The New Hudson Shakespeare: Julius Caesar Part 31

[Note 43-46: In this speech Shakespeare seems to have aimed at imitating the manner actually ascribed to Brutus. "In some of his Epistles, he counterfeited that brief compendious manner of speech of the Lacedaemonians."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.

Shakespeare's idea is sustained by the _Dialogus de Oratoribus_, ascribed to Tacitus, wherein it is said that Brutus's style of eloquence was censured as _otiosum et disjunctum_. Verplanck remarks, "the _disjunctum_, the broken-up style, without oratorical continuity, is precisely that a.s.sumed by the dramatist." Gollancz finds a probable original of this speech in Belleforest's _Histoires Tragiques_ (_Hamlet_); Dowden thinks Shakespeare received hints from the English version (1578) of Appian's _Roman Wars_.]

[Page 103]

BRUTUS. Good countrymen, let me depart alone, 55 And, for my sake, stay here with Antony: Do grace to Caesar's corpse, and grace his speech Tending to Caesar's glories; which Mark Antony, By our permission, is allow'd to make.

I do entreat you, not a man depart, 60 Save I alone, till Antony have spoke. [_Exit_]

1 CITIZEN. Stay, ho! and let us hear Mark Antony.

3 CITIZEN. Let him go up into the public chair; We'll hear him. n.o.ble Antony, go up.

ANTONY. For Brutus' sake, I am beholding to you. 65

4 CITIZEN. What does he say of Brutus?

3 CITIZEN. He says, for Brutus' sake, He finds himself beholding to us all.

4 CITIZEN. 'Twere best he speak no harm of Brutus here.

1 CITIZEN. This Caesar was a tyrant.

3 CITIZEN. Nay, that's certain: We are blest that Rome is rid of him. 70

2 CITIZEN. Peace! let us hear what Antony can say.

ANTONY. You gentle Romans,--

ALL. Peace, ho! Let us hear him.

[Note 62: Scene VI Pope.]

[Note 70: /blest/ F1 glad F2 F3 F4.]

[Note 65: /beholding./ This Elizabethan corruption of 'beholden' occurs constantly in the Folios of 1623, 1632, and 1664. The Fourth Folio usually has 'beholden.' Here Camb has 'Goes into the pulpit.']

[Note 72: "Afterwards when Caesar's body was brought into the market-place, Antonius making his funeral oration in praise of the dead, according to the ancient custom of Rome, and perceiving that his words moved the common people to compa.s.sion, he framed his eloquence to make their hearts yearn the more; and taking Caesar's gown all b.l.o.o.d.y in his hand, he laid it open to the sight of them all, shewing what a number of cuts and holes it had upon it. Therewithal the people fell presently into such a rage and mutiny, that there was no more order kept amongst the common people."--Plutarch, _Marcus Brutus_.[A] How Shakespeare elaborates this!]

[Note A: There is a similar pa.s.sage in Plutarch, _Marcus Antonius_.]

[Page 104]

ANTONY. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears: I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

The evil that men do lives after them: 75 The good is oft interred with their bones; So let it be with Caesar. The n.o.ble Brutus Hath told you Caesar was ambitious: If it were so, it was a grievous fault, And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it. 80 Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest,-- For Brutus is an honourable man; So are they all, all honourable men,-- Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.

He was my friend, faithful and just to me: 85 But Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man.

He hath brought many captives home to Rome, Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill: Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? 90 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 honourable man.

You all did see that on the Lupercal 95 I thrice presented him a kingly crown, Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And, sure, he is an honourable man.

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, 100 But here I am to speak what I do know.

You all did love him once, not without cause: What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?

O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason. Bear with me; 105 My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, And I must pause till it come back to me.

[Note 74: /bury./ A characteristic anachronism. Cf. 'coffin'

in l. 106.]

[Note 104: /art/ F2 F3 F4 are F1.]

[Note 75-76: So in _Henry VIII_, IV, ii, 45: "Men's evil manners live in bra.s.s; their virtues We write in water."]

[Note 89: Caesar's campaigns in Gaul put vast sums of money into his hands, a large part of which he kept to his own use, as he might have kept it all; but he did also, in fact, make over much of it to the public treasury. This was a very popular act, as it lightened the taxation of the city.]

[Note 95: /on the Lupercal:/ at the festival of the Lupercal.]

[Note 99: These repet.i.tions of 'honourable man' are intensely ironical; and for that very reason the irony should be studiously kept out of the voice in p.r.o.nouncing them. Speakers and readers utterly spoil the effect of the speech by specially emphasizing the irony. For, from the extreme delicacy of his position, Antony is obliged to proceed with the utmost caution, until he gets the audience thoroughly in his power. The consummate adroitness which he uses to this end is one of the greatest charms of this oration.]

[Note 103: /to mourn:/ from mourning. The gerundive use of the infinitive.]

[Note 104: 'Brutish' is by no means tautological here, the ant.i.thetic sense of human brutes being most artfully implied.]

[Page 105]

1 CITIZEN. Methinks there is much reason in his sayings.

2 CITIZEN. If thou consider rightly of the matter, Caesar has had great wrong.

3 CITIZEN. Has he, masters? 110 I fear there will a worse come in his place.

[Note 110: /Has he/, Ha's hee F1.]

[Note 110: It was here, as the first words of the reply of the Third Citizen, that Pope would have inserted the quotation preserved in Jonson's _Discoveries_, discussed in note, p. 83, ll. 47-48. Pope's note is:

"Caesar has had great wrong.

3 PLEB. Caesar had never wrong, but with just cause.

If ever there was such a line written by Shakespeare, I should fancy it might have its place here, and very humorously in the character of a Plebeian." Craik inserted 'not' after 'Has he.']

[Page 106]

4 CITIZEN. Mark'd ye his words? He would not take the crown; Therefore 'tis certain he was not ambitious.

1 CITIZEN. If it be found so, some will dear abide it.

2 CITIZEN. Poor soul! his eyes are red as fire with weeping.

3 CITIZEN. There's not a n.o.bler man in Rome than Antony. 116

4 CITIZEN. Now mark him; he begins again to speak.