1 00:00:26,139 --> 00:00:28,369 The King's New Grammar School in Stratford upon Avon... 2 00:00:28,475 --> 00:00:31,706 where over 400 years ago a young lad named William Shakespeare... 3 00:00:31,812 --> 00:00:34,372 poured over his classical literature and history... 4 00:00:34,481 --> 00:00:38,144 and began to learn about the great names and events that had shaped the world. 5 00:00:39,820 --> 00:00:41,481 Today, Stratford has changed. 6 00:00:41,822 --> 00:00:44,382 It's still the cozy market town of Shakespeare's day... 7 00:00:44,491 --> 00:00:48,484 but it has also become the epicenter of the 'Shakespeare World'. 8 00:00:48,662 --> 00:00:50,994 The Royal Shakespeare Company, the Shakespeare Center... 9 00:00:51,164 --> 00:00:54,395 and the Shakespeare Institute are all based here... 10 00:00:54,501 --> 00:00:57,834 offering unique facilities where Shakespeare's life, times and works... 11 00:00:58,171 --> 00:01:00,162 can be seen, heard and studied. 12 00:01:00,340 --> 00:01:01,830 The play, Julius Caesar... 13 00:01:01,942 --> 00:01:05,275 relates the rise and fall of a man whose ambition increased the power... 14 00:01:05,612 --> 00:01:07,842 and influence of the mighty Roman Empire... 15 00:01:07,948 --> 00:01:10,280 but it was an all consuming ambition... 16 00:01:10,617 --> 00:01:13,177 one that drove Caesar to become Emperor and dictator... 17 00:01:13,286 --> 00:01:15,948 and which ultimately caused friends to desert him and to loathe him... 18 00:01:16,289 --> 00:01:18,621 and, finally, to murder him. 19 00:01:20,293 --> 00:01:22,523 Brutus is often considered to be the man... 20 00:01:22,629 --> 00:01:25,962 whose character undergoes the greatest moral shift in the play. 21 00:01:26,299 --> 00:01:29,530 As an actor, charged with thejob of finding the motivation of the man... 22 00:01:29,636 --> 00:01:31,536 during rehearsal and in performance... 23 00:01:31,638 --> 00:01:34,300 I am in the happy position of being able to ask questions... 24 00:01:34,474 --> 00:01:36,465 which are of personal interest to me. 25 00:01:36,977 --> 00:01:39,537 How could we do better then, than turn at the outset... 26 00:01:39,646 --> 00:01:41,876 to Dr. Robert Smallwood of the Shakespeare Center... 27 00:01:41,982 --> 00:01:44,314 and Professor Stanley Wells of the Shakespeare Institute... 28 00:01:44,651 --> 00:01:46,983 to shed light on the main themes of this play... 29 00:01:47,320 --> 00:01:49,982 which those of us with even a passing knowledge of politics... 30 00:01:50,323 --> 00:01:53,224 will recognize as one which still fits so easily... 31 00:01:53,326 --> 00:01:55,988 into the experience of our modern world. 32 00:01:59,332 --> 00:02:02,597 - Calpurnia - Peace, ho! Caesar speaks. 33 00:02:02,936 --> 00:02:04,597 - Calpurnia. - Here, my lord. 34 00:02:05,272 --> 00:02:09,265 Stand you directly in Antonio's way when he doth run his course. 35 00:02:10,444 --> 00:02:12,105 Antonio. 36 00:02:12,279 --> 00:02:13,610 Caesar, my lord. 37 00:02:13,780 --> 00:02:17,113 Forget not in your speed, Antonio, to touch Calpurnia... 38 00:02:18,118 --> 00:02:19,779 for our elders say... 39 00:02:20,620 --> 00:02:26,957 The barren touched in this holy chase, Shake off their curse. 40 00:02:27,294 --> 00:02:30,627 I shall remember: When Caesar says "Do this", it is performed. 41 00:02:30,964 --> 00:02:33,956 Set on, and leave no ceremony out. 42 00:02:34,801 --> 00:02:36,359 Julius Caesar is of course a history play. 43 00:02:36,470 --> 00:02:40,372 It is related to what actually happened in Ancient Rome. 44 00:02:40,474 --> 00:02:43,034 Shakespeare read about that particularly in a great book... 45 00:02:43,143 --> 00:02:45,805 that he made a lot of use of 'The Lives of the Emperors'... 46 00:02:46,146 --> 00:02:48,706 by the Greek historian Plutarc... 47 00:02:48,815 --> 00:02:52,046 which exists in a wonderful translation by Sir Thomas North. 48 00:02:52,152 --> 00:02:55,713 I say a wonderful translation because Shakespeare saw that himself too. 49 00:02:55,822 --> 00:02:59,053 He not only read it, he paraphrased it, he borrowed bits from it... 50 00:02:59,159 --> 00:03:03,425 he uses and incorporates phrases from it into his verses in plays. 