Act 3- Scene 1

The soothsayer again warns Caesar. Artemidorus insists that what he has to say is of
great importance to Caesar personally, but Caesar brushes him off. Metellus Cimber
presents a petition to Caesar: he wishes to have his banished brother forgiven. Caesar
denies him, bragging of his constancy. The other conspirators try to insist, but Caesar
denies them all. Casca stabs him first, and the other conspirators follow, last of all
Brutus. Caesar dies, shocked.
The conspirators discuss the need to address the Roman people, and Brutus and
Cassius try to justify to the others what they just did. Cassius remarks on how their act
may become legendary in the future. Antony’s servant arrives with a message from
Antony asking to see them if they will guarantee his safety. Brutus agrees, and Antony
comes to meet them. Antony asks the conspirators to let him die with Caesar. Brutus
refuses to kill him and explains that he will have a place in the new government. Antony
asks for permission to speak at the funeral. Cassius objects, but Brutus agrees as long as
Brutus gets to address the crowd first. In private, Antony begs Caesar's pardon for
being friendly with the conspirators and reveals that he actually hopes to stir the crowd
into a riot. A messenger from Octavius arrives, explaining that Octavius is approaching
Rome in response to Antony’s invitation. Antony agrees to meet with him.
Modern English:
Caesar
[To the Soothsayer] The 15th of March has come.
Soothsayer
Yes, Caesar, but it is not over.
Artemidorus
Greetings, Caesar! Read this schedule.
Decius Brutus
Trebonius would like you to read over his humble request, at your leisure.
Artemidorus
Oh, Caesar, read mine first, for mine is a request that's more relevant to you. Read it,
great Caesar!
Caesar
What's most relevant to us will be dealt with last.
Artemidorus
Don't delay, Caesar, read it instantly!
Caesar
What, is this fellow mad?
Publius
You there, move over.
Cassius
What, are we presenting petitions in the street now? Just come to the Capitol. 0
[Caesar goes up to the Senate-House, the rest following]
Popilius
[To Cassius] I hope your business today goes well.
Cassius
What business, Popilius?
Popilius
[To Cassius] Farewell.
[Advances to Caesar]
Brutus
What did Popilius Lena say?
Cassius
He said he hoped our business today would go well. I'm afraid our plan has been
discovered.
Brutus
Look how he's approaching Caesar. Watch him carefully.
Cassius
Casca, do something quick, for we're afraid of being stopped. Brutus, what should we
do? If our plot becomes known, then either Caesar or I can leave this place alive, for I'll
kill myself if we fail.
Brutus
Cassius, hold steady. Popilius Lena is not talking about out plans. Look, he's smiling, and
Caesar's expression hasn't changed.
Cassius
Trebonius knows what he has to do, for look, Brutus, he's drawing Mark Antony out of
the way.
[Exit Antony and Trebonius]
Decius Brutus
Where is Metellus Cimber? He should go and present his request to Caesar now.
Brutus
He's ready; get closer so you can second his petition.
Cinna
Casca, you will be the first to strike a blow.
Caesar
Is everyone ready? What problems should Caesar and his senate address?
Metellus Cimber
Most high, most mighty, and most powerful Caesar, I, Metellus Cimber, kneel before
you with a humble heart.
[Kneeling]
Caesar
I'll have to stop you, Cimber. This bowing and deferential courtesies might influence
ordinary men to overturn prior decrees as if they were mere laws passed by children.
But don't be so foolish to think that Caesar's blood is so unstable as to be thawed by
that which melts fools—by which I mean flattering words, bowing low, and fawning like
lapdogs. Your brother has been banished by law. If you're going to bend at the knee
and pray and fawn, I will kick you out of the way like a stray dog. Know that Caesar does
not make unjust decrees, and that your brother will not be pardoned without good
reason.
Metellus Cimber
Is there any voice worthier than mine to appeal to Caesar to grant my banished brother
a pardon?
Brutus
I kiss your hand as greeting, not flattery, Caesar; and I ask you to immediately repeal
Publius Cimber's banishment.
Caesar
What, you’re pleading too, Brutus?
Cassius
Pardon, Caesar! Caesar, pardon! I bow as low as your feet to beg for Publius Caesar's
restoration to citizenship.
