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 sign 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 sometime hath his hour with every man.
It will not let you eat, nor talk, nor sleep;
And, could it work so much upon your shape,
As it hath much prevail'd on your condition 28,
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 wise, 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 sick? and is it physical To walk unbraced, and suck up the humours Of the dank morning? What, is Brutus sick; And will he steal out of his wholesome bed, To dare the vile contagion of the night? And tempt the rheumy and unpurged air To add unto his sickness? No, my Brutus; You have some sick 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 29, by my once commended beauty, By all your vows of love, and that great vow

28 Condition is temper, disposition, demeanour. See vol. iii. p. 123, note 13.

29 I charm you.' This is the reading of the old copy, which Pope and Hanmer changed to 'I charge you,' without necessity.

Which did incorporate and make us one,
That you unfold to me, yourself, your half,
Why you are heavy; and what men to-night
Have had resort to you: for here have been
Some six or seven, who did hide their faces
Even from darkness.

Bru.

Kneel not, gentle Portia.

Por. I should not need, if you were gentle Brutus. Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus, Is it excepted, I should know no secrets That appertain to you? Am I yourself, But, as it were, in sort, or limitation;

To keep with you at meals, comfort your bed, And talk to you sometimes? Dwell I but in the suburbs

Of your good pleasure? If it be no more,

Portia is Brutus' harlot, not his wife 30.

Bru. You are my true and honourable wife; As dear to me, as are the ruddy drops

That visit my sad heart 31.

To charm is to invoke or entreat by words or other fascinating means. Thus in Cymbeline :

'

'tis your graces

That from my mutest conscience to my tongue

Charms this report out.'

30 The general idea of this part of Portia's speech is taken from the old translation of Plutarch. Lord Sterline, in his Julius Cæsar, 1607, uses similar language :

'I was not, Brutus, match'd with thee, to be
A partner only of thy board and bed;
Each servile whore in those might equal me,

That did herself to nought but pleasure wed.
No;-Portia spous'd thee with a mind t' abide
Thy fellow in all fortunes, good or ill,
With chains of mutual love together tied,

As those that have two breasts, one heart, two souls, one
will.'

31 These glowing words have been adopted by Gray in his celebrated Ode:

'Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart.'

Por. If this were true, then should I know this

secret.

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 so father'd, and so husbanded?

Tell me your counsels, I will not disclose them:
I have made strong proof of my constancy,
Giving myself a voluntary wound

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

Bru.

O ye gods,

Render me worthy of this noble wife!

[Knocking within. Hark, hark! one knocks: Portia, go in a while;

And by and by thy bosom shall partake

The secrets of my heart.

All my engagements I will construe to thee,

All the charactery 32 of my sad brows:

Leave me with haste.

[Exit PORTIA.

Enter LUCIUS and LIGARIUS.

Lucius, who is that knocks?

Luc. Here is a sick 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 sick!

32 Charactery is defined ' writing by characters or strange marks.' Brutus therefore means that he will divulge to her the secret cause of the sadness marked on his countenance. In The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act v. Sc. 1, it is said, 'Fairies use flowers for their charactery?'

Lig. I am not sick, if Brutus have in hand Any exploit worthy the name of honour 33 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 sickness. Soul of Rome! Brave son, deriv'd from honourable loins! Thou, like an exorcist 34, hast conjur'd up My mortified spirit. Now bid me run, And I will strive with things impossible; Yea, get the better of them. What's to do?

Bru. A piece of work, that will make sick men

whole.

Lig. But are not some whole, that we must make

sick?

Bru. That must we also. What it is, I shall unfold to thee, as we are going To whom it must be done.

my Caius,

Lig.
Set on your foot;
And, with a heart new-fir'd, I follow you,

33 This is from Plutarch's Life of Brutus, as translated by North: Brutus went to see him being sicke in his bedde, and sayed unto him, O Ligarius, in what a time art thou sicke? Ligarius, rising up in his bed and taking him by the right hande, sayed unto him, Brutus, if thou hast any great enterprise in hande worthie of thy selfe, I am whole.' Lord Sterline has also introduced this passage into his Julius Cæsar. Shakspeare has given to Romans the manners of his own time. It was a common practice in England for those who were sick to wear a kerchief on their heads, and still continues among the common people in many places. If (says Fuller) this county [Cheshire] hath bred no writers in that faculty [physic], the wonder is the less, if it be true what I read, that if any there be sick, they make him a posset and tye a kerchief on his head, and if that will not mend him, then God be merciful to him.'-Worthies. Cheshire, p. 180.

34 Here and in all other places Shakspeare uses exorcist for one who raises spirits, not one who lays them; but it has been erroneously said that he is singular in this use of the word. See vol. iii. p. 335, note 31.

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

Bru.

Follow me then.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

The same. A Room in Cæsar's Palace.

Thunder and Lightning. Enter CESAR, in his Night-gown.

Cæs. Nor heaven, nor earth, have been at peace
to-night:

Thrice hath Calphurnia in her sleep cried out,
Help, ho! they murder Cæsar!-Who's within?

Serv. My lord?

Enter a Servant.

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

Serv. I will, my lord.

Enter CALPHURNIA.

[Exit.

Cal. What mean you, Cæsar? Think you to walk forth?

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

Cæs. Cæsar shall forth: The things that threat

en'd me,

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

Cal. Cæsar, I never stood on ceremonies1,

1 Never paid a regard to prodigies or omens. See note 23, in the preceding scene. The adjective is used in the same sense in The Devil's Charter, 1607 :

'The devil hath provided in his covenant
I should not cross myself at any time,

I never was so ceremonious.'