51 00:03:03,763 --> 00:03:05,663 He clearly enjoyed that. 52 00:03:05,765 --> 00:03:10,099 Now the fact that this was an historical story meant a lot to Shakespeare. 53 00:03:11,104 --> 00:03:14,005 Julius Caesar was a very important figure, I mean so important... 54 00:03:14,107 --> 00:03:18,009 he actually conquered England, which means he was a very great man indeed. 55 00:03:18,111 --> 00:03:21,012 He was a very well known figure and I think this helped Shakespeare... 56 00:03:21,114 --> 00:03:23,446 to the extent he didn't have to... 57 00:03:23,783 --> 00:03:27,116 portray Caesar's greatness as much as he would have done... 58 00:03:27,454 --> 00:03:29,786 if Caesar hadn't been such a well-known figure. 59 00:03:29,956 --> 00:03:34,950 The play is concerned very much with itself as a piece of history making. 60 00:03:35,629 --> 00:03:37,620 Shakespeare is dramatizing... 61 00:03:37,964 --> 00:03:42,628 one of the most famous political assassinations of all time... 62 00:03:43,303 --> 00:03:48,969 the single most often treated episode from history... 63 00:03:49,309 --> 00:03:52,972 in all 16th and 17th Century writing... 64 00:03:53,313 --> 00:03:59,980 and when the conspirators have succeeded in their first aim of killing Caesar... 65 00:04:00,320 --> 00:04:04,256 they have that extraordinary ritual moment when they see themselves... 66 00:04:04,591 --> 00:04:06,923 making history. 67 00:04:07,427 --> 00:04:09,088 Caesar! 68 00:04:09,763 --> 00:04:11,321 Who calls? 69 00:04:11,431 --> 00:04:14,764 Bid ever noise be still. Peace yet again. 70 00:04:15,101 --> 00:04:17,433 Who is it in the press that calls on me? 71 00:04:17,938 --> 00:04:21,931 I hear a tongue shiller than all the music. Cry "Caesar!" 72 00:04:22,776 --> 00:04:26,337 Speak. Caesar is turned to hear. 73 00:04:26,446 --> 00:04:29,779 Beware the ides of March. 74 00:04:30,617 --> 00:04:31,948 What man is that? 75 00:04:32,285 --> 00:04:35,186 A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March. 76 00:04:35,288 --> 00:04:37,620 Set him before me; let me see his face. 77 00:04:37,958 --> 00:04:40,950 Fellow, come from the throng. 78 00:04:41,294 --> 00:04:43,285 Look upon Caesar. 79 00:04:46,633 --> 00:04:48,965 What sayest thou to me now? 80 00:04:50,303 --> 00:04:54,637 Beware the ides of March 81 00:04:55,809 --> 00:04:59,472 He is a dreamer. Let us leave him. Pass! 82 00:05:00,914 --> 00:05:04,816 At its most basic level Julius Caesar is a story, an historical story. 83 00:05:04,918 --> 00:05:08,149 It tells the story about people who existed. 84 00:05:08,254 --> 00:05:11,917 Of course Shakespeare doesn't follow history exactly... 85 00:05:12,258 --> 00:05:15,159 he reshapes it for its dramatic ends. 86 00:05:15,261 --> 00:05:18,162 So one appeal of the play for later ages... 87 00:05:18,264 --> 00:05:20,824 has been the sheer narrative of the play... 88 00:05:20,934 --> 00:05:23,494 but of course it has also gone on appealing, because people... 89 00:05:23,603 --> 00:05:28,836 have found that the play embodies ideas or what we tend to call themes. 90 00:05:28,942 --> 00:05:33,845 One theme of Julius Caesar if you like, is politics. 91 00:05:33,947 --> 00:05:37,178 It's a play about ruling a country. 92 00:05:37,283 --> 00:05:41,276 It's a play about usurpation, about dictatorship... 93 00:05:41,621 --> 00:05:44,613 about the fact that in politics somebody may... 94 00:05:44,958 --> 00:05:48,951 assume so much power that it begins to corrupt them. 95 00:05:49,295 --> 00:05:50,853 Now this is a universal theme... 96 00:05:50,964 --> 00:05:53,524 we have found it all over our century... 97 00:05:53,633 --> 00:05:56,534 Romania, Germany, Russia... 98 00:05:56,636 --> 00:05:58,968 even one might suggest in England. 99 00:05:59,305 --> 00:06:02,570 The corruption of politics is a frequent theme... 100 00:06:02,742 --> 00:06:05,404 and it is very much present in this play, I think. 101 00:06:10,417 --> 00:06:12,749 Will you go see the order of the course? 102 00:06:13,086 --> 00:06:16,078 - Not I. - I pray you, do. 103 00:06:16,756 --> 00:06:21,420 I am not gamesome: I do lack some part of that quick spirit that is in Antony. 104 00:06:21,928 --> 00:06:24,920 Let me not hinder, Cassius, you desires: I'll leave you. 105 00:06:25,932 --> 00:06:27,263 Brutus... 