Caesar
If I were like you, if I were capable of begging for favors, then your prayers might
influence me. But I am as steady as the northern star, whose fixed and unmoving
nature has no equal in the night sky. The skies are filled with countless sparks of light,
made of fire and shining bright, but only one among them holds its place. The world is
just like that. It is filled with men of flesh and blood, with physical and mental senses.
But among them I only know one man that is invincible and holds fast to his position,
unmoved by others, and I am that man. Let me prove this, even in this—I was
unwavering in that Cimber should be banished, and I remain firm that he will kept so.
Cinna
Oh Caesar—
Caesar
Go away! Are you trying to lift up Mount Olympus?
Decius Brutus
Great Caesar—
Caesar
Aren't you kneeling for nothing, Brutus?
Casca
My hand, speak for me!
[Casca first, then the other conspirators, and finally Brutus stab Caesar]
Caesar
And you too, Brutus?—Then die, Caesar!
[Dies]
Cinna
Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead! Run from here and announce it, yell it in the
streets!
Cassius
Some of you go to the public platforms, and cry out "Liberty, freedom, and citizenship!"
Brutus
People and senators, don't be afraid. Don't run away. Stand still. Caesar's ambition has
been answered.
Casca
Go to the platform Brutus.
Decius Brutus
And Cassius too.
Brutus
Where's Publius?
Cinna
He's here, quite astonished by this violence.
Metellus Cimber
Let's stand together in case some friend of Caesar's tries to—
Brutus
Don't talk about standing together. Publius, it's alright. We don't mean you any harm,
nor do we mean harm to any other Roman. Tell them this, Publius.
Cassius
And leave us, Publius, in case mob rushing to see what has happened injures your old
fragile body.
Brutus
Do so, Publius. Don't let any man suffer repercussions from this deed except we who
did it.
[Re-enter Trebonius]
Cassius
Where is Antony?
Trebonius
He fled to his house, astonished. Men, women, and children stare wildly, yell, and run
around as though this was the end of the world.
Brutus
Fates, you gods controlling the future, we'll know what you have in store for us. We
know we'll all die one day. It's when we die, and drawing out our days as long as
possible which matter.
Cassius
Why, a man who dies twenty years early removes that many years of fearing death.
Brutus
Given that, death is a benefit. We're Caesar's friends that have reduced his years of
fearing death. Bend down, Romans, let us dip our hands in Caesar's blood all the way
up to the elbows, and smear our swords with his blood. Then let's go forth to the
marketplace, and let's wave our bloody weapons over our heads and cry "Peace,
freedom, and liberty!"
Cassius
Bend down and wash your hands in his blood. Just think how future ages will re-enact
this important scene over and over in nations not yet formed and in languages not yet
known!
Brutus
Think how many times Caesar will bleed again for entertainment, he who lies now
along the base of Pompey's statue, no more worthy than dust!
Cassius
As often as this scene may be performed, so often our group will be called the men who
gave their country liberty!
Decius Brutus
Well, should we go forth?
Cassius
Yes, let's all of us go. Brutus will lead, and we'll follow at his heels, the boldest and best
hearts of Rome.
[Enter Antony's Servant]
Brutus
Wait! Who's coming? It's a friend of Antony's.
Servant
Brutus, my master instructed me to kneel like this, and to fall at your feet. And lying
before you, he told me to say, "Brutus is noble, wise, valiant, and honest. Caesar was
mighty, bold, royal, and loving. I loved Brutus, and I honor him. I feared Caesar, and
honored him, and loved him. If Brutus will guarantee that Antony can safely come to
him and hear why Caesar deserved to die, then Mark Antony will love the living Brutus
more than the dead Caesar, and will faithfully follow noble Brutus through the dangers
of this unprecedented state of affairs." That's what my master Antony wanted me to
say.
Brutus
Your master is a wise and valiant Roman, and I have never thought him to be less than
that. Tell him that if he will come to this place, we will answer his questions, and, on my
honor, he will be able to leave unharmed.
Servant
I'll go get him right away.
[Exit]
Brutus
I know that he'll be a good ally.
Cassius
I hope so, but I still fear him, and I think my suspicions are accurate for this situation.
Brutus
Here comes Antony. Welcome, Mark Antony!
