Reading Caesar VI (Redux)
Decius blazes the Freudian path
CAESAR’s house. [Thunder and lightning. Enter CAESAR, in his night-gown]
CAESAR
Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace to-night: Thrice hath Calpurnia in her sleep cried out, 'Help, ho! they murder Caesar!' Who's within? [Enter a Servant]
SERVANT
My lord?
CAESAR
Go bid the priests do present sacrifice And bring me their opinions of success.
SERVANT
I will, my lord. [Exit]
Act 2 scene 2 opens with Caesar observing that his wife, Calpurnia, has three times cried out in her sleep “Help ho! They murder Caesar!” He then sends out to the priests for auguries on success – what here is success? Is it Caesar’s success or the conspirators? Could they be one and the same?
We will later see Caesar lie about Calpurnia’s dream: there was no mention of a statue; in fact, Calpurnia doesn’t mention her dream to Caesar, probably because she knows Caesar is not one to listen to them or to take them seriously.
CAESAR
Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. 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. [Re-enter Servant] What say the augurers?
SERVANT
They would not have you to stir forth to-day. 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, If he should stay at home to-day for fear. No, Caesar shall not: danger knows full well That Caesar is more dangerous than he: We are two lions litter'd in one day, And I the elder and more terrible: And Caesar shall go forth.
The servant comes back with the augury: there was no heart in the beast. Caesar reinterprets the augury, that is, he figures out what it means so he can do what he wants. We should ask: why does Caesar want to go to the Senate so badly?
CALPURNIA
Alas, my lord, Your wisdom is consumed in confidence. Do not go forth to-day: call it my fear That keeps you in the house, and not your own. We'll send Mark Antony to the senate-house: And he shall say you are not well to-day: Let me, upon my knee, prevail in this.
CAESAR
Mark Antony shall say I am not well, And, for thy humour, I will stay at home. [Enter DECIUS BRUTUS] Here's Decius Brutus, he shall tell them so.
DECIUS BRUTUS.
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 And tell them that I will not come to-day: Cannot, is false, and that I dare not, falser: I will not come to-day: tell them so, Decius.
CALPURNIA
Say he is sick.
CAESAR
Shall Caesar send a lie? Have I in conquest stretch'd mine arm so far, To be afraid to tell graybeards the truth? Decius, go tell them Caesar will not come.
We get Calpurnia begging Caesar not to go to the Senate today. And at first Caesar abides by her wishes. So he says he will not go to the Senate, he tells Decius he will not go and that that is enough to satisfy them.
DECIUS BRUTUS
Most mighty Caesar, let me know some cause, Lest I be laugh'd at when I tell them so.
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: Calpurnia here, my wife, stays me at home: She dreamt to-night 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: And these does she apply for warnings, and portents, And evils imminent; and on her knee Hath begg'd that I will stay at home to-day.
Right here Caesar lies to Decius: why make up the dream story? What purpose does it serve?
DECIUS BRUTUS
This dream is all amiss interpreted; It was a vision fair and fortunate: Your statue spouting blood in many pipes, 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 Calpurnia's dream is signified.
CAESAR
And this way have you well expounded it.
DECIUS BRUTUS
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, Their minds may change. Besides, it were a mock Apt to be render'd, for some one 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 'Lo, Caesar is afraid'? Pardon me, Caesar; for my dear dear love To our proceeding bids me tell you this; And reason to my love is liable.
CAESAR
How foolish do your fears seem now, Calpurnia! I am ashamed I did yield to them. Give me my robe, for I will go. [Enter PUBLIUS, BRUTUS, LIGARIUS, METELLUS, CASCA, TREBONIUS, and CINNA] And look where Publius is come to fetch me.
Caesar is trying to get Decius to reveal if today is the day, why else would he make up the dream? In relating the story to Decius he puts Decius in the position of having to choose either to agree with Calpurnia’s dream or to reinterpret it optimistically and thereby reveal that today is the day. If Caesar had spoken of murder, Decius would not have been able to spin the dream with the interpretation he does.
So, Caesar decides to go, at which point the conspirators all walk in – Caesar names the only one in the group not in the conspiracy: Publius.
How does Caesar interact with them? Does Caesar know about the conspiracy or even the conspirators? We know with certainty that someone does because the next scene is of Artemidorus reading a letter he wishes to give to Caesar in which all the conspirators, including Caius Ligarius who was only recently added, are named. In the scene after that we have Portia (Brutus’s wife) speaking of a bustling rumor from the capitol. It would seem the conspiracy is an open secret.