106 00:06:28,935 --> 00:06:31,597 I do observe you now. 107 00:06:32,605 --> 00:06:35,267 Tell me, good Brutus... 108 00:06:36,276 --> 00:06:38,608 can you see your face? 109 00:06:39,279 --> 00:06:42,942 No; for the eye sees not itself but by reflection... 110 00:06:43,616 --> 00:06:45,607 by some other things. 111 00:06:45,952 --> 00:06:47,943 'Tisjust... 112 00:06:48,288 --> 00:06:53,191 And it is very much lamented, Brutus, that you have so such mirrors... 113 00:06:53,293 --> 00:06:57,286 as will turn your hidden worthiness into you eye... 114 00:06:57,630 --> 00:07:00,292 that you might see your shadow. 115 00:07:02,235 --> 00:07:03,896 I have heard... 116 00:07:04,237 --> 00:07:06,899 where many of the best respect in Rome... 117 00:07:07,574 --> 00:07:10,907 except immortal Caesar... 118 00:07:11,911 --> 00:07:16,905 speaking of Brutus, and groaning underneath this age's yoke... 119 00:07:17,584 --> 00:07:21,247 have wished that noble Brutus had his eyes. 120 00:07:23,590 --> 00:07:26,491 Into what dangers would you lead me, Cassius... 121 00:07:26,593 --> 00:07:31,587 that you would have me seek into myself for that which is not in me? 122 00:07:32,599 --> 00:07:37,263 Therefore, good Brutus, be prepared to hear. 123 00:07:37,604 --> 00:07:41,836 And since you know you cannot see yourself so well as by reflection... 124 00:07:41,941 --> 00:07:46,275 I, your glass... 125 00:07:47,280 --> 00:07:50,272 will modestly discover to yourself... 126 00:07:50,784 --> 00:07:56,120 that of yourself which you yet know not of. 127 00:07:58,792 --> 00:08:00,384 What motivates Cassius? 128 00:08:00,727 --> 00:08:02,957 In contrast to Brutus, his brother-in-law... 129 00:08:03,062 --> 00:08:06,293 Caius Cassius, ostensibly has very clear cut reasons... 130 00:08:06,399 --> 00:08:10,062 for wishing Caesar assassinated. Or does he? 131 00:08:10,737 --> 00:08:13,069 His relationship with the emperor is an unhappy one... 132 00:08:13,406 --> 00:08:15,636 but it is not easy to separate his personal enmity... 133 00:08:15,742 --> 00:08:18,973 from his deep founded belief in republican sentiments. 134 00:08:19,078 --> 00:08:21,410 So what is his motivation for the murder? 135 00:08:21,748 --> 00:08:23,978 Cassius is the prime mover of events... 136 00:08:24,083 --> 00:08:26,074 and the investigation of his character... 137 00:08:26,252 --> 00:08:30,245 is essential to the understanding of why Caesar was destined to die. 138 00:08:30,423 --> 00:08:34,086 I think Cassius is a very passionate man actually. 139 00:08:35,094 --> 00:08:39,326 Much less of a man of principle... 140 00:08:39,432 --> 00:08:42,765 than Brutus is or thinks he is anyway. 141 00:08:46,439 --> 00:08:50,432 'Caesar loves Brutus', says Cassius at the end of his attempts... 142 00:08:50,777 --> 00:08:53,769 to bring Brutus into the conspiracy. 143 00:08:54,447 --> 00:08:56,677 'Caesar loves Brutus... 144 00:08:56,783 --> 00:09:00,378 if he were Cassius now and I were Brutus... 145 00:09:00,720 --> 00:09:03,280 he would not humor me'. 146 00:09:03,389 --> 00:09:06,290 If he were loved by Caesar... 147 00:09:06,392 --> 00:09:09,953 I don't think Cassius would be talking Republicanism. 148 00:09:10,063 --> 00:09:12,623 Cassius is an emotive figure. 149 00:09:12,732 --> 00:09:14,962 He is somebody who gets things going. 150 00:09:15,068 --> 00:09:18,731 He is more active than Brutus. Brutus has to be acted upon... 151 00:09:19,072 --> 00:09:24,977 Cassius acts but whether he acts for good motives is more disputable. 152 00:09:25,078 --> 00:09:28,070 Cassius is more obviously a self-seeking figure. 153 00:09:28,414 --> 00:09:32,316 He is more obviously ambitious to be in with the main party. 154 00:09:32,418 --> 00:09:36,320 So I feel that Cassius acts more out of... 155 00:09:36,422 --> 00:09:40,756 the desire for self aggrandizement than Brutus does for example. 156 00:09:40,927 --> 00:09:43,919 I do fear the people chose Caesar for their king. 157 00:09:44,264 --> 00:09:47,256 Ay, do you fear it? 158 00:09:47,600 --> 00:09:49,932 Then must I think you would not have it so. 159 00:09:50,270 --> 00:09:54,263 I would not; yet I love him well. 160 00:09:55,108 --> 00:09:58,669 But wherefore do you hold me? What is it that you would impart to me? 161 00:09:58,778 --> 00:10:00,678 If it be aught toward the general good... 162 00:10:00,780 --> 00:10:02,111 set honour in one eye, and death i'th'other... 