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Bru. Caius Ligarius, that Metellus spoke 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.

Cai. By all the gods the Romans bow before, I here discard my ficknefs. Soul of Rome! Brave-fon, derived from honourable loins! Thou, like an exorcift, haft conjured up My mortified fpirit. Now bid me run, And I will ftrive 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 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 Brutus leads me on.

Bru. Follow me then.

[Exeuut,

SCENE changes to Cæfar's Palace.

Thunder and Lightning. Enter JULIUS CÆSAR. Caf. Nor heaven, nor earth, have been at peace to-night;

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Thrice hath Calphurnia in her fleep cried out, Help, ho! they murder Cæfar." Who's withing Enter a Servant.

Ser. My Lord?----

Caf. Go bid the priests do present facrifice,
And bring me their opinions of fuccefs..
Ser. I will, my Lord.

Enter CALPHURNIA.

[Exit.

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

You fhall not ftir out of your house to-day?

Caf. Cæfar fhall forth; the things that threatened me,

Ne'er look'd but on my back; when they shall see The face of Cæfar, they are vanquished.

Cal. Cæfar, I never stood on ceremonies,
Yet now they fright me: there is one within,
(Befides the things that we have heard and feen)
Recounts most horrid fights feen by the watch.
A lionefs hath whelped in the streets,

And graves have yawned, 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 noife of battle hurtled in the air r;
Horfes did neigh, and dying men did groan;
And ghosts did shriek and fqueal about the streets.
O Cafar! these things are beyond all use,

And I do fear them.

Caf. What can be avoided,

Whofe end is purpofed by the mighty gods?
Yet Cæfar thall go forth: for thefe predictions
Are to the world in general as to Cæfar.

Cal. When beggars die there are no comets feen;

The heavens 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 feems to me most strange, that men should fear: Seeing that death, a neceflary end,

Will come when it will come.

Enter a Servant.

What say the Augurs?

Ser. They would not have you to ftir forth toPlucking the entrails of an offering forth, [day. They could not find a heart within the beast.

[Exit Servant.

Caf. The gods do this in fhame of cowardife: Cæfar fhould be a beaft without a heart, If he should stay at home to-day for fear. No, Cæfar shall not; Danger knows full well, That Cæfar is more dangerous than he. (15) We were two lions littered in one day, And I the elder and more terrible;

And Cæfar fhall go

forth.

(15) We heard two lions-] The first Folio-We heare The copies 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 appeared,

Both as the fame, or rather curs the elder.

I made this emendation formerly in my Shakespeare Reftored; and the ingenious Dr Thirlby, without having feen it, ftruck out the fame conjecture.

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Your wifdom is confumed 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 fenate-house,
And he will fay you are not well to-day:
Let me, upon my knee, prevail in this.

Caf. Mark Antony fhall fay I am not well;
And for thy humour I will stay at home.
Enter DECIUS.

Here's Decius Brutus, he fhall tell them fo.
Dec. Cæfar, all hail! good-morrow, worthy
I come to fetch you to the Senate-house. [Cæfar;
Caf. And you are come in very happy time,
To bear my greeting to the fenators,

And tell them that I will not come to-day.
Cannot, is false; and that I dare not, falser:
I will not come to-day; tell them fo, Decius.
Cal. Say he is fick.

Caf. Shall Cæfar send a lie?

Have I in conquest stretch'd mine arm fo far,
To be afraid to tell grey-beards the truth?
Decius, go tell them Cæfar will not come.

Dec. Moft mighty Cæfar, let me know fome caufe, Left I he laugh'd at when I tell them so.

Caf. The caufe is in my will, I will not come; That is enough to fatisfy the Senate.

But for your private fatisfaction,

Because I love you, I will let you know.
Calphurnia here, my wife, ftays me at home:
She dream'd laft night fhe faw my ftatue,
Which, like a fountain, with a hundred spouts,
Did run pure blood; and many lufty Romans.
Came fmiling, and did bathe their hands in it.
Thefe fhe applies for warnings and portents,

And evils imminent; and on her knee
Hath begged that I will stay at home to-day.
Dec. This dream is all amifs interpreted;

It was a vifion fair and fortunate :

Your ftatue, fpouting blood in mary pipes,
In which fo many fmiling Romans bathed,
Signifies, that from you great Rome fhall fuck
Reviving blood; and that great men thall prefs
For tinctures, ftains, relicks, and cognisance.
This by Calphurnia's dream is fignified.

Caf. And this way have you well expounded it. Dec. I have, when you have heard what I can And know it now, the fenate have concluded [fay; To give this day a crown to mighty Cæfar.

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you fhall fend them word you will not come, Their minds may change. Befides, it were a mock Apt to be rendered, for fome one to fay, "Break up the Senate 'till another time,

"When Cæfar's wife shall meet with better dreams.” If Cæfar hide himself, thall they not whisper,

"Lo, Cæfar is afraid!"

Pardon ine, Cæfar; for my dear, dear love
To your proceeding bids me tell you this:
And reafon to my love is liable.

Caf. How foolith do your fears feem now, CalI am afhamed I did yield to them......

Give me my robe, for I will go:

[phurnia?

Enter BRUTUS, LIGARIUS, METELLUS, CASCA,
TREBONIUS, CINNA and PUBLIUS.

And look where Publius is come to fetch me.
Pub. Good-morrow, Cæfar.

Cef. Welcome, Publius.

What, Brutus, are you stirred fo early too?
Good morrow, Cafca: Caius Ligarius,

Cæfar was ne'er so much your enemy,'

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