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Portia:
I should not need, if you were gentle Brutus.
Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus,
Is it excepted I should know no secrets
That appertain to you? Am I your self
But, as it were, in sort or limitation,
To keep with you at meals, comfort your bed,
And talk to you sometimes? Dwell I but in the suburbs
Of your good pleasure? If it be no more,
Portia is Brutus’ harlot, not his wife.
Brutus:
You are my true and honourable wife,
As dear to me as are the ruddy drops
That visit my sad heart.
Portia:
If this were true, then should I know this secret.
I grant I am a woman; but withal
A woman that Lord Brutus took to wife;
I grant I am a woman; but withal
A woman well reputed, Cato’s daughter.
Think you I am no stronger than my sex,
Being so father’d and so husbanded?
Tell me your counsels, I will not disclose ’em.
I have made strong proof of my constancy,
Giving myself a voluntary wound
Here, in the thigh: can I bear that with patience
And not my husband’s secrets?
Brutus:
O ye gods,
Render me worthy of this noble wife!
(Knock.)
Hark, hark, one knocks. Portia, go in awhile;
And by and by thy bosom shall partake
The secrets of my heart.
All my engagements I will construe to thee,
All the charactery of my sad brows.
Leave me with haste.
(Exit Portia.)
Enter Lucius with Ligarius.
Lucius, who’s that knocks?
Lucius:
Here is a sick man that would speak with you.
Brutus:
Caius Ligarius, that Metellus spake of.
Boy, stand aside. Caius Ligarius, how?
Ligarius:
Vouchsafe good-morrow from a feeble tongue.
Brutus:
O, what a time have you chose out, brave Caius,
To wear a kerchief! Would you were not sick!
Ligarius:
I am not sick, if Brutus have in hand
Any exploit worthy the name of honour.
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 honourable loins!
Thou, like an exorcist, hast conjur’d 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?