163 00:10:02,282 --> 00:10:04,273 and I will look on both indifferently. 164 00:10:05,451 --> 00:10:08,011 For the love of gods so speed me... 165 00:10:08,121 --> 00:10:12,114 as I do love the name of honour more than I fear death. 166 00:10:12,792 --> 00:10:15,454 I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus... 167 00:10:16,462 --> 00:10:19,454 as well as I do know your outward favour. 168 00:10:21,134 --> 00:10:25,696 I was born free as Caesar, so were you: 169 00:10:25,805 --> 00:10:27,796 We both have fed as well... 170 00:10:28,808 --> 00:10:32,471 and we can both endure the Winter's cold as well as he. 171 00:10:33,813 --> 00:10:38,147 Once, upon a raw and gusty day... 172 00:10:38,484 --> 00:10:41,146 the troubled Tiber chafing with her shores... 173 00:10:42,155 --> 00:10:44,487 Said Caesar to me... 174 00:10:44,991 --> 00:10:48,324 'Dar'st thou, Cassius... 175 00:10:48,828 --> 00:10:51,388 now leap in with me into this angry flood... 176 00:10:51,497 --> 00:10:53,488 and swim to yonder point? ' 177 00:10:55,335 --> 00:10:57,565 Upon the word, accoutred as I was... 178 00:10:57,670 --> 00:11:00,605 I plunged in and bade him follow. 179 00:11:01,274 --> 00:11:03,265 So indeed he did. 180 00:11:04,610 --> 00:11:08,603 The torrent roared, and we did buffet it with lusty sinews... 181 00:11:09,282 --> 00:11:13,946 throwing it aside spinning with hearts of controversy. 182 00:11:15,621 --> 00:11:19,955 But ere we could arrive the point proposed... 183 00:11:20,960 --> 00:11:27,627 Caesar cried, 'Help me, Cassius, or I sink! ' 184 00:11:30,136 --> 00:11:33,037 I, as Aeneas, our great ancestor... 185 00:11:33,139 --> 00:11:35,471 did from the Flames of Troy, upon his shoulder... 186 00:11:35,808 --> 00:11:40,802 the old Anchyses beare, so, from the waves of Tyber... 187 00:11:41,147 --> 00:11:44,480 Did I the tired Caesar. 188 00:11:48,488 --> 00:11:51,150 And this man... 189 00:11:51,824 --> 00:11:55,487 is now become a god... 190 00:11:56,829 --> 00:11:59,059 And Cassius... 191 00:11:59,165 --> 00:12:03,101 is a wretched creature, and must bend his body... 192 00:12:03,436 --> 00:12:07,770 if Caesar carelessly but nod on him. 193 00:12:09,942 --> 00:12:13,503 The play focuses upon thejudicial magistrate Marcus Brutus... 194 00:12:13,613 --> 00:12:16,605 and it is through him that Shakespeare explores thejourney of a man... 195 00:12:16,949 --> 00:12:19,611 who becomes the victim of his own idealism. 196 00:12:19,952 --> 00:12:23,945 Does that idealism make him a noble or simply one open to self delusion? 197 00:12:24,290 --> 00:12:25,848 It is an issue which is shared by others... 198 00:12:25,958 --> 00:12:28,620 and it is central to the inner conflicts which wrack... 199 00:12:28,795 --> 00:12:32,458 '... the noblest Roman of them all', as Mark Antony describes him. 200 00:12:32,965 --> 00:12:38,961 Brutus of course is a noble man in private life. 201 00:12:39,305 --> 00:12:42,968 His life was gentle and the elements so mixed in him... 202 00:12:43,309 --> 00:12:46,972 that nature might stand up and say to all the world... 203 00:12:47,313 --> 00:12:50,874 this was a man from his enemy. Of course it is easy to be nice... 204 00:12:50,983 --> 00:12:52,883 about people when you havejust bumped them off... 205 00:12:52,985 --> 00:12:56,546 but I think we need to take that at its face value... 206 00:12:56,656 --> 00:13:01,150 as a description of a man who has lived well, presumably... 207 00:13:01,260 --> 00:13:03,592 before the play began, who has... 208 00:13:03,930 --> 00:13:06,922 admirable personal relationships with the people around... 209 00:13:07,266 --> 00:13:09,257 he is immensely admired... 210 00:13:09,602 --> 00:13:13,595 but who when he moves into the public arena of politics... 211 00:13:13,940 --> 00:13:15,840 is utterly hopeless. 212 00:13:15,942 --> 00:13:19,935 There is a sense in which Brutus is the main character of the play. 213 00:13:20,279 --> 00:13:23,942 It is an odd thing about this play that it has the title of Julius Caesar... 