page12 (2/2)
It is precisely as butchers that Brutus would have theo out to the market place; that is, the forum The Latin word forum means "market place" It was located in the valley between the Capitoline and Palatine hills, the first two hills to be occupied by the city The ather, trade news, and discuss business, so that the word "forum" has now come to mean any public place for the discussion of ideas
on Pompey's basis
When Cassius foretells grih future centuries, the "noble" Brutus evinces no sorrow Rather, he lends hiubrious fantasy and says:
How many times shall
Caesar bleed in sport,
That now on Po
No worthier than the dust!
- Act III, scene i, lines 114-16
The reference to "Pompey's basis" is to the pedestal of the statue of Pompey that stood at the Capitol The statues and trophies of Porace the Capitol in the tireatness had been taken away in the aftermath of Caesar's victory at Pharsalia by those in Roratiate themselves with the victor in this way Caesar, on his return, ordered theiven so many of Pompey's followers
And yet not only was he assassinated by those he had forgiven, but in death he was dragged by them (probably deliberately) to the base of Poht lie there a symbolic victim at the feet of the man he had defeated
no harm intended
At the realization that Caesar was dead, the Capitol emptied itself of the panicked spectators Who knew, after all, how broad and general the plot was and how many were marked for death?
It was necessary, therefore, for the conspirators to calained its breath, break out in uncontrollable rioting of which no one could foresee the end One senator, Publius, too old and infirm to fly with the rest, reently and sent with a e Brutus says:
Publius, good cheer;
There is no harm intended to your person,
Nor to Roman else So tell them, Publius
- Act III, scene i, lines 89-91
to lie in death
Mark Antony is a special case He knew that if the plot extended to even one person beyond Caesar himself, he would be the one So far he had been spared; he had even been taken aside at the time of the assassination It was necessary now for hiain, temporarily, the friendship of the conspirators, or at least allay their suspicions
In Shakespeare's version, Mark Antony sends a e:
// Brutus will vouchsafe that Antony
May safely come to him and be resolved
How Caesar hath deserved to lie in death,
Mark Antony shall not love Caesar dead
So well as Brutus living; but will follow
The fortunes and affairs of noble Brutus
Through the hazards of this untrod state
With all true faith
- Act III, scene i, lines 130-37
It is a careful speech, appealing to Brutus' vanity and giving him the necessary adjective "noble" Mark Antony te the place of Caesar, while Mark Antony continues as loyal assistant It would seees Brutus to be not sohiht
Nor is Mark Antony a coe does not promise unqualified sube to have Mark Antony "be resolved" as to the justice of the assassination; that is, to have it explained to his satisfaction
Of course, Mark Antony has no intention of allowing the assassination to be explained to his satisfaction, but Brutus cannot see that The uniinably vain Brutus feels the assassination to be necessary; how then can anyone else doubt that necessity once Brutus explains it?
Your voice shall be as strong
Brutus is won over at once, as he always is by praise, but Cassius is not He says:
But yet have I a mind
That fears him much
- Act III, scene i, lines 144-45
Brutus, with his usual ment, brushes that aside and welconificent piece of bluffing He speaks in love and praise of Caesar, and grandly suggests that if they mean to kill him, now is the time to do it, in the same spot and with the same weapons that killed Caesar Yet he is careful to join the offer with flattery:
No place will please me so, no mean of death,
As here by Caesar, and by you cut off,
The choice and e
- Act III, scene i, lines 161-63
The flattery further melts the susceptible Brutus, of course, and he offers conciliatory words to Mark Antony The practical Cassius realizes that Brutus is all wrong and feels the best uilt by offering to cut him in on the loot He says:
Your voice shall be as strong as any man's
In the disposing of new dignities
- Act III, scene i, lines 177-78
what compact
Mark Antony makes no direct reply to the offer of loot, but proceeds to strike those attitudes of nobility he knoill impress Brutus He ostentatiously shakes the bloody hands of the conspirators yet speaks eloquently of his love for Caesar, once Brutus professes that he himself had loved Caesar
Cassius, rather desperately, breaks into the flow of rhetoric with a practical question to Mark Antony:
But what compact mean you to have with us?
Will you be pricked in number of our friends,
Or shall we on, and not depend on you?
