And not dismember Caesar! But, alas,
Caesar must bleed for it. And, gentle friends,
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Let’s kill him boldly, but not wrathfully:
Let’s carve him as a dish fit for the gods,
Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds.
And let our hearts, as subtle masters do,
Stir up their servants to an act of rage
175
And after seem to chide ’em. This shall make
Our purpose necessary and not envious,
Which so appearing to the common eyes,
We shall be called purgers, not murderers.
And for Mark Antony, think not of him,
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For he can do no more than Caesar’s arm
When Caesar’s head is off.
CASSIUS Yet I fear him,
For in the ingrafted love he bears to Caesar –
BRUTUS Alas, good Cassius, do not think of him.
If he love Caesar, all that he can do
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Is to himself – take thought, and die for Caesar.
And that were much he should, for he is given
To sports, to wildness and much company.
TREBONIUS There is no fear in him. Let him not die,
For he will live and laugh at this hereafter.
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[Clock strikes.]
BRUTUS Peace! Count the clock.
CASSIUS The clock hath stricken three.
TREBONIUS ’Tis time to part.
CASSIUS But it is doubtful yet
Whether Caesar will come forth this day or no,
For he is superstitious grown of late,
Quite from the main opinion he held once
195
Of fantasy, of dreams and ceremonies.
It may be these apparent prodigies,
The unaccustomed terror of this night
And the persuasion of his augurers,
May hold him from the Capitol today.
200
DECIUS Never fear that. If he be so resolved
I can o’ersway him: for he loves to hear
That unicorns may be betrayed with trees,
And bears with glasses, elephants with holes,
Lions with toils and men with flatterers.
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But when I tell him he hates flatterers,
He says he does, being then most flattered.
Let me work.
For I can give his humour the true bent,
And I will bring him to the Capitol.
210
CASSIUS Nay, we will all of us be there to fetch him.
BRUTUS By the eighth hour. Is that the uttermost?
CINNA Be that the uttermost, and fail not then.
METELLUS Caius Ligarius doth bear Caesar hard,
Who rated him for speaking well of Pompey.
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I wonder none of you have thought of him.
BRUTUS Now, good Metellus, go along by him.
He loves me well, and I have given him reasons.
Send him but hither and I’ll fashion him.
CASSIUS
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The morning comes upon’s. We’ll leave you, Brutus.
And, friends, disperse yourselves – but all remember
What you have said, and show yourselves true Romans.
BRUTUS Good gentlemen, look fresh and merrily.
Let not our looks put on our purposes,
But bear it as our Roman actors do,
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With untired spirits and formal constancy.
And so good morrow to you every one.
Exeunt all but Brutus.
Boy! Lucius! Fast asleep? It is no matter.
Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber.
Thou hast no figures, nor no fantasies
230
Which busy care draws in the brains of men.
Therefore thou sleep’st so sound.
Enter PORTIA.
PORTIA Brutus, my lord.
BRUTUS Portia, what mean you? Wherefore rise you now?
It is not for your health thus to commit
Your weak condition to the raw cold morning.
235
PORTIA Nor for yours neither. Y’have ungently, Brutus,
Stole from my bed: and yesternight at supper
You suddenly arose, and walked about,
Musing, and sighing, with your arms across;
And when I asked you what the matter was
240
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 of your hand
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Gave sign for me to leave you. So I did,
Fearing to strengthen that impatience
Which seemed too much enkindled, and withal
Hoping it was but an effect of humour,
Which sometime hath his hour with every man.
250
It will not let you eat, nor talk, nor sleep;
And could it work so much upon your shape
As it hath much prevailed on your condition,
I should not know you Brutus. Dear my lord,
Make me acquainted with your cause of grief.
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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
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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
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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,
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By all your vows of love, and that great vow
Which did incorporate and make us one,
That you unfold to me, your self, your half,
Why you are heavy – and what men tonight
Have had resort to you: for here have been
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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
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That appertain to you? Am I your self
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,
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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 I should know this secret.
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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
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Being so fathered and so husbanded?
Tell me your counsels. I will not disclose ’em.
I have made strong proof of my constancy,
Giving myself a voluntary woun
d,
Here in the thigh. Can I bear that with patience
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And not my husband’s secrets?
BRUTUS O ye gods,
Render me worthy of this noble wife! [Knock.]
Hark, hark, one knocks. Portia, go in a while,
And by and by thy bosom shall partake
The secrets of my heart.
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All my engagements I will construe to thee,
All the charactery of my sad brows.
Leave me with haste. Exit Portia.
Enter LUCIUS and Caius LIGARIUS.
Lucius, who’s that knocks?
LUCIUS Here is a sick man that would speak with you.
BRUTUS Caius Ligarius, that Metellus spake of.
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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
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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,
320
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?
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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,
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And with a heart new-fired I follow you,
To do I know not what: but it sufficeth
That Brutus leads me on. [Thunder]
BRUTUS Follow me, then. Exeunt.
[2.2] Thunder and lightning. Enter Julius CAESAR in his nightgown.
CAESAR
Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace tonight.
Thrice hath Calphurnia 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
5
And bring me their opinions of success.
SERVANT I will, my lord. Exit.
Enter CALPHURNIA.
CALPHURNIA
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
10
Ne’er looked but on my back: when they shall see
The face of Caesar, they are vanished.
CALPHURNIA Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies,
Yet now they fright me. There is one within,
Besides the things that we have heard and seen,
15
Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch.
A lioness hath whelped in the streets,
And graves have yawned and yielded up their dead.
Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds
In ranks and squadrons and right form of war,
20
Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol.
The noise of battle hurtled in the air,
Horses do neigh, and dying men did groan,
And ghosts did shriek and squeal 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 by the mighty gods?
Yet Caesar shall go forth, for these predictions
Are to the world in general as to Caesar.
CALPHURNIA When beggars die there are no comets seen;
30
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,
35
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.
Enter Servant.
What say the augurers?
SERVANT They would not have you to stir forth today.
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 144
