Being so father'd and so husbanded?

Tell me your counsels, I will not disclose 'em :
I have made strong proof of my constancy,
Giving myself a voluntary wound

Here, in the thigh: can I bear that with patience,
And not my husband's secrets?

Bru.

O ye gods,

Render me worthy of this noble wife!

[Knocking within.

Hark, hark! one knocks: Portia, go in awhile;

And by and by thy bosom shall partake

The secrets of my heart.

All my engagements I will construe to thee,

All the charactery of my sad brows:

Leave me with haste. [Exit Portia.] Lucius,

who's that knocks?

Re-enter LUCIUS with LIGARIUS.

Luc. Here is a sick man that would speak

with you.

Bru. Caius Ligarius, that Metellus spake of. Boy, stand aside. Caius Ligarius! how?

Lig. Vouchsafe good morrow from a feeble tongue.

Bru. O, what a time have you chose out,

brave Caius,

To wear a kerchief!

Would you were not sick!

Lig. I am not sick, if Brutus have in hand

Any exploit worthy the name of honour.

Bru. Such an exploit have I in hand, Ligarius,

Had you a healthful ear to hear of it.

Lig. By all the gods that Romans bow before,
I here discard my sickness! Soul of Rome !
Brave son, derived from honourable loins!
Thou, like an exorcist, hast conjured up

308. charactery, writing (the signs of care graven in my brow).

300

310

320

My mortified spirit. Now bid me run,
And I will strive with things impossible,
Yea, get the better of them.

What's to do?

Bru. A piece of work that will make sick men whole.

Lig. But are not some whole that we must

make sick?

Bru. That must we also.

What it is, my Caius,

330

I shall unfold to thee, as we are going

To whom it must be done.

Lig.
Set on your foot,
And with a heart new-fired I follow you,
To do I know not what: but it sufficeth
That Brutus leads me on.

Bru.

Follow me, then. [Exeunt.

SCENE II. Cæsar's house.

Thunder and lightning. Enter CÆSAR, in
his night-gown.

Cas. Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace
to-night :

Thrice hath Calpurnia in her sleep cried out,
Help, ho! they murder Cæsar !' Who's within ?

Serv. My lord ?

Enter a Servant.

Ces. Go bid the priests do present sacrifice

And bring me their opinions of success.

Serv. I will, my lord.

Enter CALPURNIA.

[Exit.

Cal. What mean you, Cæsar? think you to walk forth?

Sc. 2. night-gown, dressing-gown.

You shall not stir out of your house to-day.
Cæs. Cæsar shall forth: the things that
threaten'd me

Ne'er look'd but on my back; when they shall see
The face of Cæsar, they are vanished.

Cal. Cæsar, I never stood on ceremonies,
Yet now they fright me. There is one within,
Besides the things that we have heard and seen,
Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch.
A lioness hath whelped in the streets;

And graves have yawn'd, and yielded up their dead;
Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds,

In ranks and squadrons and right form of war,
Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol;

The noise of battle hurtled in the air,
Horses did neigh, and dying men did groan,

And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets.

O Cæsar! these things are beyond all use,

And I do fear them.

Cæs.

What can be avoided

Whose end is purposed by the mighty gods?
Yet Cæsar shall go forth; for these predictions
Are to the world in general as to Cæsar.

Cal. When beggars die, there are no comets

seen;

The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of

princes.

Cas. Cowards die many times before their deaths;

The valiant never taste of death but once.

Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,

It seems to me most strange that men should fear; Seeing that death, a necessary end,

Will come when it will come.

24. squeal; in Shakespeare's time still a dignified word.

Re-enter Servant.

What say the augurers?

Serv. They would not have you to stir forth

to-day.

Plucking the entrails of an offering forth,

They could not find a heart within the beast.

Cas. The gods do this in shame of cowardice:
Cæsar should be a beast without a heart,

If he should stay at home to-day for fear.
No, Cæsar shall not danger knows full well
That Cæsar is more dangerous than he:
We are two lions litter'd in one day,

And I the elder and more terrible:

And Cæsar shall go forth.

Cal.

Alas, my lord,

Your wisdom is consumed in confidence.
Do not go forth to-day: call it my fear

That keeps you in the house, and not your own.
We'll send Mark Antony to the senate-house;
And he shall say you are not well to-day :
Let me, upon my knee, prevail in this.

Cas. Mark Antony shall say I am not well;
And, for thy humour, I will stay at home.

Enter DECIUS.

Here's Decius Brutus, he shall tell them so.

Dec. Cæsar, all hail! good morrow, worthy Cæsar :

I come to fetch you to the senate-house.

Cæs. And you are come in very happy time,

To bear my greeting to the senators
And tell them that I will not come to-day:
Cannot, is false, and that I dare not, falser:
I will not come to-day: tell them so, Decius.
46. are; Upton's correction of Ff 'hear(e).'

Cal. Say he is sick.

Cæs.
Shall Cæsar send a lie?
Have I in conquest stretch'd mine arm so far,
To be afeard to tell graybeards the truth?
Decius, go tell them Cæsar will not come.

Dec. Most mighty Cæsar, let me know some

cause,

Lest I be laugh'd at when I tell them so.

Cæs. The cause is in my will: I will not come; That is enough to satisfy the senate.

But for your private satisfaction,

Because I love you, I will let you know:
Calpurnia here, my wife, stays me at home:
She dreamt to-night she saw my statuë,
Which like a fountain with an hundred spouts
Did run pure blood, and many lusty Romans
Came smiling, and did bathe their hands in it:
And these does she apply for warnings and portents
And evils imminent; and on her knee
Hath begg'd that I will stay at home to-day.

Dec. This dream is all amiss interpreted;

It was a vision fair and fortunate :

Your statue spouting blood in many pipes,
In which so many smiling Romans bathed,
Signifies that from you great Rome shall suck
Reviving blood, and that great men shall press
For tinctures, stains, relics and cognizance.
This by Calpurnia's dream is signified.

Cas. And this way have you well expounded it.
Dec. I have, when you have heard what I can say:

87. great men shall press for tinctures, i.e. for blood-stained mementoes; an allusion to the practice of dipping napkins in the blood of martyrs. The hurry of improvisation, or, as Craik suggests, 'an unseen power

70

80

90

driving on both the unconscious prophet and the blinded victim,' betrays Decius into an 'interpretation perilously near the truth. Cæsar's comment is not, as has been thought, ironical. 89. cognizance, tokens.