Saturday, March 15, 2008

Beware the Ides of March (Act I, Scene II)

5 comments:

My Frontier Thesis said...

SCENE II. A public place.

Flourish. Enter CAESAR; ANTONY, for the course; CALPURNIA, PORTIA, DECIUS BRUTUS, CICERO, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, and CASCA; a great crowd following, among them a Soothsayer

CAESAR
Calpurnia!

CASCA
Peace, ho! Caesar speaks.

CAESAR
Calpurnia!

CALPURNIA
Here, my lord.

CAESAR
Stand you directly in Antonius' way,
When he doth run his course. Antonius!

ANTONY
Caesar, my lord?

CAESAR
Forget not, in your speed, Antonius,
To touch Calpurnia; for our elders say,
The barren, touched in this holy chase,
Shake off their sterile curse.

ANTONY
I shall remember:
When Caesar says 'do this,' it is perform'd.

CAESAR
Set on; and leave no ceremony out.
Flourish

Soothsayer
Caesar!

CAESAR
Ha! who calls?

CASCA
Bid every noise be still: peace yet again!

CAESAR
Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music,
Cry 'Caesar!' Speak; Caesar is turn'd to hear.

Soothsayer
Beware the ides of March...

Mr roT said...

Thank you for reminding me why I didn't take any more lit till junior year of college.

Arelcao Akleos said...

JJ was saving himself for the cacaphony of Ulysses.

Mr roT said...

It's got better dirty parts, but yes. After HS Shakespeare, I needed something very different and uninfected.

My Frontier Thesis said...

Highschool also destroyed Beowulf for a lot of us, and for much too long. It's a great pagan work, though, and we have a Christian Monk to thank for taking it down.