Original Text |
Translated Text |
| Source: Folger Shakespeare Library |
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Thunder and lightning. Enter Julius Caesar in his
nightgown. CAESAR
Nor heaven nor Earth have been at peace tonight.
Thrice hath Calphurnia in her sleep cried out
“Help ho, they murder Caesar!”—Who’s within? Enter a Servant. | Caesar's having trouble sleeping, too, mainly because his wife has cried out about him being murdered three times in her sleep, which he's taken as a bad sign. |
SERVANT My lord. CAESAR
Go bid the priests do present sacrifice, 5
And bring me their opinions of success. SERVANT I will, my lord. He exits. | Caesar tells a servant to order the priests to make a sacrifice and see if they can rustle up a good omen. |
Enter Calphurnia. CALPHURNIA
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 threatened me 10
Ne’er looked but on my back. When they shall see
The face of Caesar, they are vanishèd. | The now-awake Calphurnia approaches Caesar and demands that he not leave the house that day. Caesar of course refuses her. He claims that danger can't look him in the eye. (Suddenly Caesar is talking like an action hero.) |
CALPHURNIA
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 whelpèd in the streets,
And graves have yawned and yielded up their dead.
Fierce fiery warriors fought 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. | Still, Calphurnia is pretty dead-set against Caesar leaving. She's not a superstitious lady, but she's seen lions walking around, the dead rising from their graves, and warriors in the sky. Plus, she's dreamt of the Capitol covered in blood. All of this makes her worry. |
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. 30 CALPHURNIA
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. 35
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. Enter a Servant. What say the augurers? 40 | Caesar points out that the gods will get their way, no matter what he does. Here he delivers the famous line about cowards dying many deaths (before the real one) while the brave die just once. He sees no reason to fear death, since death comes to everyone in the end. |
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 45
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 littered in one day,
And I the elder and more terrible. 50
And Caesar shall go forth. | Caesar then gets word that the sacrifice didn't go so well: the beast they killed didn't have a heart! Caesar—maybe arrogant, maybe brave—takes this to mean that he would have no heart (or courage) if he stayed home today. He then claims he's more dangerous than danger itself (very Johnny Bravo). |
CALPHURNIA 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. 55
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. She kneels. CAESAR
Mark Antony shall say I am not well,
And for thy humor I will stay at home. 60 He lifts her up. Enter Decius. Here’s Decius Brutus; he shall tell them so. | Calphurnia pleads with Caesar to stay home. If anyone asks, he can say it's his wife that kept him home so he won't look like a coward for not showing up at the Capitol. He doesn't agree until she's gotten down on her knees. He decides to humor her and have Antony cover for him with some excuse about feeling ill. |
DECIUS
Caesar, all hail! Good morrow, worthy Caesar.
I come to fetch you to the Senate House. CAESAR
And you are come in very happy time
To bear my greeting to the Senators 65
And tell them that I will not come today.
Cannot is false, and that I dare not, falser.
I will not come today. Tell them so, Decius. CALPHURNIA
Say he is sick. | It's about morning now, and Decius shows up as promised to take Caesar to the Capitol. Caesar tells him he won't be going, and Calphurnia adds that Decius should tell the Senate that Caesar is sick. |
CAESAR Shall Caesar send a lie? 70
Have I in conquest stretched 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 laughed at when I tell them so. 75 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.
Calphurnia here, my wife, stays me at home. 80
She dreamt tonight she saw my statue,
Which, like a fountain with an hundred spouts,
Did run pure blood; and many lusty Romans
Came smiling and did bathe their hands in it.
And these does she apply for warnings and portents 85
And evils imminent, and on her knee
Hath begged that I will stay at home today. | Caesar says there's no need to lie. He's conquered nations and is not worried about some old senators knowing why he had to stay home. He tells Decius to just say he's not coming and leave it at that. But, because Caesar loves Decius, he decides to tell him the truth. (Bad move, Caesar.) He explains that Calphurnia had some scary dreams that she thinks are premonitions—warnings of bad things to come. |
DECIUS
This dream is all amiss interpreted.
It was a vision fair and fortunate.
Your statue spouting blood in many pipes, 90
In which so many smiling Romans bathed,
Signifies that from you great Rome shall suck
Reviving blood, and that great men shall press
For tinctures, stains, relics, and cognizance.
This by Calphurnia’s dream is signified. 95 CAESAR
And this way have you well expounded it. | Decius is a quick thinker, and he knows he's got to get Caesar to the Capitol to kill him. So he deliberately misinterprets the dream. He says that of course Caesar had blood spilling all over happy Romans. That just means Rome will be revived by Caesar's blood, and everybody will want a little bit of that wonderful infusion. (Decius really means that Rome will be sustained by Caesar's spilled blood—not his current, happily circulating blood.) |
DECIUS
I have, when you have heard what I can say.
And know it now: the Senate have concluded
To give this day a crown to mighty Caesar.
If you shall send them word you will not come, 100
Their minds may change. Besides, it were a mock
Apt to be rendered, for someone to say
“Break up the Senate till another time,
When Caesar’s wife shall meet with better dreams.”
If Caesar hide himself, shall they not whisper 105
“Lo, Caesar is afraid”?
Pardon me, Caesar, for my dear dear love
To your proceeding bids me tell you this,
And reason to my love is liable. | Decius seals the deal by telling Caesar that today the Senate is planning on crowning him king, and if he doesn't show up they might change their minds. They'll make fun of him for being a scaredy-cat and staying home because of his wife's dreams. Decius claims he only says these things out of love. |
CAESAR
How foolish do your fears seem now, Calphurnia! 110
I am ashamèd I did yield to them.
Give me my robe, for I will go. Enter Brutus, Ligarius, Metellus, Casca, Trebonius,
Cinna, and Publius. And look where Publius is come to fetch me. PUBLIUS
Good morrow, Caesar. | That's all Caesar needed to hear. He calls Calphurnia foolish, and gets ready to head off with Decius to the Capitol. |
CAESAR Welcome, Publius.— 115
What, Brutus, are you stirred so early too?—
Good morrow, Casca.—Caius Ligarius,
Caesar was ne’er so much your enemy
As that same ague which hath made you lean.—
What is ’t o’clock? 120 BRUTUS Caesar, ’tis strucken eight. CAESAR
I thank you for your pains and courtesy. Enter Antony. See, Antony that revels long a-nights
Is notwithstanding up.—Good morrow, Antony. ANTONY So to most noble Caesar. 125
CAESAR, to Servant Bid them prepare within.—
I am to blame to be thus waited for. Servant exits.
Now, Cinna.—Now, Metellus.—What, Trebonius,
I have an hour’s talk in store for you.
Remember that you call on me today; 130
Be near me that I may remember you. TREBONIUS
Caesar, I will. Aside. And so near will I be
That your best friends shall wish I had been further. CAESAR
Good friends, go in and taste some wine with me,
And we, like friends, will straightway go together. 135 | It's 8 in the morning by this time, and all the other conspirators have gathered at Caesar's house to make small talk as promised. Caesar invites them all to have a friendly morning drink with him before they go. They are, after all, his best friends in the world. |
BRUTUS, aside
That every like is not the same, O Caesar,
The heart of Brutus earns to think upon. They exit. | Brutus privately laments that Caesar can't tell that his supposed friends are his soon-to-be murderers. |