JULIUS CAESARQuote ID Study Guide

Geller’s Scintillating SophomoresFall 2013

1. “The fault, dear Brutus…”“Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow worldLike a Colossus, and we petty menWalk under his huge legs and peep aboutTo find ourselves dishonourable graves.Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

Cassius compares Caesar to the Colossus of Rhodes, a huge statue of Helios that was said to straddle an ancient harbor.

He is trying to convince Brutus to join the conspiracy by emphasizing that Caesar is trying to take too much power for himself.

Additional note:“stars”=fate. The “fault” is in US if we don’t take action.

2. “The falling sickness…”

No, Caesar hath it not; but you and I,And honest Casca, we have the falling sickness.

Literally, the “falling sickness” is epilepsy.Figuratively, Cassius means that the conspirators are being forced to “fall down” at Caesar’s feet, to bow down before him and submit to his dictatorial authority.

Caesar had seizures…say that five times fast!

3. Forgery and flattery…

“Brutus, thou sleep'st: awake, and see thyself.Shall Rome, & c. Speak, strike, redress!Brutus, thou sleep'st: awake!”

This is one of several forged letters the conspirators plant for Brutus to find, in hopes of securing his commitment to the conspiracy.

4. Sacrificers, not butchers…“Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius, To cut the head off and then hack the limbs, Like wrath in death and envy afterwards…”

Here, Brutus persuades Cassius that Mark Antony should be allowed to live. After all, Antony is “but a limb” of Caesar, right…?

5. A relationship ahead of its time?“Is it excepted I should know no secretsThat appertain to you? Am I yourselfBut, as it were, in sort or limitation,To keep with you at meals, comfort your bed,And talk to you sometimes? Dwell I but in the suburbsOf your good pleasure? If it be no more,Portia is Brutus' harlot, not his wife.”

Portia entreats Brutus to tell her the truth about the conspiracy. She even cut herself on the thigh to show her strength and constancy (or creepiness).

This suggests that, rather than accepting the servile role of the traditional Roman wife, Brutus and Portia are on more equal footing.

6. Calphurnia and Caesar’s argumentCalphurnia: “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.”

“When beggars die…”

Calphurnia is basically expressing the classical belief that the gods are more concerned about the fate of the nobility than that of commoners.

Caesar doesn’t disagree, but feels it is foolish to fear death, which is after all inevitable.

OMENS

7. Decius reinterprets Calpurnia’s nightmare

“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 suckReviving blood….”

8. What is an aside?

TREBONIUS: Caesar, I will. [aside] and so near will I be, that your best friends shall wish I had been further….

Caesar only hears the yellow part. Trebonius says the rest “under his breath;” it’s not meant for other characters onstage to hear. He doesn’t want Caesar to know his true intentions.

9. “As constant as the northern star…”

“I could be well moved, if I were as you:If I could pray to move, prayers would move me:But I am constant as the northern star,Of whose true-fix'd and resting qualityThere is no fellow in the firmament.”

Caesar is responding to the conspirators’ request for Metellus’s brother to be returned from exile.

Caesar says that, like the North star, he cannot be moved. Once his mind is made up, there’s no changing his mind, because he’s never wrong.

Long-exposure photo of Polaris

10. The play’s the thing…

Cassius: “Stoop, then, and wash. How many ages henceShall this our lofty scene be acted overIn states unborn and accents yet unknown!”

Brutus: “How many times shall Caesar bleed in sport,That now on Pompey's basis lies alongNo worthier than the dust!”

The conspirators smear their hands with Caesar’s blood, mirroring Calphurnia’s dream.

Double entendre: they comment on the historical significance of their actions while acknowledging that this is, after all, a play.

After this comes their victory cry: “Peace, freedom, and liberty! Tyranny is dead!”

11. Geez, Antony, tell us how you really feel…“Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,With Ate by his side come hot from hell,Shall in these confines with a monarch's voiceCry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war;That this foul deed shall smell above the earthWith carrion men, groaning for burial…”

In this famous soliloquy, Antony foreshadows the bloody battle to come.

