صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

COMPRISING

1. The Flowers of Literature. 2. The Spirit of the Magazines. 3. The Wonders of Nature and Art.

4. The Family Physician and Domestic Guide. 5. The Mechanic's Dracle.

THE MURDER OF JULIUS CAESAR.

[graphic][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

THE MURDER OF JULIUS CAESAR.

A DEEP conspiracy was laid against Julius Caesar, composed of no less than sixty senators. They were still the more formidable, as the generality of them were of his own party, who, having been raised above other citizens, felt more strongly the weight of a single superior. At the head of this conspiracy were Brutus, whose life Cæsar had spared after the battle of Pharsalia, and Cassius, who was pardoned soon after; both prætors for the present year. Brutus made it his chief glory to have been Sept. 11.

Vol. III.

descended from that Brutus who first gave liberty to Rome. The passion for freedom seemed to have been transmitted with the blood of his ancestors down to him. But though he 'detested tyranny, yet he could not forbear loving the tyrant, from whom he had received the most signal benefits.

The conspirators, to give a colour of justice to their proceedings, remitted the execution of their design to the ides of March, the day on which Caesar was to be offered the crown. The augurs had foretold that this day would be fatal to him, and the night preceding he heard

No. 83.-Price 2d.

wounds from hands which he vainly sup posed he had disarmed by his benefits. THE BARD OF AVON HAS THUS BEAUTIFULLY DESCRIBED THE VERY ACT OF THE MURDER.

his wife Calphurnia lamenting in her
sleep; and being awakened, she cou-
fessed to him she had dreamed of his
being assassinated in her arms. These
omeus, in some measure, began to change
his intention of going to the senate, as he
had resolved, that day; but one of the
conspirators coming in, prevailed upon
him to keep his resolution, telling him
of the reproach that would attend his
staying at home tifl his wife had lucky
dreams, and of the preparations that
were made for his appearance. As he
went along to the senate, a slave, who
hastened to him with information of the
conspiracy, attempted to come near him,
but could not for the crowd. Artemi-
dorus, a Greek philosopher, who had
discovered the whole plot, delivered him
a memorial containing the heads of the
information; but Cæsar gave it, with
other papers, to one of his secretaries
without reading, as was usual in things
of this nature. Being at length entered
the senate-house, where the conspirators
were prepared to receive him, he met
one Spurina, an augur, who had foretold
his danger, to whom he said, smiling,
"Well, Spurina, the ides of March are
come." "Yes," replied the augur, "but
they are not yet over." As soon as he
had taken his place, the conspirators
came near him, under the pretence of
saluting him; and Cimber, who was one
of them, approached in a suppliant pos-
ture, pretending to sue for his brother's
pardon, who had been banished by his
order. All the conspirators seconded
him with great earnestness; and Cimber,
seeming to sue with still greater sub-
mission, took hold of the bottom of his
robe, holding him so as to prevent his
rising. This was the signal agreed on.
Casca, who was behind, stabbed him,
though slightly, in the shoulder. Cæsar
instantly turned round, and, with the
steel of his tablet, wounded him in the
arm. However, all the conspirators
were now alarmed, and inclosing him
round, he received a second stab from
an unknown hand in the breast, while
Cassius wounded him in the face. He
still defended himself with great vigour,
rushing among them, and throwing down
such as opposed him, till he saw Brutus
among the conspirators, who, coming
up, struck his dagger into his thigh.
From that moment, Cæsar thought no
more of defending himself; but looking
upon this conspirator, cried out, " And
you, too, my son!" Then covering his
head, and spreading his robe before him,
in order to fall with greater decency, he
sunk down, at the base of Pompey's
statue, after receiving three and twenty

[Casca stabs Cæsar in the neck.
Cæsar catches hold of his arm.
He is then stabbed by several
other conspirators, and at last
by Marcus Brutus.

Cæsar. Et tu, Brute ?---Then fall,
Cæsar.

[Dies.

The senators and people retire
in confusion.
Cinna. Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny
is dead! Run hence, proclaim, cry
it about the streets.
Cassius. Some to the common pulpits,
and cry out,

Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement !
Brutus. People and senators! be not

affrighted;

Fly not; stand still:---ambition's debt is paid.

Decius.

Casca. Go to the pulpit, Brutus.
And Cassius too.
Brutus. Where's Publius?
Cinna. Here, quite confounded with
this mutiny

Metellus. Stand fast together, lest
some friend of Cæsar's

Should chance--

Brutus. Talk not of standing ;--

Publius, good cheer;

There is no harm intended to your person,
Nor to no Roman else: so tell them,
Publius.