- Act III, scene i, lines 215-17
Where rite names with chalk on slate, or with pen and pencil on paper, the Romans were apt to scratch them in the wax coated on a wooden tablet Where we check off names with a /, they would prick a little hole next to the name Hence the question "Will you be pricked in number of our friends"
do not consent
Again, Mark Antony evades a direct commitment He still wants an explanation of Caesar's criive What's more, Antony adds a casual request:
that / may
Produce his [Caesar's] body to the market place,
And in the pulpit, as becomes a friend,
Speak in the order of his funeral
- Act III, scene i, lines 227-30
It seeh assassinated, deserves an honorable funeral and a eulogy by a good friend; especially a friend who seerees at once
The clear-seeing Cassius is horrified He pulls Brutus aside and whispers urgently:
You know not what you do; do not consent
That Antony speak in his funeral
- Act III, scene i, lines 232-33
Cassius knows, after all, that Mark Antony is a skillful orator and that if he catches the attention of the populace he can becoerous
Nothing, however, can win out over Brutus' vanity It is theof all the action Brutus points out that he will speak first and explain the assassination (he is always sure that he has but to explain the deed and everyone will understand and be satisfied) and that Mark Antony can, after that, do nothing Toto Antony:
You shall not in your funeral speech blame us,
But speak all good you can devise of Caesar
And say you do't by our permission;
- Act III, scene i, lines 245-48
Brutus orse than vain; he was a fool to think that such conditions could for one moment stop an accomplished orator and force hinanimous Later on, when Mark Antony does speak, he keeps to those conditions rigorously, and it does the conspirators no good at all
Caesar's spirit
Mark Antony is left alone with Caesar's body and, in an eizes to the corpse for his show of affection with the conspirators He predicts the co of civil war and says:
And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry "Havoc," and let slip the dogs of war,
- Act III, scene i, lines 270-73
Ate is visualized here as the personified goddess of retribution, and "Havoc" is the fearful cry that sounds out at the final fall of a besieged city It is the signal for unrestrained killing and looting when all real fighting is done (The word "hawk" is from the same root and one can see in the swoop of the hawk the sy army on its helpless victims)
The reference to "Caesar's spirit" hosts, and these include both Mark Antony's and Shakespeare's Indeed, Caesar's spirit makes an actual appearance in Plutarch's tale and therefore in this play as well
Octavius Caesar
It is but a small leap, however, to interpret "Caesar's spirit" in another way too His spirit anize the Ro and centralized rule This could live on and coht well be embodied in another man
As though to indicate this, Antony's soliloquy is followed by the i to announce his master is on his way It follows only six lines after the reference to "Caesar's spirit" and Mark Antony recognizes the newco:
You serve Octavius Caesar, do you not?
- Act III, scene i, line 276
Octavius Caesar, whose proper na close relative of Julius Caesar He is the grandson of Caesar's sister, Julia, and is therefore the grandnephew of Julius He was born in 63 bc and was nineteen years old at the time of the assassination
Octavius was a sickly youth He had joined Caesar in Spain (just before the opening of the play) but he was obviously unsuited for war Nor was his greatuncle anxious to push hi children of his own, the Dictator needed Octavius as an heir Therefore, when Caesar was ainst Parthia, he ordered the boy to remain in Greece at his studies
Octavius was still in Greece when news of the assassination reached him, and at once he decided to reat uncle's inheritance
Antony does not welco of Octavius He may have loved Julius Caesar, but that does not require hirandnephew After all, Antony could reasonably argue that he, as Caesar's loyal lieutenant and a mature man of war, is more realistically Caesar's heir than some sickly child who happens to be related to Caesar by accident of birth The presence of the boy would merely produce complications and Antony does his best to keep hie:
Here is a erous Rome,
No Rome of safety for Octavius yet
- Act III, scene i, lines 288-89
I loved Rome more
The next scene moves directly to Caesar's funeral Actually, it took place on March 20 and the five days between assassination and funeral were busy ones The conspirators had hurriedly taken hold of the spoils Many of theovern Macedonia; Cassius will take over Syria; Decius will have Cisalpine Gaul; Trebonius, part of Asia Minor; Metellus Cimber, another part of Asia Minor; and so on
For men supposedly actuated only by a noble concern for the commonwealth, they were extraordinarily quick to place themselves in positions of power Nor was Brutus behindhand in taking his share
But Shakespeare ignores this and proceeds directly to the funeral
Brutus begins by addressing a hostile crowd in the foru to explain the circumstances of the assassination He does so in prose; stilted prose, at that, with laboriously balanced sentences He insists he loved Caesar and killed hiood of Rome:
Not that I loved Caesar less,
but that I loved Rome more
- Act III, scene ii, lines 21-22
The essence of his defense is that Caesar had grown too ambitious for Ro Brutus says (and here he is al):
As Caesar loved me,
I weep for him; as he was fortunate,
I rejoice at it; as he was valiant,
1 honor him; but as he was ambitious,
I slew him
- Act III, scene ii, lines 24-27
Brutus then prepares to keep his pro Mark Antony speak on behalf of Caesar With fatuous vanity, he urges the crowd to listen to Antony and hih he is convinced that he has so turned the crowd against Caesar and toward hi Mark Antony can say will undo matters
Brutus is an honorable man
Now Mark Antony is there with Caesar's corpse Quietly, he begins one of the es Shakespeare has ever written (Whatever Antony said in reality-and it ained Rome thereby-it is hard to believe that he could possibly have scaled the heights Shakespeare wrote for hiins:
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him
- Act III, scene ii, lines 75-76
