brutus, bay not me,9.
I'll not endure it: you forget yourself,
To hedge me in; I am a foldier, I,
Older in practice,' abler than yourself
To make conditions.*

9 Caf. Brutus, bay not me, e,] The old copy-bait not me. Mr. Theobald and all the fubfequent editors read-bay not me; and the emendation is fufficiently plaufible, our author having in Troilus and Creffida ufed the word bay in the same sense :

"What moves Ajax thus to bay at him!"

" I will

But as he has likewife twice ufed bait in the fenfe required here, the text, in my apprehenfion, ought not to be disturbed. not yield," fays Macbeth,

"To kifs the ground before young Malcolm's feet,
"And to be baited with the rabble's curfe."

Again, in Coriolanus:

- why stay we to be baited

"With one that wants her wits?"

So, alfo in a comedy intitled How to choose a good wife from a bad, 1602:

"Do I come home so seldom, and that feldom

"Am I thus baited?"

The reading of the old copy, which I have reftored, is likewife fupported by a paffage in King Richard III:

"To be fo baited, scorn'd, and storm'd at." MALONE. The fecond folio, on both occafions, has-bait; and the spirit of the reply will, in my judgement, be diminished, unless a repetition of the one or the other word be admitted. I therefore continue to read with Mr. Theobald. Bay, in our author, may be as frequently exemplified as bait. It occurs again in the play before us, as well as in A Midfummer-Night's Dream, Cymbeline, King Henry IV. P. II. &c. &c. STEEVENS.

To hedge me in;] That is, to limit my authority by your direction or cenfure. JOHNSON.

3

I am a foldier, I,

Older in practice, &c.] Thus the ancient copies; but the modern editors, instead of I, have read ay, because the vowel I fometimes stands for ay the affirmative adverb. I have replaced the old reading, on the authority of the following line:

And I am Brutus; Marcus Brutus I. STEEVENS.

See Vol. IX. p. 84, n. 5. MALONE.

▲ To make conditions.] That is, to know on what terms it is fit to confer the offices which are at my difpofal. JOHNSON.

By any indirection. I did fend

Το you for gold to pay my legions,

Which you deny'd me: Was that done like Caffius?
Should I have answer'd Caius Caffius fo?
When Marcus Brutus grows fo covetous,
To lock fuch rafcal counters from his friends,
Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts,
Dash him to pieces!

CAS.

BRU. You did.

CAS.

I deny'd you not.

I did not :-he was but a fool, That brought my answer back.'-Brutus hath riv'd

my heart:

A friend fhould bear his friend's infirmities,
But Brutus makes mine greater than they are.
BRU. I do not, till you practise them on me."
CAS. You love me not.

BRU.

I do not like your faults. CAS. A friendly eye could never fee fuch faults. BRU. A flatterer's would not, though they do appear

this place, had any deeper meaning than in the following line in A Midfummer Night's Dream:

"Hard-handed men that work in Athens here."

HOLT WHITE.

Mr. H. White might have fupported his opinion, (with which I perfectly concur) by another inftance, from Cymbeline:

66

hands

"Made hourly hard with falfehood as with labour."

STEEVENS.

my anfwer back.] The word back is unnecessary to the fenfe, and fpoils the measure. STEEVENS.

6 Bru. I do not, till you practise them on me.] The meaning is this: I do not look for your faults, I only fee them, and mention them with vehemence, when you force them into my notice, by practising them on me. JOHNSON.