[Re-enter Antony]
Antony
Oh mighty Caesar! Have you been brought this low? Have all of your conquests, glories,
triumphs, and spoils of war shrunk to just this? Farewell Caesar. [To Cassius and
Brutus] Gentlemen, I don't know your intentions, I don't know who else you intend to
kill, or who else you think has overgrown their boundaries. If I am one of them, there's
no better time to kill me than the hour of Caesar's death, nor is there any murder
weapon as worthy as your swords which have enriched themselves with Caesar's blood,
the noblest in the world. I beg you, if you bear a grudge against me, kill me now while
your bloodied hands still reek of hot blood. If I live a thousand years, I will never find a
more fitting time to die. No place and means of death would please more than being
killed here next to Caesar by you, the masters of this new age.
Brutus
Oh Antony, don't beg us to kill you! Though we must appear bloody and cruel, judging
from our bloody hands and the act they've just committed, for you only see our hands
and the bleeding they have caused. But our hearts, which you do not see, are full of
pity—pity for Caesar, but also for the wrongs which he has inflicted on all of Rome. Just
as a large fire drives out a smaller one, so a larger pity prevails over a smaller. Thus it
was our greater pity for Rome which drove us to kill Caesar. As for you, our swords are
harmless against you, Mark Antony. Though our weapons are capable of inflicting much
injury, our hearts, full of brotherly love, receive you with nothing but kindness, good
thoughts, and respect.
Antony
I don't doubt your wisdom. Let each man give me his bloody hand. I'll shake yours first,
Marcus Brutus. I'll take your hand next, Caius Cassius. Now yours, Decius Brutus, now
yours, Metellus, yours, Cinna, and yours, my valiant Casca, and last but not least in love,
yours, good Trebonius. Gentlemen, what should I say? My integrity is on shaky ground,
for you must think me either a coward or a flatterer.
[To Caesar’s body] It’s true that I loved you, Caesar! If your spirit could see us now, it
would be more grieved then by your death, to see your Antony making peace by
shaking the bloody fingers of your foes in the presence of your body—most noble act!
Caesar, rather than come together in friendship with your enemies, it would be more
fitting if I had as many eyes as you have wounds, and from them streamed tears as fast
the blood from your wounds. Pardon me, Julius! Here you were cornered like a deer, a
brave stag, and here were you shot; and here stand the hunters, bearing the signs of
their kill, their bloody hands crimson as if they had been dipped in the Lethe, the death
river of Hades. The whole world was the forest for you, brave hart; and you were the
heart of the whole world. Here you lie, like a magnificent stag, shot my many princes.
Cassius
Mark Antony—
Antony
Pardon me for interrupting you, Caius Cassius. Even the enemies of Caesar would say
this of him, so coming from me, his friend, it's only moderate praise.
Cassius
I don't blame you for praising Caesar like this. But what kind of agreement are you
looking to have with us? Do you want to be counted as one of our friends? Or should
we go on and not depend on you?
Antony
I took your hands to be friends, but indeed I got distracted by looking down at Caesar. I
am friends with you all, and I love you all—as long as you will give me reasons why you
think Caesar was dangerous.
Brutus
If we had no reasons for thinking so, this would be a savage spectacle indeed. Our
reasons were so well-intentioned, Antony, that even if you were Caesar's son you'd be
satisfied by them.
Antony
That's all I'm looking for. Additionally, I'd like to take his body to the marketplace, and
as a friend, speak from the public platform, as part of his funeral service.
Brutus
You can, Mark Antony.
Cassius
Brutus, a word with you. [Aside to Brutus] You don't know what you're doing. Don't
give your consent for Antony to speak at his funeral. Don't you know how much the
people might be stirred up against us by what Antony might say?
Brutus
[Aside to Cassius] With your permission, I'll stand on the platform first and explain why
Caesar was put to death. Whatever Antony says, I'll tell them that he speaks with our
permission, and that we want Caesar to have all the correct funeral rites and lawful
ceremonies. It will do us more good than harm.
Cassius
[Aside to Brutus] I don't know what the fallout of his speech will be. I don't like this.
Brutus
Mark Antony, take Caesar's body. You are not to blame us in your funeral speech, but
may speak however well you can of Caesar, and say that you do so by our permission.
Otherwise, you will have no hand at all in his funeral. And you'll speak from the same
platform to which I'm going now, after I'm done.
Antony
So be it. I want nothing more.
Brutus
Prepare the body then, and follow us.
[Exit all but Antony]
Antony
[To Caesar’s body] Oh you bleeding piece of flesh, pardon me for being so meek and
gentle with these butchers! You are the ruins of the noblest man who ever lived in the
flow of time. Woe to the hand that shed this rich blood! Over your wounds—which, like
silent mouths, open their ruby lips to beg my tongue to speak—I predict a curse will fall
on the bodies of men. Furious and fierce civil war shall overwhelm all of Italy.
