VOL. That's not an office for a friend, my lord. Strato, thou haft been all this while afleep; Hath almost ended his life's history: Night hangs upon mine eyes; my bones would reft, That have but labour'd to attain this hour. [Alarum. Cry within; Fly, fly, fly. CLI. Fly, my lord, fly. BRU. Hence; I will follow thee." Thy life hath had some smatch of honour in it: "And hides a fword from hilts unto the point" &c. Falstaff alfo, in King Henry IV. P. I. fays, "Seven, by these bilts; I am a villain elfe." STEEVENS. 8 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. 9 Hence; I will follow thee.] Thee, which is wanting in the old copy, was fupplied, for the fake of metre, by Sir Thomas Hanmer. STEEVENS, STRA. Give me your hand firft: Fare you well, my lord. BRU. Farewell, good Strato.-Cæfar, now be ftill; I kill'd not thee with half so good a will. [He runs on bis fword, and dies. Alarum. Retreat. Enter OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, MESSALA, LUCILIUS, and their Army. Ocr. What man is that? MES. My mafter's man.-Strato, where is thy mafter? STRA. Free from the bondage you are in, Mesfala; The conquerors can but make a fire of him; And no man elfe hath honour by his death. Luc. So Brutus fhould be found.-I thank thee, That thou haft prov'd Lucilius' saying true.' Ocr. All that ferv'd Brutus, I will entertain them.2 Fellow, wilt thou bestow thy time with me? 2 That thou haft prov'd Lucilius' faying true.] See p. 391. STEEVENS. -entertain them.] i. e. receive them into my service. So, in King Lear: " You, fir, I entertain for one of my hundred." STEEVENS. Ay, if Meffala will prefer me to you.] To prefer feems to have been the established phrafe for recommending a fervant. So, in The Merchant of Venice, Act II. fc. ii: "Shylock thy mafter, fpoke with me this day, Ocr. Do fo, Meffala.9 MES. How died my master, Strato? STRA. I held the fword, 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 nobleft Roman of them all: All the confpirators, fave only he,* Did that they did in envy of great Cæfar; So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up, 9 Do fo, Meffala.] Old copy, neglecting the metre-Do fo, good Meffala. STEEVENS. 2 -fave only be, &c.] So, in the old tranflation of Plutarch: "For it was fayd that Antonius spake it openly diuers tymes, that he thought, that of all them that had flayne Cæfar, there was none but Brutus only that was moued to do it, as thinking the acte commendable of it felfe: but that all the other confpirators did confpire his death, for fome priuate malice or enuy, that they otherwife did beare vnto him." STEEVENS. So mix'd in him, that Nature might ftand up, And fay 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 foul the virtues well did fuit; "In whom fo mix'd the elements all lay, "That none to one could fov'reignty impute; "As that it feem'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 publifhed his poem on the fubject of The Barons' Wars, under the title of MORTIMERIADOS, the lamentable civil warres of Edward the Second and the Barrons: Printed by Oct. According to his virtue let us use him, To part the glories of this happy day. [Exeunt. J. R. for Humphry Lownes, and are to be folde at his shop at the weft end of Paules Church. It is in feven-line ftanzas, and was, I believe, published before 1598. The quarto copy before me has no date. But he afterwards new-modelled the piece entirely, and threw it into ftanzas of eight lines, making fome 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 poem. There, the stanza quoted by Mr. Steevens appears thus: "Such one he was, (of him we boldly fay,) "In whofe rich foule all foveraigne powres did fute, "So mixt, as none could foveraigntie impute; "As all did govern, yet all did obey; "His lively temper was fo abfolute, "That 't feem'd, when heaven his modell first began, In the fame form is this ftanza 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 ftanza; fo that I am inclined to think that Drayton was the copyift, as his verfes originally ftood. In the altered ftanza he certainly was. He probably had feen this play when it was firft exhibited, and perhaps between 1613 and 1619 had perufed the M., MALONE. 4 Of this tragedy many particular paffages deferve regard, and the contention and reconcilement of Brutus and Caffius is univerfally celebrated; but I have never been ftrongly agitated in perusing it, and think it fomewhat cold and unaffecting, compared with fome other of Shakspeare's plays: his adherence to the real ftory, and to Roman manners, feems to have impeded the natural vigour of his genius. JOHNSON.. Gildon has juftly obferved, that this tragedy ought to have been called Marcus Brutus, Cæfar being a very inconfiderable perfonage in the scene, and being killed in the third act. MALONE. **The fubftance of Dr. Warburton's long and erroneous comment on a paffage in the second act of this play, "The genius and the mortal inftruments," &c. (fee p. 275, n. 8,) is contained in a letter written by him in the year 1726-7, of which the first notice was given to the publick in the following note on Dr. Akenfide's Ode to Mr. Edwards, which has, I know not why, been omitted in the late editions of that poet's works: "During Mr. Pope's war with Theobald, Concanen, and the reft of their tribe, Mr. Warburton, the prefent lord bishop of Gloucester, did with great zeal cultivate their friendship; having been introduced, forfooth, at the meetings of that refpectable confederacy: a favour which he afterwards fpoke of in very high terms of complacency and thankfulness. At the fame time, in his intercourse with them he treated Mr. Pope in a moft contemptuous manner, and as a writer without genius Of the truth of thefe affertions his lordship can have no doubt, if he recollects his own correfpondence with Concanen; a part of which is still in being, and will probably be remembered as long as any of this prelate's writings." " If the letter here alluded to, contained any thing that might affect the moral character of the writer, tenderness for the dead would forbid its publication. But that not being the cafe, and the learned prelate being now beyond the reach of criticifm, there is no reafon why this literary curiofity fhould be longer withheld from the publick: 66 66 Duncan is in his grave; "After life's fitful fever he fleeps well; "Treafon has done his worft: nor fteel, nor poison, "Can touch him further.' Letter from Mr. W. Warburton to Mr. M. Concanen. "Dear Sir, having had no more regard for thofe papers which I spoke of and promis'd to Mr. Theobald, than just what they deferv'd I in vain fought for them thro' a number of loofe papers that had the fame kind of abortive birth. I ufed to make it one good part of my amusement in reading the English poets, thofe of them I mean 'whose vein flows regularly and conftantly, as well as clearly, to trace them to their fources; and obferve what oar, as well as what flime and gravel they brought down with them. Dryden I obferve borrows for want of leafure, and Pope for want of genius: Milton out of pride, and Addifon out of modefty. And now I fpeak of this latter, that you and Mr. Theobald may fee of what kind thefe idle collections are, and likewife to give you my notion of what |