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Well may it fort", that this portentous figure
Comes armed through our watch; fo like the king
That was, and is, the question of these wars.
Hor. A mote it is, to trouble the mind's eye.
In the most high and palmy state of Rome2,
A little ere the mightieft Julius fell,

The graves food tenantlefs, and the fheeted dead
Did fqueak and gibber in the Roman streets;

As ftars with trains of fire and dews of blood;
Disasters dimm'd the fun3; and the moist star 4,

Upon omiffions leave the play fometimes better and fometimes worfe, and feem made only for the fake of abbreviation. JOHNSON.

It may be worth while to observe, that the title-pages of the first quartos in 1604 and 1605, declare this play to be enlarged to almost as much againe as it was, according to the true and perfect coppy. STEEV.

This and the following feventeen lines are omitted in the folio, As I fhall throughout this play always mention what lines are omitted in that copy, I have not thought it neceffary to follow Dr. Johnson in diftinguishing the omitted lines by inclosing them within crotchets.

MALONE.

Well may it fort,-] The caufe and the effect are proportionate and fuitable. JOHNSON.

9 the queftion of thefe wars.] The theme or fubject. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"You were the word of war." MALONE.

1 A mote it is,-] The first quarto reads, a morb. STEEVENS. A moth was only the old spelling of mote, as I suspected in revifing a paffage in K. Jobn, Vol. IV. p. 526, where we certainly fhould read See a note on the passage referred to, in the Appendix, Vol. X. MALONE.

mote.

2

- palmy fate of Rome,] Palmy, for victorious. POPE.

3 As ftars with trains of fire, and dews of blood ;—

Difafters dimm'd the fun;] The quarto, 1604, reads

Difafters in the fun.

For the emendation I am refponfible. It is ftrongly fupported not only by Plutarch's account in the life of Caefar, ["alfo the brightness of the funne was darkened, the which, all that yeare through, rofe very pale, and fbined not out,"] but by various passages in our authour's works. So, in the Tempeft:

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I have be-dimm' d

"The noon-tide fun."

Again, in King Richard III:

"As doth the blushing difcontented fun,

"When he perceives the envious clouds are bent
"To dim his glory.".

Upon whose influence Neptune's empire ftands,
Was fick almoft to dooms-day with eclipse.

Again, in our authour's 18th Sonnet:

"Sometimes too hot the eye of beaven shines,

"And often is his gold complexion dimm'd.”

And

I fufpe&t that the words As fars are a corruption, and have no doubt that either a line preceding or following the first of those quoted at the head of this note, has been loft; or that the beginning of one line has been joined to the end of another, the intervening words being omitted. That such conjectures are not merely chimerical, I have already proved. SeeVol. V. p. 228, n. 8. and Vol. VI. p. 507, n. 3. The following lines in Julius Cæfar, in which the prodigies that are faid to have preceded his death, are recounted, may throw fome light on the paffage before us:

There is one within,

"Befides the things that we have heard and feen,
"Recounts moft horrid fights feen by the watch.
"A lioness hath whelped in the streets;

"And graves have yawn'd and yielded up their dead :
"Fierce firy warriors fight upon the clouds,
"In ranks, and fquadrons, and right form of war,
"Which drizzel'd blood upon the capitol :

"The noise of battle hurtled in the air,

"Horfes do neigh, and dying men did groan;

"And ghosts did fhriek and fqueal about the streets."

The loft words perhaps contained a defcription of firy warriors fighting on the clouds, or of brands burning bright beneath the fars.

The 15th book of Ovid's Metamorphofes, tranflated by Golding, in which an account is given of the prodigies that preceded Cæfar's death, furnished Shakspeare with fome of the images in both these paffages: "battels fighting in the clouds with crashing armour flew, "And dreadful trumpets founded in the ayre, and hornes eke blew, "As warning men beforehand of the mischiefe that did brew; "And Phœbus alfo looking dim did caft a drowfie light, "Uppon the earth, which feemde likewife to be in fory plighte: "From underneath beneath the starres brandes oft feemde burning

bright,

"It often rain'd drops of blood. The morning ftar look'd blew, "And was befotted here and there with specks of ruftie hew.

"The moone had also spots of blood.

"Salt teares from ivorie-images in fundry places fell;"The dogges did howle, and every where appeared ghaftly sprights, "And with an earthquake shaken was the towne.'

Plutarch only fays, that "the funne was darkened," that "diverfe men were feen going up and down in fire"; there were "fires in the element; fpirites were feene running up and downe in the night, and olitarie birds fitting in the great market-place."

The

And even the like precurse of fierce events 6,-
As harbingers preceding ftill the fates,
And prologue to the omen coming on 7,-
Have heaven and earth together démonftrated
Unto our climatures and countrymen.-

The difagreeable recurrence of the word fars in the fecond line induces me to believe that As fars in that which precedes, is a corruption. Perhaps Shakspeare wrote:

Aftres with trains of fire,

and dews of blood

Difaftrous dimm'd the fun.

The word aftre is used in an old collection of poems entitled Diana, addreffed to the Earl of Oxenforde, a book of which I know not the date, but believe it was printed about 1580. In Othello we have aɛtres, a word exactly of a fimilar formation. MALONE.

