2«« S. 3f» 8«.> Jas. U. 'ST.] 



NOT^S AND QUERIES. 



61 



LONDON, SATURDAY, JAiftlAUt ii, 1657. 



SHAkStEARIANA. 



On a Passage in "Julius Ccesar" Act til. Sc, 1. 

 — When Mark Antony first meets the conspi- 

 rators after the death of Cassar, Brutus says : 



" But here comes Antony, — Welcome, Mark Antony." 



And Antony breaks out into a speech, begin- 

 ning — 



" mighty Caesar ! dost thoil lie so low ? " 



And concluding — 



" I do beseech ye, If you bear me hard, 

 Now, whilst your purpled hands do reek and smoke, 

 Fulfil 3'our pleasure. Live / a tliousand years, 

 I shall not liiid myself so apt to die ; 

 No place will please me so, no mean of death, 

 As here by CiBsar, and by you cut oft", 

 The choice and master spirits of this age." 



To which Brutus replies : — 



" O Antony ! beg not j-our death of us. 

 Though now We must appear bloody and cruel, 

 As, by our hands, and this our present act, 

 You see we do ; j'et see you but our hands, 

 And this the bleeding business we have done : 

 Our hearts you see not, they are pitiful ; 

 And pity to the general wrong of Rome 

 (As fire drives out fire, so pit}' pity,) 

 Hath done this deed on Cassar. J'or your part, 

 To you our swords have leaden points, Mark Antony i 

 Our arms, in strength of malice, and our hearts. 

 Of brother's temper, do receive }'0U in 

 With all kind love, good thoughts, and reverence." 



The words, " Our arms, in strength of malice,''^ 

 Steevens thus attempted to explain : -— 



" To you (says Brutus) our swords have leaden points : 

 our arms, strong in the deed of malice they have just 

 performed, and our hearts united like those of brothers 

 in the action, are yet open to receive you with all possible 

 regard. The supposition that Brutus meant, ' their 

 hearts were of brothers' temper in respect of Antony,' 

 seems to have misled those who have commented on this 

 passage before.^ For 'in strength of Mr. Pope sub- 

 stituted exempt from, and was too hastily followed by 

 other editors. If alteration were necessary, it would bo 

 easier to read — 



" ' Our arms no strength of malice . . .' " 



This passage, with many others equally obscure, 

 were passed over without notice both by Mr. Col- 

 lier and Mr. Knight ; but in Mr. Collier's 2nd 

 edition of his Notes and Emendations we are in- 

 formed, that the word welcome is substituted for 

 malice in his noted 2nd folio. This reading is 

 received with approbation by Mr. Craik in his 

 Philological Commentary on this play ; though, 

 from not having consulted the 2nd edition of Mr. 

 Collier's book, he speaks of it being " smuggled 

 into the text." 



Dr. Badham, in bis Essay " on the Text of 



Shakspeare," has also tried his hand on this J)as- 

 sage. He observes : 



" It is surely quite unworthy of Shakspeare to use ' no 

 strength of malice ' for ' ho malice,' for such an expres- 

 sion would rather implj' that there was malice, but that 

 it was of an impotent kind. Besides, there is great awk- 

 wardness of construction in having three clauses, of which 

 the first and the last have its appropriate verb, — have, 

 and i-eceive in, — while the middle one is obliged to bor- 

 row from its neighbour. An attentive student of Shak- 

 speare's manner will expect that the three things enu- 

 merated, silttrds, artns, and heatis, will each be suited 

 with some appropriate figure ; nor is it very difficult to 

 detect, under the corruption in strength of malice, the very 

 hand of our author : — 



" ' To you, oUr swords have leaden points, Mark Antony : 

 Our arms unstring their malice, and our hearts,' &c." 



I cannot say that I think Dr. Badham has here 

 displayed his wonted acumen ; for there arc cer- 

 tainly some suggestions in his Essay for which 

 every lover of the poet will be grateful. We may 

 here be disposed to ask, what arms are to unstring 

 their malice ? 



I regret exceedingly that I did not give this 

 passage the attention I have done since, when I 

 printed the play ; I have since thought it certain 

 that we should find a solution of the difficulty 

 from some parallel passage in the poet, and I have 

 not been disappointed. In Antony and Cleopatra, 

 Act iit. Sc. 2., when Mark Antoiiy is leaving 

 Octavlus Caesar, he says, oti embracing him : 



" . . . . . Come, Sir, come, 

 1*11 VVi^estle with you in mi/ strenqth of love : 

 Look, here I have you ; — thus 1 let you go, 

 And give you to the gods." 



Who can doubt, therefore, that we should read : 



" For your part. 



To you our swords have leaden f)oints, Mark Antony, 



Our arms in strength of amity, and our hearts. 



Of brother's temper, do receive you in 



With all kind love, good thoughtSj and reverence." 



Here all is congruous. The metaphorical an- 

 tithesis is palpable between the leaden points of 

 the swords — weak and untempered^ and the trans- 

 ference of the qualities of strength and temper to 

 the arms of amity and hearts of brothers. 



If any one doubt that the word amity could be 

 mistaken for malice by the printer, in copying 

 from old MSS., I would request him to recollect 

 that the word was written amitie, as it is some- 

 times printed in the folio; and that much more 

 extraordinary mistakes have in other places oc- 

 curred, and been corrected witiiout demur, when 

 not half so obvious and well supported. 



S. W. Singer. 



South Lambeth, Jan. 12, 1857. 



Shakspeare'' s Portrait. — Ihis is a subject of 

 some interest at the present moment, when we 

 hear so much of discoveries. May I ask what 

 has become of a head of Shakspeare, paitited by 



