Act 2, Scene 2

A room in Caesar's palace.

[Thunder and lightning. Enter Caesar, in his nightgown.]
Julius Caesar
917 Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace tonight:
918 Thrice hath Calpurnia in her sleep cried out,
919 "Help, ho! They murder Caesar!"—Who's within?
[Enter a Servant.]
Servant
920 My lord?
Julius Caesar
921 Go bid the priests do present sacrifice,
922 And bring me their opinions of success.
Servant
923 I will, my lord.
[Exit.]
[Enter Calpurnia.]
Calpurnia
924 What mean you, Caesar? Think you to walk forth?
925 You shall not stir out of your house to-day.
Julius Caesar
926 Caesar shall forth: the things that threaten me
927 Ne'er look but on my back; when they shall see
928 The face of Caesar, they are vanished.
Calpurnia
929 Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies,
930 Yet now they fright me. There is one within,
931 Besides the things that we have heard and seen,
932 Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch.
933 A lioness hath whelped in the streets;
934 And graves have yawn'd, and yielded up their dead;
935 Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds,
936 In ranks and squadrons and right form of war,
937 Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol;
938 The noise of battle hurtled in the air,
939 Horses did neigh, and dying men did groan;
940 And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets.
941 O Caesar, these things are beyond all use,
942 And I do fear them!
Julius Caesar
943 What can be avoided
944 Whose end is purposed by the mighty gods?
945 Yet Caesar shall go forth; for these predictions
946 Are to the world in general as to Caesar.
Calpurnia
947 When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
948 The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.
Julius Caesar
949 Cowards die many times before their deaths;
950 The valiant never taste of death but once.
951 Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
952 It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
953 Seeing that death, a necessary end,
954 Will come when it will come.—
[Re-enter Servant.]
Julius Caesar
955 What say the augurers?
Servant
956 They would not have you to stir forth to-day.
957 Plucking the entrails of an offering forth,
958 They could not find a heart within the beast.
Julius Caesar
959 The gods do this in shame of cowardice:
960 Caesar should be a beast without a heart,
961 If he should stay at home today for fear.
962 No, Caesar shall not: danger knows full well
963 That Caesar is more dangerous than he:
964 We are two lions litter'd in one day,
965 And I the elder and more terrible;
966 And Caesar shall go forth.
Calpurnia
967 Alas, my lord,
968 Your wisdom is consumed in confidence!
969 Do not go forth to-day: call it my fear
970 That keeps you in the house, and not your own.
971 We'll send Mark Antony to the Senate-house,
972 And he shall say you are not well to-day:
973 Let me, upon my knee, prevail in this.
Julius Caesar
974 Mark Antony shall say I am not well,
975 And, for thy humor, I will stay at home.
[Enter Decius.]
Julius Caesar
976 Here's Decius Brutus, he shall tell them so.
Decius Brutus
977 Caesar, all hail! Good morrow, worthy Caesar:
978 I come to fetch you to the Senate-house.
Julius Caesar
979 And you are come in very happy time
980 To bear my greeting to the Senators,
981 And tell them that I will not come to-day.
982 Cannot, is false; and that I dare not, falser:
983 I will not come to-day. Tell them so, Decius.
Calpurnia
984 Say he is sick.
Julius Caesar
985 Shall Caesar send a lie?
986 Have I in conquest stretch'd mine arm so far,
987 To be afeard to tell grey-beards the truth?—
988 Decius, go tell them Caesar will not come.
Decius Brutus
989 Most mighty Caesar, let me know some cause,
990 Lest I be laugh'd at when I tell them so.
Julius Caesar
991 The cause is in my will; I will not come:
992 That is enough to satisfy the Senate.
993 But, for your private satisfaction,
994 Because I love you, I will let you know:
995 Calpurnia here, my wife, stays me at home:
996 She dreamt to-night she saw my statua,
997 Which, like a fountain with an hundred spouts,
998 Did run pure blood; and many lusty Romans
999 Came smiling and did bathe their hands in it:
1000 And these does she apply for warnings and portents
1001 And evils imminent; and on her knee
1002 Hath begg'd that I will stay at home to-day.
Decius Brutus
1003 This dream is all amiss interpreted:
1004 It was a vision fair and fortunate.
1005 Your statue spouting blood in many pipes,
1006 In which so many smiling Romans bathed,
1007 Signifies that from you great Rome shall suck
1008 Reviving blood; and that great men shall press
1009 For tinctures, stains, relics, and cognizance.
1010 This by Calpurnia's dream is signified.
Julius Caesar
1011 And this way have you well expounded it.
Decius Brutus
1012 I have, when you have heard what I can say;
1013 And know it now: The Senate have concluded
1014 To give this day a crown to mighty Caesar.
1015 If you shall send them word you will not come,
1016 Their minds may change. Besides, it were a mock
1017 Apt to be render'd, for someone to say
1018 "Break up the Senate till another time,
1019 When Caesar's wife shall meet with better dreams."
1020 If Caesar hide himself, shall they not whisper
1021 "Lo, Caesar is afraid"?
1022 Pardon me, Caesar; for my dear dear love
1023 To your proceeding bids me tell you this;
1024 And reason to my love is liable.
Julius Caesar
1025 How foolish do your fears seem now, Calpurnia!
1026 I am ashamed I did yield to them.
1027 Give me my robe, for I will go.
[Enter Publius, Brutus, Ligarius, Metellus, Casca, Trebonius, and Cinna.]
