- Act I Scene II : Lines 293-294
Act I Scene III was my favourite one so I really can't quote the whole thing! I like it particularly because of the various omens that are described and how each character deals with them differently. It also poses the thought whether Caesar's death was due to fate or of people's own free will. Two conspirators meet and discuss on how to win Brutus' support through planted evidence.
Act II Scene I cuts to Brutus' house where we see him develop more into a conspirator. Cassius and the rest pay him a visit. Brutus' noble character is prominent when Cassius suggests to kill Antony as well as Caesar.
Brutus
They are the faction. O conspiracy,
Shamest thou to show thy dangerous brow by night,
When evils are most free? O, then by day
Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough
To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, conspiracy;
Hide it in smiles and affability:
For if thou path, thy native semblance on,
Not Erebus itself were dim enough
To hide thee from prevention.
- Act II Scene I : Lines 80-88
Act II Scene II takes places in Caesar's house. Calpurnia (Caesar's wife) convinces Caesar to stay at home until the arrival of Decius Brutus who convinces him otherwise. The other conspirators and Antony come to escort Caesar to the Senate.
Calpurnia
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.
- Act II Scene II : Lines 31-38
Act II Scene III is one of the shortest scene in the play. It focuses on Artemidorus reading a letter he has written to Caesar and his plan of warning Caesar about the conspiracy that is afoot. Although I have no idea how he managed to get the details spot on.
Artemidorus
If thou read this, O Caesar, thou mayst live;
If not, the Fates with traitors do contrive.
- Act II Scene III : Lines 13-14
From the final scene of Act II it is evident that Brutus has confided in his wife, Portia about his current agenda and the thoughts that vex him. Portia is seen fighting with herself to keep this information a secret and yet worried about Brutus.
Act III is the crux of the play. In Scene I, the soothsayer once again comes into prominence and when Caesar informs him that the Ides of March have arrived, he responds that it isn't over. The conspiracy is about to reach its climax and the conspirators are starting to feel the nerves. It is interesting to note that Brutus is the one that allays Cassius' fears of being exposed. Perhaps because he is the only one who is part of the whole assassination plot out of honour. The audience gets yet another dose of Caesar's arrogance when heaps of flattery is showered upon him. Antony's soliloquy towards the end of the scene shows the anguish he experiences due to Caesar's death. He carefully plans his next move.
Caesar
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 quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.
The skies are painted with unnumber'd sparks;
They are all fire and every one doth shine;(70)
But there's but one in all doth hold his place.
So in the world, 'tis furnish'd well with men,
And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive;
Yet in the number I do know but one
That unassailable holds on his rank,
Unshaked of motion; and that I am he,
- Act III Scene I : Lines 64-76
Antony
Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of war,
- Act III Scene 1 : Line 293
Act III Scene II; many an elocution competition would have seen Mark Antony's speech that turned the plebeians against Brutus. It shows how the fickle crowd was swayed from pro-Brutus to anti-Brutus in a span of two orations. The charismatic Antony was the more skilled of the two and easily plies the malleable minds of the crowd. With clever usage of sarcasm, apophasis and of course, a few tears he manages to deliver a 'rhetorical tour de force'.
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;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.
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:
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?
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
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,
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;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.
- Act III Scene II : Lines 81-115
Antony
Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot,
Take thou what course thou wilt.
- Act III Scene II : Lines 271-272
In the final scene of Act III, Shakespeare demonstrates the murderous rage (Kolarveri-di! Sorry I couldn't resist!!) that the crowd has been incited into. They slay a hapless Roman for merely sharing the same name with a conspirator.
Fourth Citizen
It is no matter, his name's Cinna. Pluck but
his name out of his heart, and turn him going.
- Act III Scene III : Lines 32-33
The first scene of Act IV depicts the first meeting of the Triumvirate (Lepidus, Octavius, and Antony). They decide on a list of people to be marked for death. Antony then sends Lepidus on an errand and then shrewdly equates Lepidus to a donkey and then later to a horse.
Antony
This is a slight unmeritable man,
Meet to be sent on errands. Is it fit,
The three-fold world divided, he should stand
One of the three to share it?
- Act IV Scene I : Lines 13-16
Antony
Octavius, I have seen more days than you,
And though we lay these honors on this man
To ease ourselves of divers slanderous loads,
He shall but bear them as the ass bears gold,
To groan and sweat under the business,
Either led or driven, as we point the way;
And having brought our treasure where we will,
Then take we down his load and turn him off,
Like to the empty ass, to shake his ears
And graze in commons.
Octavius
You may do your will,
But he's a tried and valiant soldier.
Antony
So is my horse, Octavius, and for that
I do appoint him store of provender.
- Act IV Scene I : Lines 20-33
The backdrop of Scene III is set in Scene II, where Brutus notes that there is a strain in the relationship between him and Cassius.
Brutus
When love begins to sicken and decay
It useth an enforced ceremony.
There are no tricks in plain and simple faith;
But hollow men, like horses hot at hand,
Make gallant show and promise of their mettle;
But when they should endure the bloody spur,
They fall their crests and like deceitful jades
Sink in the trial...
- Act IV Scene II : Lines 22-29
The rift in the conspirator camp is expanded in the third scene of Act IV. Cassius and Brutus get into a heated argument for a while and later patch things up. Brutus alludes his behaviour to the death of his wife, Portia who committed suicide by swallowing hot coal. It is a very interesting scene that I recommend to be read in its entirety. Brutus later experiences a premonition of things to come.
The final act of the play focuses on the ensuing battle and the tying up of loose ends. There is an interesting verbal bout of note between Cassius, Brutus, Octavius and Antony in Scene I. Messala is sent to deliver a message to Cassius in Scene II. Meanwhile, in Scene III; Cassius misjudges the status of the war and commands his bond-servant to kill him. Messala arrives with the news a little too late, for Cassius has already fallen. His trusted soldier and friend, Titinius; overcome with grief, commits suicide with Cassius' sword.
Cassius
Caesar, thou art revenged,
Even with the sword that kill'd thee.
- Act V Scene III : Lines 46-48
Lucilius disguises himself as Brutus and for that receives pardon from Mark Antony when he is captured, for Antony remarks that he would rather have such a person (Lucilius) as a friend than as an enemy.
The final scene of the play opens with Brutus trying to coax his aides into killing him. However, they all refused to do so. This illustrates the difference between Cassius' and Brutus' men. They would rather kill themselves before harming their master. Finally Brutus manages to convince Strato that all that needed to be done was to hold the sword, and he would impale himself upon it. Antony and Octavius pay homage to Brutus upon arriving at the place where he died.
Brutus
Caesar, now be still;
I kill'd not thee with half so good a will.
- Act V Scene V : Lines 56-57
Strato
...For Brutus only overcame himself,
And no man else hath honor by his death.
- Act V Scene V : Lines 62-63
Antony
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 common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle, and the elements
So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, “This was a man!”
- Act V Scene V : Line 74-81
Phew! What had initially started as a collection of favourite quotes, turned out to be a crash course in Julius Caesar ! To be honest, I enjoyed every bit of writing this! Too bad The Tempest will not see such a post from me!
