The New Hudson Shakespeare: Julius Caesar Part 22

CaeSAR. Go bid the priests do present sacrifice, 5 And bring me their opinions of success.

SERVANT. I will, my lord. [_Exit_]

_Enter_ CALPURNIA

CALPURNIA. What mean you, Caesar? think you to walk forth?

You shall not stir out of your house to-day. 9

CaeSAR. Caesar shall forth: the things that threaten'd me Ne'er look'd but on my back; when they shall see The face of Caesar, they are vanished.

CALPURNIA. Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies, Yet now they fright me. There is one within, Besides the things that we have heard and seen, 15 Recounts most horrid sights 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, 20 Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol; The noise of battle hurtled in the air, Horses did neigh, and dying men did groan; And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets.

O Caesar, these things are beyond all use, 25 And I do fear them!

[Note 22: /hurtled/ F1 hurried F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 23: /did neigh/ F2 F3 F4 do neigh F1.]

[Note 6: /success:/ the result. The root notion of the word.

See note, p. 65, l. 324. But in V, iii, 65, the word is used in its modern sense.]

[Note 13: 'Ceremonies' is here put for the ceremonial or sacerdotal interpretation of prodigies and omens, as in II, i, 197.]

[Note 16-24: Cf. _Hamlet_, I, i, 113-125; Vergil, _Georgics_, I, 465-488.]

[Note 22: /hurtled:/ clashed. The onomatopoetic 'hurtling' is used in _As You Like It_, IV, iii, 132, to describe the clas.h.i.+ng encounter between Orlando and the lioness. Chaucer, in _The Knightes Tale_ l. 1758, uses the verb transitively, suggesting a diminutive of 'hurt':

And he him hurtleth with his horse adown.]

[Page 68]

CaeSAR. What can be avoided Whose end is purpos'd by the mighty G.o.ds?

Yet Caesar shall go forth; for these predictions Are to the world in general as to Caesar.

CALPURNIA. When beggars die, there are no comets seen; 30 The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.

CaeSAR. 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; 35 Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come.

[Note 33: /taste of death./ This expression occurs thrice in the New Testament (King James version). Plutarch relates that, a short time before Caesar fell, some of his friends urged him to have a guard about him, and he replied that it was better to die at once than live in the continual fear of death. He is also said to have given as his reason for refusing a guard, that he thought Rome had more need of him than he of Rome.

"And the very day before, Caesar, supping with Marcus Lepidus, sealed certain letters, as he was wont to do, at the board: so, talk falling out amongst them, reasoning what death was best, he, preventing their opinions, cried out aloud, 'Death unlooked for.'"--Plutarch, _Julius Caesar_.]

[Page 69]

_Re-enter_ Servant

What say the augurers?

SERVANT. 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. 40

CaeSAR. The G.o.ds do this in shame of cowardice: Caesar should be a beast without a heart, If he should stay at home to-day for fear.

No, Caesar shall not: danger knows full well That Caesar is more dangerous than he: 45 We are two lions litter'd in one day, And I the elder and more terrible; And Caesar shall go forth.

CALPURNIA. Alas, my lord, Your wisdom is consum'd in confidence!

Do not go forth to-day: call it my fear 50 That keeps you in the house, and not your own.

We'll send Mark Antony to the senate-house, And he shall say you are not well to-day: Let me, upon my knee, prevail in this.

CaeSAR. Mark Antony shall say I am not well; 55 And, for thy humour, I will stay at home.

_Enter_ DECIUS

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

DECIUS. Caesar, all hail! good morrow, worthy Caesar: I come to fetch you to the senate-house.

[Note 37: _Re-enter_ ... Enter a ... Ff.]

[Note 46: /are/ Capell heare F1 F2 hear F3 F4 heard Rowe.]

[Note 57: Scene V Pope.]

[Note 42: /should:/ would. The present-day usage is post-Elizabethan.]

[Page 70]

CaeSAR. And you are come in very happy time, 60 To bear my greeting to the senators 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 so, Decius.

CALPURNIA. Say he is sick.

CaeSAR. Shall Caesar send a lie? 65 Have I in conquest stretch'd mine arm so far, To be afeard to tell graybeards the truth?

Decius, go tell them Caesar will not come.

DECIUS. Most mighty Caesar, let me know some cause, Lest I be laugh'd at when I tell them so. 70

CaeSAR. The cause is in my will; I will not come; That is enough to satisfy the senate.

But, for your private satisfaction, Because I love you, I will let you know: Calpurnia here, my wife, stays me at home. 75 She dreamt to-night she saw my statue, Which, like a fountain with an hundred spouts, Did run pure blood; and many l.u.s.ty Romans Came smiling and did bathe their hands in it: And these does she apply for warnings and portents 80 And evils imminent, and on her knee Hath begg'd that I will stay at home to-day.

[Note 67: /afeard/ F1 F2 F3 afraid F4--/truth?/ truth: Ff.]

[Note 76: /statue/ Ff statua Steevens statue Camb.]

[Note 76: /to-night:/ last night. So in _The Merchant of Venice_, II, v, 18.--/statue./ In Shakespeare's time 'statue'

was p.r.o.nounced indifferently as a word of two syllables or three. Bacon uses it repeatedly as a trisyllable, and spells it 'statua,' as in his _Advancement of Learning_: "It is not possible to have the true pictures or statuaes of Cyrus, Alexander, Caesar, no, nor of the kings or great personages."]

[Page 71]

DECIUS. This dream is all amiss interpreted: It was a vision fair and fortunate.