214 00:13:24,283 --> 00:13:26,615 it's called the "Tragedy of Julius Caesar" indeed... 215 00:13:26,786 --> 00:13:29,346 and yet Julius Caesar is killed half way through the play... 216 00:13:29,455 --> 00:13:34,119 and Brutus remains the focus of attention... 217 00:13:34,460 --> 00:13:37,020 from very early on in the play until the very end. 218 00:13:37,130 --> 00:13:41,362 And many people in the play regard Brutus as a very good man... 219 00:13:41,467 --> 00:13:44,800 and his reputation for goodness, I think, is one of the reasons... 220 00:13:45,138 --> 00:13:48,801 why the other conspirators want him at the center of the conspiracy. 221 00:13:49,142 --> 00:13:52,805 They feel that if he is known to be supporting the conspiracy... 222 00:13:53,146 --> 00:13:56,377 then this would give validity to their actions... 223 00:13:56,482 --> 00:13:58,814 it would help tojustify what they are doing... 224 00:13:58,985 --> 00:14:00,816 in the eyes of the people of Rome. 225 00:14:00,920 --> 00:14:02,251 Do we trouble you? 226 00:14:02,588 --> 00:14:04,920 I have been up this hour, awake all night. 227 00:14:05,591 --> 00:14:07,149 Know I these men that come along with you? 228 00:14:07,260 --> 00:14:09,251 Yes, every man of them: 229 00:14:09,595 --> 00:14:11,927 and no man here but honours you... 230 00:14:12,265 --> 00:14:16,258 and every one doth wish you had but that opinion of yourself... 231 00:14:16,602 --> 00:14:20,265 which every noble Roman bears of you. 232 00:14:22,108 --> 00:14:25,100 - This is Trebonius. - He is welcome hither. 233 00:14:25,444 --> 00:14:28,004 - This, Decius Brutus. - He is welcome too. 234 00:14:28,114 --> 00:14:31,447 This, Cascar Cinna, this: 235 00:14:31,784 --> 00:14:35,777 - and this, Metellus Cimber. - They are all welcome. 236 00:14:36,122 --> 00:14:38,454 Give me your hands all over, one by one. 237 00:14:38,791 --> 00:14:41,783 - And let us swear our resolution. - No, not an oath. 238 00:14:42,461 --> 00:14:44,122 If these, as I am sure they do... 239 00:14:44,463 --> 00:14:46,454 bear fire enough to kindle cowards... 240 00:14:47,466 --> 00:14:50,128 and to steel with valour the melting spirits of women... 241 00:14:50,469 --> 00:14:54,030 then, countrymen. What need we any spur but our own cause... 242 00:14:54,140 --> 00:14:55,801 to prick us to redress? 243 00:14:58,477 --> 00:15:01,071 Do not stain the even virtue of our enterprise... 244 00:15:01,747 --> 00:15:04,307 nor th' insuppressive mettle of our spirits... 245 00:15:04,417 --> 00:15:08,410 To think that or our cause or our performance did need an oath... 246 00:15:09,088 --> 00:15:13,650 when every drop of blood that every Roman bears... 247 00:15:13,759 --> 00:15:17,422 and nobly bears. Is guilty of a several bastardy... 248 00:15:17,763 --> 00:15:20,425 if he betrayal the smallest particle... 249 00:15:20,766 --> 00:15:22,996 of any promise that hath passed from him. 250 00:15:23,102 --> 00:15:27,004 Shall no man else be touched, but only Casear? 251 00:15:27,106 --> 00:15:29,097 Decius, well urged. 252 00:15:29,442 --> 00:15:35,347 I think it is not meet Mark Antony, so well beloved of Caesar. 253 00:15:35,448 --> 00:15:41,011 Should outlive Caesar. We shall find of him a shrewd contriver. 254 00:15:41,120 --> 00:15:45,352 Let Antony and Caesar fall together. 255 00:15:45,458 --> 00:15:47,688 Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius... 256 00:15:47,793 --> 00:15:49,454 to cut the head off and then hack the limbs... 257 00:15:49,795 --> 00:15:51,786 like wrath in death and envy afterwards... 258 00:15:52,131 --> 00:15:55,123 for Antony is but a limb of Caesar's. 259 00:15:57,136 --> 00:16:00,128 Let's be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius. 260 00:16:00,740 --> 00:16:04,403 We all stand up against the spirit of Caesar. 261 00:16:04,744 --> 00:16:07,076 But in men's spirit there is no blood. 262 00:16:07,413 --> 00:16:09,643 O, that we then could come by Caesar's spirits... 263 00:16:09,749 --> 00:16:12,081 and not dismember Caesar! 