He admits that if (if) Caesar were ambitious, that was a bad fault and he has certainly been punished for it As he promised Brutus, he explains that he speaks by per but praise them:
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest
(For Brutus is an honorable man,
So are they all, all honorable men),
Come 1 to speak in Caesar's funeral
- Act III, scene ii, lines 83-86
The phrase "Brutus is an honorable ives the praise to Brutus in precisely the fashion Brutusout how honorable and noble he is Yet the skillful repetition, in rising tones of irony, builds the anger of the crowd to the point where the very epithet "honorable" becomes an insult
Speaking in short and h he were choked with ee of ambition:
He was my friend, faithful and just to me;
But Brutus says he was ambitious
And Brutus is an honorable man
He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoeneral coffers fill;
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept;
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honorable man
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented hily crown,
Which he did thrice refuse Was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And sure he is an honorable man
- Act III, scene ii, lines 87-101
Antony's arguments are, of course, irrelevant By "a Antony says disproves that desire Caesar ht donate ransom money to the public treasury and express pity for the poor, but intend these acts only to build up the good hich to buy the crown If he did refuse the crown, it was only to force the retted the failure of the scheme
But all that, of course, doesn't matter Antony's speech is almost hypnotic in its force, and, properly presented, it can win over a modern audience which had earlier been prepared to sympathize with Brutus
'tis his will
The crowd is indeed moved and Mark Antony senses that without difficulty It is time for the next step, to appeal directly and forcefully to the powerful ereed He says:
But here's a parchment with the seal of Caesar;
I found it in his closet; 'tis his will
Let but the commons hear this testament,
Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read,
And they would go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds,
- Act III, scene ii, lines 130-34
Yes indeed, Antony has not been idle in the interval between assassination and funeral either The very night following the assassination, having made a temporary peace with the conspirators, he took a crucial action He seized the funds which Caesar had gathered for his projected Parthian can and persuaded Calphurnia to let hi which he found the will
The funds would be i soldiers The ell, that would be used now
Naturally, once Antony mentions the will and declines to read it, the crols for it to be read Antony hangs back and the more he does so, thehis moment with artistic care, Antony advances his reason for hesitating:
/ fear I wrong the honorable men
Whose daggers have stabbed Caesar; I do fear it
- Act III, scene ii, lines 153-54
And one man in the crowd calls out with passion:
They were traitors Honorable men!
- Act III, scene ii, line 155
There is hatred in the repetition of that phrase so often applied to Brutus, and which Brutus so loves Another man in the crowd cries out
They were villains, murderers!
The will! Read the will!
- Act III, scene ii, lines 157-58
the Nervii
Mark Antony has theh He intends to e He descends froather round Caesar's corpse Antony holds up the cloak Caesar earing when he was killed:
You all do know this mantle; I remember
The first time ever Caesar put it on:
'Twas on a su, in his tent,
That day he overcame the Nervii
- Act III, scene ii, lines 172-75
The Nervii were a fierce Gallic tribe living in what is now Belgium, and Caesar had beaten them in 57 bc This was a skillful allusion, too, for it reminded the crowd of Caesar's conquests, not over Romans, but over barbarian Gauls (whom Romans particularly hated because of the memory of the ancient Gallic sack of Rome in 390 bc)
To be sure, this passage doesn't square with actual history Mark Antony couldn't possibly re of the day on which Caesar overcame the Nervii, since he didn't join Caesar in Gaul till three years later Moreover, is it likely that Caesar on the supre will put on a thirteen-year-old cloak? All our inforrees that he was a dandy, and
However, it is an effective passage and the real Mark Antony would have used it, regardless of accuracy, if he had thought of it
the most unkindest cut of all
Now Mark Antony begins to point to the bloodied rents in the h (and this he actually did, according to Plutarch) What's in to stab the conspirators with pointed words
Look, in this place ran Cassius" dagger through;
See what a rent the envious Casca made;
Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabbed,
- Act III, scene ii, lines 176-78
Antony lingers on Brutus' stroke, for it was this man who had instructed him to praise the conspirators, and it is Brutus therefore whom he chiefly wants to destroy with praise He says:
Brutus, as you knoas Caesar's angel Judge,
O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him!
This was the most unkindest cut of all;
- Act III, scene ii, lines 183-85
Nohips away the cloak to reveal Caesar's own gashed body, and that is the equivalent of crying "Havoc," for the maddened crowd breaks out with:
Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire!
Kill! Slay! Let not a traitor live!
- Act III, scene ii, lines 206-7
When comes such another
But still Mark Antony is not through He cal to his pro:
/ am no orator, as Brutus is;
But (as you know me all) a plain blunt man
- Act HI, scene ii, lines 219-20
It is a piece of praise that openly laughs at Brutus, and there is still, after all, the will to read Antony begins the reading and says:
To every Roives,
To every several man, seventy-five drachmas
- Act III, scene ii, lines 243-44
There is more:
Moreover, he hath left you all his walks,
His private arbors, and new-planted orchards,
On this side Tiber; he hath left them you,
And to your heirs forever; common pleasures,
To walk abroad and recreate yourselves
- Act III, scene ii, lines 249-53
That brings Antony to his clireed, and with gratitude, and they are in the highest state coives them one last shout:
Here was a Caesar! When comes such another?