Cassius. And leave us, Publius; lest

that the people, Rushing on us, should do your age some mischief.

1

Brutus. Do so;---and let no man
abide this deed,
But we the doers.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

"COME, Mrs. Suet, Mrs. Hoggins, Mrs. Sweetbread, Mrs. Cleaver! dinner's ready, shall I show you the way down to the cabin? we mustn't spoil good victuals though we are sure of good company. Lauk! what a monstrous deal of smoke comes out of the chimney. I suppose they are dressing the second course; every thing's roasted by steam, they say, how exceedingly clever! As to Mrs. Dip, since she's so high and mighty, she find her own way down. may What! she's afraid of spoiling her fine shawl, I reckon, though you and I remember Mrs. Hoggins, when her five shilling Welsh-whittle was kept for Sunday's church, and good enough too, for we all know what her mother was. Good Heavens! here comes Undertaker Croak, looking as down in the mouth as the root of my tongue: do let me get out of his way; I wouldn't sit next to him for a rump and dozen, he does tell such dismal stories that it quite gives one the blue devils. He is like a nightmare, isn't he, Mr. Smart? "He may be like a mare by night,” replied Mr. Smart, with a smirking chuckle, "but I consider him more like an ass by day.-He! he! he!" Looking round for applause at this sally, he held out his elbows, and taking a lady, or rather a female, under each arm, he danced towards the hatchway, exclaiming, "Now I am ready trussed for table, liver under one wing and gizzard under the other." "Keep a civil tongue in your head, Mr. Smart; I don't quite understand being called a liver-look at the sparks coming out of the chimney, I declare I'm frightened to death." "Well, then you are of course no longer a liver," resumed the facetious Mr. Smart; "so we may as well apply to Mr. Croak to bury you. "O Gemini! don't talk so shocking; I had rather never die at all than have such a fellow as that to bury me. "Dickey, my dear!" cried Mrs. Cleaver to her son, who was leaning over the ship's side with a most woe-begone and emetical expression of countenance, "hadn't you better come down to dinner? There's a nice silver side of a round o' beef, and the chump end of a line o' mutton, besides a rare hock of bacon, which I dare say will settle your stomach." "O mother," replied the young Cockney, that 'ere cold beef-steak and inguns vat you put in the pocket-handkerchief, vasn't good, I do believe, for all my hinsides are of a work." "Tell 'em it's

[ocr errors]

a holiday," cried Smart. "O dear, O dear!" continued Dick, whose usual brazen tone was subdued into a lackadaisical whine, "I vant to reach and I can't-vat shall I do, mother?" "Stand on tiptoe, my darling," replied Smart, imitating the voice of Mrs. Cleaver, who began to take in high dudgeon this horseplay of her neighbour, and was proceeding to manifest her displeasure in no very measured terms,when she was fortunately separated from her antagonist, and borne down the hatchway by the dinnerdesiring crowd, though sundry echoes of the words "Jackanapes!" and "imperent feller?" continued audible above the confused gabble of the gangway.

"Well, but Mr. Smart," cried Mrs. Suet, as soon as she had satisfied the first cravings of her appetite," you promised to tell me all about the steam, and explain what it is that makes them wheels go round and round as fast as those of our one-horse chay, when Jem Ball drives the trotting mare." "Why, " "Who ma'am, you must understand--called for sandwiches and a tumbler of negus?" bawled the steward." Who called for the savages and tumbling negres?" repeated Mr. Smart." Yes, ma'am, you saw the machinery, I believe ---(capital boiled beef) there's a thing goes up and a thing goes down, all made of iron; well, that's the hydrostatic principle; then you put into the boiler---(a nice leg of mutton, Mrs.Sweetbread)-let me see, where was I?-In the boiler, I believe. Ah! it's an old trick of mine to be getting into hot water. So, ma'am, you see they turn all the smoke that comes from the fire on to the wheels, and that makes them spin round, just as the smoke-jack in our chimnies turns the spit; and then there's the safety-valve in case of danger, which lets all the water into the fire, and so puts out the steam at once. You see, ma'am, it's very simple, when once you understand the trigonometry of it." "O perfectly, but I never had it properly It's vastly explained to me before. clever, isn't it? How could they think of it? Shall I give you a little of the sallad? La, it isn't dressed; what a shame!"

