Complete Plays, The (29 page)

Brutus

I am not well in health, and that is all.

Portia

Brutus is wise, and, were he not in health,
He would embrace the means to come by it.

Brutus

Why, so I do. Good Portia, go to bed.

Portia

Is Brutus sick? and is it physical
To walk unbraced and suck up the humours
Of the dank morning? What, is Brutus sick,
And will he steal out of his wholesome bed,
To dare the vile contagion of the night
And tempt the rheumy and unpurged air
To add unto his sickness? No, my Brutus;
You have some sick offence within your mind,
Which, by the right and virtue of my place,
I ought to know of: and, upon my knees,
I charm you, by my once-commended beauty,
By all your vows of love and that great vow
Which did incorporate and make us one,
That you unfold to me, yourself, your half,
Why you are heavy, and what men to-night
Have had to resort to you: for here have been
Some six or seven, who did hide their faces
Even from darkness.

Brutus

Kneel not, gentle Portia.

Portia

I should not need, if you were gentle Brutus.
Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus,
Is it excepted I should know no secrets
That appertain to you? Am I yourself
But, as it were, in sort or limitation,
To keep with you at meals, comfort your bed,
And talk to you sometimes? Dwell I but in the suburbs
Of your good pleasure? If it be no more,
Portia is Brutus’ harlot, not his wife.

Brutus

You are my true and honourable wife,
As dear to me as are the ruddy drops
That visit my sad heart

Portia

If this were true, then should I know this secret.
I grant I am a woman; but withal
A woman that Lord Brutus took to wife:
I grant I am a woman; but withal
A woman well-reputed, Cato’s daughter.
Think you I am no stronger than my sex,
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?

Brutus

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

Lucius

He is a sick man that would speak with you.

Brutus

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

Ligarius

Vouchsafe good morrow from a feeble tongue.

Brutus

O, what a time have you chose out, brave Caius,
To wear a kerchief! Would you were not sick!

Ligarius

I am not sick, if Brutus have in hand
Any exploit worthy the name of honour.

Brutus

Such an exploit have I in hand, Ligarius,
Had you a healthful ear to hear of it.

Ligarius

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
My mortified spirit. Now bid me run,
And I will strive with things impossible;
Yea, get the better of them. What’s to do?

Brutus

A piece of work that will make sick men whole.

Ligarius

But are not some whole that we must make sick?

Brutus

That must we also. What it is, my Caius,
I shall unfold to thee, as we are going
To whom it must be done.

Ligarius

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.

Brutus

Follow me, then.

Exeunt

S
CENE
II. C
AESAR
’
S
HOUSE
.

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

Caesar

Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace to-night:
Thrice hath Calpurnia in her sleep cried out,
‘Help, ho! they murder Caesar!’ Who’s within?

Enter a Servant

Servant

My lord?

Caesar

Go bid the priests do present sacrifice
And bring me their opinions of success.

Servant

I will, my lord.

Exit

Enter Calpurnia

Calpurnia

What mean you, Caesar? think you to walk forth?
You shall not stir out of your house to-day.

Caesar

Caesar shall forth: the things that threaten’d me
Ne’er look’d but on my back; when they shall see
The face of Caesar, they are vanished.

Calpurnia

Caesar, 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 fought 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 Caesar! these things are beyond all use,
And I do fear them.

Caesar

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

Calpurnia

When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.

Caesar

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.

Re-enter Servant

What say the augurers?

Servant

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.

Caesar

The gods do this in shame of cowardice:
Caesar should be a beast without a heart,
If he should stay at home to-day for fear.
No, Caesar shall not: danger knows full well
That Caesar is more dangerous than he:
We are two lions litter’d in one day,
And I the elder and more terrible:
And Caesar shall go forth.

Calpurnia

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.

Caesar

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

Enter Decius Brutus

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

Decius Brutus

Caesar, all hail! good morrow, worthy Caesar:
I come to fetch you to the senate-house.

Caesar

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.

Calpurnia

Say he is sick.

