Wherein my letters (praying on his side Brutus. You wronged yourself, to write in such a case. To undeservers. Cas. I an itching palm? You know that you are Brutus that speak this, Bru. Remember March, the ides of March remember! Cas. Brutus, bay not me! I'll not endure it. You forget yourself, Bru. Go to you 're not, Cassius. Bru. I say you are not. Cas. Urge me no more: I shall forget myself: Have mind upon your health: tempt me no further! Bru. Away, slight man! Cas. Is 't possible? Bru. Hear me, for I will speak. Must I give way and room to your rash choler? Shall I be frighted when a madman stares? Cas. Must I endure all this? Bru. All this? Ay, more! Fret till your proud heart break ; Go, show your slaves how choleric you are, And make your bondmen tremble. Must I budge1 Must I observe you? Must I stand and crouch Under your testy humor? You shall digest the venom of your spleen, Though it do split you; for, from this day forth, Cas. Is it come to this? Bru. You say you are a better soldier ; Cas. You wrong me every way; you wrong me, Brutus ; I said an elder soldier, not a better. Did I say better? Bru. If you did, I care not. Cas. When Cæsar lived, he durst not thus have moved me Bru. Peace, peace! you durst not so have tempted him. Cas. I durst not? Cas. What! durst not tempt him? Bru. For your life you durst not. Cas. Do not presume too much upon my love. I may do that I shall be sorry for. Bru. You have done that you should be sorry for. There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats; For I am armed so strong in honesty, That they pass by me as the idle wind, Which I respect not. I did send to you For certain sums of gold, which you denied me ; I had rather coin my heart, And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring To you for gold to pay my legions; Which you denied me. Was that done like Cassius? Should I have answered Caius Cassius so? When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous, To lock such rascal counters from his friends, Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts, Dash him to pieces! Cas. I denied you not. Bru. You did. Cas. I did not he was but a fool That brought my answer back. Brutus hath rived my heart A friend should bear a friend's infirmities; But Brutus makes mine greater than they are. Bru. I do not, till you practice them on me. Cas. You love me not. Bru. I do not like your faults. Cas. A friendly eye could never see such faults. Bru. A flatterer's would not, though they do appear As huge as high Olympus. Cas. Come, Antony, and young Octavius, come! Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius; For Cassius is a-weary of the world Hated by one he loves; braved by his brother Checked like a bondman; all his faults observed, When thou didst hate him worst, thou lovedst him better Be Bru. Sheathe your dagger: angry when you will, it shall have scope: Cas. Hath Cassius lived To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus, Bru. When I spoke that, I was ill-tempered too. Cas. O, Brutus ! Bru. What's the matter? Cas. Have you not love enough to bear with me, Bru. Yes, Cassius; and, henceforth, When you are over-earnest with your Brutus, CLXVI. A PAPER OF TOBACCO. SHAKSPEARE. In France, tobacco has long been a monopoly EI- and a very productive one- in the hands of government. This fact should be borne in mind in reading the following satirical remarks by a French writer against the use of tobacco. 1. THERE is a family of poisonous plants, amongst which we may notice the henbane, the datūra stramonium, and the tobaccoplant. The tobacco-plant is perhaps a little less poisonous than the datura, but it is more so than the henbane, which is a violent poison. Here is the tobacco-plant, as fine a plant as you can wish to It grows to the height of six feet; and from the centre of a tuft of leaves, of a beautiful green, shoot out elegant and graceful clusters of pink flowers. see. 2. For a long while the tobacco-plant grew unknown and solitary in the wilds of America. The savages to whom we had given brandy gave us in exchange tobacco, with the smoke of which they used to intoxicate themselves on grand occasions. The intercourse between the two worlds began by this amiable interchange of poisons. 3. Those who first thought of putting tobacco-dust up their noses were first laughed at, and then persecuted more or less. James I. of England wrote against snuff-takers a book entitled Misocapnos. Some years later, Pope Urban VIII. excommunicated all persons who took snuff in churches. The Empress Elizabeth thought it necessary to add something to the penalty of excommunication pronounced against those who used the black dust during divine service, and authorized the beadles to confiscates the snuff-boxes to their own use. Amurath IV. forbade the use of snuff, under pain of having the nose cut off. 4. No useful plant could have withstood such attacks. If before this invention a man had been found to say, “Let us seek the means of filling the coffers of the state by a voluntary tax; let us set about selling something which everybody will like to do without in America there is a plant essentially poisonous; if from its leaves you extract an empyreumatic oil, a single drop of it will cause an animal to die in horrible convulsions: suppose we offer this plant for sale chopped up or reduced to a powder: we will sell it very dear, and tell people to stuff the their noses powder up 5. "That is to say," might a hearer remark, "I suppose you will force them to do so by law?" 6. "Not a bit of it; I spoke of a voluntary tax. As to the portion we chop up, we will tell them to inhale it, and swallow a little of the smoke from it besides." 7. "But it will kill them ——————— ” 8. "No; they will become rather pale, perhaps feel giddy, spit blood, and suffer from colics, or have pains in the chest; that's all. Besides, you know, although it has been often said that habit is second nature, people are not yet aware how completely man resembles the knife of which the blade first and then the handle had been changed two or three times. In man there is sometimes no nature left; nothing but habit remains. People will become like Mithridates," who had learnt to live on poisons. 9. "The first time that a man will smoke he will feel sickness, nausea, giddiness, and colics; but that will go off by degrees, and in time he will get so accustomed to it that he will only feel such symptoms now and then, when he smokes tobacco that is particularly bad, or too strong, or when he is not well, and in five or six other cases. Those who take it in powder will sneeze, have a disagreeable smell, lose the sense of smelling, and establish in their nose a sort of perpetual blister." 10. "Then, I suppose it smells very nice?" 11. "Quite the reverse. It has a very unpleasant smell; but, as I said, we'll sell it very dear, and reserve to ourselves the monopoly of it." 12. "My good friend," one would have said to any one absurd enough to hold a similar language, "nobody will envy you the privilege of selling a weed that no one will care to buy. You might as well open a shop and write on it, Kicks sold here; or, Such-a-one sells blows, wholesale and retail. You would find as many customers as for your poisonous weed." 13. Well, who would have believed that the first speaker was right, and that the tobacco speculation would answer perfectly? The Kings of France have written no satires against snuff, have had no noses to cut off, no snuff-boxes confiscated. Far from it. They have sold tobacco, laid an im'post on noses, and given snuffboxes, with their portraits on the lid and diamonds all round, to poets. This little trade has brought them in I don't know how many millions a year. The potato was far more difficult to popu.. larize, and has still some adversaries. FROM THE FRENCH OF ALPHONSE KARR. CLXVII. - DIALOGUE BETWEEN FRANKLIN AND THE GOUT. Franklin. EH! O! eh! What have I done to merit these cruel sufferings? Gout. Many things; you have ate and drunk too freely, and too much indulged those legs of yours in their indolence. Franklin. What is it that accuses me? Gout. It is I, even I, the gout. Franklin. What! my enemy in person? Franklin. I repeat it, my enemy: for you would not only torment my body to death, but ruin my good name. You reproach me as a glutton and tippler; now, all the world that knows me will allow that I am neither the one nor the other. Gout. The world may think as it pleases: it is always very com'plaisant to itself, and sometimes to its friends; but I very well know that the quantity of meat and drink proper for a man who takes a reasonable degree of exercise would be too much for another, who never takes any. |