"Not at all," cried Smart, 66 none of us dressed for dinner, so that we can hardly expect it to be dressed for us. He! he! he!" "Did you hear that, Mrs. H.? exclaimed Mrs. Suet, turning to Mrs. Hoggins, "that was a good one, warn't it? Drat it, Smart, you are a droll one.”

Here the company were alarmed by a terrified groan from Mr. Croak, who

ejaculated, "Heaven have mercy upon us! did you hear that whizzing noise? -there it is again! there's something wrong in the boiler-if it bursts, we shall all be in heaven in five minutes." "The Lord forbid!" ejaculated two or three 'voices, while others began to scream, and were preparing to quit their places, when the steward informed them it was nothing in the world but the spare steam which they were letting off. "Ah, so they always say," resumed Croak, with an incredulous tone and woe-begone look; "but it was just the same on board the American steam-boat that I was telling you of fifty-two souls sitting at dinner, laughing and chatting for all the world as we are now, when there comes a whiz, such as we heard a while ago-God help us! there it is once more—and bang! up blew the boiler-fourteen people scalded to death---large pieces of their flesh found upon the banks of the river, aud a little finger picked up next day in an oyster-shell, which by the ring upon it was known to be the captain's. But don't be alarmed, ladies and gentlemen, I dare say we shall escape any scalding, as we're all in the cabin, and so we shall only go to the bottom smack! Indeed we may arrive safe---they do sometimes, and I wish we may now, for nobody loves a party of pleasure more than I do. I hate to look upon the gloomy side of things when we are all happy together (here another groan), and I hope I haven't said any thing to lower the spirits of the company."

"There's no occasion," cried Smart, "for I saw, the steward putting water into every bottle of brandy." The laugh excited by this bon-mot tended in some degree to dissipate the alarm and gloom which the boding Mr. Croak had been infusing into the party; and Smart, by way of fortifying their courage, bade them remark that the sailors were obviously under no sort of apprehension. Ay," resumed the persevering Mr. Croak," they are used to it---it is their business---they are bred to sea.' they don't want to be bread to the fishes, any more than you or 1," retorted Smart, chuckling at his having the best of the nonsense.

[ocr errors]

"But

"Well," exclaimed Mrs. Sweetbread, "I never tasted such beer as this---flat as ditch-water; they should have put it upon the cullender to let the water run out; and yet you have been drinking it, Smart, and never said any thing about it." "Madam," replied the party thus addressed, laying his hand upon his heart, and looking very serious, "I make

it a rule never to speak ill of the deadI am eating the ham, you see, and yet it would be much better if I were to let it exemplify one of Shakspeare's soliloquies

Ham-let alone.". "La! you're such a wag," cried Mrs. Hoggins, "there's no being up to you; but if you don't like the ham, take a slice of this edge-bone ---nothing's better than cold beef." I beg your pardon, Madam, replied the indefatigable joker---" cold beef's better than nothing---Ha! ha! ha!"

"How do you find yourself now, my darling?" said Mrs. Cleaver to her son, who had been driven below by a shower, and kept his hat on because, as he said, his 'air was quite vet." "Vy, mother, I have been as sick as a cat, but I'm bang up now, and so peckish that I feel as if I could heat any thing." "Then just

warm these potatoes," said Smart, handing him the dish, "for they are almost cold." "I'll thank you not to run your rigs upon me," quote the young Cockney, looking glumpish, " or I shall fetch you a vipe with this here hash-stick. If one gives you a hinch, you take a hell." "Never mind him, my dear," cried his mother, "eat this mutton-chop, it will do you good; there's no gravy, for Mr. Smart has all the sauce to himself. Haw! haw! haw!"---" Very good!" exclaimed the latter, clapping his hands, "egad! Ma'am, you are as good a wag as your own double chiu." This was only ventured in a low tone of voice, and, as the fat dame was at that moment. handing the plate to her son, it was fortunately unheard. Dick being still rather gildy, contrived to let the chop fall upon the floor, an occurrence at which Mr. Sinart declared he was not in the least surprised, as the young man, when first he came into the cabin, looked uncommonly chop-fallen. Dick, however, had presently taken a place at the table, and began attacking a buttock of beef with great vigour and vivacity, protesting he had got a famous "happetite," and felt "as ungry as an ound." "I never say any thing to discourage any body," said Mr. Croak, “particularly young people; it's a thing I hate, but t'other day a fine lad sate down to his dinner in this very packet, after being sea-sick, just as you may be doing now, when it turned out he had broke a blood-vessel, and in twelve hours he was a corpse, and a very pretty one he made."