Julius Caesar
1028 And look where Publius is come to fetch me.
Publius
1029 Good morrow, Caesar.
Julius Caesar
1030 Welcome, Publius.—
1031 What, Brutus, are you stirr'd so early too?—
1032 Good morrow, Casca.—Caius Ligarius,
1033 Caesar was ne'er so much your enemy
1034 As that same ague which hath made you lean.—
1035 What is't o'clock?
Marcus Brutus
1036 Caesar, 'tis strucken eight.
Julius Caesar
1037 I thank you for your pains and courtesy.
[Enter Antony.]
Julius Caesar
1038 See! Antony, that revels long o'nights,
1039 Is notwithstanding up.—Good morrow, Antony.
Mark Antony
1040 So to most noble Caesar.
Julius Caesar
1041 Bid them prepare within:
1042 I am to blame to be thus waited for.—
1043 Now, Cinna;—now, Metellus;—what, Trebonius!
1044 I have an hour's talk in store for you:
1045 Remember that you call on me to-day;
1046 Be near me, that I may remember you.
Trebonius
1047 Caesar, I will.
[Aside.]
Trebonius
1048 and so near will I be,
1049 That your best friends shall wish I had been further.
Julius Caesar
1050 Good friends, go in, and taste some wine with me;
1051 And we, like friends, will straightway go together.
[Aside.]
Marcus Brutus
1052 That every like is not the same, O Caesar,
1053 The heart of Brutus yearns to think upon!
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 921historical topical
“bid the priests do present sacrifice”
Caesar orders his household priests to perform a sacrifice immediately ('present' = at once) and report whether the omens are favorable. Roman religion relied on haruspicy — reading the entrails of a slaughtered animal — to determine whether a proposed action had divine approval before undertaking it.
historical Roman Augury and Omens
TLN 926rhetorical device
“Caesar shall forth: the things that threaten me”
Caesar refers to himself in the third person throughout this scene ('Caesar shall forth,' 'the face of Caesar'). This is called illeism — speaking of oneself by name rather than 'I' — and Shakespeare uses it consistently for Caesar to convey both his colossal self-regard and his habit of treating himself as a public institution rather than a private man.
TLN 929archaic vocab
“I never stood on ceremonies”
'Stood on ceremonies' means 'paid attention to omens and ritual signs' — not social formalities. In Elizabethan usage, 'ceremony' carried the specific sense of a portent or augury, a supernatural warning to be observed. Calpurnia is admitting she was never superstitious before, but the present omens are too alarming to dismiss.
TLN 933historical topical
“A lioness hath whelped in the streets; And graves have yawn'd”
Calpurnia recites a catalog of prodigies — unnatural events that Romans interpreted as divine warnings before a catastrophe. A lioness giving birth in a city street, corpses rising from graves, warriors fighting in the clouds, and shrieking ghosts are all drawn from Plutarch and Suetonius, who list similar portents said to have preceded Caesar's assassination.
TLN 947cultural context
“When beggars die, there are no comets seen; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.”
Calpurnia states a widely held ancient and early-modern belief: unusual celestial events — comets, eclipses — were signs sent by the gods to warn of the deaths of great rulers, not ordinary people. The heavens were thought to respond to the fates of kings and leaders because their lives shaped the order of the world.
TLN 957historical topical
“Plucking the entrails of an offering forth, They could not find a heart within the beast.”
The augurers sacrificed an animal and examined its internal organs — especially the liver and heart — for signs of divine favor. Finding no heart at all in the victim was the most alarming possible result: it meant the gods had withdrawn their protection from the person who commissioned the sacrifice.
historical Roman Augury and Omens
TLN 996archaic vocab
“she saw my statua, 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”
'Statua' is an archaic form of 'statue,' here used by Caesar to describe Calpurnia's dream in which his statue ran blood from a hundred spouts while smiling Romans bathed their hands in it. The dream is a vivid premonition of the assassination: Caesar's blood will be shed at the Capitol, and the conspirators will literally wash their hands in it (3.1).
TLN 1013historical topical
“The Senate have concluded To give this day a crown to mighty Caesar.”
Decius claims the Senate intends to offer Caesar a royal crown on this very day — the Ides of March. This is the bait that overrides all of Calpurnia's warnings. The promise of a crown exploits what Caesar most desires, and what most threatens the Republic: the title 'king' was the one thing Rome's republican tradition most fiercely rejected.
historical The Roman Republic and the Name 'King'
TLN 1048rhetorical device
“so near will I be, That your best friends shall wish I had been further.”
Trebonius speaks an aside — a remark audible to the audience but not to Caesar. Caesar has just asked Trebonius to stay close to him; Trebonius accepts the request with ominous double meaning: he will indeed be 'near' Caesar at the Capitol, not as a protector but as the man assigned to draw Mark Antony away while the others strike. The aside delivers dramatic irony in its sharpest form.
TLN 1052wordplay
“That every like is not the same, O Caesar, The heart of Brutus yearns to think upon!”
Brutus's closing aside turns on the word 'like': Caesar has just called the conspirators his 'friends,' and they look and sound like friends. But 'every like is not the same' — resemblance is not identity. A man who seems a friend is not necessarily one. 'Yearns' means 'grieves' or 'aches.' Brutus is tormented by the gap between Caesar's trust and what he is about to do.