Marcus Brutus
Notes on Marcus Brutus
Politics and the People
Read the NoteShakespeare often wrote about politics but he usually dealt with political infighting at court. Two of his Roman plays, however, deal specifically with politicians’ relationship with the people, the fickle masses. Julius Caesar and Coriolanus offer observations about these fraught relationships, which are as true today as they were both in Elizabethan and Roman times.
Like many of Shakespeare’s plays,
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Video: Romans, countrymen, and lovers
Read the NoteJames Mason as Brutus in the 1953 film of Julius Caesar directed by Joseph Mankiewicz.
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Quotes spoken by the character Marcus Brutus
Brutus, I do observe you now of late
Read the QuoteCassius
Brutus, I do observe you now of late;
I have not from your eyes that gentleness
And show of love as I was wont to have.
You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand
Over your friend that loves you.
Brutus
Cassius,
Be not deceiv’d. If I have veil’d my look,
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That you do love me, I am nothing jealous
Read the QuoteBrutus
That you do love me, I am nothing jealous;
What you would work me to, I have some aim.
How I have thought of this, and of these times,
I shall recount hereafter.Isocolon For this present,
I would not (so with love I might entreat you)
Be any further mov’d. What you have said
I will consider;
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It must be by his death
Read the QuoteIt must be by his death; and for my part,
I know no personal cause to spurn at him,
But for the general. He would be crown’d:
How that might change his nature, there’s the question.
It is the bright day that brings forth the adder,
And that craves wary walking. Crown him that,
And then I grant we put a sting in him
That at his will he may do danger with.
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Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar
Read the QuoteSince Cassius first did whet me against Caesar,
I have not slept.
Between the acting of a dreadful thing
And the first motion, all the interim is
Like a phantasma or a hideous dream.Simile
The Genius and the mortal instruments
Are then in council;Metaphor & Personification and the state of a man,
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They are the faction
Read the QuoteThey are the faction. O Conspiracy,
Sham’st thou to show thy dang’rous brow by night,
When evils are most free?Apostrophe O then, by day
Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enoughMetaphor
To mask thy monstrous visage?Personification Seek none, Conspiracy!Apostrophe
Hide it in smiles and affability;
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And let us swear our resolution
Read the QuoteCassius
And let us swear our resolution.
Marcus Brutus
No, not an oath!Anapodoton If not the face of men,
The sufferance of our souls, the time’s abuseIsocolon—
If these be motives weakAnastrophe, break off betimes,
And every man hence to his idle bed;
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But what of Cicero? Shall we sound him?
Read the QuoteCassius
But what of Cicero? Shall we sound him?
I think he will stand very strong with us.
Casca
Let us not leave him out.
Cinna
No, by no means.
Metellus Cimber
O, let us have him, for his silver hairsSynecdoche
Will purchase us a good opinion,
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Boy! Lucius! Fast asleep? It is no matter
Read the QuoteBoy! Lucius! Fast asleep? It is no matter,
Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber.Alliteration & Metaphor
Thou hast no figures nor no fantasies,Alliteration
Which busy care draws in the brains of men;
Therefore thou sleep’st so sound.Alliteration
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Portia! What mean you? Wherefore rise you now?
Read the QuoteBrutus
Portia! What mean you? Wherefore rise you now?Hyperbaton & Pysma
It is not for your health thus to commit
Your weak condition to the raw cold morning.
Portia
Nor for yours neither.Anapodoton You’ve ungently, Brutus,
Stole from my bed. And yesternight at supper
You suddenly arose and walked about,
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Kneel not, gentle Portia
Read the QuoteBrutus
Kneel not, gentle Portia.
Portia
I should not need, if you were gentle Brutus.Antanaclesis
Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus,
Is it excepted I should know no secrets
That appertain to you? Am I yourself
But, as it were, in sort or limitation,
To keep with you at meals,
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