Tell me your counsels, I will not disclose them :
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.

Enter LUCIUS and LIGARIUS.

[Exit Portia.

Lucius, who is that, knocks?

Lucius. 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 honor.

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 honorable 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?

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, I shall unfold to thee, as we are going

To whom it must be done.

Set on

your

foot;

Lig.
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.

The same. A room in Casar's palace.

Thunder and lightning. Enter CÆSAR, in his night

gown.

Ca. Nor heaven, nor earth have been at peace

to-night:

Thrice hath Calphurnia in her sleep cried out,

'Help, ho! they murder Cæsar.' Who's within?

SHAK

XI.

X

Ser. My lord?

Enter SERVANT.

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

Ser. I will, my lord.

Enter CALPHURNIA.

[Exit.

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

You shall not stir out of your house to-day.

Ca. 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,1
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 2 in the air,

Horses do neigh, and dying men did groan;

And ghosts did shriek, and squeal about the streets.

1 i. e. I never paid regard to prodigies or omens.

2 Clashed, encountered.

O Cæsar! these things are beyond all use,
And I do fear them.

Ca.

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.

Ca. 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?

Ser. 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.
Ca. 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 were 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'.. 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.

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

Enter DECIUS.

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

D. Bru. Cæsar, all hail! Good morrow, worthy Cæsar!

I come to fetch you to the senate-house.

Ca. 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.
Cal. Say, he is sick.

Ca.

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.

D. Bru. Most mighty Cæsar, let me know some

cause,

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

Ca. The cause is in my will; I will not come :