{"id":6114,"date":"2007-03-15T12:58:12","date_gmt":"2007-03-15T16:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=6114"},"modified":"2022-10-12T15:35:22","modified_gmt":"2022-10-12T19:35:22","slug":"et-tu-brute-then-fall-caesar-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=6114","title":{"rendered":"\u201cEt tu, Brute! Then fall, Caesar.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s the Ides of March<\/a>, yo.<\/p>\n

Here’s the moment in the play where Caesar gets the warning from the soothsayer. And ignores it.<\/p>\n

SCENE II. A public place<\/b><\/p>\n

Flourish. Enter CAESAR; ANTONY, CALPURNIA, PORTIA, DECIUS BRUTUS, CICERO, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, and CASCA; a great crowd following, among them a SOOTHSAYER<\/p>\n

CAESAR
\nCalpurnia!<\/p>\n

CASCA
\nPeace, ho! Caesar speaks.<\/p>\n

CAESAR
\nCalpurnia!<\/p>\n

CALPURNIA
\nHere, my lord.<\/p>\n

CAESAR
\nStand you directly in Antonius’ way,
\nWhen he doth run his course. Antonius!<\/p>\n

ANTONY
\nCaesar, my lord?<\/p>\n

CAESAR
\nForget not, in your speed, Antonius,
\nTo touch Calpurnia; for our elders say,
\nThe barren, touched in this holy chase,
\nShake off their sterile curse.<\/p>\n

ANTONY
\nI shall remember:
\nWhen Caesar says ‘do this,’ it is perform’d.<\/p>\n

CAESAR
\nSet on; and leave no ceremony out.<\/p>\n

Flourish<\/i><\/p>\n

SOOTHSAYER
\nCaesar!<\/p>\n

CAESAR
\nHa! who calls?<\/p>\n

CASCA
\nBid every noise be still: peace yet again!<\/p>\n

CAESAR
\nWho is it in the press that calls on me?
\nI hear a tongue, shriller than all the music,
\nCry ‘Caesar!’ Speak; Caesar is turn’d to hear.<\/p>\n

SOOTHSAYER
\nBeware the ides of March.<\/p>\n

CAESAR
\nWhat man is that?<\/p>\n

BRUTUS
\nA soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.<\/p>\n

CAESAR
\nSet him before me; let me see his face.<\/p>\n

CASSIUS
\nFellow, come from the throng; look upon Caesar.<\/p>\n

CAESAR
\nWhat say’st thou to me now? speak once again.<\/p>\n

SOOTHSAYER
\nBeware the ides of March.<\/p>\n

CAESAR
\nHe is a dreamer; let us leave him: pass.<\/p>\n

So of course Julius Caesar was a real guy and all (I heard he really liked to “work out<\/a>“) … but naturally I’m all about the play. Love that play.<\/p>\n

The conspiracy scene, I think, is my favorite in the play. Here’s a fun exercise – read it out loud and notice how often Shakespeare uses “s”. Or an “s” sound. There’s an “s” sound in almost every sentence. So when you hear the language – just the sound<\/i> of it, never mind what it is that they’re actually saying: it has a sound of “ssssss” – it gives an impression of a crowd of men whispering “psst” or – hissing – the hissing ‘psst” whisper of conspiracy. Brilliant.<\/p>\n

Here’s a quiz on Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar<\/i><\/a>. Fun!! Amazing how much one remembers. It all came back to me – however, the quiz also reminds me I really MUST get back to my Shakespeare project. I mean – my reading has gone on quite well, I’m moving through each play chronologically – I’ve always wanted to do that. I’ve read all the plays, of course – but never in so-called chronological order. My original plan was: I wanted to write<\/i> about each play as<\/i> I read it – a la 2 Gents<\/a>. I’ll keep going on and get back to the series eventually)<\/p>\n

And so, in honor of the Ides of March, here’s the “moment before” – the poor ignored SOOTHSAYER comes back into the picture:<\/p>\n

Act II, scene iv.<\/b> The sense of foreboding grows. Portia can feel the wrongness in the air. This is “the moment before”.<\/p>\n

PORTIA
\nCome hither, fellow: which way hast thou been?<\/p>\n

SOOTHSAYER
\nAt mine own house, good lady.<\/p>\n

PORTIA
\nWhat is’t o’clock?<\/p>\n

SOOTHSAYER
\nAbout the ninth hour, lady.<\/p>\n

PORTIA
\nIs Caesar yet gone to the Capitol?<\/p>\n

SOOTHSAYER
\nMadam, not yet: I go to take my stand,
\nTo see him pass on to the Capitol.<\/p>\n

PORTIA
\nThou hast some suit to Caesar, hast thou not?<\/p>\n

SOOTHSAYER
\nThat I have, lady: if it will please Caesar
\nTo be so good to Caesar as to hear me,
\nI shall beseech him to befriend himself.<\/p>\n

PORTIA
\nWhy, know’st thou any harm’s intended towards him?<\/p>\n

SOOTHSAYER
\nNone that I know will be, much that I fear may chance.
\nGood morrow to you. Here the street is narrow:
\nThe throng that follows Caesar at the heels,
\nOf senators, of praetors, common suitors,
\nWill crowd a feeble man almost to death:
\nI’ll get me to a place more void, and there
\nSpeak to great Caesar as he comes along.<\/p>\n

Exit<\/i><\/p>\n

PORTIA
\nI must go in. Ay me, how weak a thing
\nThe heart of woman is! O Brutus,
\nThe heavens speed thee in thine enterprise!
\nSure, the boy heard me: Brutus hath a suit
\nThat Caesar will not grant. O, I grow faint.
\nRun, Lucius, and commend me to my lord;
\nSay I am merry: come to me again,
\nAnd bring me word what he doth say to thee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s the Ides of March, yo. Here’s the moment in the play where Caesar gets the warning from the soothsayer. And ignores it. SCENE II. A public place Flourish. Enter CAESAR; ANTONY, CALPURNIA, PORTIA, DECIUS BRUTUS, CICERO, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39],"tags":[174,141,218],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6114"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6114"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180275,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6114\/revisions\/180275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}