Like a phantafma, or a hideous dream : Confpiracy. of these two confpiracies being fo very different, (the fortune of Cefar and the Roman empire being concerned in the first, and that of only a few auxiliary troops in the other) Mr. Addifon could not with that propriety bring in that magnificent circumtance, which gives the terrible grace to Shakespear's description: The genius and the mortal instruments For kingdoms, in the poetical theology befides their good, have their evil geniuses likewife, represented here with the most daring ftretch of fancy, as fitting in council with the confpirators, whom he calls the mortal inftruments. But this would have been too great an apparatus to the rape and defertion of Syphax and Sempronius. Secondly, the other thing very obfervable is, that Mr. Addifon was fo warm'd and affected with the fire of Shakefpear's defcription, that instead of copying his author's fentiments, he has, before he was aware, given us only the image of his own expreffions, on the reading of his great original. For Oh, 'tis a dreadful interval of time Fill'd up with horror all, and big with death. Are not the affections rais'd by fuch forcible images as thefe, All the interim is Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream. The state of man, Like to a little kingdom, fuffers then The nature of an infurrection. Comparing the mind of a confpirator to an anarchy, is just and beautiful: but the interim to a hideous dream, has fomething in it fo wonderfully natural, and lays the human foul fo open, that one cannot but be furpriz'd, that any poet, who had not himself been fome time or other engaged in a confpiracy, could ever have given fuch force of colouring to truth and na ture. Confpiracy. O confpiracy! Sham'it thou to fhew thy dang'rous brow by night, To mask thy monstrous vifage? Seek none, confpiracy, Hide it in fmiles and affability: For if thou (6) path, thy native femblance on, Not Erebus itself were dim enough To hide thee from prevention. Against Cruelty. Gentle friends, Let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully; And after feem to chide them. Sleep. Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of flumber: SCENE III. Porcia's Speech to Brutus. You've ungently, Brutus, Stole from my bed: and yefternight at fupper, You fuddenly arose and walk'd about, Mufing and fighing, with your arms a-cross : And, (6) Path,] i. e. walk; he makes a verb of the fubftantive, which is very common with him. VOL. III. G And, when I ask'd you what the matter was, I urg'd you further: then you fcratch'd your head, But with an angry wafture with your hand, SCENE IV. Calphurnia to Cæfar, on the Prodigies Cafar, I never ftood on (7) ceremonies, And graves have yawn'd, and yielded up their dead. The noise of battle hurtled in the air; Horfes did neigh, and dying men did groan; And ghosts did fhriek, and squeal about the streets: And I do fear them. Caef. What can be avoided, Whofe (7) The Reader will be agreeably entertained, if he turns to the beginning of Hamlet, where he will find an account of thefe prodigies from our author, Virgil and Ovid. Whofe end is purpos'd by the mighty Gods? Cal. When beggars die, there are no comets feen; The heav'ns themselves blaze forth the death of princes. Against the Fears of Death. Cowards die many times before their deaths; Danger. Danger knows full well, That Cafar is more dangerous than he. (9) We are two lions litter'd in one day, And I the elder and more terrible. Envy. My heart laments, that virtue cannot live Out of the teeth of emulation. (8) Seeing, &c.] ACT The term of life is limited, Ne may a man prolong nor shorten it, The foldier may not move from watchful fted, Spenfer. (9) We are, &c.] The old folios read Wee beare, which Mr. Theobald, ingeniously enough, altered to we were; and Mr. Upim to we are, which is not only nearer the traces of the letters, but more agreeable to the fenfe of the paffage; for Caefar fpeaks all through in the present tense: Danger knows, that Cefar is more dangerous than he: we are two lions, twins, litter'd in one day, and I am the elder and more terrible. ACT III. SCENE III. Antony to the Corps of Cæfar. O, mighty Cæfar, doft thou lie fo low? His Addrefs to the Confpirators. I know not, gentlemen, what you intend; As Cafar's death's hour; nor no inftrument I do befeech ye, if you bear me hard, Now whilft your fury-led hands do reek and smoke, I fhall not find myself so apt to die. No place will please me fo, no means of death SCENE IV. Revenge. (10) Cafar's fpirit, raging for revenge, With Ate by his fide, come hot from hell, Shall (10) Cæfar's, &c.] Mr. Seward obferves, that in those terrille graces fpoken of just now (note 5.) no followers of ShakeSpear approach fo near him as Beaumont and Fletcher; of which he adds the lines here quoted as a strong proof: Fix not your empire Upon the tomb of him, will shake all Ægypt: Whofe warlike groans will raise ten thousand spirits, ; Great as himself, in every hand a thunder, Destructions darting from their looks. The Falfe One, A. 2. S. 1. There |