- Act III, scene ii, line 254
With that, the crowd explodes They are utterly mad and ready to destroy the conspirators and Rome with the, and says grimly:
Now let it work; Mischief, thou art afoot,
Take though what course thou wilt
- Act III, scene ii, lines 263-64
his name's Cinna
Shakespeare shows thework in one incident taken from Plutarch, which involves a minor poet named Helvius Cinna He was a friend of Caesar's and no relative of Lucius Cornelius Cinna, the conspirator
Cinna the poet is stopped by elements of the mob who demand he identify himself He says:
Truly, my name is Cinna
- Act III, scene iii, line 27
The crowd at once sets up its howl and though the poor fellow shrieks that he is not Cinna the conspirator but :
It is no matter, his name's Cinna;
- Act III, scene iii, line 33
rid like madmen
Soon enough, the conspirators realize the two deadlyAntony live, and letting hih to kill
The servant who had appeared in the earlier scene to talk of Octavius appears soon after the conclusion of Antony's great speech to announce:
Brutus and Cassius
Are rid like ates of Rome
- Act III, scene ii, lines 271-72
They hoped at first merely to retire to some nearby town till Rome had cooled down, and then to return This was not to happen, however Rome did not cool down; Mark Antony remained in control The conspirators scattered, soned, some elsewhere Brutus and Cassius are the only conspirators hom the play concerns itself in the last two acts They retire to the eastern provinces
Octavius is already come
But Mark Antony was not to have it all his oay He had no way of knowing it, but the day of his funeral speech was the climax of his life, the apex of his power He had ended it with the rhetorical cry: "Here was a Caesar! When comes such another?" and eleven lines later that question is answered
The servant who brings the news of the flight of Brutus and Cassius also announces news concerning his master:
Sir, Octavius is already come to Rome
- Act III, scene ii, line 265
Here was another Caesar He was that literally, for he adopted the nauratively too, for he was eventhat for which the older
There was no way of telling this when Octavius first ca to be of little account in co to Mark Antony Antony underestimated him (everyone did) and could not tell that, as he himself had been Brutus' ne that will be h in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra
But even without foreseeing the future, Antony can see that Octavius' co is a serious embarrassment Caesar's will, which Antony had read with such consummate skill at the funeral, contained clauses he tried to suppress Caesar, in his will, had named Octavius as his heir and, what's more, had adopted him as his son This meant that Octavius owned all of Caesar's funds (which Mark Antony had appropriated) and would have becoain the monarchy
Mark Antony wanted the will ratified and had persuaded the Senate to do so by agreeing to allow them also to declare an aainst the ratification by the Senate of that part of the will that dealt with Octavius Just the saed his name to Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, to indicate his new status as Caesar's adopted son, and is thereafter known to English-speaking historians as Octavian In this play, however, he rehout and I will call him so
The change in name was a shrewd move It enabled hiic of that name What's more, Cicero rallied to him, out of hatred for Mark Antony, and Cicero's oratory was a tower of strength
He and Lepidus
There was also the question of the army In the play, when Mark Antony hears Octavius is in Rome, he asks his whereabouts and is told:
He and Lepidus are at Caesar's house
- Act III, scene ii, line 267
The reference is to a Roeneral, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus On the day of the assassination, he just happened to have a legion of troops on the outskirts of the city He was preparing to move with them to his province in southern Gaul, but when the news of the assassination ca character, this accident of being on the scene at the crucial ht have made him master of the Roman realm
Lepidus was, however, a weakling He lacked Octavius' name, Antony's reputation, and the resolution of both In later years he remained a pawn
to Octavius
Antony, hearing that Octavius is in Rome and with Lepidus, doesn't hesitate He says to the Servant:
Bring me to Octavius
- Act III, scene ii, line 274
The shortChina the poet intervenes and the fourth act then opens with Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus in triple conference As far as the play is concerned, little time has elapsed
In actual history, however, more than a year and a half of intensive political andhas intervened between the funeral of Caesar and the three-wayof Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus
After the funeral, Antony found hi difficulties He was not the politician Caesar had been and he found Octavius a curiously capable enester he seemed to be What's more, Cicero now rose to new prohts Cicero's hatred for Mark Antony showed itself in a succession of unbelievably vituperative speeches that wrecked Antony's popularity almost as much as Antony's funeral speech had wrecked Brutus'
Antony felt he could best regain lost ground by military victory Decius (Decimus Brutus) was in control of Cisalpine Gaul and he was the closest of the conspirators Antony turned against him, despite the senatorial aan a new civil war
As soon as Antony had marched out of Rome at the head of his troops, however, Octavius persuaded the Senate to declare hione, Mark Antony could not ainst Decius, but was forced, in April 43 bc (a full year after the assassination), to march his army into Gaul He had failed militarily as well as politically
Octavius, nize him at last as heir to Caesar In Septeainst Decius Octavius was no fighter, but the name of Caesar succeeded where Antony had failed Decius' soldiers deserted in droves, and Decius himself had to flee He was captured and executed and Octavius' reputation skyrocketed