Everyone will be so used to blood and destruction, and dreadful things so common,
that mothers will just smile when they see their babies cut in pieces by the hands of
war, all pity blocked by the familiarity of evil deeds. And Caesar's ghost, raging for
revenge, with the goddess of strife at his side having come directly from hell, shall,
throughout these regions and in a monarch's voice cry "Havoc!", and unleash the
hounds of war, so that Caesar's murder shall cause a stink over the earth from all the
rotting bodies groaning for burial.
[Enter Octavius' Servant]
You serve Octavius Caesar, don't you?
Octavius’ Servant
I do, Mark Antony.
Antony
Julius Caesar wrote to him asking him to come to Rome.
Octavius’ Servant
He received his letters and is coming, and he asked me to tell you in person—
[Seeing the body]
Oh Caesar!
Antony
You have a big heart; go somewhere else and weep. Emotion is contagious, I see, since
now my eyes, seeing yours tearing up, are starting to water as well. Is your master
coming?
Octavius’ Servant
He's camping tonight twenty-one miles from Rome.
Antony
Ride back quickly and tell him what's happened. Rome is in mourning, a dangerous
Rome, not yet a Rome safe enough for Octavius. Go and tell him this.—Yet wait a
minute; don't go back until I've carried his corpse to the marketplace. There, I'm going
to find out by my speech how the people feel about the result of these bloody men's
work. This information you will pass on to Octavius. Give me your hand.
Act 3 Scene 2
The citizens demand answers regarding Caesar’s death. Brutus makes a speech
explaining that although he valued Caesar as a friend, it was appropriate to kill him for
his ambition, and that he did so with the good of Rome in mind. He challenges the
crowd, saying that anyone who loves his freedom must stand with Brutus. Mark Antony
enters with Caesar’s body. The crowd clamours for Brutus, and Brutus tells them to
listen to Mark Antony. The Citizens are reluctant to listen to Mark Antony at all,
claiming that Caesar was a tyrant.
Antony addresses them, appearing at first to praise the conspirators. His speech
gradually inspires doubt about the conspirators through his praise of Caesar,
particularly after he shows the crowd Caesar’s wounded body and reads Caesar’s will,
which bequeaths money to each citizen and makes some of Caesar’s private lands into
public parks. The crowd begins to cry for revenge on the conspirators, and Mark Antony
pretends to dissuade them, but they run off to attack the conspirators anyway. A
messenger from Octavius arrives and says that Octavius and Lepidus are waiting for
Antony at Caesar’s house. Antony goes to meet them.
Modern English:
[Enter Brutus and Cassius, and a throng of Citizens]
Citizens
Give us some answers! We want answers!
Brutus
Then follow me and let me speak to you, friends. Cassius, you go into the other street
and divide the crowd. Let anyone who wants to hear me speak stay here, and those
who wish to hear you can go with you. We'll both give reasons before the public for
Caesar's death.
First Citizen
I want to hear Brutus speak.
Second Citizen
I'll listen to Cassius, and we can compare their reasons when we have heard separately.
[Exit Cassius, with some of the Citizens. Brutus goes into the pulpit]
Third Citizen
Noble Brutus has stepped up to speak. Silence!
Brutus
Be patient until I've finished. Romans, fellow citizens, and friends, listen to me explain
my reasons, and be silent so that you can hear. Believe me on my honour, and respect
that honour so that you will believe me. Judge me with appropriate wisdom, and awake
your senses so that you can judge me more accurately. If among this assembly there is
any dear friend of Caesar's, I say to him that my love for Caesar is no less than his own.
If that friend then demands why I rose up against Caesar, this is my answer: it is not
that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more. Would you prefer that Caesar was
alive and you all die as slaves, or that Caesar were dead and you live as free men?
Caesar loved me, so I weep for him; Caesar had good fortune, so I celebrated it; Caesar
was valiant, so I honoured him; but Caesar was also ambitious, so I killed him. Here are
tears for his love, celebration for his good fortune, honour for his valour, and death for
his ambition. Who here is so lowly that he would willingly be a slave? If any, let him
speak for I've offended him. Who here is so barbaric he doesn't want to be a Roman? If
there is any, let him speak for I've offended him. Who here is so vile that he doesn't
love his country? If there is any, let him speak for I've offended him. I'll pause for a
response.
