That this shall be, or we will fall for it? Nor th' insuppressive mettle of our spirits, To think, that or our cause, or our performance, That every Roman bears, and nobly bears, If he doth break the smallest particle Of any promise that hath past from him. Is it not wonderful to see a poor player thus ennoble the sentiments, and give full expansion to the magnanimity of the man styled the Deliverer of Rome? Mr. Voltaire is so little sensible of the noble delicacy of this speech, that he says the conspirators are not Romans, but a parcel of country-fellows of a former age who conspire in a tippling-house.-Surely there is no partiality in saying our author has given to Brutus Roman sentiments, with a tincture of the Platonic philosophy; and, besides besides these more general characteristics, has added many nice touches, which specify his personal qualities. We behold on the stage the Marcus Brutus of Plutarch rendered more amiable and more interesting. A peculiar gentleness of manners, and delicacy of mind, distinguish him from all the other conspirators; and we cannot refuse to concur with the confession of his enemies, and the words of Antony. ANTONY. This was the noblest Roman of them all : All the conspirators, save only he, Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar ; He, only, in a general honest thought, So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up, The following soliloquy, prophetic of the civil war, subsequent to the death of Cæsar, spoken by Antony addressing himself to the dead body, is sublime and solemn. ANTONY. O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, That That I am meek and gentle with these butchers. Thou art the ruins of the noblest man, That ever lived in the tide of times. Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood! Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips, To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue, A curse shall light upon the limbs of men ; Blood and destruction shall be so in use, That mothers shall but smile, when they behold This speech shews the secret enmity Antony bears to the conspirators, and prepares us for the inflammatory oration, which at the obsequies of Cæsar he pronounces before the people.I shall cite it at length, for as this tragedy has been brought by Mr. Voltaire Voltaire into a comparison with the Cinna of Corneille, and he is pleased to call our English piece a monstrous spectacle, and takes not the least notice of a speech which may be considered as one of the finest pieces of rhetoric that is extant, I am desirous to set it before the reader. It is presumed that he will hardly find any thing monstrous in its form, or absurd in its matter, but quite the reverse. I suppose a popular address and manner, in an oration designed for the populace, would be deemed the most proper by the best critics in the art of rhetoric. ANTONY. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him. So are they all, all honourable men,) Come I to speak in Cæsar's funeral. He was my friend, faithful and just to me; And Brutus is an honourable man. He hath brought many captives home to Rome, When that the poor have cry'd, Cæsar hath wept; Yet Brutus says, he was ambitious, And Brutus is an honourable man. I thrice presented him a kingly crown, Was this ambition? Yet Brutus says, he was ambitious; And, sure, he is an honourable man. I speak not, to disprove what Brutus spoke, But here I am to speak what I do know. You all did love him once,-not without cause; And men have lost their reason. Bear with me. My heart is in the coffin there with Cæsar, And I must pause till it come back to me. 1 PLEBEIAN. Methinks, there is much reason in his sayings, &c. ANTONY. |