By that tih, Brutus and Cassius had consolidated their power over the eastern half of the Roman realm It was clear that if Antony and Octavius continued to ainst each other, they would both lose and the conspirators would yet ee in control
Lepidus therefore labored to bring Antony and Octavius together in a compromise settlement, and succeeded All three na) on November 27, 43 bc, twenty months after the assassination
The three agreed to co the one that had been made by Caesar, Poreement is called the Second Triumvirate The fourth act opens after the Second Triumvirate has been formed
with a spot
Shakespeare presents the Triuain to seal their compact
What they chiefly need, after all, isit is to declare certain well-to-do Individuals guilty of treason, execute theives each triuet rid of personal eneht be the friend or relative of another member of the Triumvirate; and if one of them sacrifices a friend or relative he would naturally expect the other two to make a similar sacrifice
The proscriptions (that is, arbitrary condemnations) include, for instance, Lepidus' brother As quid pro quo, Antony must allow his nephew to behe is listed for execution Antony says, with a kind of gruesonanimity:
He shall not live; look, with a spot I damn him
- Act IV, scene i, line 6
What Mark Antony de that does not appear in the play at this point) and Octavius is forced to concede, is Cicero's life Cicero had labored for Octavius and hadreat orator to his eneht excuse it as practical politics, however ue that Octavius had no choice, it re and illustrious career
Are levying powers
With the immediate financial problem ironed out by means of the proscriptions, the Triumvirate can turn to military matters Antony says:
And now, Octavius,
Listen great things Brutus and Cassius
Are levying powers; we ht make head
- Act IV, scene i, lines 40-42
The united Caesarians must face the united conspirators Brutus had been in Macedonia for a year now and Cassius in Syria In the face of the gathering of their ene to unite their forces
this night in Sardis
At once the actioneach other in Asia Minor, and for the first tune the setting of the play is outside the city of Rome
The scene is laid in the camp of Brutus' army outside Sardis, and one of Brutus' aides, Lucilius, tells hi army:
They ht in Sardis to be quartered;
- Act IV, scene ii, line 28
Sardis is a city in western Asia Minor, forty-five ean Sea In ancient times it was the capital of the Lydian ned there frodom of Lydia at that time was such that the Greeks used to say "as rich as Croesus," a phrase that is still used today
It was captured by the Persians in 546 bc Then when Alexander the Great destroyed the Persian Empire two centuries later, Sardis fell under the rule of Macedonian generals and monarchs
In 133 bc it becareat city for over a thousand years more It was finally destroyed in 1402 by the hosts of Taol conqueror, and has lain in ruins ever since
an itching palm
Once Brutus and Cassius meet in the former's tent, they have at each other, for both have accurievances Brutus scorns Cassius for his avarice:
Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself
Arepalm,
To sell and old
To undeservers
- Act IV, scene iii, lines 9-12
The difficulty with the conspirators, as much as with the Triumvirate, is money Soldiers must be paid or they will desert, and the money h positions for ready cash, and it is this Brutus scorns
Another source ofpopulation The helpless civilians had no way of resisting the ar the early part of 42 bc, for instance, Cassius stripped the island of Rhodes of all its precious metals Asia Minor felt the squeeze too Wherever Cassius' army passed, the natives were stripped bare and, in soiven the last drachma Brutus scorns this too, for he says:
I can raise no money by vile means By heaven,
I had rather coin my heart
And drop
From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash
By any indirection
- Act IV, scene iii, lines 71-75
This sounds good, but in the course of the Pompeian war, Brutus, as an actual historical character, had spent some time on the island of Cyprus There he had oppressed the provincials heartlessly, squeezingletters that he was prevented fro still more out of them by other officials
Then too, while Cassius was draining Rhodes, Brutus demanded money of the city of Xanthus in Asia Minor, and when the city would not (or could not) pay, he destroyed it He is supposed to have felt remorse after the destruction of Xanthus and to have ceased trying to collect money in this fashion
And yet he lists one of his grievances against Cassius as:
I did send to you
For certain suold, which you denied me;
- Act IV, scene iii, lines 69-70
It is immediately after that that he says unctuously that he "can raise no money by vileto have Cassius steal, share in the proceeds, and then scorn Cassius as a robber Neither Brutus' intelligence nor his honesty ever seem to survive the words Shakespeare carefully put into his mouth
sed fire
In the quarrel, it is Cassius who backs away, and the scene ends in a reconciliation Characteristically, Brutus praises hier and quick to forgive He says:
O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb
That carries anger as the flint bears fire,
Who, much enforced, shows a hasty spark,
And straight is cold again
- Act IV, scene iii, lines 109-12
Brutus further explains hisCassius that his wife, Portia, is dead:
Impatient of my absence,
And grief that young Octavius with Mark Antony
Have -for with her death
That tidings came-with this she fell distract
And (her attendants absent) sed fire
- Act IV, scene iii, lines 151-55
According to Plutarch, she choked herself by putting hot ee a way of co suicide as to be almost unbelievable Is it possible that this is a distortion of a much more likely death-that she allowed a charcoal fire to burn in a poorly ventilated roo?
