And sudden push gives them the overthrow.

Ride, ride, Messala: let them all come down. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.

The same. Another Part of the Field.

Alarum.

Enter CASSIUS and TITINIUS.

Cas. O, look, Titinius, look, the villains fly!
Myself have to mine own turn'd enemy:
This ensign here of mine was turning back;
I slew the coward, and did take it from him.

Tit. O Cassius, Brutus gave the word too early:
Who, having some advantage on Octavius,
Took it too eagerly; his soldiers fell to spoil,
Whilst we by Antony are all enclos'd.

Enter PINDARUS.

Pin. Fly further off, my lord, fly further off;
Mark Antony is in your tents, my lord!
Fly therefore, noble Cassius, fly far off.

Cas. This hill is far enough.3-Look, look, Titinius;

3 This hill is far enough. &c.] Thus, in the old translation of Plutarch: "So, Cassius him selfe was at length compelled to flie, with a few about him, vnto a little hill, from whence they might easely see what was done in all the plaine: howbeit Cassius him self sawe nothing, for his sight was verie bad, sauing that he saw (and yet with much a doe) how the enemies spoiled his campe before his eyes. He sawe also a great troupe of horsemen, whom Brutus sent to aide him, and thought that they were his enemies that followed him : but yet he sent Titinius, one of them that was with him, to goe and know what they were. Brutus' horsemen sawe him comming a farre of, whom when they knewe that he was one of Cassius' chiefest friendes, they showted out for joy: and they that were familiarly acquainted with him, lighted from their horses, and went and imbraced him. The rest compassed him in rounde about a horsebacke, with songs of victorie and great rushing of their harnes, so that they made all the field ring againe for joy. But this marred all. For Cassius thinking in deed that Titinius was taken of the enemies, he then spake these wordes: desiring too much to liue, I haue liued to see one of my best frendes taken, for my sake, before my face. After that, he gotte into a tent where no bodye was, and tooke Pindarus with him, one of his freed bondmen, whom he reserued ever for suche a pinche, since the cursed battell of the Parthians, where Crassus was slaine, though he notwithstanding scaped from that ouerthrow; but then casting his cloke ouer his head, & holding out his bare neck vnto Pyndarus, he gaue him his head to be striken off. So the head was

Are those my tents, where I perceive the fire?
Tit. They are, my lord.

Cas.

Titinius, if thou lov'st me, Mount thou my horse, and hide thy spurs in him, Till he have brought thee up to yonder troops, And here again; that I may rest assur'd, Whether yond' troops are friend or enemy.

Tit. I will be here again, even with a thought.4 [Exit. Cas. Go, Pindarus, get higher on that hill;6

My sight was ever thick; regard Titinius,

And tell me what thou not'st about the field.- [Exit PIN. This day I breathed first: time is come round,7

And, where I did begin, there shall I end;

My life is run his compass.-Sirrah, what news?3
Pin. [above] O my lord !9

Cas. What news?

Pin. Titinius is

found seuered from the bodie: but after that time Pyndarus was neuer seene more."

Steevens.

even with a thought.] The same expression occurs again in Antony and Cleopatra:

66

That, which is now a horse, even with a thought

"The rack dislimns,

39 Steevens.

5 Go, Pindarus,] This dialogue between Cassius and Pindarus, is beautifully imitated by Beaumont and Fletcher in their tragedy of Bonduca, Act III, sc. v. Steevens.

6 get higher on that hill;] Our author perhaps wrote on this hill; for Cassius is now on a hill. But there is no need of change. He means a hillock somewhat higher than that on which he now is. The editor of the second folio arbitrarily reads-thither for higher, and all the subsequent editors adopted his alteration. Malone.

Mr. Malone has sufficiently justified the reading in the text; and yet the change offered by the second folio is not undefensible. Steevens. time is come round,] So, in King Lear, the Bastard, dying,

7

says:

"The wheel is come full circle." Steevens.

8 Sirrah, what news?] Sirrah, as appears from many of our old plays, was the usual address in speaking to servants, and children. Mr. Pope, not adverting to this, reads-Now, what news? See Vol. VII, p. 185, n. 9.

Malone.

9 O my lord! &c.] Perhaps this passage, designed to form a single verse, originally stood thus:

Pin.

Cas.

Pin.

O my good lord!

What news?

Enclosed round about with horsemen, that
Make to him on the spur;-yet he spurs on.-
Now they are almost on him; now, Titinius!-

Now some 'light :—O, he 'lights too:-he's ta’en ;—and,

hark!

They shout for joy.

[Shout.

Cas.
O, coward that I am, to live so long,
To see my best friend ta'en before my

Come down, behold no more.

Enter PINDARUS.

Come hither, sirrah :

In Parthia did I take thee prisoner;

face!

And then I swore thee, saving of thy life,
That whatsoever I did bid thee do,

Thou should'st attempt it. Come now, keep thine oath !

Now be a freeman; and, with this good sword,

That ran through Cæsar's bowels, search this bosom.
Stand not to answer: Here, take thou the hilts;
And, when my face is cover'd, as 'tis now,

Guide thou the sword.-Cæsar, thou art reveng'd,

Even with the sword that kill'd thee.

[Dies.

Pin. So, I am free; yet would not so have been,

Durst I have done my will. O Cassius!

