And, friends! difperse yourselves: but all remember What you have faid, and fhew yourselves true Ro

6

mans.

Bru. Good gentlemen, look fresh and merrily; Let not our looks put on our purposes;

But bear it, as our Roman actors do,

With untir'd fpirits, and formal conftancy.
And fo, good-morrow to you every one. [Exeunt.

Manet Brutus.

Boy! Lucius!-Faft afleep? It is no matter.
Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of flumber :
Thou haft no figures, nor no fantasies,
Which bufy care draws in the brains of men;
Therefore thou fleep'ft fo found.

Enter Portia.

Por. Brutus, my lord!

Bru. Portia, what mean you? Wherefore rife 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, Brutus,

Stol'n from my bed: And, yefternight at fupper,
You fuddenly arofe, and walk'd about,

Mufing and fighing, with your arms a-cross :
And, when I afk'd you what the matter was,
You ftar'd upon me with ungentle looks:

I urg'd you further; then you scratch'd your head,
And too impatiently ftamp'd with your foot:
Yet I infifted, 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 ftrengthen that impatience,

6 Let not our looks- -] Let not our faces put on, that is, wear or fhou our defigns.

JOHNSON.

Which feem'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 sleep;
And, could it work fo 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 caufe 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 Portia, 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 steal out of his wholefome bed,
To dare the vile contagion of the night?
And tempt the rheumy and unpurged air,
To add unto his fick nefs? 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, yourself, your half,
Why you are heavy; and what men to-night
Have had refort to you for here have been
Some fix or seven, who did hide their faces
Even from darkness.

Bru. Kneel not, gentle Portia.

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 yourself,
But, as it were, in fort, or limitation;

To keep with you at meals, 7 comfort your bed, And talk to you fometimes? Dwell I but in the fuburbs

Of your good pleasure? If it be no more,
Portia 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.

I

Por. If this were true, then fhould I know this fecret.

grant, I am a woman; but withal,

A woman that lord Brutus took to wife:

I

grant, I am a woman; but withal,

7 To keep with you at meals, &c.

"I being, O Brutus, (fayed fhe) the daughter of Cato, was ma"ried vnto thee, not to be thy beddefellowe and companion in bedde and at borde onelie, like a harlot : but to be partaker "alfo with thee, of thy good and euill fortune. Nowe for thy"felfe, I can finde no caufe of faulte in thee touchinge our matche "but for my parte, howe may I fhowe my duetie towardes thee, "and howe muche I woulde doe for thy fake, if I can not con"ftantlie beare a fecret mifchaunce or griefe with thee, which re"quireth fecrecy and fidelity? I confeffe, that a womans wit "commonly is too weake to keepe a fecret fafely: but yet, Bru"tus, good education, and the companie of vertuous men, haue "fome power to reforme the defect of nature. And for my felfe, "I haue this benefit moreouer: that I am the daughter of Cato, "and wife of Brutus. This notwithstanding, I did not truft to "any of these things before: vntill that now I haue found by experience, that no paine nor griefe whatsoeuer can ouercome With those wordes fhe fhewed him her wounde on her thigh, and tolde him what she had done to proue her felfe." Sir Tho. North's Tranflat. of Plutarch. STEEVENS.

66

66 me.

66

-Comfort your bed,]" is but an odd phrafe, and gives as odd "an idea," fays Mr. Theobald. He therefore fubftitutes, confort. But this good old word, however difufed through modern refinement, was not fo difcarded by Shakespeare. Henry VIII. as we read in Cavendish's life of Wolfey, in commendation of queen Katharine, in public faid, " She hath beene to me a true obedient wife, and as comfortable as I could with." UPTON.

A wa

• A woman well-reputed Cato's daughter.
Think you, I am no ftronger than my fex,
Being fo father'd, and so husbanded?

Tell me your counfels, I will not disclose them :
I have made ftrong 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,

Render me worthy of this noble wife!

[Knock.

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 conftrue to thee,
All the charactery of my fad brows:--
Leave me with hafte.

Enter Lucius and Ligarius.

Lucius, who is that knocks?

[Exit Portia.

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.

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 reafon why fhe fhould 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 she 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 the 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 refoWARBURTON. lution to engage in its deliverance.

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 difcard my fick nefs. Soul of Rome!
Brave for, 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;
Yea, get the better of them.
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 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 Brutus leads me on.

Bru. Follow me then.

Caf

SCENE II.

Changes to Cafar's Palace.

[Exeunt.

Thunder and lightning. Enter Julius Cæfar.

NOR

OR heaven, nor earth, have been at peace to-night:

Thrice hath Calphurnia in her fleep cry'd out, Help, ho! they murder Cæfar." Who's within?

Enter