Julius Caesar (7 page)

Boy! Lucius! Fast asleep? It is no matter.

Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber:

Thou hast no
figures, nor no fantasies
²⁴¹

Which
busy
²⁴²
care draws in the brains of men;

Therefore thou sleep’st so sound.

PORTIA
    Brutus, my lord.

BRUTUS
    Portia, what
mean you
²⁴⁵
? Wherefore rise you now?

It is not for your health thus to commit

Your weak condition to the raw cold morning.

PORTIA
    Nor for yours neither. You’ve
ungently
²⁴⁸
, Brutus,

Stole from my bed: and yesternight, at supper,

You suddenly arose, and walked about,

Musing, and sighing, with your
arms a-cross
²⁵¹
:

And when I asked you what the matter was,

You stared upon me with ungentle looks.

I urged you further, then you scratched your head,

And too impatiently stamped with your foot:

Yet I insisted, yet you answered not,

But with an angry
wafture
²⁵⁷
of your hand

Gave sign for me to leave you: so I did,

Fearing to strengthen that impatience

Which seemed too much enkindled, and
withal
²⁶⁰

Hoping it was but an effect of
humour
²⁶¹
,

Which sometime hath his hour with every man.

It will not let you eat, nor talk, nor sleep;

And could it work so much upon your
shape
²⁶⁴

As it hath much prevailed on your
condition
²⁶⁵
,

I should not
know
²⁶⁶
you, Brutus. Dear my lord,

Make me acquainted with your cause of grief.

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
unbracèd
, and suck up the
humours
²⁷³

Of the dank morning? What, is Brutus sick?

And will he steal out of his
wholesome
²⁷⁵
bed

To
dare
²⁷⁶
the vile contagion of the night?

And tempt the
rheumy
and
unpurgèd
²⁷⁷
air

To add unto his sickness? No, my Brutus,

You have some
sick offence
²⁷⁹
within your mind

Which by the right and virtue of my
place
²⁸⁰

I ought to know of: and upon my knees

I
charm
²⁸²
you, by my once-commended beauty,

By all your vows of love and
that great vow
²⁸³

Which did incorporate and make us one,

That you
unfold
to me, your self, your
half
²⁸⁵
,

Why you are
heavy
²⁸⁶
, and what men tonight

Have had
resort
²⁸⁷
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
²⁹³
I should know no secrets

That appertain to you? Am I your self

But as it were
in sort or limitation
²⁹⁵
?

To
keep
with you at meals,
comfort
²⁹⁶
your bed

And talk to you sometimes? Dwell I but in the
suburbs
²⁹⁷

Of your good pleasure? If it be no more,

Portia is Brutus’
harlot
²⁹⁹
, not his wife.

BRUTUS
    You are my true and honourable wife,

As dear to me as are the
ruddy drops
³⁰¹

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
³⁰⁷
’s daughter.

Think you I am no stronger than my sex

Being so fathered and so husbanded?

Tell me your
counsels
³¹⁰
, I will not disclose ’em.

I have made strong proof of my
constancy
³¹¹
,

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!

Hark, hark one knocks. Portia, go in awhile,

And
by and by
thy
bosom
³¹⁸
shall partake

The secrets of my heart.

All my engagements I will
construe
³²⁰
to thee,

All the
charactery
³²¹
of my sad brows:

Leave me with haste.—

Lucius, who’s that knocks?

LUCIUS
    Here is a sick man that would speak with you.

BRUTUS
    Caius Ligarius, that Metellus spake of.—

Boy, stand aside.— Caius Ligarius, how?

LIGARIUS
    
Vouchsafe
³²⁷
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
³³⁷
hast conjured up

My
mortified
³³⁸
spirit. Now bid me run

And I will
strive
³³⁹
with things impossible,

Yea, get the better of them. What’s to do?

BRUTUS
    A piece of work that will make sick men
whole
³⁴¹
.

