[69]
For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd;
Put rancours in the vessel of my peace
Only for them; and mine eternal jewel
Antony twice defied Cæsar to single combat; and Cæsar, on very good considerations, no doubt, as often declined these challenges. Shakspeare found this circumstance of the life of the Triumvir, with that but now quoted, in Sir Thomas North; and, therefore, could not believe that Antony was personally afraid of Cæsar.
Antony, in his letters, charged Octavius with disgraceful flight in the first battle of Mutina:—"Antonius eum (Cæsarem scil.) fugisse scribit; ac, sine paludamento equoque, post biduum demum apparuisse."—Suet. Oct. Cæs. cap. x.—Whether Shakspeare knew this anecdote, or not, cannot now be ascertained: it is very possible that he might; for Holland's translation of Suetonius appeared in 1606; and to the month of August, in this year, Mr. Malone proposes to fix the production of Macbeth; though there is ground for thinking that this play is not of so early a date: However, giving the play and the translation to the same year, we