"I'm not going to be choused out of my dinner for all that,” replied the youth, munching away with great industry, aud at the same time calling out-"Steward! take away this porter-pot, it runs.”—“1

doubt that," cried Smart.---"I say it does," resumed Dick angrily," the tablecloth is all of a sop."--"I'll bet you half-a-crown it doesn't." Done! and done! were hastily exchanged, when Mr. Smart, looking round with a smirk, ex claimed---“Ladies and gentlemen, I appeal to every one of you whether the pot has not been perfectly still, and nothing has been running but the beer." This elicited a shout at poor Dick's expense, who sullenly muttered, "I'm not going to be bamboozled out of an 'alf-crown in that there vay, and vat's more, I vont be made a standing joke by no man."--" I don't see how you can,” replied his antagonist, "so long as you are sitting.' "Vy are you like a case of ketchup?" cried Dick, venturing for once to become the assailant, and immediately replying to his own enquiry, "because you are a saucebox."--"Haw! haw!" roared his mother, "bravo, Dick! well done Dick---there's a proper rap for you, Mr. Smart."---Somewhat nettled at this joke, poor as it was, the latter returned to the charge, by inquiring of Dick why his hat was like a giblet-pie? and after suffering him to guess two or three times in vain, cried "because there's a goose's head in it," and instantly set the example of the horselaugh, in which the company joined. Finding he was getting the worst of it, Dick thought it prudent to change the conversation, by observing that it would luckily be "'igh-water in the arbour when they arrived."--" Then I recommend you by all means to use some of it," said the pertinacious Mr. Smart, "perhaps it may cure your squint."

Both mother and son rose up in wrath at this personality, and there would infallibly have been a bourrasque (as the French say) in the hold, but that there was just then a tremendous concussion upon the deck, occassioned by the fall of the main-boom, and followed by squeaks and screams, of all calibres, from the panic-striken company at the dinnertable. "Lord have mercy upon us!" ejaculated Croak with a deep groan--"it's all over with us---we are going to the bottom---I like to make the best of every thing---it's my way, and therefore hope that no lady or gentleman will be in the least alarmed, for I believe drowning is a much less painful death than is generally supposed."

Having run upon deck at this juncture for the purpose of ascertaining the nature of the accident, which he found to be unattended with the smallest danger, the writer cannot detail any more of the conversation that ensued until their arrival at Calais, which will form the subject of another paper.---New Mly. Mag.

JUST COME TO TOWN;

Or, a Journey to London.

"A LACK-A-DAY!" exclaimed aunt Deborah, on throwing down the newspaper which she had been reading, "what will folks come to at last? I declare my poor brain is all in a whirly-gig at the number of advertisements that are here before me; why there's not such a thing as an old woman to be met with in London. I've made a pretty kettle of fish of my matters: all my clothes, bought only two or three years ago, are antiquated. I am told that I must not wear an article of my wardrobe; my jewels must be reset, my hair must be hidden, my eye-brows must be coloured, and I must be wholly trans mogrified, and all this to please my two giddy nieces, who look to inheriting my fortune, and who say that they would be ashamed of me if I went out as discreetly and respectably dressed as I used to do when I visited our neighbour the rich squire, or the mayor of our country town. Then again, how to choose amongst all these ornaments for the person, and these infallible cures for old age? Here (putting on her spectacles and taking up the paper) here we have a Kalydor, the meaning of which I don't understand, which is to beautify the plainest face, there a bloom to restore the spring tint to features, of which autumn had long ago taken leave. In another long advertisement we find oils to make a plentiful crop grow upon a sterile forehead, and bear's grease to produce hair where none ever grew before. One puff assures us that a single dose of some revivifying cordial will impart the spark of youth to old age; another challenges all the world to make a wig like what the adver tiser recommends to the public; here a whole column explains the nature of a dye, which will impart the fine jet hue of the raven to an iron grey grandmother; there something brief, but impressive encourages an old maid with spare locks greasy and straight as a pound of can dles, to try Mr. Superexcellent's curling fluid, which will bestow on her nutbrown curls as thick and well formed as those of her poodle dog; self-adjusting corsets invite on one hand; a more improved model of stays entice on th other; the one is to combine ease and proportion, and to give ease to stiff rheumatism and deformity; the other is to supply the deficiencies of nature, and to convert the straits of Toolong into the harbour of breast, changing a thin neck of mutton to the plump bosom of a

Toulon perhaps the "ld lady meant.

the

1

« السابقةمتابعة »