Caesar

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

Decius Brutus

Most mighty Caesar, let me know some cause,
Lest I be laugh’d at when I tell them so.

Caesar

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 statua,
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.

Decius Brutus

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.

Caesar

And this way have you well expounded it.

Decius Brutus

I have, when you have heard what I can say:
And know it now: the senate have concluded
To give this day a crown to mighty Caesar.
If you shall send them word you will not come,
Their minds may change. Besides, it were a mock
Apt to be render’d, for some one to say
‘Break up the senate till another time,
When Caesar’s wife shall meet with better dreams.’
If Caesar hide himself, shall they not whisper
‘Lo, Caesar is afraid’?
Pardon me, Caesar; for my dear dear love
To our proceeding bids me tell you this;
And reason to my love is liable.

Caesar

How foolish do your fears seem now, Calpurnia!
I am ashamed I did yield to them.
Give me my robe, for I will go.

Enter Publius, Brutus, Ligarius, Metellus, Casca, Trebonius, and Cinna

And look where Publius is come to fetch me.

Publius

Good morrow, Caesar.

Caesar

Welcome, Publius.
What, Brutus, are you stirr’d so early too?
Good morrow, Casca. Caius Ligarius,
Caesar was ne’er so much your enemy
As that same ague which hath made you lean.
What is ’t o’clock?

Brutus

Caesar, ’tis strucken eight.

Caesar

I thank you for your pains and courtesy.

Enter Antony

See! Antony, that revels long o’ nights,
Is notwithstanding up. Good morrow, Antony.

Antony

So to most noble Caesar.

Caesar

Bid them prepare within:
I am to blame to be thus waited for.
Now, Cinna: now, Metellus: what, Trebonius!
I have an hour’s talk in store for you;
Remember that you call on me to-day:
Be near me, that I may remember you.

Trebonius

Caesar, I will:

Aside

and so near will I be,
That your best friends shall wish I had been further.

Caesar

Good friends, go in, and taste some wine with me;
And we, like friends, will straightway go together.

Brutus

[Aside]
 
That every like is not the same, O Caesar,
The heart of Brutus yearns to think upon!

Exeunt

S
CENE
III. A
STREET
NEAR
THE
C
APITOL
.

Enter Artemidorus, reading a paper

Artemidorus

‘Caesar, beware of Brutus; take heed of Cassius; come not near Casca; have an eye to Cinna, trust not Trebonius: mark well Metellus Cimber: Decius Brutus loves thee not: thou hast wronged Caius Ligarius. There is but one mind in all these men, and it is bent against Caesar. If thou beest not immortal, look about you: security gives way to conspiracy. The mighty gods defend thee! Thy lover, ‘Artemidorus.’

Here will I stand till Caesar pass along,
And as a suitor will I give him this.
My heart laments that virtue cannot live
Out of the teeth of emulation.
If thou read this, O Caesar, thou mayst live;
If not, the Fates with traitors do contrive.

Exit

S
CENE
IV. A
NOTHER
PART
OF
THE
SAME
STREET
,
BEFORE
THE
HOUSE
OF
B
RUTUS
.

Enter Portia and Lucius

Portia

I prithee, boy, run to the senate-house;
Stay not to answer me, but get thee gone:
Why dost thou stay?

Lucius

To know my errand, madam.

Portia

I would have had thee there, and here again,
Ere I can tell thee what thou shouldst do there.
O constancy, be strong upon my side,
Set a huge mountain ’tween my heart and tongue!
I have a man’s mind, but a woman’s might.
How hard it is for women to keep counsel!
Art thou here yet?

Lucius

 
Madam, what should I do?
Run to the Capitol, and nothing else?
And so return to you, and nothing else?

Portia

Yes, bring me word, boy, if thy lord look well,
For he went sickly forth: and take good note
What Caesar doth, what suitors press to him.
Hark, boy! what noise is that?

Lucius

I hear none, madam.

Portia

Prithee, listen well;
I heard a bustling rumour, like a fray,
And the wind brings it from the Capitol.