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
³⁴⁵
it must be done.

LIGARIUS
    
Set on your foot
³⁴⁶
,

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.

CAESAR
    Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace tonight:

Thrice hath Calpurnia in her sleep cried out,

‘Help, ho! They murder Caesar!’ Who’s within?

SERVANT
    My lord?

CAESAR
    Go bid the priests do
present
sacrifice

And bring me their
opinions
⁶
of success.

SERVANT
    I will, my lord.

CALPURNIA
    What mean you, Caesar? Think you to walk forth?

You shall not stir out of your house today.

CAESAR
    Caesar shall forth. The things that threatened me

Ne’er looked but on my back: when they shall see

The face of Caesar, they are vanishèd.

CALPURNIA
    Caesar, I never
stood on
ceremonies
¹³
,

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
¹⁶
.

A lioness hath
whelpèd
¹⁷
in the streets,

And graves have
yawned
¹⁸
, and yielded up their dead;

Fierce
fiery warriors
¹⁹
fight upon the clouds

In ranks and squadrons, and right form of war,

Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol:

The noise of battle
hurtled
²²
in the air,

Horses do neigh, and dying men did groan,

And
ghosts did shriek and squeal
²⁴
about the streets.

O Caesar, these things are beyond all
use
²⁵
,

And I do fear them.

CAESAR
    What can be avoided

Whose
end
is
purposed
²⁸
by the mighty gods?

Yet Caesar shall go forth, for these predictions

Are
to
³⁰
the world in general as to Caesar.

CALPURNIA
    When beggars die there are no comets seen:

The heavens themselves
blaze forth
³²
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.

What say the augurers?

SERVANT
    They would not have you to stir forth today.

Plucking the entrails
of an offering forth
⁴¹
,

They could not find a heart within the beast.

CAESAR
    The gods do this
in shame of
⁴³
cowardice:

Caesar should be a beast without a heart

If he should stay at home today for fear.

No, Caesar shall not. Danger knows full well

That Caesar is more dangerous than he.

We are two lions
littered
⁴⁸
in one day,

And I the elder and more terrible,

And Caesar shall go forth.

CALPURNIA
    Alas, my lord,

Your wisdom is
consumed in
⁵²
confidence.

Do not go forth today: 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 today.

Let me upon my knee prevail in this.

CAESAR
    Mark Antony shall say I am not well,

And for thy
humour
⁵⁹
I will stay at home.

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

DECIUS
    Caesar, all hail. Good morrow, worthy Caesar,

I come to fetch you to the senate house.

CAESAR
    And you are come in very
happy
⁶³
time

To bear my greeting to the senators,

And tell them that I will not come today:

Cannot is false, and that I dare not, falser:

I will not come today. Tell them so, Decius.

CALPURNIA
    Say he is sick.

CAESAR
    Shall Caesar send a lie?

Have I in conquest stretched mine arm so far

To be afeared to tell
greybeards
⁷¹
the truth?

Decius, go tell them Caesar will not come.

DECIUS
    Most mighty Caesar, let me know some cause,

Lest I be laughed 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
⁷⁹
me at home:

She dreamt tonight she saw my statue,

Which, like a fountain with an hundred spouts,

Did run pure blood, and many
lusty
⁸²
Romans

Came smiling and did bathe their hands in it.

And these does she
apply for
⁸⁴
warnings and portents

And evils imminent, and on her knee

Hath begged that I will stay at home today.

DECIUS
    This dream is all
amiss
⁸⁷
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
⁹²

For
tinctures, stains, relics
and
cognizance
⁹³
.

This by Calpurnia’s dream is signified.

CAESAR
    And this way have you well expounded it.

DECIUS
    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
¹⁰⁰

Apt to be rendered, for someone 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
¹⁰⁸
.

CAESAR
    How foolish do your fears seem now, Calpurnia?

I am ashamèd I did yield to them.

Give me my robe, for I will go.