  Scene 2. Page 254. Cas. Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough. This jingle of words is deserving of notice on no other account than as it shows the pronunciation of Rome in Shakspeare's time. Scene 3. Page 266. Cas. Why old men fools, and children calculate. In this manner has the former punctuation of the line, which had a comma after men, been disturbed at the suggestion of Sir W. Blackstone, and thereby rendered extremely uncouth if not unintelligible. He observes that there is no prodigy in old men's calculating from their past experience; but the poet means old dotards in a second state of childhood. With the supposed power of divination in fools, few are unacquainted. He that happens to be so may consult the popular history of Nixon, the Cheshire prophet. ACT II.Scene 2. Page 299. Cal. When beggars die, there are no comets seen; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes. This might have been suggested by what Suetonius has related of the blazing star which appeared for seven days Pliny relates that a comet appeared before the death of Claudius, lib. ii. c. 25; and Geffrey of Monmouth speaks of one that preceded the death of Aurelius Ambrosius; but the comets would have appeared though the men had not died, and the men would not have lived longer had the comets never been seen. Scene 2. Page 300. Ser. Plucking the entrails of an offering forth They could not find a heart within the beast. CÆs. The gods do this in shame of cowardice: CÆsar should be a beast without a heart, If he should stay at home to day, for fear. Dr. Johnson remarks on this occasion, that "the ancients did not place courage in the heart." He had forgotten his classics strangely. "Nunc animis opus, Ænea, nunc pectore firmo." Æn. vi. 261. "... Juvenes, fortissima frustra Pectora——." Æn. ii. 263. "... TeucrÛm minantur inertia corda." Æn. ix. 55. "... excute, dicens, Corde metum——" Ovid. Metam. lib. iii. 689. "Corda pavent comitum, mihi mens interrita mansit." Ovid. Metam. lib. xv. 514. "Cor pavet admonitu temeratÆ sanguine noctis." Ovid. Epist. xiv. 16. "Nescio quÆ pavidum frigora pectus habent." Ovid. Epist. xix. 192. ACT III.Scene 1. Page 329. Ant. ... for mine eyes, Seeing those beads of sorrow stand in thine, Began to water. We have a similar expression in The tempest, Act V. Scene 1, where Prospero says, "Holy Gonzalo, honourable man, Mine eyes even sociable to the shew of thine, Fall fellowly drops." |
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