Far from this country Pindarus shall run,

Where never Roman shall take note of him.

[Exit.

Re-enter TITINIUS, with MESSALA.

Mes. It is but change, Titinius; for Octavius

Is overthrown by noble Brutus' power,

As Cassius' legions are by Antony.

Tit. These tidings will well comfort Cassius.
Mes. Where did you leave him?

Tit.
All disconsolate,
With Pindarus his bondman, on this hill.
Mes. Is not that he, that lies upon the ground?
Tit. He lies not like the living. O my heart!
Mes. Is not that he?

Tit.
No, this was he, Messala,
But Cassius is no more.-O setting sun!
As in thy red rays thou dost sink to night,
So in his red blood Cassius' day is set;
The sun of Rome is set! Our day is gone;

Clouds, dews, and dangers come; our deeds are done!
Mistrust of my success hath done this deed.

Mes. Mistrust of good success hath done this deed.

O hateful error, melancholy's child!

Why dost thou show to the apt thoughts of men
The things that are not? O error, soon conceiv'd,
Thou never com'st unto a happy birth,

But kill'st the mother that engender'd thee.

Tit. What, Pindarus! Where art thou, Pindarus?
Mes. Seek him, Titinius: whilst I go to meet
The noble Brutus, thrusting this report
Into his ears: I may say, thrusting it;
For piercing steel, and darts envenom'd,
Shall be as welcome to the ears of Brutus,
As tidings of this sight.

Tit.
Hie you, Messala,
And I will seek for Pindarus the while.

[Exit MES.

Why didst thou send me forth, brave Cassius?
Did I not meet thy friends? and did not they
Put on my brows this wreath of victory,

And bid me give 't thee? Didst thou not hear their shouts?
Alas, thou hast misconstrued every thing.

But hold thee, take this garland on thy brow;

Thy Brutus bid me give it thee, and I
Will do his bidding.-Brutus, come apace,
And see how I regarded Caius Cassius.—

[Dies.

By your leave, gods:-This is a Roman's part:
Come, Cassius' sword, and find Titinius' heart.
Alarum. Re-enter MESSALA, with BRUTUS, young CATO,
STRATO, VOLUMNIUS, and LUCILIUS.

Bru. Where, where, Messala, doth his body lie?
Mes. Lo, yonder; and Titinius mourning it.
Bru. Titinius' face is upward.

Cato.

He is slain.

Bru. O Julius Cæsar, thou art mighty yet! Thy spirit walks abroad, and turns our swords In our own proper entrails.1

Cato.

[Low Alarums.

Brave Titinius!

Look, whe'r he have not crown'd dead Cassius!

Bru. Are yet two Romans living such as these?—

The last of all the Romans, fare thee well!

In our own proper entrails.] So, Lucan, Lib. I:

• populumque potentem

"In sua victrici conversum viscera dextra." Steevens.

It is impossible, that ever Rome

Should breed thy fellow.-Friends, I owe more tears
To this dead man, than you shall see me pay.-

I shall find time, Cassius, I shall find time.-
Come, therefore, and to Thassos3 send his body;

2 The last of all the Romans,] From the old translation of Plutarch: "So, when he [Brutus] was come thither, after he had lamented the death of Cassius, calling him THE last of all the Romans, being impossible that Rome should ever breede againe so noble and valiant a man as he, he caused his bodie to be buried." &c.

Mr Rowe, and all the subsequent editors, read, as we should now write,-Thou last, &c. But this was not the phraseology of Shakspeare's age. See Vol. X, p. 419, n. 5. See also the Letter of Posthumus to Imogen, in Cymbeline, Act III, sc. ii: " as you, O the dearest of creatures, would not even renew me with thine eyes." Again, in King Lear:

"The jewels of our father, with wash'd eyes
"Cordelia leaves you."

not ye jewels, as we now should write. Malone.

I have not displaced Mr. Malone's restoration from the old copy, because it is of no great importance to our author's meaning; though I am perfectly convinced, that in the instances from Cymbeline and King Lear, the is merely the error of a compositor who misunderstood the abbreviations employed to express thou and ye in the original MSS. which might not have been remarkable for calligraphy. Both these abbreviations very nearly resemble the one commonly used for the; a circumstance which has proved the frequent source of similar corruption. A mistake of the same colour appears to have happened in p. 118 where (see note 8) thee had been given instead of the. See likewise the volume above referred to by Mr. Malone, where the is again printed (and, as I conceive, through the same blunder,) instead of thou

The passage cited from Plutarch can have no weight on the present occasion. The biographer is only relating what Brutus had said. In the text, Brutus is the speaker, and is addressing himself, propria persona. to Cassius.

Besides, why is not " Thou last” &c. the language of Shakspeare? Have we not in Ring Richard III:

"Thou slander of thy mother's heavy womb!

"Thou loathed issue &c.

"Thou rag of honour. thou detested

And again, in Troilus and Cressida:

"Thou great and wise," &c.

Again, in Hamlet:

661

know thou noble youth!"

And fifty more instances to the same purpose might be introduced. Objectum est Historico (Cremutio Cordo. Tacit. Ann 1. iv, 34,) quod Brutum Cassiumque ultimos Romanorum dixisset. Suet. Tiber. Lib. III, c. 61. Steevens.