Julius Caesar — Act 2, Scene 4
original text and modern English, side by side
Another part of the same street, before the house of Brutus · Portia, Lucius, Soothsayer
Outside Brutus's house on the morning of the assassination, Portia is frantic with the secret her husband has told her. She sends the servant Lucius to the Capitol without being able to say what for, imagines she hears an uproar from that direction, and questions the Soothsayer, who is on his way to warn Caesar about a danger he can only guess at. The scene stretches the suspense in the minutes before the murder and shows the cost of the conspiracy on the people around it.
Enter Portia and Lucius.
Portia
I pr’ythee, boy, run to the Senate-house;
Please, boy, run to the Senate house.
Stay not to answer me, but get thee gone.
Don't stand there answering me — just go.
Why dost thou stay?
Why are you still here?
Lucius
To know my errand, madam.
To find out what my errand is, madam.
Portia
I would have had thee there and here again,
Ere I can tell thee what thou shouldst do there.
I wish you could be there and back before I could even tell you what to do there.
Aside.
Portia
O constancy, be strong upon my side,
Set a huge mountain ’tween my heart and tongue!
Steadiness, hold firm for me — put a mountain between my heart and my tongue!
I have a man’s mind, but a woman’s might.
I have a man's mind but only a woman's strength.
How hard it is for women to keep counsel!
How hard it is for women to keep a secret!
Art thou here yet?
Are you still here?
Lucius
Madam, what should I do?
Madam, what am I supposed to do?
Run to the Capitol, and nothing else?
Just run to the Capitol and nothing more?
And so return to you, and nothing else?
And then come back to you and nothing more?
Portia
Yes, bring me word, boy, if thy lord look well,
For he went sickly forth:
Yes — and bring me word, boy, whether your master looks well, because he went out looking ill.
and take good note
What Caesar doth, what suitors press to him.
And pay close attention to what Caesar does and which petitioners crowd around him.
Hark, boy, what noise is that?
Listen, boy — what's that noise?
Lucius
I hear none, madam.
I don't hear anything, madam.
Portia
Pr’ythee, listen well.
Please, listen harder.
I heard a bustling rumour, like a fray,
And the wind brings it from the Capitol.
I heard a confused din, like a fight, and the wind is carrying it from the direction of the Capitol.
Lucius
Sooth, madam, I hear nothing.
Truly, madam, I hear nothing.
Enter the Soothsayer.
Portia
Come hither, fellow:
Come here, fellow.
Which way hast thou been?
Which way have you come from?
Soothsayer
At mine own house, good lady.
From my own house, good lady.
Portia
What is’t o’clock?
What time is it?
Soothsayer
About the ninth hour, lady.
About nine o'clock, madam.
Portia
Is Caesar yet gone to the Capitol?
Has Caesar gone to the Capitol yet?
Soothsayer
Madam, not yet.
Not yet, madam.
I go to take my stand,
To see him pass on to the Capitol.
I'm going now to take up a position where I can watch him pass on his way there.
Portia
Thou hast some suit to Caesar, hast thou not?
You have some petition for Caesar, don't you?
Soothsayer
That I have, lady, if it will please Caesar
To be so good to Caesar as to hear me,
I do, lady — if Caesar will be kind enough to himself to listen to me.
I shall beseech him to befriend himself.
I mean to beg him to look after his own safety.
Portia
Why, know’st thou any harm’s intended towards him?
Why, do you know of some harm meant against him?
Soothsayer
None that I know will be, much that I fear may chance.
Nothing I know for certain, but a great deal I'm afraid of.
Good morrow to you.
Good morning to you.
Here the street is narrow.
The street is narrow here.
The throng that follows Caesar at the heels,
Of Senators, of Praetors, common suitors,
Will crowd a feeble man almost to death:
The crowd that trails after Caesar — senators, praetors, ordinary petitioners — would nearly crush a frail man to death.
I’ll get me to a place more void, and there
Speak to great Caesar as he comes along.
I'll find somewhere more open, and speak to great Caesar from there as he comes past.
Exit.
Portia
I must go in.
I must go inside.
Aside.
Portia
Ay me, how weak a thing
The heart of woman is!
Oh, what a frail thing a woman's heart is!
O Brutus,
The heavens speed thee in thine enterprise!
Brutus, may heaven speed what you're setting out to do.
Sure, the boy heard me.
— Surely the boy heard me.
Brutus hath a suit
That Caesar will not grant.
Brutus has a request Caesar won't grant.
O, I grow faint.
Oh, I feel faint.
Run, Lucius, and commend me to my lord;
Say I am merry;
Run, Lucius, give my lord my love; tell him I'm in good spirits.
come to me again,
And bring me word what he doth say to thee.
Then come straight back and tell me what he says to you.
Exeunt.
Julius Caesar Act 2, Scene 4 summary
Outside Brutus's house on the morning of the assassination, Portia is frantic with the secret her husband has told her. She sends the servant Lucius to the Capitol without being able to say what for, imagines she hears an uproar from that direction, and questions the Soothsayer, who is on his way to warn Caesar about a danger he can only guess at. The scene stretches the suspense in the minutes before the murder and shows the cost of the conspiracy on the people around it.
Who appears in this scene
Portia, Lucius, Soothsayer — Another part of the same street, before the house of Brutus.
Famous lines in Julius Caesar Act 2, Scene 4, explained
- “I have a man’s mind, but a woman’s might.” (line 9)
- Portia knows exactly what Brutus is doing and is desperate to keep it secret, but finds she cannot. The line is her own diagnosis: she has the resolve she believes belongs to men and the strength her society grants women, and the gap between them is unbearable. It is the play's sharpest statement of how the conspiracy costs the people around it, and it pays off the self-wounding she describes in 2.1 as proof of her constancy.
- “How hard it is for women to keep counsel!” (line 10)
- Portia knows Brutus's secret and is coming apart under the weight of it. In 2.1 she wounded her own thigh to prove she could be trusted with it; one scene later she can barely stand still. The line is usually read two ways at once: as Portia accepting the Roman assumption that women cannot hold their tongues, and as Shakespeare showing that the real problem is not her sex but her position — she has been given all the danger of the conspiracy and none of the ability to act on it, and the waiting is what destroys her.
- “None that I know will be, much that I fear may chance.” (line 37)
- Portia asks the Soothsayer whether he knows of any plot against Caesar, and he draws a careful line between knowledge and fear: he can prove nothing but suspects a great deal. It is a precise description of his role in the play — his warning about the ides of March in 1.2 was a premonition, not a report — and it explains why nobody acts on him. Shakespeare fills the play with warnings that are true but unprovable, so Caesar's death looks both entirely foreseeable and impossible to prevent.
Keep reading
- Act 2, Scene 3 — modern English translation
- Act 3, Scene 1 — modern English translation
- All Julius Caesar scenes
About this translation: the original text follows the public-domain Project Gutenberg Globe edition; the modern English translation was written in-house for Polytranslator and is reviewed on an ongoing basis (last revised August 2026). Free to print and photocopy for classroom use. Cite as: “Julius Caesar, Act 2, Scene 4. Polytranslator side-by-side translation, polytranslator.com/shakespeare/julius-caesar/act-2-scene-4.”
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