Beware the ides of March. Who speaks this warning?

• A. Brutus
• B. Cassius
• C. Portia
• D. Soothsayer

Answer: (D)

A warning about a looming fate comes from a Soothsayer in Julius Caesar. This line is spoken as Caesar passes in the street in Act I, Scene II, when a traveling fortune-teller cries out to him to beware the ides of March. The Soothsayer represents fate and foreshadowing, signaling that danger lies ahead even as Caesar dismisses the omen. That this voice is telling him to beware makes it the best choice, because none of the others—the prominent conspirators Brutus and Cassius or Portia, who worries about her husband—deliver this specific warning. The moment also heightens dramatic irony: the audience knows the danger is real and will culminate on that very date, intensifying the sense of impending doom.