264 00:16:12,752 --> 00:16:15,084 But alas, Caesar must bleed for it. 265 00:16:16,422 --> 00:16:21,086 And, gentle friends, let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully. 266 00:16:21,260 --> 00:16:23,251 Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods... 267 00:16:23,596 --> 00:16:26,258 Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds. 268 00:16:27,600 --> 00:16:30,262 We shall be called purgers, not murderers. 269 00:16:30,603 --> 00:16:33,936 And for Mark Antony, think not of him... 270 00:16:34,607 --> 00:16:38,509 For he is no more than Caesar's arm when Caesar's head is off. 271 00:16:38,611 --> 00:16:41,603 Yet I fear him. 272 00:16:41,947 --> 00:16:43,278 For in the engrafted love... 273 00:16:43,449 --> 00:16:45,781 Alas, good Cassius, do not think of him. 274 00:16:46,786 --> 00:16:50,449 If he love Caesar, all that he can do is to himself... 275 00:16:50,790 --> 00:16:53,122 take thought, and die for Caesar. 276 00:16:54,126 --> 00:16:56,117 And for that much he should... 277 00:16:56,462 --> 00:17:00,956 for he is given to sports, to wildness, and much company. 278 00:17:01,067 --> 00:17:04,400 There is no fear in him. Let him not die... 279 00:17:05,237 --> 00:17:07,899 For he will live, and laugh at this hereafter. 280 00:17:08,074 --> 00:17:11,066 Peace, count the clock. 281 00:17:12,578 --> 00:17:16,241 - The clock hath stricken three. - Tis time to part. 282 00:17:16,916 --> 00:17:21,580 But it is doubtful yet. Whether Caesar will come forth today or no; 283 00:17:22,588 --> 00:17:25,250 For he is superstitious grown of late... 284 00:17:26,592 --> 00:17:29,584 it may be these apparent prodigies... 285 00:17:29,929 --> 00:17:32,261 the unaccussomed terror of this night... 286 00:17:32,598 --> 00:17:37,262 and the persuasion of his augurers may hold him from the Capitol today. 287 00:17:37,603 --> 00:17:40,595 Never fear that. If he be so resolved... 288 00:17:40,773 --> 00:17:43,435 I shall o'ersway him; Let me work... 289 00:17:44,443 --> 00:17:47,776 for I shall give his humour the true bent... 290 00:17:48,114 --> 00:17:50,446 and I will bring him to the Capitol. 291 00:17:51,283 --> 00:17:52,944 Nay... 292 00:17:53,285 --> 00:17:57,949 we will all of us be there to fetch him. 293 00:18:04,063 --> 00:18:06,054 The morning comes upon's. 294 00:18:06,732 --> 00:18:09,394 We'll leave you, Brutus. And, friends... 295 00:18:09,735 --> 00:18:14,399 disperse yourselves but all remember what you have said... 296 00:18:15,074 --> 00:18:20,979 - and show yourselves true Romans. - Good gentlemen, look fresh and merrily. 297 00:18:21,080 --> 00:18:23,742 Let not our looks put on our purposes; 298 00:18:24,417 --> 00:18:26,408 But bear it as our Roman actors do... 299 00:18:26,752 --> 00:18:29,084 with untired spirits and formal constancy. 300 00:18:30,423 --> 00:18:34,086 And so good morrow to you every one. 301 00:18:35,428 --> 00:18:40,764 Brutus tries to turn a murder into an elegant sacrifice. 302 00:18:41,100 --> 00:18:44,092 'Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods... 303 00:18:44,437 --> 00:18:47,668 not as a carcass fit for hounds'. 304 00:18:47,773 --> 00:18:50,674 You can't do that when you have got somebody... 305 00:18:50,776 --> 00:18:55,770 to kill with energy and ferocity. 306 00:18:56,782 --> 00:19:02,379 The image later in the play is of the conspirators as hounds around Caesar. 307 00:19:02,721 --> 00:19:05,053 'Here wast thou bade brave heart... 308 00:19:05,391 --> 00:19:07,621 here didst thou fall', says Antony. 309 00:19:07,726 --> 00:19:12,720 The image of the stag hunting with the hounds round the bloody corpse. 310 00:19:15,067 --> 00:19:20,403 That seems to me to be a piece of serious self-delusion on Brutus' part. 311 00:19:20,739 --> 00:19:26,735 Also he tries after the killing... 312 00:19:27,079 --> 00:19:30,412 when the blood is running on the floor of the stage... 313 00:19:30,749 --> 00:19:33,081 again to create ritual out of it. 314 00:19:33,419 --> 00:19:37,321 'Stoop Roman stoop and dip your hands in Caesar's blood'. 315 00:19:37,423 --> 00:19:40,324 Brutus is forced into... 316 00:19:40,426 --> 00:19:44,988 justifying the murder of Caesar not because of what Caesar has done... 317 00:19:45,097 --> 00:19:47,088 because of what he might do. 318 00:19:47,266 --> 00:19:50,258 Now this is pretty dicey, isn't it? To kill somebody... 