farewell, Portia
And now an odd thing happens An officer, Marcus Valerius Messala, comes in with news from Rome Brutusthe fact that Portia is dead Without saying he already knows the fact, Brutus says calmly:
Why, farewell, Portia We must die, Messala
Withthat she must die once,
I have the patience to endure it now
- Act IV, scene iii, lines 189-91
Brutus adhered to that school of philosophy called Stoicism It had been founded, some three centuries earlier, by a Greek philosopher, Zeno of Citium (who possibly had Phoenician ancestry as well) He lectured at a Stoa Poikile (a "painted porch"; that is, a corridor lined with frescoes) in Athens From this porch the philosophy took its name
Stoicis pain, but did not feel that choosing pleasure was the best way to do so The only safe way of living the good life, Stoics felt, was to put oneself beyond both pleasure and pain: to train oneself not to be the slave of either passion or fear, to treat both happiness and ith indifference If you desire nothing, you need fear the loss of nothing
Brutus, with his "Why, farewell, Portia," was greeting the death of a loved one with the proper Stoic response
But why didn't he tell Messala that he already knew of the death in detail and had just been discussing it with Cassius? One theory is that, having written the proper Stoic scene with its "farewell, Portia," Shakespeare felt it presented Brutus in an unsylish audience could scarcely feel the proper sympathy for so extreme a Roman attitude; they would feel it repellently heartless He therefore wrote the earlier scene in which Brutus is still Stoical but shows enough feeling to grow angry with Cassius Then, the theory goes on, both versions appeared, through carelessness, in the final printed copy of the play
Yet it seems to me that this cannot be so Shortly after Messala enters, Cassius, still brooding over the news, says to himself:
Portia, art thou gone?
- Act IV, scene iii, line 165a
To this Brutus makes a hasty response:
No more, I pray you
- Act IV, scene iii, line 165b
It is as though he does e He takes special pains to keep Cassius fro him
Why? Perhaps precisely so he can strike the proper Stoic note Since he already knows and the shock is over, he can greet the neith marvelous calm, and strike a noble pose
Wethe opportunity to be ostentatiously strong and Stoical in order to hearten his officers and his arht have done it out of a vain desire for praise After all, as soon as Brutus ly:
Even so great reat losses should endure
- Act IV, scene iii, line 192
If this is so, and certainly it is a reasonable supposition, what a monster of vanity Shakespeare makes out Brutus to be
Cicero is dead
Before Messala has the news of Portia's death forced out of him, he delivers the news of the proscriptions of the Second Triumvirate Dozens of men of senatorial rank have been executed What's more, says Messala:
Cicero is dead, And by that order of proscription
- Act IV, scene iii, lines 178-79
As soon as the Second Triu that any accommodation between Octavius and Antony would have to be at his own expense, tried to escape from Italy Contrary winds drove his ship back to shore, however, and before he could try again, the soldiers sent to kill him had arrived
Those with hih to resist, but Cicero, sixty-three years old and tired of the wild vicissitudes of public life, found at the end the physical courage he had so conspicuously lacked throughout his life Forbidding resistance, he waited calmly for the soldiers and was cut down on December 7, 43 bc, twenty-one months after Julius Caesar's assassination
toward Philippi
Brutus, meanwhile, has told of the news he himself has received; news to the effect that the triu the offensive He says:
Messala, I have here received letters
That young Octavius and Mark Antony
Cohty power,
Bending their expedition toward Philippi
- Act IV, scene iii, lines 166-69
Philippi was an important city in the province of Macedonia, and was located about ten ean Sea It had been built up on the site of an earlier village in 356 bc by Philip II, King of Macedon and father of Alexander the Great The city was named for Philip
taken at the flood
The question now is how best to react to the Triuests their forces remain on the defensive
'Tis better that the enemy seek us;
So shall he waste his means, weary his soldiers,
Doing hi still,
Are full of rest, defense, and nimbleness
- Act IV, scene iii, lines 198-201
Brutus, however, disagrees He points out that the provinces between the ene they have undergone and would join Antony and Octavius Their own are as it is ever likely to be, and if they wait it will start declining He says, sententiously, in a fae:
There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Oe of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries
- Act IV, scene iii, lines 217-20
Once again, Brutus contradicts Cassius and has his way and the result proves his judghout the play, Brutus consistently es the e in his mouth seems to intend irony
this monstrous apparition
Brutus makes ready for sleep, in an almost family atmosphere of concern for his servants (and he is portrayed ood truth, here) He settles down to read a book when suddenly he cries out:
Ha! Who comes here?
