Chapter 8

of_ BRUTUS

_Enter_ PORTIA _and_ LUCIUS

PORTIA. I prithee, boy, run to the senate-house; Stay not to answer me, but get thee gone. Why dost thou stay?

[Note: SCENE III Rowe | Scene VII Pope.--_A street_ ... Ff omit.]

[Note: _reading a paper_ Rowe | Ff omit.]

[Note: SCENE IV Capell.--_Another part_ ... Capell | Ff omit.]

[Note: _Enter_ ARTEMIDORUS ... In Plutarch, _Julius Cæsar_, Artemidorus is thus introduced: "And one Artemidorus also, born in the isle of Gnidos, a doctor of rhetoric in the Greek tongue, who by means of his profession was very familiar with certain of Brutus' confederates, and therefore knew the most part of all their practices against Cæsar, came and brought him a little bill, written with his own hand, of all that he meant to tell him. He, marking how Cæsar received all the supplications that were offered him, and that he gave them straight to his men that were about him, pressed nearer to him, and said: 'Cæsar, read this memorial to yourself, and that quickly, for they be matters of great weight, and touch you nearly.'"]

[Note 6-7: /security gives way to:/ false confidence opens a way for.]

[Note 8: /lover:/ friend. See note, p. 100, l. 13.]

[Note 12: /emulation:/ envious rivalry. So in _Troilus and Cressida_, I, iii, 134: "an envious fever Of pale and bloodless emulation."]

[Note 14: /contrive:/ plot, conspire. Cf. _The Merchant of Venice_, IV, i, 360.]

[Note 1: The anxiety of Portia is thus described by Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_: "For Porcia, being very careful and pensive for that which was to come, and being too weak to away with so great and inward grief of mind, she could hardly keep within, but was frighted with every little noise and cry she heard, as those that are taken and possessed with the fury of the Bacchantes; asking every man that came from the market-place what Brutus did, and still sent messenger after messenger, to know what news."]

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LUCIUS. To know my errand, madam.

PORTIA. I would have had thee there, and here again, Ere I can tell thee what thou shouldst do there. 5 O constancy, be strong upon my side! Set a huge mountain 'tween my heart and tongue! I have a man's mind, but a woman's might. How hard it is for women to keep counsel! Art thou here yet?

LUCIUS. Madam, what should I do? 10 Run to the Capitol, and nothing else? And so return to you, and nothing else?

PORTIA. Yes, bring me word, boy, if thy lord look well, For he went sickly forth: and take good note What Cæsar doth, what suitors press to him. 15 Hark, boy! what noise is that?

LUCIUS. I hear none, madam.

PORTIA. Prithee, listen well: I heard a bustling rumour, like a fray, And the wind brings it from the Capitol.

LUCIUS. Sooth, madam, I hear nothing. 20

[Note 18: /bustling/ Rowe | bussling Ff.]

[Note 6: /constancy:/ firmness. Cf. II, i, 299. So in _Macbeth_, II, ii, 68.]

[Note 18: A loud noise, or murmur, as of stir and tumult, is one of the old meanings of 'rumor.' So in _King John_, V, iv, 45: "the noise and rumour of the field." Since the interview of Brutus and Portia, he has unbosomed all his secrets to her; and now she is in such a fever of anxiety that she mistakes her fancies for facts.]

[Note 20: /Sooth:/ in truth. Cf. _The Merchant of Venice_, I, i, 1. See Skeat, and cf. note on 'soothsayer,' p. 10, l. 19.]

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_Enter the_ SOOTHSAYER

PORTIA. Come hither, fellow: which way hast thou been?

SOOTHSAYER. At mine own house, good lady.

PORTIA. What is 't o'clock?

SOOTHSAYER. About the ninth hour, lady.

PORTIA. Is Cæsar yet gone to the Capitol?

SOOTHSAYER. Madam, not yet: I go to take my stand, 25 To see him pass on to the Capitol.

PORTIA. Thou hast some suit to Cæsar, hast thou not?

SOOTHSAYER. That I have, lady: if it will please Cæsar To be so good to Cæsar as to hear me, I shall beseech him to befriend himself. 30

PORTIA. Why, know'st thou any harm's intended towards him?

SOOTHSAYER. None that I know will be, much that I fear may chance. Good morrow to you. Here the street is narrow: The throng that follows Cæsar at the heels, Of senators, of prætors, common suitors, 35 Will crowd a feeble man almost to death: I'll get me to a place more void, and there Speak to great Cæsar as he comes along. [_Exit_]

[Note 21: _Enter the_ SOOTHSAYER Ff | Enter Artemidorus Rowe.]

[Note 23: /o'clock/ Theobald | a clocke F1.]

[Note 32: Two lines in Ff.]

[Note 39: Two lines in Ff.]

[Note 21: _Enter the_ SOOTHSAYER. Rowe substituted 'Artemidorus' for 'the Soothsayer' here, and many modern editors have adopted this change. But North's Plutarch furnishes a source for the Soothsayer as distinct from Artemidorus, and the reading of the Folios has a dramatic edge and effectiveness which Rowe's change destroys.]

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PORTIA. I must go in. Ay me, how weak a thing The heart of woman is! O Brutus, 40 The heavens speed thee in thine enterprise! Sure, the boy heard me. Brutus hath a suit That Cæsar will not grant. O, I grow faint. Run, Lucius, and commend me to my lord; Say I am merry: come to me again, 45 And bring me word what he doth say to thee. [_Exeunt severally_]

[Note 39: /Ay/ | Aye Ff | ah Johnson.]

[Note 46: [_Exeunt severally_] Theobald | Exeunt F1.]

[Note 42-43: /Brutus hath a suit That Cæsar will not grant./ These words Portia speaks aloud to the boy, Lucius, evidently to conceal the true cause of her uncontrollable flutter of spirits.]

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