Julius Caesar (Folger Shakespeare Library)

by William Shakespeare

BRUTUS No, Cassius, for the eye sees not itself 58 But by reflection, by some other things.

ULYSSES. A strange fellow here Writes me that man—how dearly ever parted, How much in having, or without or in— Cannot make boast to have that which he hath, Nor feels not what he owes, but by reflection; As when his virtues shining upon others Heat them, and they retort that heat again To the first giver. ("Troilus and Cressida", Act 3, Scene 3)

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, 147 But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

You are free subjects of a more immense nature and power which grants you intellect to free you from the heavens’ influence. If, therefore, men today turn from God’s laws, the fault is in yourselves to seek and find; and I shall truly explicate the cause Dante's Purgatario, Canto 16 (Ciardi translation)

And since the quarrel 29 Will bear no color for the thing he is, 30 Fashion it thus: that what he is, augmented, 31 Would run to these and these extremities.

preventive cure, or preemptive strike?

CASSIUS And let us swear our resolution. 124 BRUTUS No, not an oath.

This is refreshing. Oaths are such a tired dramatic device, both to heighten drama and to show, negatively, their moral danger.

We shall be called purgers, not murderers.

honored assassins

What’s to do? 353 BRUTUS A piece of work that will make sick men whole. 354 LIGARIUS But are not some whole that we must make sick?

A touch of the Gospel here in rhetoric if not in spirit (e.g., the last shall be first and the first last; those who have nothing will be given more, while those who have more will lose even what they have; etc.)

Danger knows full well 47 That Caesar is more dangerous than he.

I laugh in the face of danger, ha ha. But Cassius had said something similar (maybe ironically), boasting that he bared his breast to lightning in a storm.

But I am constant as the Northern Star,

An interesting choice of words given the comet hanging over him. And it's an ironic choice of words by General Chang after assassinating his own Chancellor in "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country". Chang may be speaking the line on behalf of the assassinated, as Antony will do with Caesar.

So in the world: ’tis furnished well with men, 72 And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive. 73 Yet in the number I do know but one 74 That unassailable holds on his rank, 75 Unshaked of motion;

Singling himself out in the very words used earlier by Cassius and Brutus about Rome becoming, containing only, or answering to, one man.

“Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement.”

"Liberté, égalité, fraternité"

And let us bathe our hands in Caesar’s blood

stage directions please

Shaking the bloody fingers of thy foes— 217 Most noble!—in the presence of thy corpse?

Priam kissing the hands of his son's killer, Achilles, in Homer's "Iliad"

O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, 280 That I am meek and gentle with these butchers. 281 Thou art the ruins of the noblest man 282 That ever livèd in the tide of times.

Echoes of the Gospel in "meek" and "earth", and in this portrait of extreme forgiveness.

That mothers shall but smile when they behold 293 Their infants quartered with the hands of war,

An ironic touch of Henry V's ultimatum to the town of Harfleur

You are not wood, you are not stones, but men.

more than senseless things

Our enemies have beat us to the pit. 27 Low alarums. It is more worthy to leap in ourselves 28 Than tarry till they push us.

Thelma to Louise

The conquerors can but make a fire of him, 61 For Brutus only overcame himself, 62 And no man else hath honor by his death.

The Gospel again (John): freely he lays down his own life