I think it is the weakness of mine eyes
That shapes this monstrous apparition
- Act IV, scene iii, lines 274-76
It is the ghost of Caesar, which Brutus boldly accosts It tells hiain at Philippi
One ht suppose that this was a Shakespearean invention, introduced for dra shadows, and chilling the audience, but, in actual fact, Shakespeare does not have to invent it The report that Caesar's ghost appeared to Brutus is to be found in Plutarch
It is with a forward look to this scene, perhaps, that Shakespeare had had Mark Antony speak earlier of "Caesar's spirit"
It proves not so
The fifth act opens in the plains near Philippi, with the opposing ar for battle Octavius, looking at the scene with grim satisfaction, says:
Now, Antony, our hopes are answered;
You said the enemy would not come down,
But keep the hills and upper regions
It proves not so
- Act V, scene i, lines 1-4
What had happened between the acts was this Brutus and Cassius, crossing the straits into Macedonia from Asia Minor, encountered a portion of the triumvir army near Philippi If the conspirators had attacked at once, they ought to have won, but before they could do so, the rest of the triumvir army arrived and it was a standoff
The triumvir army now outnumbered the conspirators but eaker in cavalry What isposition in the hills, while Antony and Octavius occupied a marshy and malarial plain
Brutus and Cassius had only to stay where they were It would have been suicidal for Antony and Octavius to try to charge into the hills Yet to stay on the plains would expose theer and disease
Indeed, Octavius was already sick, although this doesn't appear in the play Octavius seemed always to be sick before a battle In this case, he fell sick at Dyrrhachium (on the coast of what is now Albania) and had to be carried by litter the 250 miles to Philippi
Cassius opposed battle,it out, the enemy would sooner or later have to retreat and that the effect would be one of victory for the conspirators He was rimly in the conspirators' place, was sure that was exactly what they would do
Antony still did not count on the egregious stupidity of Brutus Brutus again opposed Cassius and favored i his way Once again Cassius gave in
the Hybla bees
A parley between the opposing coed before the battle Perhaps an accoed That could not be, however, for the conversation quickly degenerated into recriminations At one point, Cassius refers bitterly to Antony's oratory (thinking perhaps of the funeral speech) and says:
But for your words, they rob the Hybla bees,
And leave them honeyless
- Act V, scene i, lines 34-35
Hybla was a town in Sicily, on the southern slopes of Mount Etna, and some forty miles northwest of Syracuse It was famous, almost proverbial, for its honey
Brutus, thank yourself
In the wordy quarrel, Antony does have the best of it and Cassius finally is forced to becorily:
Now, Brutus, thank yourself;
This [Antony's] tongue had not offended so today,
If Cassius ht have ruled
- Act V, scene i, lines 45-47
Surely he ht how, in all likelihood, the conspirators would have been long in control of Ro with Caesar, as he had advised
Was Cassius born
There is nothing, then, but to make ready for the actual battle Cassius is seriously depressed, perhaps because it has been borne in upon hih, and because he bitterly regrets all the tily
It is now October 42 bc, more than two and a half years since the assassination of Caesar, and Cassius says to his aide:
Messala,
This is my birthday; as this very day
Was Cassius born
- Act V, scene i, lines 70-72
Since we don't knohat year Cassius was born, we can't say how old he was on the day of the Battle of Philippi However, Plutarch refers to him as older than Brutus (a view Shakespeare adopts) and Brutus may have been born in 85 bc It would seem then that Cassiusfifty
Cassius does not find the fact that the battle will be fought on his birthday to be a good oht it He says to Messala:
Be thou ainst my will
(As Pompey was) am I compelled to set
Upon one battle all our liberties
- Act V, scene i, lines 73-75
This is a reference to the fact that it is Brutus, not Cassius, who is pushing for battle Cassius, who let himself be overruled, reminds himself, sadly, that Pompey was similarly forced into battle at Pharsalia, six years before, by the hotheads aht have served his cause better
I held Epicurus strong
To unavailing regret that he had allowed himself to be swayed by Brutus, Cassius finds trouble in supernatural omens He says:
You know that I held Epicurus strong,
And his opinion; now I change my mind,
And partly credit things that do presage
- Act V, scene i, lines 76-78
Epicurus of Samos was a Greek philosopher as a contemporary of the Zeno who had founded Stoicism Epicurus' philosophy (Epicureanism) adopted the beliefs of certain earlier Greek philosophers who viewed the universe as e consisted of the randoroups of these atoht for any purposeful direction of ods Omens and divine portents were considered empty superstition
Noever, Cassius begins to waver It see accompanied the arood luck were departing On the other hand, all sorts of carrion birds are now gathering, as though bad luck were arriving
Cassius' pessimism forces him to question Brutus as to his intentions in case the battle is lost Brutus answers in high Stoic fashion His actions will follow:
Even by the rule of that philosophy [Stoicism]
By which I did blame Cato for the death
Which he did give himself
- Act V, scene i, lines 100-2
Stoicisood man must meet his fate, whatever it is, unmoved Cassius asks, sardonically, if Brutus is ready, then, in case of defeat, to be led in triuh the Roman streets (and, undoubtedly, with the jeers of the Ro in his ears)
At once, Brutus' Stoiciss hirace he abandons it But he does so with characteristic self-praise:
No, Cassius, no; think not, thou noble Roman
That ever Brutus will go bound to Rome;
He bears too great a mind
- Act V, scene i, lines 110-12
Since both plan to die in case of defeat, they ain Brutus says:
Forever, and forever, farewell, Cassius!
