There is so hot a fummer in my bofom, Poison'd, ill fare! dead, forfook, caft off; Drink, drink, drink, colder, colder And Than fnow on Scythian mountains: oh my heart-strings; Danubius I'll have brought through my body: And Volga, on whofe face the North-wind freezes, Already to my funeral are flaming, Shall I not drink? Like Nero, But far more terrible and full of flaughter, A thousand fans, a thousand fans to cool me: A thousand April showers fall in my bofom; See Act. 5. S. 2. But, in another play of theirs---- A wife for a month, is a poisoning fcene, which better deferves to be compar'd with this of our author, and which Mr. Seaward obferves, every reader of tafte will acknowledge fuperior to it.” Alphonfo, long a prey to melancholy, is poifon'd with a hot, brenning potion, and in the midst of his tortures, raves thus. Give me more air, more air, air: blow, blow, blow, Distill thy cold dews, O thou icy moon, And rivers run through my afflicted fpirit. Reigns in my bloood: oh which way fhall I turn me? Fling me into the ocean or I perish : Dig, dig, dig, dig, until the fprings fly up; The cold, cold fprings, that I may leap into them, And bathe my fcorch'd limbs in their purling pleasuress Or fhoot me into the higher region, Where treasures of delicious fnow are nourish'd, And none of you will bid the winter come Nor let my kingdom's rivers take their course Rug. Hold him faft, fryar, Alph: What will ye facrifice me ? Upon the altar lay my willing body, And pile your wood up, fling your holy incenfer Mart. To bed, good fir. Alph. My bed will burn about me: Like Phaeton in all-confuming flashes : Am I inclos'd let me fly, let me fly, give room; Like jewels round about my head to cool me. The line 'Twixt the cold bears, far from the raging lion, was read, (before corrected by Mr. Seward) Betwixt the cold bear and the raging lion. SCENE * SCENE X. England, invincible, if unanimous. Lye at the proud foot of a conqueror, JULIUS PATRIOTISM. (1) W If it be aught towards the general good, WH HAT is it, that you would impart to me? Set honour in one eye, and death i' th' other, For let the gods fo speed me, as I love Caffius, in Contempt of Cæfar. I was born free as Cæfar, fo were you; We both have fed as well; and we can both (1) What, &c.] "How agreeable to his ftoic character, does Shakespear, make Brutus fpeak here? Cicero de Fin. iii. 16. Quid' enim illi AAIA OPON dicunt, id mihi ita occurrit, ut indifferens dicerem. One of the great divifions of things among the ftoics was into good, bad, indifferent: virtue, and whatever partook of virtue, was good: vice, bad: but what partook of neither virtue, nor vice, being not in our power, was indifferent: fuch as honour, wealth, death, &c. But of these indifferent things, fome might be esteemed more than others; as here Brutus says, I love the name of honour, more than I fear death. See Cicero de Fin. iii. 15. 16. The ftoics never destroyed choice among indifferent things.This being premised, let us see Brutus's fpeech.-" If it be aught (fays he) towards the general good, (wgos ro ολον προς την πο A) as I am a part of that whole, a citizen of that city : my principles lead me to pursue it: this is my end, my good: whatever comes in competition with the general good, will weigh nothing: death and honour are to me things of an indifferent nature: but however I freely acknowledge, that of these indifferent things, honour has my greatest efteem, my choice and love: the very name of honour I love, more than I fear death." Upton's Obfervations on Shakespear, p. 314. Enduré Endure the winter's cold, as well as he. (2) For once upon a raw and gusty day, And swim to yonder point?"-Upon the word, And bid him follow; fo, indeed, he did. Did from the flames of Troy upon his fhoulder (2) For once, &c.] It is too well known that swimming was a ufual exercife with the hardy and noble Romans, to infift upon it here: Horace makes it a mark of effeminacy to neglect it: and complains to Lydia, that he had enervated Sybaris, by making him afraid even to touch the yellow Tyber's ftream--- Cur timet flavum Tyberim tangere ? See ode 8. 1. 1. Julius Cæfar was remarkable for his excellence in swimming : Beaumont and Fletcher, in their Falfe one, thus nobly defcribe one of the moft illuftrious incidents of his life-- But got near the sea, In which his navy anchor'd, in one hand See the latter end of Act 5. The reader is defired to refer to the 109th page of the tft volume. |