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"I urg'd you further; then you fcratch'd your head, "And too impatiently stamp'd with your foot: "Yet I infifted, yet you anfwer'd not; "But with an angry wafture of your hand, "Gave fign for me to leave you: fo I did, "Fearing to ftrengthen that impatience,

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"Which feem'd too much inkindled; and, withal,
Hoping it was but an effect of humour;
"Which fometime hath his hour with every man.
It will not let you eat, nor talk, nor fleep;
And could it work fo much upon your shape,
As it hath much prevail'd on your condition,
I fhould not know you, Brutus. Dear my lord,
Make me acquainted with your cause of grief.

Bru. I am not well in health, and that is all.
Por. Brutus is wife, and, were he not in health,
He would embrace the means to come by it.

Bru. Why, fo I do: good Porcia, go to bed.
Por. Is Brutus fick ? and is it phyfical
To walk unbraced, and fuck up the humours
Of the dank morning? what, is Brutus fick?
And will he fteal out of his wholsom bed,
To dare the vile contagion of the night?
And tempt the rheumy and unpurged air,
To add unto his fickness? no, my Brutus,
You have fome fick 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,
By all your vows of love, and that great vow
Which did incorporate and make us one,
That you unfold to me, your felf, your half,
Why you are heavy: and what men to night
Have had resort to you for here have been
Some fix or seven, who did hide their faces
Even from darkness.

Bru. Kneel not, gentle Porcia.

Por.

Por. I fhould not need, if you were gentle Brutus.
Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus,
Is it excepted, I fhould know no fecrets
That appertain to you? am I your felf,
But, as it were, in fort or limitation?

To keep with you at meals, comfort your bed,
And talk to you sometimes? dwell I but in the fuburbs
Of your good pleafure? 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 fhould I know this fecret.

I grant, I am a woman; but withal,

A woman that lord Brutus took to wife:

I grant, I am a woman; but withal,

I

'A woman well reputed Cata's daughter.
Think you, I am no ftronger than my sex,
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 my self a voluntary wound

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

Bru. O ye Gods!

1 A woman well reputed; Cato's Daughter.] This falfe pointing fhould be corrected thus,

A woman well reputed Cato's daughter.

i.e. worthy of my birth, and the relation I bear to Cato. This indeed was a good reason why fhe should be intrufted with the fecret. But the falfe pointing, which gives a fenfe only implying that she was a woman of a good character, and that he was Cato's daughter, gives no good reafon : For the might be Cato's daughter, and yet not inherit his firmness; and fhe might be a woman well reputed, and yet not the best at a fecret. But if fhe was well reputed Cato's daughter, that is, worthy of her birth, fhe could neither want her father's love to her country, nor his refolution to engage in its deliverance.

D 2

Render

Render me worthy of this noble wife.

[Knock.

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.

Enter Lucius and Ligarius.

Lucius, who's there that knocks?

[Exit Porcia

Luc. Here is a fick man, that would speak with you. Bru. Caius Ligarius, that Metellus fpake 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 sick!
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; the better of them. What's to do? Bru. A piece of work, that will make fick men whole.

Yea, get

Cai. But are not fome whole, that we must make fick ? Bru. That we muft alfo. What it is, my Caius, I fhall 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

That Brutus leads me on.

Bru. Follow me then.

[Exeunt.

IV.

SCENE

Changes to Cæfar's Palace.

Thunder and Lightning. Enter Julius Cæfar.

Caf.NOR 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?

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

Ser. I will, my lord.

Enter Calphurnia.

[Exit.

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

You shall not stir out of your house to day.

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

Cal. Cafar, I never stood on ceremonies,
Yet now they fright me: there is one within,
(Befides the things that we have heard and seen)
Recounts most horrid fights feen 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 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;

D 3

And

And Ghofts did fhriek, and fqueal about the ftreets.
O Cæfar! 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 Cæfar.

Cal. When Beggars die, there are no comets feen; The heav'ns themselves blaze forth the death of Princes. Caf. "Cowards die many times before their deaths, "The valiant never tafte of death but once : "Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,

"It seems to me moft ftrange, that men should fear : "Seeing that death, a neceffary end, "Will come, when it will come.

Enter a Servant.

What say the Augurs?

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 cowardife: Cæfar fhould be a beast without a heart, If he should stay at home to day for fear. No, Cæfar fhall not; Danger knows full well, That Cæfar is more dangerous than he. We (a) were two lions litter'd in one day, And I the elder and more terrible; And Cæfar fhall go forth.

Cal. Alas, my lord,

Your wifdom 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,

(a) Were, Mr. Theobald.

Vulg. beare.]

And

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