The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded Part 57

_Men_. Shall it be put to _that_?

_Sen_. _The G.o.ds forbid!_ I pry'thee n.o.ble friend, home to thy house; _Leave us to_ CURE THIS CAUSE.

_Men_. _For_ 'tis a sore _upon us, You cannot tent yourself. Begone, beseech you._

_Com_. Come, Sir, along with us.

_Cor_. I would they were barbarians (as they are, Though in Rome _littered_) not Romans, (as they are _not_, Though _calved_ i' the porch o' the Capitol).

_Men_. Begone; Put not _your worthy rage_ into your _tongue_; _One time_ will _owe another_. [_Hear_.]

_Cor_. On fair ground, I could beat _forty_ of them.

_Men_. I could _myself_ Take up a _brace_ of the best of them; _yea, the two tribunes_.

_Com_. But now 'tis _odds_ beyond arithmetic: And MANHOOD is called FOOLERY, _when it stands Against a falling fabric_.--Will you hence, Before the tag return? whose rage doth rend Like interrupted waters, and _o'erbear What they are used to bear_. [Change of 'predominance.']

_Men_. Pray you, begone: I'll _try_ whether _my_ old wit be in request With _those that have but little_; _this_ must be _patched_ With cloth of _any colour_.

_Com_. Nay, come away.

The features of that living impersonation of the heroic faults and virtues which 'the mirror,' that professed to give to 'the very body of the time, its form and pressure,' could not fail to show, are glimmering here constantly in 'this ancient piece,' and often shine out in the more critical pa.s.sages, with such unmistakeable clearness, as to furnish an effectual diversion for any eye, that should undertake to fathom prematurely the player's intention. For 'the gentleman who wrote the late Shepherd's Calendar' was not the only poet of this time, as it would seem, who found the scope of a double intention, in his poetic representation, not adequate to the comprehension of his design--who laid on another and another still, and found the complexity convenient. 'The sense is the best judge,'

this Poet says, in his doctrine of criticism, declining peremptorily to accept of the ancient rules in matters of taste;--a rule in art which requires, of course, a corresponding rule of interpretation. In fact, it is no bad exercise for an ordinary mind, to undertake to track the contriver of these plays, through all the lat.i.tudes which his art, as he understands it, gives him. It is as good for that purpose, as a problem in mathematics. But, 'to whom you will not give an hour, you give nothing,' he says, and 'he had as lief not be read at all, as be read by a careless reader.' So he thrusts in his meanings as thick as ever he likes, and those who don't choose to stay and pick them out, are free to lose them. They are not the ones he laid them in for,--that is all. He is not afraid, but that he will have readers enough, ere all is done; and he can afford to wait.

There's time enough.

_First Pat_. This man has marr'd his fortune.

_Men_. His nature is too n.o.ble for the world: _He_ would not _flatter_ Neptune for _his trident_, Or Jove for _his power_ to _thunder_. His heart's his mouth; What his breast forges, _that_ his _tongue_ must vent; And being angry, does forget that _ever He heard the name of death_.

[_A noise within_.]

Here's goodly work!

_Second Pat_. I would they were _a-bed_!

_Men_. I would they were in Tyber!--_What, the vengeance, Could he_ not _speak them fair_?

[_Re-enter Brutus and Sicinius with the Rabble_.]

_Sic_. WHERE IS THIS VIPER, That would _depopulate_ the city, and BE EVERY MAN HIMSELF?

_Men_. You worthy tribunes--

_Sic_. _He_ shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock With rigorous hands; _he hath resisted LAW_, And therefore law shall scorn him further trial.

['When could they say till now that talked of Rome that _her_ wide walls encompa.s.sed but _one man_?' 'What trash is Rome, what rubbish, and what offal, when it serves for the base matter to illuminate so vile a thing as Caesar.']

Than the severity of the PUBLIC POWER, _Which he so sets at nought_.

_First Cit_. He shall _well_ know The n.o.ble _tribunes_ are the _people's mouths_, And _we their hands_.

[Historical _principles throughout, with much of that kind of ill.u.s.tration in which his works are so prolific, an ill.u.s.tration which is not rhetorical, but scientific, based on the COMMON PRINCIPLES IN NATURE, which it is his 'primary' business to ascend to, and which it is his 'second' business to apply to each particular branch of art.

'Neither,' as he tells us plainly, in his Book of Advancement, 'neither are these only _similitudes_ as _men of narrow observation_ may conceive them to be, but the _same footsteps of nature_, treading or printing upon several subjects or matters,' and the tracking of these historical principles to their ultimate forms, is that which he recommends for the _disclosing_ of _nature and_ the _abridging_ of Art.]

_Sic_. He's a _disease_, that must be cut away.

_Men_. O he's a _limb_, that has but a disease; Mortal to cut it off; to cure it, easy.

What has he done to Rome, that's worthy death?

_Killing our enemies?_ The blood he hath _lost_, (Which, I dare vouch, is more than that he hath, _By many an ounce_), he dropped it for his country.

And what _is left, to lose it by his country, Were to us all, that do't and suffer it, A brand to the end o' the world._

There's a piece thrust in here. This is the one of whom he says in another scene, 'I cannot speak him home.'

_Bru_. _Merely awry_: when he did love his country, It honour'd him.

_Men_. The _service_ of the _foot_, Being once _gangren'd_, is not then respected _For what before it was_?

_Bru_. We'll hear no more:-- Pursue him to his house, and pluck him thence; Lest his infection, being of catching nature, _Spread further_.

_Men_. One word more, one word.

This _tiger-footed_ rage, when it shall find _The harm_ of _unscann'd swiftness_, will, too late, _Tie leaden pounds to his_ HEELS. [Mark it, for it is a prophecy]

_Lest_ PARTIES (as he is _beloved_) _break out_, And sack great _Rome_ with _Romans_.

_Bru_. If it were so,--

_Sic. What_ do ye talk?

Have we not had a taste of his obedience?

_Our aediles smote? Ourselves resisted?--Come:--_

_Men. Consider this; he has been bred i' the wars_, Since he could draw a sword,--

That has been the breeding of states, and n.o.bility, and their rule, hitherto, as this play will show you. Consider what _schooling_ these statesmen have had, before you begin the enterprise of reforming them, and take your measures accordingly. They are not learned men, you see.

How should they be? There has been no demand for learning. The law of the sword has prevailed hitherto. When what's not meet but what must be was law, then were they chosen. Proceed by process.

_Consider_ this; he has been bred i' the WARS Since he could draw a sword, and is _ill school'd_ In _boulted language_--

[That's the trouble; but there's been a little bolting going on in this play.]

--_Meal and bran, together_ He _throws without distinction. Give me leave_ I'll go to him, and undertake to bring him Where he shall answer by a _lawful form_, (In peace) to his utmost peril.

_First Sen. n.o.ble tribunes._ It is the _humane way_: the _other_ course Will prove too b.l.o.o.d.y; and--

[What is very much to be deprecated in such movements].

--the END of it, Unknown to the beginning.

_Sic_. n.o.ble Menenius; Be _you_ then as the People's Officer: _Masters_,--[and they seem to be that, truly,]--lay down _your weapons_.