Enter Lucius and Ligarius.

Lucius, who's there that knocks?
Luc. Here is a fick man,

that would speak with you. Bru. Caius Ligarius, that Metellus spake of. Boy, ftand afide. Caius Ligarius! how?

Cai. Vouchfafe 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 fick! Cai. I am not fick, if Brutus have in hand. Any exploit worthy the name of honour.

Bru. Such an exploit have I in hand, Ligarius,
Had you an healthful ear to hear of it.

Cai. By all the Gods the Romans bow before,
I here difcard my fickness. Soul of Rome!
Brave fon, deriv'd from honourable loins!
Thou, like an Exorcift, haft conjur'd up
My mortified fpirit. Now bid me run,
And I will strive with things impoffible;
Yea, get the better of them. What's to do?

Bru. A piece of work, that will make fick men whole.
Cai. But are not fome whole, that we must make fick ?
Bru. That must we alfo.. What it is, my Caius, .
I shall unfold to thee, as we are going,

To whom it must be done.

Cai. Set on your foot,

And with a heart new-fir'd I follow you,

To do I know not what: but it fufficeth,
That Brutus leads me on.

Bru. Follow me then.

SCENE changes to Cæfar's Palace.

[Exeunt.

Thunder and Lightning. Enter Julius Cæfar.

Caf. N

'OR heav'n, nor earth, have been at peace. to-night;

Thrice hath Calpurnia in her fleep cry'd out,

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

And talk to you sometimes? dwell I but in the fuburbs. Of your good pleasure? If it be no more,

Porcia is Brutus' harlot, not his wife.

Bru. You are my true and honourable wife;

As dear to me, as are the ruddy drops

That vifit my fad heart.

Por. If this were true, then should I know this feeret. 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 ftronger than my fex,
Being fo father'd, and fo husbanded?

Tell me your counfels, I will not disclose them:
I have made ftrong proof of my conftancy,
Giving myself a voluntary wound

Here, in the thigh: can I bear that with patience,
And not my husband's fecrets?

Bru. O ye Gods!

Render me worthy of this noble wife.

Hark, hark, one knocks: Porcia, go in a while;
And, by and by, thy bofom fhall partake

The fecrets of my heart.

All my engagements I will conftrue to thee,

All the charactery of my fad brows.

Leave me with hafte.

[Knock.

[Exit Porcia.

This is but an odd phrafe, and gives as odd an idea. The word,. I have fubftituted, feems much more proper; and is one of our Poet's own ufage; which makes me fufpect, he employ'd it here. So in his Comedy of Errors;

And, afterwards, confort you till bed-time.

And fo in his Poem, call'd Venus and Adonis ;

Who bids them ftill confort with ugly Night;

And fo afterwards, again, in the fifth Act of this Play;
Two mighty Eagles fell; and there they perch'd;
Gorging and feeding from our foldiers hands,
Who to Philippi here conforted us.

And, in Midsummer Night's Dream;

And muft for aye confort with black-brow'd Night.

Enter

Enter Lucius and Ligarius.

Lucius, who's there that knocks ?

Luc. Here is a fick man, that would speak with you. Bru. Caius Ligarius, that Metellus spake of. Boy, ftand afide. Caius Ligarius! how?

Cai. Vouchfafe good morrow from a feeble tongue. Bru. O, what a time have you chofe out, brave Caius, To wear a kerchief? would, you were not fick! Cai. I am not fick, if Brutus have in hand. Any exploit worthy the name of honour.

Bru. Such an exploit have I in hand, Ligarius, Had you an healthful ear to hear of it.

C.i. By all the Gods the Romans bow before, I here difcard my fickness. Soul of Rome! Brave fon, deriv'd from honourable loins! Thou, like an Exorcift, haft conjur'd up My mortified spirit. Now bid me run, And I will strive with things impoffible; Yea, get the better of them. What's to do? Bru. A piece of work, that will make fick men whole. Cai. But are not fome whole, that we must make fick ? Bru. That must we alfo.. What it is, my Caius, . I shall unfold to thee, as we are going,

To whom it must be done.

Cai. Set on your foot,

And with a heart new-fir'd I follow you,
To do I know not what: but it fufficeth,
That Brutus leads me on.

Bru. Follow me then.

Caf.

SCENE changes to Cæfar's Palace.

[Exeunt.

Thunder and Lightning. Enter Julius Cæfar.

N

OR heav'n, nor earth, have been at peace
to-night;

Thrice hath Calphurnia in her fleep cry'd out,
"Help, ho! they murder Cafar." Who's within?

Enter a Servant.

Ser. My lord P

B. 5

Cafo

Caf. Go bid the priests do prefent facrifice, And bring me their opinions of fuccefs.

Ser. I will, my lord.

Enter Calphurnia..

[Exit..

Cal. What mean you, Cafar? think you to walk forth?

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

Caf. Cefar fhall forth; the things, that threatned me,
Ne'er lookt but on my back: when they shall fee
The face of Cæfar, they are vanished.

Cal: Cafar, I never ftood on ceremonies,
Yet now they fright me: there is one within,
(Befides the things that we have heard and feen)
Recounts moft horrid fights feen by the Watch.
A lionefs hath whelped in the ftreets,

And Graves have yawn'd, and yielded up their dead';
Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds,
In ranks and fquadrons and right form of war,.
Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol:
The noise of battle hurtled in the air;
Horfes did neigh, and dying men did groan;
And Ghofts did fhriek, and fqueal about the streets.
O Cafar! these things are beyond all ufe,
And I do fear them.

Caf. What can be avoided,

Whofe end is purpos'd by the mighty Gods?
Yet Cæfar fhall go forth: for these predictions
Are to the world in general, as to Cafar.

Cal. When Beggars die, there are no comets feen;
The heav'ns themfelves blaze forth the death of Princes.
Caf. 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 moft strange, that men fhould fear:
Seeing that death, a neceffary end,

Will come, when it will come.

Enter a Servant.

What fay the Augurs?

Ser.

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.

[Exit Servant Caf. The Gods do this in fhame of cowardise : Cæfar fhould be a beast without a heart, If he should stay at home to-day for fear. No, Cefar fhall not; Danger knows full well, That Cafar is more dangerous than he. (15) We were two lions litter'd in one day, And I the elder and more terrible;

And Cefar fhall go

forth.

Cal. Alas, my lord,

Your wisdom is confum'd in confidence:
Do not go forth to-day; call it my fear,

That keeps you in the house, and not your own.
We'll fend Mark Antony to the Senate-house,
And he will fay, you are not well to-day :
Let me, upon my knee, prevail in this.

Cal. Mark Antony fhall fay, I am not well;
And for thy humour, I will stay at home.
Enter Decius.

Here's Decius Brutus, he shall tell them fo.

Dec. Cæfar, all hail! good morrow, worthy Cafar;

I come to fetch you to the Senate-house.

Caf. And you are come in very happy time,

-The

(15) We heard two lions-] The first folio-We bearecopies have been all corrupt, and the paffage, of course, unintelligible. But the flight alteration, I have made, reftores fenfe to the whole, and the fentiment will neither be unworthy of Shakespeare, nor the boast too extravagant for Cæfar in a vein of vanity to utter: that He and Danger were twin-whelps of a lion, and he the elder, and more terrible of the two. A fimilar thought again occurs in Antony and Cleopatra, about victory for a while standing fufpended betwixt two armies.

When vantage like a pair of twins appear'd,

Both as the fame, or rather ours the elder.

I made this emendation formerly in my SHAKESPEARE Reftor'd; and the ingenious Dr. Thirlby, without having feen it, ftruck out the fame conjecture,