And talk to you sometimes? Dwell I but in the suburbs3 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 visit my sad heart.4 Por. If this were true, then should I know this secret. I grant, I am a woman ;5 but, withal, Here also we find our author and Lord Sterline walking over the same ground: "I was not, Brutus, match'd with thee, to be "As those that have two breasts, one heart, two souls, 2- comfort your bed,] " is but an odd phrase, and gives as odd an idea," says Mr. Theobald. He therefore substitutes, consort. But this good old word, however disused through modern refinement, was not so discarded by Shakspeare. Henry VIII, as we read in Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, in commendation of Queen Katharine, in publick said: "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 Conversation between a careful Wyfe and her comfortable Husband." Steevens. In our marriage ceremony, the husband promises to comfort his wife; and Barrett's Alvearie, or Quadruple Dictionary, 1580, says, that to comfort is, " to recreate, to solace, to make pastime." Collins. 3 -in the suburbs - Perhaps here is an allusion to the place in which the harlots of Shakspeare's age resided. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Monsieur Thomas: "Get a new mistress, "Some suburb saint, that sixpence, and some oaths, 4 As dear to me. &c.] These glowing words have been adopted by Mr. Gray in his celebrated Ode: "Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart -." Steevens. • I grant, I am a woman; &c.] So, Lord Sterline: "For secrets still bad treasurers esteem'd, A woman that lord Brutus took to wife: Teil me your counsels, I will not disclose them: Giving myself a voluntary wound Here, in the thigh: Can I bear that with patience, And not my husband's secrets? 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 bosom shall partake The secrets of my heart. All my engagements I will construe to thee, All the charactery of my sad brows : Leave me with haste. Enter Lucius and LIGARIUS. [Exit POR. Lucius, who's that, knocks ?8 Luc. Here is a sick man, that would speak with you. Bru. Caius Ligarius, that Metellus spake of. Boy, stand aside. - Caius Ligarius! how? Lig. Vouchsafe good morrow from a feeble tongue. Bru. O, what a time have you chose out, brave Caius, "Good education may reform defects, "And I this vantage have to a vertuous life, “I m Cato's daughter, and I'm Brutus wife." Malone. * A woman well-reputed, Cato's daughter.] By the expression wellreputed, she refers to the estimation in which she was held, as being the wife of Brutus; whilst the addition of Cato's daughter, implies that she might be expected to inher it the patriotic virtues of her father. It is with propriety therefore, that she immediately asks: "Think you, I am no stronger than my sex, "Being so father d, and so husbanded?" Henley. 7 All the charactery -] i. e. all that is character'd on, &c. The word has already occurred in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Steevens. See Vol. III, p. 151, n. 3. Malone. 8 - who's that, knocks?] i. e. who is that, who knocks? Our poet always prefers the familiar language of conversation to grammatical nicety. Four of his editors, however, have endeavoured to destroy this peculiarity, by reading-who's there that knocks? and a fifth has, who's that, that knocks? Malone. To wear a kerchief?9 'Would you were not sick! Any exploit worthy the name of honour. Bru. Such an exploit have I in hand, Ligarius, Lig. By all the gods that Romans bow before, 1 Bru. A piece of work, that will make sick men whole. Lig. But are not some whole, that we must make sick? Bru. That must we also. What it is, my Caius, I shall unfold to thee, as we are going To whom it must be done. Lig. Set on your foot; And, with a heart new-fir'd, I follow you, That Brutus leads me on. Bru. Follow me then. [Exeunt." 9 O, what a time have you chose out, brave Caius, To wear a kerchief?] So, in Plutarch's Life of Brutus, translated by North: " - Brutus went to see him being sicke in his bedde, and sayed unto him, O Ligarius, in what a time art thou sicke ? Ligarius rising up in his bedde, and taking him by the right hande, sayed unto him, Brutus, (sayed he) if thou hast any great enterprise in hande worthie of thy selfe, I am whole." Lord Sterline also has introduced this passage into his Julius Cæsar: "By sickness being imprison'd in his bed "Whilst I Ligarius spied, whom pains did prick, " He answer'd straight, as I had physick brought, "If worthy of thyself thou wouldst do aught, " Then Brutus I am whole, and wholly thine." Malone. 1 Thou, like an exorcist, hast conjur'd up My mortified spirit.] Here, and in all other Places places where the word occurs in Shakspeare, to exorcise means to raise spirits, not to lay them; and I believe he is singular in his acceptation of it. See Vol. V, p. 309, n. 5. Malone. M. Mason. SCENE II. : The same. A Room in Cæsar's Palace. Thunder and Lightning. Enter CÆSAR, in his Night-gown. Cas. Nor heaven, nor earth, have been at peace to night: Thrice hath Calphurnia in her sleep cried out, Enter a Servant. Serv. My lord? Cas. Go bid the priests do present sacrifice, And bring me their opinions of success. Serv. I will, my lord. Enter CALPHURNIA. [Exit. Cal. What mean you, Cæsar? Think you to walk forth? You shall not stir out of your house to-day. Cas. Cæsar shall forth: The things that threaten'd me, Cal. Cæsar, I never stood on ceremonies,2 2 Cesar, I never stood on ceremonies,] i. e. I never paid a ceremonious or superstitious regard to prodigies or omens. The adjective is used in the same sense in The Devil's Charter, 1607: "The devil hath provided in his covenant, The original thought is in the old translation of Plutarch: "Calphurnia, until that time, was never given to any fear or superstition." Steevens. 3 And graves have yawn'd and yielded up their dead: &c.] So, in a funeral Song in Much Ado about Nothing: “Graves yawn, and yield your dead." Again, in Hamlet: "A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, "The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead "Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets." Malone. Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds, Horses did neigh, and dying men did groan; And I do fear them. Cas. What can be avoided, Whose end is purpos'd by the mighty gods? Yet Cæsar shall go forth: for these predictions Are to the world in general, as to Cæsar. Cal. When beggars die, there are no comets seen; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.8 ▲ Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds, In ranks, and squadrons, and right form of war,] So, in Tacitus, Hist. B. V: Visæ per cælum concurrere acies, rutilantia arma, et subito nubium igne collucere" &c. Steevens. Again, in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, 1590: "And break their burning launces in the ayre, "For honour of my wondrous victories." Malone. 5 The noise of battle hurtled in the air,] To hurtle is, I suppose, to clash, or move with violence and noise. So, in Selimus, Emperor of the Turks, 1594: " Here the Polonian he comes hurtling in, Again, ibid: "To toss the spear, and in a warlike gyre Shakspeare uses the word again in As you Like it: "-in which hurtling, "From miserable slumber I awak'd." Steevens. To hurtle originally signified to push violently; and, as in such an action a loud noise was frequently made, it afterwards seems to have been used in the sense of to clash. So, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, v. 2618: "And he him hurtleth with his hors adoun." Malone. 6 Horses did neigh,] Thus the second folio. Its blundering prede cessor reads: " Horses do neigh. Steevens. 7 And ghosts did shriek, and squeal about the streets.] So, in Lodge's Looking Glasse for London and England, 1598: "The ghosts of dead men howling walke about, VOL. XIV. F |