Cowards die many times before their deaths; explain!

These striking and proverbial lines have been derived from the famous historical play, Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. Addressing his wife, Calpurnia, here Caesar expresses his fearlessness and shows valiance in the face of death. 

Calpurnia has asked Caesar not to stir out of doors that day because many evil omens have been witnessed and because those evil omens point to some danger which lies in store for Caesar. In the lines before us, Caesar expresses his fearlessness in the face of death. He says that no brave man ever feels afraid of death. A brave man knows that one day he has to die. Therefore, a fear is really irrational. It is only a coward who feels afraid of death. In fact, a coward keeps feeling afraid of death at every step of his life. a coward believes that death can come to him at any time and he, therefore, remains constantly afraid of death. A brave man also knows that death may come to him at any time; but his attitude towards death is entirely different. Knowing that death has to come to every body. It can come to a man only once. He feels absolutely no fear of death. Caesar further says that he has heard of many wonderful things happening in this world. But the most surprising thing that he has ever heard so far in his life is that men are afraid of dying. Death is inevitable. Death is the necessary end to life. everybody’s life must end in death. And death will come to everybody in its own time. No particular time has been fixed for the coming of death in anyboddy’s case. 

Indeed, this extract is the most famous in the whole range of Shakespearean drama. The very first line, “Cowards die many times before their deaths” is a common proverb.