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Por.

Enter PORTIA.

Brutus, my lord!

Bru. 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.

Por. Nor for yours neither. You have ungently, Bru

tus,

Stole from my bed: "And yesternight, at supper,
You fuddenly arose, and walk'd about,

Musing, and fighing, with your arms across:
And when I ask'd you what the matter was,
You star'd upon me with ungentle looks:
I urg'd you further, then you scratch'd your head,
And too impatiently stamp'd with your foot:
Yet I insisted, yet you answer'd not;
But, with an angry wafture of your hand,
Gave fign for me to leave you: So I did;
Fearing to strengthen that impatience,
Which seem'd too much enkindled; 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 so much upon your shape,
As it hath much prevail'd on your condition,
I should 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, so I do:-Good Portia, go to bed.
Por. Is Brutus fick ? and is it physical
To walk unbraced, and fuck up the humours

Of Of

By all your vows of love, and that great
Which did incorporate and make us one,
That you unfold to me, yourself, your ha
Why you are heavy; and what men to-n
Have had refort to you for here have be
Some fix or seven, who did hide their face

Even from darkness.

Bru.

Kneel not, gentle P

Por. I should not need, if you were ge Within the bond of marriage, tell me, B Is it excepted, I should know no secrets That appertain to you? Am I yourself, But, as it were, in fort, or limitation; To keep with you at meals, comfort your And talk to you sometimes? Dwell I but Of your good pleasure? If it be no more Portia is Brutus' harlot, not his wife.

Bru. You are my true and honourable
As dear to me, as are the ruddy drops
That visit my fad heart.

Por. If this were true, then should I k
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,
Being fo father'd, and fo husbanded?

Tell me your counsels, I will not disclose them :
I have made strong 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,

[Knocking within.

Render me worthy of this noble wife!

Hark, hark! one knocks: Portia, go in a while;

And by and by thy bosom shall partake

The fecrets of my heart.

All my engagements I will construe to thee,

All the charactery of my fad brows :

Leave me with hafte.

[Exit. PORTIA.

Enter Lucius and LIGARIUS.

Lucius, who's that, knocks?

Luc. Here is a fick man, that would speak with you.
Bru. Caius Ligarius, that Metellus spake of.-

Boy, stand aside.-Caius Ligarius! how?

Lig. Vouchsafe 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!
Lig. 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 a healthful ear to hear of it.

Lig. By all the gods that Romans bow before,
I here discard 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

TIA

11.

us,

And

That Brutus leads me on.
Bru.

Follow me then.

SCENE II.

The same. A Room in Cæfar's Po

Thunder and lightning. Enter CÆSAR, in

Caf. Nor heaven, nor earth, have been
night:

Thrice hath Calphurnia in her fleep cried c
Help, ho! They murder Cafar. Who's with

Serv. My lord ?

Enter a Servant;

Caf. Go bid the priests do present sacrifi And bring me their opinions of success. Serv. I will, my lord.

Enter CALPHURNIA.

Cal. What mean you, Cæfar? Think you to walk

forth?

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

Caf. Cæfar shall forth: The things that threaten'd me, Ne'er look'd but on my back; when they shall fee The face of Cæfar, they are vanished.

Cal. Cæfar, I never stood on ceremonies,

Yet now they fright me. There is one within,
Besides the things that we have heard and seen,
Recounts moft horrid fights seen 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 squadrons, and right form of war,
Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol:
The noife of battle hurtled in the air,

Horses did neigh, and dying men did groan;
And ghosts did shriek, and squeal about the streets.
O Cæfar! these things are beyond all use,

And I do fear them.

Caf.
What can be avoided,
Whose end is purpos'd by the mighty gods?
Yet Cæfar shall go forth: for these predictions
Are to the world in general, as to Cæfar.

Cal. When beggars die, there are no comets seen; The heavens themselves 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 most strange that men should fear;

Seeing

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