A little ere the mightieft Julius fell, The graves flood tenantlefs, and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets. As, ftars with trains of fire and dews of blood, "As, ftars with trains of fire and dews of blood, Difafters in the fun ;] Mr. Rowe altered thefe lines, because they have infufficient connection with the preceding ones, thus: Stars fhone with trains of fire, dews of blood fell, This paffage is not in the folio. By the quartos therefore our imperfect text is fupplied; for an intermediate verfe being evidently loft, it were idle to attempt a union that never was intended. I have therefore fignified the fuppofed deficiency by a vacant space. When Shakspeare had told us that the grave ftood tenantless, &c. which are wonders confined to the earth, he naturally proceeded to fay (in the line now loft) that yet other prodigies appeared in the sky; and these phenomena he exemplified by adding, As [i. e. as for inftance] Stars with trains of fire, &c. So, in King Henry IV. P. II: "to bear the inventory of thy thirts; as, one for fuperfluity," &c. Again, in King Henry VI. P. III: "Two Cliffords, as the father and the fon, Again, in The Comedy of Errors : "They fay, this town is full of cozenage; "As, nimble jugglers that deceive the eye" &c. Difafters dimm'd the Jun;] The quarto, 1604, reads: Difafters in the fun ; For the emendation I am refponfible. It is ftrongly fupported not only by Plutarch's account in The Life of Cæfar, [" also the brightnefs of the funne was darkened, the which, all that yeare through, rofe very pale, and Shined not out,"] but by various paffages in our author's works. So, in The Tempest : I have be-dimm'd, "The noon-tide fun." Again, in King Richard II: "As doth the blushing difcontented fun, "When he perceives the envious clouds are bent Upon whofe influence Neptune's empire ftands, Again, in our author's 18th Sonnet : "Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven fhines, "And often is his gold complexion dimm'd." I fufpect that the words As ftars are a corruption, and have no doubt that either a line preceding or following the first of thofe quoted at the head of this note, has been loft; or that the beginning of one line has been joined to the end of another, the intervening words being omitted. That fuch conjectures are not merely chimerical, I have already proved. See Vol. XI. p. 376, &c. n. 3; and Vol. XIV. p. 351, n. S. The following lines in Julius Cæfar, in which the prodigies that are faid to have preceded his death, are recounted, may throw fome light on the paffage before us: There is one within, "Befides the things that we have heard and feen, "And graves have yawn'd and yielded up their dead : "The noife of battle hurtled in the air, "Hories do neigh, and dying men did groan; "And ghofts did fhriek and fqueal about the fireets." The loft words perhaps contained a defcription of fiery warriors fighting on the clouds, or of brands burning bright beneath the fiars. The 15th Book of Ovid's Metamorphofes, tranflated by Golding, in which an account is given of the prodigies that preceded Cæfar's death, furnished Shakspeare with fome of the images in both these paffages: battels fighting in the clouds with crashing armour flew, "And dreadful trumpets founded in the ayre, and hornes eke blew, "As warning men beforehand of the mischiefe that did brew ; "And Phoebus alfo looking dim did caft a drowfie light, Uppon the earth, which feemde likewife to be in fory plighte: "From underneath beneath the ftarres brandès oft feemde burning bright, 8 And even the like precurfe of fierce events,9- "It often rain'd drops of blood. The morning ftar look'd blew, "And was befpotted here and there with specks of ruftic hew. "The moone had also spots of blood.— "Salt teares from ivorie-images in fundry places fell;"The dogges did howle, and every where appeared ghaftly fprights, "And with an earthquake fhaken was the towne."Plutarch only fays, that the funne was darkened," that "diverse men were feen going up and down in fire;" there were "fires in the element; fprites were feene running up and downe in the night, and folitarie birds fitting in the great marketplace." The difagreeable recurrence of the word ftars in the fecond line induces me to believe that As ftars in that which precedes, is a corruption. Perhaps Shakspeare wrote: Aftres with trains of fire, and dews of blood Difafterous dimm'd the fun. The word aftre is ufed in an old collection of poems entitled Diana, addreffed to the Earl of Oxenforde, a book of which I know not the date, but believe it was printed about 1580. In Othello we have antres, a word exactly of a fimilar formation." MALONE. The word-aftre, (which is no where else to be found) was affectedly taken from the French by John Southern, author of the poems cited by Mr. Malone. This wretched plagiarist stands indebted both for his verbiage and his imagery to Ronfard. See the European Magazine, for June, 1788, p. 389. STEEVENS. 7 and the moift ftar, &c.] i. e. the moon. So, in Marlowe's Hero and Leander, 1598: "Not that night-wand'ring, pale, and watry fiar" &c. MALONE. And even-] Not only fuch prodigies have been seen in Rome, but the elements have shown our countrymen like forerunners and foretokens of violent events. JOHNSON. -precurfe of fierce events,] Fierce, for terrible. WARBURTON. And prologue to the omen coming on,'- I rather believe that fierce fignifies confpicuous, glaring. It is used in a fomewhat fimilar fenfe in Timon of Athens: "O the fierce wretchedness that glory brings !" Again, in King Henry VIII. we have "fierce vanities." STEEVENS. And prologue to the omen coming on,] But prologue and omen are merely fynonymous here. The poet means, that these ftrange phænomena are prologues and forerunners of the events prefag'd: and fuch sense the flight alteration which I have ventured to make, by changing omen to omen'd, yery aptly gives. THEOBALD. Omen, for fate. WARBURTON. Hanmer follows Theobald. A diftich from the life of Merlin, by Heywood, however, will fhow that there is no occafion for correction : "Merlin well vers'd in many a hidden spell, "His countries omen did long fince foretell." FARMER, Again, in The Vowbreaker: "And much I fear the weakness of her braine "Should draw her to fome ominous exigent." Omen, I believe, is danger. STEEVENS. And even the like precurfe of fierce events, As harbingers preceding ftill the fates, And prologue to the omen coming on,] So, in one of our au thor's poems: "But thou fhrieking harbinger "Foul precurrer of the fiend, Augur of the fever's end," &c. The omen coming on is, the approaching dreadful and porten tous event. So, in King Richard III: Thy name is ominous to children." "O Pomfret, Pomfret, O, thou bloody prifon, Re-enter Ghoft. But, foft; behold! lo, where it comes again! Speak to me: 2 If there be any good thing to be done, If thou art privy to thy country's fate, Or, if thou haft uphoarded 3 in thy life. For which, they fay, you spirits oft walk in death, [Cock crows. Speak of it :-stay, and speak.-Stop it, Marcellus. MAR. Shall I ftrike at it with my partizan ? HOR. Do, if it will not stand.4 BER. HOR. 'Tis here! 'Tis here! If thou hast any found,] The fpeech of Horatio to the Spectre is very elegant and noble, and congruous to the common traditions of the causes of apparitions. JOHNSON. 3 Or, if thou haft uphoarded &c.] So, in Decker's Knight's Conjuring, &c. "If any of them had bound the spirit of gold by any charmes in caves, or in iron fetters under the ground, they fhould for their own foules quiet (which questionleffe elfe would whine up and down) if not for the good of their children, release it." STEEVENS. Stop it, Marcellus. Hor. Do, if it will not ftand.] I am unwilling to fuppofe that Shakspeare could appropriate thefe abfurd effufions to Horatio, who is a scholar, and has fufficiently proved his good un |