All
None, Brutus, none.
Brutus
Then I have not offended any of you. I have done no more to Caesar than you would do
to me. His death has been recorded in the Capitol. The glories he was worthy of in life
have not been diminished, nor have the wrongs for which he was killed been
exaggerated.
[Enter Antony and others, with Caesar's body]
Here comes his body, mourned by Mark Antony who had no hand in his death, but he
will receive the benefit of his death, citizenship in the republic—as indeed, who will
not? With this final word I leave you—just as I killed my best friend for the good of
Rome, I have the same dagger myself, when my country needs my death.
All
Live, Brutus! live, live!
First Citizen
Bring him back to his house with triumph.
Second Citizen
Give him a statue with his ancestors.
Third Citizen
Let's make him Caesar.
Fourth Citizen
All the best things about Caesar are also in Brutus, and we'll give him a crown.
First Citizen
We'll bring him to his house with shouts and joyful noise!
Brutus
My countrymen—
Second Citizen
Shh, silence! Brutus is speaking!
First Citizen
Hey, quiet!
Brutus
Good countrymen, let me go alone, and for my sake, stay here and listen to Antony.
Honor Caesar's body, and listen courteously to the speech about Caesar's glory that
Mark Antony has our permission to make. I ask that no one, except me, leave until
Antony is done speaking.
[Exit]
First Citizen
Let's stay and hear Mark Antony.
Third Citizen
Let him climb up onto the platform. We will hear him. Noble Antony, climb up.
Antony
For Brutus' sake I am indebted to you.
[Goes into the pulpit]
Fourth Citizen
What did he say about Brutus?
Third Citizen
He said for Brutus' sake he finds himself indebted to us all.
Fourth Citizen
For his own sake he shouldn't say anything bad about Brutus here.
First Citizen
Caesar was a tyrant.
Third Citizen
Yes, that's for sure. We're blessed that Rome is rid of him.
Second Citizen
Quiet! Let's hear what Antony is going to say.
Antony
You gentle Romans—
Citizens
Hey, quiet! Let's listen to him.
Antony
Friends, Romans, countrymen, give me your attention. I've come to bury Caesar, not to
praise him. The bad things men do live on after their deaths, but the good things are
often buried with their bones. Let that be the case with Caesar. Noble Brutus told you
Caesar was ambitious. If that were true, it was a grave fault, and Caesar has gravely
paid for it. With Brutus' permission—for Brutus is an honorable man; they all are
honorable men—I come to speak at Caesar's funeral.
Caesar was my friend, faithful and just to me. But Brutus says he was ambitious, and
Brutus is an honorable man. He brought many captives home to Rome whose ransoms
enriched us all. Did this seem like ambition in Caesar? When the poor would cry, Caesar
would weep—ambition should be made of sterner stuff than that. Yet Brutus says he
was ambitious, and Brutus is an honorable man. You all saw that during the feast of
Lupercal I presented him with a kingly crown three times, which he refused three times.
Was that ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious, and he is surely an honorable man. I am not speaking
to disprove what Brutus spoke, I'm just here to speak what I know. You all loved Caesar
once, and with good cause. What reason then is holding you back from mourning him?
Oh judgment, you've fled to brutish animals while men have lost their reason! Bear
with me; my heart is in the coffin with Caesar, and I must pause until it returns to me.
First Citizen
I think what he's saying is very reasonable.
Second Citizen
If you think about it correctly, Caesar's been terribly wronged.
Third Citizen
Has he, masters? I fear someone worse might take his place.
Fourth Citizen
Did you pay attention to his words? Caesar wouldn't take the crown. So it's clear he
wasn't ambitious.
First Citizen
If that's true, then some people will pay dearly for it.
Second Citizen
Poor soul, Antony's eyes are as red as fire from weeping.
Third Citizen
There's not a nobler man in Rome than Antony.
Fourth Citizen
Pay attention to him now, he's starting to speak again.
Antony
Just yesterday Caesar's word was the most important in the world. Now he lies dead
here, and there is no one humble enough to mourn him. Oh sirs, if I wanted to stir your
hearts and minds into rebellion and rage, then I would wrong Brutus and Cassius, who
—you all know—are honorable men. I won't wrong them. I would rather wrong the
dead, wrong myself and you, than to wrong such honorable men.
