This Is Shakespeare

by Emma Smith

So, these insistent interpretative examples – what we might call the play’s hermeneutic consciousness – mean we are already primed for the play’s most famous act of reinterpretation, Mark Antony’s ‘Friends, Romans, countrymen’ speech in Act 3. Antony’s skill is to persuade the crowd away from Brutus’ explanation of the murder by introducing new information about Caesar. He tells them about Caesar’s will, which has left 75 drachmas to each Roman citizen, as well as his parks and villas by the Tiber as a recreation ground. Interestingly, we never get corroboration of this – the will that Mark Antony brandishes is a prop, rather than a proof. We cannot see for ourselves, but, as Mark Antony’s speech itself enacts, we can be persuaded that it is true. This long scene slows the play down after the violence of the murder.