FLAVIUS and MARULLUS, tribunes ARTEMIDORUS of Cnidos, a teacher of Rhetoric SCENE: Rome; the neighborhood of Sardis; the neighborhood of Philippi SYNOPSIS By J. ELLIS BURDICK ACT I Cæsar returns victorious from his foreign wars and is escorted in triumph to the Capitol. On his way thither he is warned by a soothsayer to "Beware the ides of March." Antony offers him a crown three times and as many times does Cæsar refuse it. But while his friends are thus honoring him, his enemies are plotting against his life. Their leader is Cassius and they succeed in persuading Brutus, a truly noble Roman, to join them on the belief that Cæsar is a menace to his country's welfare. ACT II Remembering the warning of the soothsayer and unnerved by the dreams of his wife on the preceding night, Cæsar is inclined to stay at home on the ides of March. The conspirators were expecting this hesitancy and had planned to go in a body to his house and to urge him to go to the senate-house. Cæsar yields to their entreaties and goes with them. ACT III In the senate-house, one of their members presents a petition to Cæsar and the others press near, On his refusal to grant the request, the conspirators stab him one after another, beginning with Casca and ending with Brutus. Murmuring "Et tu, Brute? Then fall Cæsar," the great general dies. Antony flees at first but afterward he returns, pretending to approve of the assassination and asking permission to address the people at the funeral. To this Brutus consents, only reserving for himself the right to speak first and exacting from Antony a promise to make no charges against them. These conditions are satisfactory to Antony. Brutus addresses the assembled citizens and his speech explaining why the conspirators had deemed Cæsar worthy of death wins great applause. 'Antony follows him in a speech lauding Cæsar, and although calling Brutus, Cassius, and the others "honorable men, ," he uses the expression in such a way that to the people it soon becomes synonymous with "traitors." The commons turn against Brutus and his friend and they are driven to flee the city. ACT IV Antony, Octavius Cæsar, and Lepidus form a triumvirate and gather together an army. Brutus and Cassius collect another army and the two parties encamp near the plains of Philippi. One night while Brutus was sitting in his tent trying to read and with his attendants sleeping around him he has a supernatural visitor-the ghost of Cæsarwho says to him, "Thou shalt see me at Philippi." ACT V At the battle of Philippi the triumvirs are successful. Cassius forces his slave Pindarus to redeem a promise made to him long before by slaying him. Later Brutus causes his servant Strato to hold out his sword and he runs upon it and is killed. THE TRAGEDY OF JULIUS CÆSAR ACT FIRST SCENE I Rome. A street. Enter Flavius, Marullus, and certain Commoners. Flav. Hence! home, you idle creatures, get you home: Is this a holiday? what! know you not, Of your profession? Speak, what trade art thou? First Com. Why, sir, a carpenter. Mar. Where is thy leather apron and thy rule? 9 Sec. Com. Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but, as you would say, a cobbler. Mar. But what trade art thou? answer me directly. 3. "you ought not walk," etc.; a regulation borrowed from English trade-guilds.-C. H. H. Sec. Com. A trade, sir, that, I hope, I may use with a safe conscience; which is indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles. Mar. What trade, thou knave? thou naughty, knave, what trade? Sec. Com. Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me: yet, if you be out, sir, I can mend you. Mar. What mean'st thou by that? mend me, 20 thou saucy fellow! Sec. Com. Why, sir, cobble you. Flav. Thou art a cobbler, art thou? Sec. Com. Truly, sir, all that I live by is with the awl: I meddle with no tradesman's matters, nor women's matters, but with awl. I am indeed, sir, a surgeon to old shoes; when they are in great danger, I re-cover them. As proper men as ever trod upon neatsleather have gone upon my handiwork. Flav. But wherefore art not in thy shop to-day? Why dost thou lead these men about the streets? Sec. Com. Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes, to get myself into more work. But indeed, sir, we make holiday, to see Cæsar and to rejoice in his triumph. 30 Mar. Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home? What tributaries follow him to Rome, 26. "with awl. I"; Ff., "withal I"; the correction was made by Farmer.-I. G. 38-61. Campbell makes a brief criticism on this passage, so just and so genial, that it ought always to go with the play: "It is evi |