But here's a document with Caesar's seal which I found it in his private room; it's his
will. If only the common people could hear his last will and testament—which, excuse
me, I don't intend to read—they would go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds. They'd dip
their handkerchiefs in his sacred blood as keepsakes, beg to have one of his hairs as a
memento, and leave those hairs to their children in their wills as precious heirlooms.
Fourth Citizen
Let's hear the will! Read it, Mark Antony.
All
The will! The will! We want to hear Caesar's will!
Antony
Have patience, noble friends; I should not read it. It isn't appropriate that you know
how much Caesar loved you. You are not made of wood or stone; you are men, and
being men, hearing the will of Caesar, you will become enraged. It will make you mad.
It's good that you don't know that you are his heirs, for if you did, oh, what would come
of that?
Fourth Citizen
Read the will! We want to hear it, Antony! Read us the will, Caesar's will!
Antony
Will you be patient? Will you wait a minute? I have gone further than I should have in
telling you of the will. I fear I may wrong the honorable men whose daggers stabbed
Caesar, I do fear it.
Fourth Citizen
They were traitors. 'Honorable men'!
All
The will! The testament!
Second Citizen
They were villains, murderers! The will! Read the will!
Antony
You will force me, then, to read the will? Then make a ring around the corpse of Caesar
and let me show you the one who made the will. Should I step down from the
platform? Will you let me?
Several Citizens
Come down.
Second Citizen
Descend.
Third Citizen
We will let you.
[Antony comes down]
Fourth Citizen
Make a ring around him. Stand around him.
First Citizen
Stand back from the hearse; stand back from the body.
Second Citizen
Make room for Antony, most noble Antony!
Antony
No, don't crowd around me so much. Stand a bit further off.
Several Citizens
Stand back! Make room! Stand back!
Antony
If you have tears within you, prepare to shed them now. You all know this cloak. I
remember the first time Caesar ever put it on. It was on a summer evening in his tent,
the same day he personally saved his outnumbered army from defeat by the the Nervii
tribe in France. Look, Cassius' dagger cut through the cloak here. Look at what a tear
envious Casca made. This rip is where the well-loved Brutus stabbed him. And look, as
he pulled his cursed blade out of Caesar's body, see how the drops of blood followed
the dagger back outside. It's as though they rushed outside their home to see whether
it was really Brutus banging on their door in so harsh a fashion—for Brutus, as you
know, was Caesar's favorite. Oh gods, judge how dearly Caesar loved him!
This was the unkindest wound of them all, for when Brutus stabbed him, it was Brutus'
ingratitude, more than the stabs of the traitors arms which finished him off. It was then
that his mighty heart burst; and there at the base of Pompey's statue—which all this
time was streaming blood—the great Caesar fell. Oh what a demise that was, my
countrymen! You and I and all of us were defeated along with him, while bloody
treason has triumphed. Now you're weep, feeling the pity; these are gracious tears you
shed. Kinds souls, what, are you weeping when you only see Caesar's bloody cloak.
Look here!
[He removes the mantle]
Here is Caesar himself, as you can see, wounded by traitors.
First Citizen
Oh pitiful spectacle!
Second Citizen
Oh noble Caesar!
Third Citizen
Oh what a woeful day!
Fourth Citizen
Oh traitors! Villains!
First Citizen
Oh what a bloody sight!
Second Citizen
We will be revenged.
All
Revenge! Search! Find them! Burn! Fire! Kill! Slay! Don't let a traitor live!
Antony
Wait, countrymen.
First Citizen
Quiet there! Listen to the noble Antony.
Second Citizen
We'll listen to him, we'll follow him, we'll die with him!
Antony
Good friends, sweet friends, don't let me stir you up to such a sudden flood of
rebellion. The ones who did this deed are honorable. Alas, I don't know what kind of
private grudges they held against Caesar that made them do it. They are wise and
honorable, and they will no doubt give you good reasons why. Friends, I haven't come
here to steal your hearts away from them. I'm no orator like Brutus is, but just a plain
blunt man who loved my friend, as you all know; and as they know also, those who
gave me permission to speak publicly of Caesar.
I don't have the wit, the vocabulary, the authority, the gestures, the phrases, nor the
figures of speech to stir men up, I just speak directly. I just tell you that which already
know, show you sweet Caesar's wounds, and ask these poor speechless mouths to
speak for me. But if I were Brutus, and Brutus me, that would be an Antony who could
rustle up your spirits and put a tongue in every wound of Caesar's so they could make
the very stones of Rome rise up in rebellion.
