I am not sick, if Brutus have in hand
    Any exploit worthy the name of honor.
  BRUTUS. Such an exploit have I in hand, Ligarius,
    Had you a healthful ear to hear of it.
  LIGARIUS. By all the gods that Romans bow before,
    I here discard my sickness! Soul of Rome!
    Brave son, derived from honorable loins!
    Thou, like an exorcist, hast conjured 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?
  BRUTUS. A piece of work that will make sick men whole.
  LIGARIUS. But are not some whole that we must make sick?
  BRUTUS. That must we also. What it is, my Caius,
    I shall unfold to thee, as we are going
    To whom it must be done.
  LIGARIUS. Set on your foot,
    And with a heart new-fired I follow you,
    To do I know not what; but it sufficeth
    That Brutus leads me on.
  BRUTUS. Follow me then. Exeunt.

SCENE II. Caesar's house. Thunder and lightning.

Enter Caesar, in his nightgown.

  CAESAR. Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace tonight.
    Thrice hath Calpurnia in her sleep cried out,
    "Help, ho! They murther Caesar!" Who's within?

Enter a Servant.

  SERVANT. My lord?
  CAESAR. Go bid the priests do present sacrifice,
    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 today.
  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 I stood on ceremonies,
    Yet now they fright me. There is one within,
    Besides the things that we have heard and seen,
    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,
    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,
    And I do fear them.
  CAESAR. What can be avoided
    Whose end is purposed by the mighty gods?
    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;
    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
    Seeing that death, a necessary end,
    Will come when it will come.

Re-enter Servant.

    What say the augurers?
  SERVANT. They would not have you to stir forth today.
    Plucking the entrails of an offering forth,
    They could not find a heart within the beast.
  CAESAR. The gods do this in shame of cowardice.
    Caesar should be a beast without a heart
    If he should stay at home today for fear.
    No, Caesar shall not. Danger knows full well
    That Caesar is more dangerous than he.
    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 consumed in confidence.
    Do not go forth today. Call it my fear
    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 today.
    Let me, upon my knee, prevail in this.
  CAESAR.