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Who Wears the Pants?
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Who Wears the Pants?
Caesar Denies Crown


As we all know, Caesar almost missed his death by not going to the Senate because of his wife Calpurnia told him not to. Who really wears the pants in that relationship?

The following is the conversation between Clapurnia and Caesar:

CALPURNIA


What mean you, Caesar? think you to walk forth?
You shall not stir out of your house to-day.




CAESAR


Caesar shall forth: the things that threaten'd me
Ne'er look'd 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 yawn'd, and yielded up their dead;
Fierce fiery warriors fought 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.




CALPURNIA


When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.




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.




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.





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