- Act V, scene i, line 116
Cassius answers in kind and both are now ready for the battle, which takes up the rest of the play
the word too early
On both sides there was double command Cassius on the seaward side opposed Antony; Brutus on the inland side opposed Octavius The fortunes differed on the two flanks Brutus had the advantage over Octavius and advanced vigorously He sends :
I perceive
But cold de,
And sudden push gives them the overthrow
Ride, ride, Messala!
- Act V, scene ii, lines 3-6
But even now, in the ly Brutus should, at all cost, have kept his part of the ar in such a way that they could not support the other part in case of need Instead, his ht to have wheeled down upon Antony's men
Antony's ar That wing breaks and flies and can receive no help Titinius, Cassius' aide, says bitterly:
O Cassius, Brutus gave the word too early,
Who, having soe on Octavius,
Took it too eagerly; his soldiers fell to spoil,
Whilst we by Antony are all enclosed
- Act V, scene iii, lines 5-8
In Parthia
Cassius' depression now costs hinitude of Brutus' victory and therefore does not understand that even allowing for his own defeat, the battle is no worse than drawn
A band of Brutus' horse their way toward him is mistaken by hi, ehted Cassius thinks he is taken prisoner and that his own capture is imminent
Cassius therefore calls his servant, Pindarus, saying:
In Parthia did I take thee prisoner;
And then I swore thee, saving of thy life,
That whatsoever I did bid thee do,
Thou shouldst attempt it
- Act V, scene ii, lines 37-40
In Parthia, at the Battle of Carrhae, eleven years before, Cassius had carried through the greatest military achievement of his life He had carefully husbanded the downhearted reht them back to Syria
He had not despaired then, but he did now He orders his slave to kill him with the same sword that had once pierced Caesar It is done and Cassius dies
The last of all Romans
When the news of Cassius' death is brought to Brutus, he comes to view the body and says:
O Julius Caesar, thou art hty yet!
O Julius Caesar, thou art hty yet!
Thy spirit walks abroad, and turns our swords
In our own proper entrails
- Act V, scene iii, lines 94-96
His eulogy over Cassius is:
The last of all Romans, fare thee well!
It is impossible that ever Rome
Should breed thy fellow
- Act V, scene iii, lines 99-101
The stateeration Except for his conduct at the Battle of Carrhae, Cassius had shown little real ability Even in organizing the successful conspiracy that killed Caesar, his weakness in allowing the stupid Brutus to guide affairs ruined all
Caesar, now be still
Shakespeare has the battle continuing as though it were all one piece That is not so in actual history
After the drawn battle in which Cassius killed hi, the two armies withdrew to lick their wounds
Brutus' arer position and, what's more, Brutus controlled the sea approaches so that supplies were denied Antony and Octavius He had but to stay where he was and he would still win
But he could not The habit of wrong judgments could not be broken and this tiue vainly with hiain in a straightforward head-to-head battle
He lost again, brought the reht have sold his last bit dear, but that his soldiers refused to fight any more
There was nothing left to do but find somebody to kill him This service was performed for him by his servant, Strato, who held the shile Brutus ran upon it, saying:
Caesar, now be still:
I killed not thee with half so good a will
- Act V, scene v, lines 50-51
To the end the talk is of Caesar
the noblest Roman of them all
There rey to be delivered over Brutus Antony, surveying the dead body, says:
This was the noblest Roman of them all
All the conspirators save only he
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar;
He, only in a general honest thought
And coood to all, made one of them
- Act V, scene v, lines 68-72
Plutarch reports that "it was said" that Antony had, on a nu like this Was it to win over those who had been on Brutus' side for the war that was to folloeen hiratitude, since Brutus had refused to allow Antony to be killed on the ides of March? Did Antony really believe what he said?
In terly wrong, it can be accepted only as irony How can we possibly follow Antony in saying that Brutus was the only one who didn't act out of envy, when Shakespeare shows us that he was the only one who surely acted out of envy
In the great seduction scene in Act I, scene ii, Cassius turns all his arguainst Brutus' weak point, his monstrous vanity He paints a world in which Caesar is all and Brutus nothing, knowing that Brutus cannot bear such a thought Finally, he makes the comparison a brutally direct one:
Brutus and Caesar: what should be in that "Caesar"?
Why should that name be sounded more than yours?
Write theether, yours is as fair a name;
Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well;
Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with 'em,
"Brutus" will start a spirit as soon as "Caesar"
- Act I, scene ii, lines 142-47
ItCaesar to any other Roman citizen, but the fact is that he made the comparison to Brutus specifically, and Brutus listened Take this together with Brutus' character as painstakingly revealed in every other facet of the play and we can be certain that he was not the only conspirator not driven by envy On the contrary, he was the one conspirator as driven only by envy