Shakespeare and the Ides of March

44 BC | Rome – Hazy Predictions

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
threatened me
Never looked but on my back; when they
shall see
The face of Caesar, they are vanished.

Calpurnia:
Caesar, I never 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 yawned 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.