I will not hold thee long: if I do live,

I will be good to thee.

(Music and a song.

This is a sleepy tune.-O murtherous slumber,
Lay'st thou thy leaden mace upon my boy,

That plays thee music!-Gentle knave, good night;
I will not do thee so much wrong to wake thee.
If thou dost nod, thou break'st thy instrument:
I'll take it from thee;
Let me see, let me see,
Where I left reading?

and, good boy, good night.-
is not the leaf turn'd down
Here it is, I think.

(He sits down.

Enter the Ghost of Cæsar.

How ill this taper burns!-Ha! who comes here? I think it is the weakness of my eyes

That shapes this monstrous apparition.

It comes upon me.-Art thou any thing?

Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil,

That mak'st my blood cold and my hair to stare?
Speak to me what thou art.

Ghost. Thy evil spirit, Brutus.
Brutus.
Why com'st thou?
Ghost. To tell thee thou shalt see me at Philippi.
Brutus. Well; then I shall see thee again?

Ghost.

Ay, at Philippi. (Ghost vanishes.

Brutus. Why, I will see thee at Philippi then.— Now I have taken heart, thou vanishest.*

Ill spirit, I would hold more talk with thee.— Boy! Lucius!-Varro! Claudius! Sirs, awake!Claudius!

*From Bacon: "As in infection and contagion from body to body, it is most certain that the infection is received by the body passive, but yet is by the strength and good dis position thereof repulsed and wronght out before it is formed into a disease; so much the more in impressions from mind to mind, or from spirit to spirit, the impression taketh, but is encountered and overcome by the mind and spirit, which is passive, before it work any manifest effect."-Sylva Sylvarum (1622-25).

This story is told by Plutarch as follows:

"He thought he heard one come unto him, and, casting his eye towards the door of his tent, he saw a wonderful strange and monstrous shape of a body coming towards him and said never a word. So Brutus boldly asked what he was, a God or a man, and what cause brought him thither.

""

The spirit answered him, 'I am thy evil spirit, Brutus, and thou shalt see me by the city of Philippi! Brutus, being no otherwise afraid, replied again unto it, 'Well, then, I shall see thee again.' The spirit presently vanished away." It appears now, as Mr. James very cleverly points out, that Shake-speare's account of this apparition differs in one important particular from Plutarch's; namely, it represents Brutus as at first affected by fear, and then, on recovery from the fear, immediately losing sight of his unwelcome visitor. That is, the ghost, being simply the creature of a disordered imagination, fled as soon as the mind of Brutus resumed its natural courage. This result is in exact accordance with Bacon's definition as given above.

Lucius. The strings, my lord, are false.

Brutus. He thinks he still is at his instrument.Lucius, awake!

Lucius. My lord!

Brutus. Didst thou dream, Lucius, that thou so criedst out?

Lucius. My lord, I do not know that I did cry. Brutus. Yes, that thou didst. Didst thou see any thing?

Lucius. Nothing, my lord.

Brutus. Sleep again, Lucius.-Sirrah, Claudius! Fellow thou! awake!

Varro. My lord!

Claudius. My lord!

Brutus. Why did you so cry out, sirs, in your sleep?

Varro, Claudius. Did we, my lord?

Brutus.

Ay; saw you any thing?

Nor I, my lord.

Varro. No, my lord, I saw nothing.
Claudius.

Brutus. Go, and commend me to my brother Cas

sius;

Bid him set on his powers betimes before,

And we will follow.

Varro, Claudius. It shall be done, my lord.

(Exeunt.

Enter OCTAVIUS, ANTONY, and their Army.
Octavius. Now, Antony, our hopes are answered.
You said the enemy would not come down,
But keep the hills and upper regions.

It proves not so: their battles are at hand,*
They mean to warn us at Philippi here,
Answering before we do demand of them.

*Their battalions, or forces. Cf. Hen. V. IV., chor. 9: "Each battle sees the other's umber'd face;" Bacon, Ess. 58: "they were more ignorant in ranging and arraying their battailes, etc."-Rolfe.

Antony. Tut! I am in their bosoms, and I know
Wherefore they do it: they could be content
To visit other places, and come down

With fearful bravery, thinking by this face
To fasten in our thoughts that they have courage ;*
But 't is not so.

*With a gallant show of courage carrying with it terror and dismay" (Malone): with "bravery in show or appearance, which yet is full of real fear or apprehension" (Craik). The latter interpretation agrees better with what follows. For bravery equals bravado, cf. Bacon,, Ess. 57: "To seek to extinguish anger utterly, is but a bravery of the Stoicks." For fearful equals timorous, faint-hearted, see V. and A. 677: "Pursue these fearful creatures o'er the downs" the crea tures being "the timorous flying hare" (called "the fearful flying hare" in 3 Hen. VI., II., 5, 130), the fox and the roe. See also Judges VII., 3, Matt. VIII., 26, etc.-Rolfe.

Messenger.

Enter a Messenger.

Prepare you, generals:

The enemy comes on in gallant show;

Their bloody sign of battle is hung out,