All
We'll rebel!
First Citizen
We'll burn Brutus' house down!
Third Citizen
Let's go then! Let's search for the conspirators!
Antony
Yet listen to me, countrymen, listen to me speak.
All
Hey, quiet! Listen to Antony, most noble Antony.
Antony
Why, friends, you don't know what you're rushing off to do. Why did Caesar deserve
your love? Alas, you don't even know. Then I must tell you—you've forgotten the will I
told you about.
All
Very true! The will! Let's wait and hear the will.
Antony
Here's the will, with Caesar's seal on it. He gives seventy-five drachmas, a significant
sum, to every individual Roman citizen.
Second Citizen
Most noble Caesar! We'll revenge his death!
Third Citizen
Oh royal Caesar!
Antony
Listen to me patiently.
All
Hey, quiet!
Antony
In addition, he left to the public all his parks, private gardens, and new orchards on this
side of the Tiber River. He left them to you and your heirs in perpetuity—public land for
pleasant strolls and recreation. What a Caesar! When will there be another like him?
First Citizen
Never, never! Let's go away! We'll cremate his body in the holy place, and with the
burning branches from his funeral pyre we'll set fire to the traitor's houses! Carry the
body.
Second Citizen
Go fetch a flame!
Third Citizen
Grab some wooden shutters, anything!
Fourth Citizen
Get wood frames, shutters, anything!
[Exit Citizens with the body]
Antony
Now let it all happen! Evil plight, you have started; take whatever course you want.
[Enter a Servant]
How goes it, fellow?
Servant
Sir, Octavius has already arrived in Rome.
Antony
Where is he?
Servant
He and Lepidus are at Caesar's house.
Antony
And I'll go there directly to visit them. I could not have wished for better. Fortune is
smiling on us in this good mood, she'll give us anything.
Servant
I heard Octavius say that Brutus and Cassius rode like madmen out the gates of Rome.
Antony
They probably observed the crowds and how I stirred them up. Take me to Octavius.
[Exit]
Act 3 scene 3
A poet named Cinna is confronted by a group of conspirators asking questions. He
attempts to answer them wittily, but they become angry and decide to kill him because
he has the same name as one of the conspirators, although he protests that he is not
the same man.
Modern English:
[Enter Cinna the poet]
Cinna the Poet
I dreamed last night that I was feasting with Caesar, and my dream was full of unlucky
omens. I don't want to leave home, but something's drawing me out.
[Enter Citizen]
First Citizen
What is your name?
Second Citizen
Where are you going?
Third Citizen
Where do you live?
Fourth Citizen
Are you a married man or a bachelor?
Second Citizen
Answer every man directly.
First Citizen
Yes, and briefly.
Fourth Citizen
And wisely.
Third Citizen
And you had better do it truthfully.
Cinna the Poet
What is my name? Where am I going? Where do I live? Am I a married man or a
bachelor? Well in order to answer every man directly and briefly, wisely and truthfully:
wisely, I say, I'm a bachelor.
Second Citizen
You're saying that those who are married are fools! You'll get a hit for that insult. Go
on, now answer directly.
Cinna the Poet
Directly, I am going to Caesar's funeral.
First Citizen
As a friend, or an enemy?
Cinna the Poet
As a friend.
Second Citizen
That subject is answered directly.
Fourth Citizen
Briefly, say where you live.
Cinna the Poet
Briefly, I live by the Capitol.
Third Citizen
And your name, sir, truthfully?
Cinna the Poet
Truthfully, my name is Cinna.
First Citizen
Tear him to pieces, he's a conspirator!
Cinna the Poet
I am Cinna the poet! I am Cinna the poet!
Fourth Citizen
Tear him to pieces for his bad poetry, tear him to pieces for his bad poetry!
Cinna the Poet
I am not Cinna the conspirator.
Fourth Citizen
It doesn't matter, your name is Cinna! Just tear his name out of his heart and turn him
loose then.
Third Citizen
Get him, tear him to pieces! Come, get fire! Grab some burning wood! To Brutus'
house, to Cassius' house! Burn everything! Some of you go to Decius' house, and some
of you go to Casca's. Some of you go to Ligarius' house! Away, go!
[Exit]