Reading Help THE TRAGEDY OF JULIUS CAESAR
And too impatiently stamp'd with your foot. `
` Yet I insisted, yet you answer'd not, `
` But with an angry waiter of your hand `
` Gave sign for me to leave you. So I did, `
` Fearing to strengthen that impatience `
` Which seem'd too much enkindled, and withal `
` Hoping it was but an effect of humor, `
` 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 `
` As it hath much prevail'd on your condition, `
` I should not know 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 unbraced and suck up the humors `
` 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 offense 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 tonight `
` Have had 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 honorable 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. 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 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 honor. `
` 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 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? `
` 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. `
` `
` `
` `
` `
` SCENE II. `
` Caesar's house. Thunder and lightning. `
` `
` Enter Caesar, in his nightgown. `
` `
` CAESAR. Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace tonight. `
` Thrice hath Calpurnia in her sleep cried out, `
` "Help, ho! They murther 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 today. `
` 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 I 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 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 today. `
` 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 today 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 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 humor, I will stay at home. `
` `
` Enter Decius. `
` `
` 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 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 stretch'd mine arm so far `
` To be afeard to tell greybeards the truth? `
` Decius, go tell them Caesar will not come. `
` DECIUS. 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 tonight she saw my statue, `
` Which, like a fountain with an hundred spouts, `
`
` Yet I insisted, yet you answer'd not, `
` But with an angry waiter of your hand `
` Gave sign for me to leave you. So I did, `
` Fearing to strengthen that impatience `
` Which seem'd too much enkindled, and withal `
` Hoping it was but an effect of humor, `
` 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 `
` As it hath much prevail'd on your condition, `
` I should not know 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 unbraced and suck up the humors `
` 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 offense 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 tonight `
` Have had 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 honorable 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. 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 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 honor. `
` 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 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? `
` 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. `
` `
` `
` `
` `
` SCENE II. `
` Caesar's house. Thunder and lightning. `
` `
` Enter Caesar, in his nightgown. `
` `
` CAESAR. Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace tonight. `
` Thrice hath Calpurnia in her sleep cried out, `
` "Help, ho! They murther 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 today. `
` 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 I 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 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 today. `
` 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 today 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 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 humor, I will stay at home. `
` `
` Enter Decius. `
` `
` 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 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 stretch'd mine arm so far `
` To be afeard to tell greybeards the truth? `
` Decius, go tell them Caesar will not come. `
` DECIUS. 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 tonight she saw my statue, `
` Which, like a fountain with an hundred spouts, `
`