4 And the moift ftar, &c.] i. e. the moon, So in Marlowe's Hero and Leander, 1598:

"Not that night-wand'ring, pale, and watry far," &c. MALONE. 5 And even, &c.] Not only fuch prodigies have been seen in Rome, but the elements have fhewn our countrymen like forerunners and foretokens of violent events. JOHNSON.

6 -precurfe of fierce events,] Fierce for terrible. WARBURTON. I rather believe that fierce fignifies confpicuous, glaring. It is used in a fomewhat fimilar fenfe in Timon.

O the fierce wretchedness that glory brings!" STEEVENS. 7 And even the like precurfe of fierce events,

As harbingers preceding fill the fates

And prologue to the omen coming on,] So, in one of our authour's poems, Vol. X. p. 341:

But thou fhrieking barbinger,

Foul precurrer of the fiend,

"Augur of the fever's end," &c.

The omen coming on is, the approaching dreadful and portentous event. So in K. Richard III.

"Thy name is ominous to children."

. e. (not boding ill fortune, but) deftru&tive to children.

Again, ibidem:

"O Pomfret, Pomfret, O, thou bloody prifon,

"Fatal and omincus to noble peers."

Theobald reads-the omen'd coming-on. MALONE.

A diftich from the life of Merlin, by Heywood, will fhew that there is no occafion for correction:

"Merlin, well vers'd in many an hidden fpell,

"His countries omen did long fince foretell." FARMER.

Again, in the Vowbreaker:

"And much I fear the weakness of her braine

"Should draw her to fome ominous exigent." STEEVENS.

2

Re-enter

Re-enter GHOST.

But, foft; behold! lo, where it comes again!
I'll crofs it, though it blast me.-Stay, illufion!
If thou haft any found, or use of voice,
Speak to me:

If there be any good thing to be done,
That may to thee do ease, and grace to me,
Speak to me:

If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
Which, hapily, foreknowing may avoid,
O, speak!

Or, if thou haft uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,

For which, they fay, you spirits oft walk in death,

[Cock crows.

Speak of it :-ftay, and speak.-Stop it, Marcellus.
Mar. Shall I ftrike at it with my partizan ?
Hor. Do, if it will not stand.

Ber. 'Tis here!

Hor. 'Tis here!

Mar. 'Tis gone!

We do it wrong, being so majestical,

To offer it the fhew of violence;

For it is, as the air, invulnerable",

And our vain blows malicious mockery.

[Exit Ghoft.

Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew,
Hor. And then it ftarted like a guilty thing

Upon a fearful fummons. I have heard,
The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn1,

Doth

8 If thou haft any found,-] The speech of Horatio to the spectre is very elegant and noble, and congruous to the common traditions of the causes of apparitions. JOHNSON.

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9 —it is, as the air, invulnerable,] So in Macbeth:

"As eafy may'ft thou the intrenchant air,

"With thy keen blade imprefs."

Again, in King John:

"Against the invulnerable clouds of heaven." MALONE.

1 The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,] So the quarto, 1604. Folio:-to the day.

In England's Parnaffus, 8vo, 1600, I find the two following lines afcribed to Drayton, but know not in which of his poems they are found. VOL. IX.

" And

Doth with his lofty and fhrill-founding throat
Awake the god of day; and, at his warning,
Whether in fea or fire, in earth or air2,
The extravagant 3 and erring fpirit hies
To his confine and of the truth herein
This prefent object made probation.

Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock *.

"And now the cocke, the morning's trumpeter, "Play'd huntfup for the day-star to appear." Mr. Gray has imitated our poet :

"The cock's thrill clarion, or the echoing horn,

Some

"No more fhall roufe them from their lowly bed." MALONE, 2 Whether in fea, &c.] According to the pneumatology of that time, every element was inhabited by its peculiar order of fpirits, who had difpofitions different, according to their various places of abode. The meaning therefore is, that all spirits extravagant, wandering out of their element, whether aerial fpirits vifiting earth, or earthly fpirits ranging the air, return to their ftation, to their proper Limits in which they are confined. We might read,

and at his warning

"Th' extravagant and erring spirit hies
"To his confine, whether in fea or air,
"Or earth, or fire. And of," &c.

But this change, though it would smooth the construction, is not nea ceffary, and, being unneceffary, fhould not be made against authority, JOHNSON.

Bourne of Newcastle, in his Antiquities of the common People, informs us, It is a received tradition among the vulgar, that at the "time of cock-crowing, the midnight spirits forfake these lower regions, and go to their proper places. Hence it is, fays he, that "in country places, where the way of life requires more early labour, "they always go chearfully to work at that time; whereas if they

are called abroad fooner, they imagine every thing they fee a wan"dering ghost." And he quotes on this occafion, as all his prede ceffors had done, the well-known lines from the firft hymn of Pradentius. I know not whofe translation he gives us, but there is an old one by Heywood. The pious chansons, the bymns and carrols, which Shakspeare mentions prefently, were ufually copied from the elder Chriftian poets. FARMER,

3 The extravagant-] i. e. got out of its bounds. WARBURTON. So, in Nobody and Somebody, 1598: "they took me up for a ftravagant. STEEVENS.

4 It faded on the crowing of the cock.] This is a very ancient fuper tition, Philoftratus giving an account of the apparition of Achilles' thade to Apollonius Tyancus, fays that it vanished with a little glimmer as foon as the cock crowed." Vit. Apol. iv. 16. STEEVENS.

Faded

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