The Tragedy Of Julius Caesar

1 Thunder and lightning. Enter Caesar, in his nightgown.
2 CAESAR.
3 Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace tonight:
4 Thrice hath Calphurnia in her sleep cried out,
5 “Help, ho! They murder Caesar!” Who’s within?
6 Enter a Servant.
7 SERVANT.
8 My lord?
9 CAESAR.
10 Go bid the priests do present sacrifice,
11 And bring me their opinions of success.
12 SERVANT.
13 I will, my lord.
14 [_Exit._]
15 Enter Calphurnia.
16 CALPHURNIA.
17 What mean you, Caesar? Think you to walk forth?
18 You shall not stir out of your house today.
19 CAESAR.
20 Caesar shall forth. The things that threaten’d me
21 Ne’er look’d but on my back; when they shall see
22 The face of Caesar, they are vanished.
23 CALPHURNIA.
24 Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies,
25 Yet now they fright me. There is one within,
26 Besides the things that we have heard and seen,
27 Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch.
28 A lioness hath whelped in the streets,
29 And graves have yawn’d, and yielded up their dead;
30 Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds
31 In ranks and squadrons and right form of war,
32 Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol;
33 The noise of battle hurtled in the air,
34 Horses did neigh, and dying men did groan,
35 And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets.
36 O Caesar, these things are beyond all use,
37 And I do fear them!
38 CAESAR.
39 What can be avoided
40 Whose end is purpos’d by the mighty gods?
41 Yet Caesar shall go forth; for these predictions
42 Are to the world in general as to Caesar.
43 CALPHURNIA.
44 When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
45 The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.
46 CAESAR.
47 Cowards die many times before their deaths;
48 The valiant never taste of death but once.
49 Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
50 It seems to me most strange that men should fear,
51 Seeing that death, a necessary end,
52 Will come when it will come.
53 Enter Servant.
54 What say the augurers?
55 SERVANT.
56 They would not have you to stir forth today.
57 Plucking the entrails of an offering forth,
58 They could not find a heart within the beast.
59 CAESAR.
60 The gods do this in shame of cowardice:
61 Caesar should be a beast without a heart
62 If he should stay at home today for fear.
63 No, Caesar shall not. Danger knows full well
64 That Caesar is more dangerous than he.
65 We are two lions litter’d in one day,
66 And I the elder and more terrible,
67 And Caesar shall go forth.
68 CALPHURNIA.
69 Alas, my lord,
70 Your wisdom is consum’d in confidence.
71 Do not go forth today: call it my fear
72 That keeps you in the house, and not your own.
73 We’ll send Mark Antony to the Senate-house,
74 And he shall say you are not well today.
75 Let me upon my knee prevail in this.
76 CAESAR.
77 Mark Antony shall say I am not well,
78 And for thy humour, I will stay at home.
79 Enter Decius.
80 Here’s Decius Brutus, he shall tell them so.
81 DECIUS.
82 Caesar, all hail! Good morrow, worthy Caesar.
83 I come to fetch you to the Senate-house.
84 CAESAR.
85 And you are come in very happy time
86 To bear my greeting to the Senators,
87 And tell them that I will not come today.
88 Cannot, is false; and that I dare not, falser:
89 I will not come today. Tell them so, Decius.
90 CALPHURNIA.
91 Say he is sick.
92 CAESAR.
93 Shall Caesar send a lie?
94 Have I in conquest stretch’d mine arm so far,
95 To be afeard to tell grey-beards the truth?
96 Decius, go tell them Caesar will not come.
97 DECIUS.
98 Most mighty Caesar, let me know some cause,
99 Lest I be laugh’d at when I tell them so.
100 CAESAR.
101 The cause is in my will; I will not come.
102 That is enough to satisfy the Senate.
103 But for your private satisfaction,
104 Because I love you, I will let you know:
105 Calphurnia here, my wife, stays me at home.
106 She dreamt tonight she saw my statue,
107 Which like a fountain with an hundred spouts
108 Did run pure blood; and many lusty Romans
109 Came smiling, and did bathe their hands in it.
110 And these does she apply for warnings and portents
111 And evils imminent; and on her knee
112 Hath begg’d that I will stay at home today.
113 DECIUS.
114 This dream is all amiss interpreted:
115 It was a vision fair and fortunate.
116 Your statue spouting blood in many pipes,
117 In which so many smiling Romans bath’d,
118 Signifies that from you great Rome shall suck
119 Reviving blood, and that great men shall press
120 For tinctures, stains, relics, and cognizance.
121 This by Calphurnia’s dream is signified.
122 CAESAR.
123 And this way have you well expounded it.
124 DECIUS.
125 I have, when you have heard what I can say;
126 And know it now. The Senate have concluded
127 To give this day a crown to mighty Caesar.
128 If you shall send them word you will not come,
129 Their minds may change. Besides, it were a mock
130 Apt to be render’d, for someone to say,
131 “Break up the Senate till another time,
132 When Caesar’s wife shall meet with better dreams.”
133 If Caesar hide himself, shall they not whisper
134 “Lo, Caesar is afraid”?
135 Pardon me, Caesar; for my dear dear love
136 To your proceeding bids me tell you this,
137 And reason to my love is liable.
138 CAESAR.
139 How foolish do your fears seem now, Calphurnia!
140 I am ashamed I did yield to them.
141 Give me my robe, for I will go.
142 Enter Brutus, Ligarius, Metellus, Casca, Trebonius, Cinna and Publius.
143 And look where Publius is come to fetch me.
144 PUBLIUS.
145 Good morrow, Caesar.
146 CAESAR.
147 Welcome, Publius.
148 What, Brutus, are you stirr’d so early too?
149 Good morrow, Casca. Caius Ligarius,
150 Caesar was ne’er so much your enemy
151 As that same ague which hath made you lean.
152 What is’t o’clock?
153 BRUTUS.
154 Caesar, ’tis strucken eight.
155 CAESAR.
156 I thank you for your pains and courtesy.
157 Enter Antony.
158 See! Antony, that revels long a-nights,
159 Is notwithstanding up. Good morrow, Antony.
160 ANTONY.
161 So to most noble Caesar.
162 CAESAR.
163 Bid them prepare within.
164 I am to blame to be thus waited for.
165 Now, Cinna; now, Metellus; what, Trebonius!
166 I have an hour’s talk in store for you:
167 Remember that you call on me today;
168 Be near me, that I may remember you.
169 TREBONIUS.
170 Caesar, I will. [_Aside._] and so near will I be,
171 That your best friends shall wish I had been further.
172 CAESAR.
173 Good friends, go in, and taste some wine with me;
174 And we, like friends, will straightway go together.
175 BRUTUS.
176 [_Aside._] That every like is not the same, O Caesar,
177 The heart of Brutus yearns to think upon.
178 [_Exeunt._]