12. Brutus’s rationale

“If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, then this is my answer—not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.”

In his funeral speech, Brutus tries to convince the plebeians that he participated in Caesar’s assassination purely for the good of Rome.

13. Antony’s rebuttal

“He was my friend, faithful and just to me:But Brutus says he was ambitious;And Brutus is an honourable man.He hath brought many captives home to RomeWhose ransoms did the general coffers fill:Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?”

Antony proceeds to refute Brutus’s speech point-for-point, using pathos, parallel structure, and repetition expertly to rile the plebeians to mutiny.

14. Caesar’s will

“Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it;It is not meet you know how Caesar loved you.You are not wood, you are not stones, but men…”

Antony uses reverse psychology so the plebeians will DEMAND to see the will—in which Caesar left all of his private walkways, gardens, and orchards to the people of Rome, as well as 75 drachmas to every citizen.

15. Apostrophe

“Now let it work: Mischief, thou art afoot, take thou what course thou wilt.”

Apostrophe is a form of personification in which one speaks directly TO something or someone that cannot answer.

An example from Emily Dickinson:“Oh heart, we will forget him!”

16. Lepidus can carry our burdens “like an ass bears gold.”

“This is a slight unmeritable man,Meet to be sent on errands: is it fit,The three-fold world divided, he should standOne of the three to share it?”

Here, to Octavius’s apparent surprise, Antony reveals that he does not consider Lepidus worthy of being part of the triumvirate. He then dispatches him to Caesar’s house to get the will so they can “cut off some charge in legacies;” i.e., skim a little off the top. We don’t see Lepidus again. IRL he was apparently strongly encouraged to retire (thanks Andrew )

17. Cassius shows up all rageface at Brutus’s tent in Sardis …

“Cassius, be content.Speak your griefs softly: I do know you well.Before the eyes of both our armies here,Which should perceive nothing but love from us,Let us not wrangle: bid them move away;Then in my tent, Cassius, enlarge your griefs,And I will give you audience.”

Brutus is prudent enough to know that the two generals should not argue in front of their army.

They go inside to exchange grievances

Brutus reveals that Portia has committed suicide

They drink wine and hug it out

Next stop, Philippi!

18. Hot coals, yummy.

“Impatient of my absence,And grief that young Octavius with Mark AntonyHave made themselves so strong:--for with her deathThat tidings came;--with this she fell distract,And, her attendants absent, swallow'd fire.”

Brutus explains the reasons and method of Portia’s suicide: She missed Brutus She has heard of

Octavius and Antony’s victories in battle

According to Plutarch (Shakespeare’s source), Portia Catonis died by eating hot coals.

La Mort de Porcie by Jacques Bellange

19. “I am thy evil spirit, Brutus…”

“How ill this taper burns! Ha! who comes here?I think it is the weakness of mine eyesThat shapes this monstrous apparition.It comes upon me. Art thou any thing?Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil,That makest my blood cold and my hair to stare?Speak to me what thou art.”

It’s Caesar’s ghost! He tells Brutus that he is his (Brutus’s) evil spirit…i.e., his conscience. He also assures him that they will meet again at Philippi.

So apparently this is a jam band of some sort…

Famous Last Words

Cassius: “…Caesar, thou art revenged,Even with the sword that killed thee.”

Cassius asks his slave Pindarus to stab him, and he covers his face while he does so. Titinius later uses Cassius’s sword to kill himself as well.

Brutus: “Farewell, good Strato. Caesar, now be still. I killed not thee with half so good a will.”

Brutus has Strato hold his sword while he falls on it.

21. “The noblest Roman of them all…”

“This was the noblest Roman of them all.All the conspirators save only heDid that they did in envy of great Caesar; He, only in a general honest thought And common good to all, made one of them.”

Antony acknowledges that only Brutus, out of all the conspirators, truly believed he was acting for the good of Rome. He vows to give him a proper soldier’s burial.