319 00:19:50,603 --> 00:19:54,505 in case they do something that you fear that they might do. 320 00:19:54,607 --> 00:19:57,508 What if they wouldn't have done that you have to say... 321 00:19:57,610 --> 00:20:00,841 is pretty hard luck on anybody: to be assassinated... 322 00:20:00,946 --> 00:20:03,847 on the grounds that they might possibly become... 323 00:20:03,949 --> 00:20:07,942 the sort of person Brutus fears Caesar will become. 324 00:20:09,121 --> 00:20:12,454 I wish your enterprise today may thrive. 325 00:20:13,125 --> 00:20:15,787 What enterprise, Popillius? 326 00:20:18,130 --> 00:20:20,462 Fare you well. 327 00:20:22,801 --> 00:20:24,792 What said Popillius Laena? 328 00:20:25,471 --> 00:20:29,134 He wished today our enterprise might thrive. 329 00:20:30,142 --> 00:20:32,042 I fear our purpose is discovered. 330 00:20:32,144 --> 00:20:34,476 Look how he makes to Caesar. Mark him. 331 00:20:34,813 --> 00:20:38,476 Casca, be sudden, for we fear prevention. 332 00:20:40,152 --> 00:20:42,484 Brutus, what shall be done? 333 00:20:42,821 --> 00:20:46,814 If this be known, Cassius or Caesar never shall turn back... 334 00:20:47,159 --> 00:20:50,151 - for I will slay myself. - Cassius, be constant. 335 00:20:50,496 --> 00:20:53,158 Popillius Laena speaks not of our purposes, for look... 336 00:20:53,332 --> 00:20:55,994 he smiles, and Caesar doth not change. 337 00:20:56,168 --> 00:20:59,160 Trebonius knows his time, look you, Brutus... 338 00:20:59,672 --> 00:21:02,266 He draws Mark Antony out of the way. 339 00:21:03,943 --> 00:21:05,934 Where is Metellus Cimber? 340 00:21:08,280 --> 00:21:10,271 Let him go. 341 00:21:11,283 --> 00:21:14,616 And presently prefer his suit to Caesar. 342 00:21:16,622 --> 00:21:18,954 He is addressed. Press near, and second him. 343 00:21:21,293 --> 00:21:23,284 Are we all ready? 344 00:21:23,963 --> 00:21:28,957 What is now amiss that Caesar and his Senate must redress? 345 00:21:29,635 --> 00:21:35,301 Most high, most mighty, and most puissant Caesar... 346 00:21:35,975 --> 00:21:38,967 Metellus Cimber casts before thy seat... 347 00:21:39,311 --> 00:21:40,972 an humble heart. 348 00:21:41,647 --> 00:21:43,979 I must prevent thee, Cimber. 349 00:21:44,316 --> 00:21:48,309 Be not fond to think that Caesar bears such rebel blood... 350 00:21:48,654 --> 00:21:53,318 that will thawed from the true quality with that which melteth fools: 351 00:21:53,993 --> 00:21:58,555 I mean sweet words. Low-crooked curtsies... 352 00:21:58,664 --> 00:22:01,258 and base spaniel fawning. 353 00:22:01,934 --> 00:22:04,266 Thy brother by decree was banished. 354 00:22:04,603 --> 00:22:07,504 If thou dost bend and pray and fawn for him... 355 00:22:07,606 --> 00:22:10,598 I spurn thee like a cur out of my way. 356 00:22:11,610 --> 00:22:14,943 Know Caesar both not wrong but with just cause. 357 00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:18,511 Nor without cause will he be satisfied. 358 00:22:18,617 --> 00:22:21,609 Is there no voice more worthy than my own... 359 00:22:21,954 --> 00:22:25,617 to sound more sweetly in great Caesar's ear... 360 00:22:25,958 --> 00:22:29,291 for repealing of my banished brother? 361 00:22:34,299 --> 00:22:37,200 I kiss thy hand, but not in flattery, Caesar... 362 00:22:37,302 --> 00:22:41,204 desiring thee that Publius Cimber may have immediate freedom of repeal... 363 00:22:41,306 --> 00:22:44,969 - What? Brutus... - Pardon, Caesar; 364 00:22:46,145 --> 00:22:48,136 Caesar, pardon. 365 00:22:49,648 --> 00:22:53,311 As low as to thy foot doth Cassius fall... 366 00:22:53,652 --> 00:22:58,646 to beg enfranchisement for Publius Cimber. 367 00:22:59,992 --> 00:23:02,483 I could be well moved, if I were as you: 368 00:23:02,594 --> 00:23:06,257 If I could pray to move, prayers would move me. 369 00:23:06,598 --> 00:23:08,828 But I am Constant as the Northern Star... 370 00:23:08,934 --> 00:23:13,928 of whose true fixed and resting quality there is no fellow in the firmament. 371 00:23:14,273 --> 00:23:16,503 But I was constant Cimber should be banished... 372 00:23:16,608 --> 00:23:18,599 and constant do remain to keep him so. 373 00:23:18,777 --> 00:23:20,438 - O Caesar. - Hence! 374 00:23:20,946 --> 00:23:24,177 - Wilt thou lift up Olympus? - Great Caesar... 375 00:23:24,283 --> 00:23:26,615 Doth not Brutus bootless kneel? 376 00:23:26,952 --> 00:23:29,284 Speak, hands for me! 377 00:23:33,125 --> 00:23:38,791 Et Tu, Brute? Then fall Caesar. 378 00:23:39,465 --> 00:23:41,797 Liberty! Freedom! 379 00:23:42,134 --> 00:23:43,692 Tyranny is dead! 380 00:23:43,802 --> 00:23:46,794 At the very heart, at the very center of the play... 381 00:23:46,972 --> 00:23:50,874 is the killing of the head of the state... 382 00:23:50,976 --> 00:23:55,310 but the killing of an older man, by eight younger men. 383 00:23:55,481 --> 00:23:57,039 The extraordinary mutilation in the play... 384 00:23:57,149 --> 00:24:00,414 their daggers hacking each other in the sides of Caesar... 385 00:24:00,753 --> 00:24:04,985 the blades of the daggers are actually scraping against each other... 386 00:24:05,090 --> 00:24:07,422 while they are inside Caesar's body. 387 00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:10,661 That's the central episode of the play... 388 00:24:10,763 --> 00:24:14,426 but it's also a political act of far reaching consequences. 389 00:24:14,767 --> 00:24:17,668 Immediately it's over, they try to ritualize it. 390 00:24:17,770 --> 00:24:20,432 The stage is running with blood, it's got to be... 391 00:24:20,773 --> 00:24:25,335 they bathe their hands in it and then talk of ages hence... 392 00:24:25,444 --> 00:24:29,437 this moment being re-enacted as a piece of theatre... 393 00:24:29,782 --> 00:24:31,773 and it has been for us with Shakespeare's play... 394 00:24:32,117 --> 00:24:35,109 but also this is an archetypal political assassination. 395 00:24:35,454 --> 00:24:38,355 We will solve a political problem by killing the head of state. 396 00:24:38,457 --> 00:24:40,357 Just as we feel that justice has been done... 397 00:24:40,459 --> 00:24:43,121 Shakespeare presents the audience with another dilemma. 398 00:24:43,462 --> 00:24:47,364 The crowd sways one way by Brutus, then violently the other by Antony. 399 00:24:47,466 --> 00:24:50,799 If you were listening to the great oratory of Brutus and Mark Antony... 400 00:24:51,136 --> 00:24:54,037 following the murder of Caesar, which would you believe? 401 00:24:54,139 --> 00:24:56,130 Are these rhetorical speeches effective? 402 00:24:56,475 --> 00:24:59,035 I think the rhetoric is at the heart of Julius Caesar. 403 00:24:59,144 --> 00:25:02,739 It is terribly important the fact that not only the crowd... 404 00:25:02,915 --> 00:25:05,907 but the audience too are swayed by the rhetoric... 405 00:25:06,251 --> 00:25:11,245 that to some extent Brutus but to a greater extent Mark Antony employed. 406 00:25:11,590 --> 00:25:13,490 Now Shakespeare is clever about this... 407 00:25:13,592 --> 00:25:17,926 he gives Brutus the speech to the crowd after Julius Caesar's death... 408 00:25:18,096 --> 00:25:20,758 he gives him the first speech. It's a good speech... 409 00:25:21,099 --> 00:25:24,000 but it's a prose speech rather than a verse one. 410 00:25:24,102 --> 00:25:26,093 It sways the crowds for a while... 411 00:25:26,271 --> 00:25:29,934 but Shakespeare himself keeps in reserve Mark Antony. 412 00:25:30,108 --> 00:25:33,100 One of the greatest mistakes that Brutus makes in the play... 413 00:25:33,278 --> 00:25:37,180 is to allow Mark Antony to speak after Brutus. 414 00:25:37,282 --> 00:25:40,615 Brutus ought to have let Mark Antony speak first... 415 00:25:40,786 --> 00:25:43,687 and then he would have known what he had to get... 416 00:25:43,789 --> 00:25:48,453 to stand up against, what he had to compete with. 417 00:25:48,794 --> 00:25:51,024 Now Antony is an absolutely brilliant speaker... 418 00:25:51,129 --> 00:25:53,029 which is another way of saying that Shakespeare... 419 00:25:53,131 --> 00:25:58,125 is an absolutely brilliant creator of rhetoric and of rhetorical speeches... 420 00:25:58,470 --> 00:26:00,631 and it always seems to me that the most attractive... 421 00:26:00,739 --> 00:26:03,401 the most theatrically and dramatically effective... 422 00:26:03,742 --> 00:26:08,975 aspects of this play are the scene in which Mark Antony sways the crowd... 423 00:26:09,081 --> 00:26:13,415 and brings them round to oppose Brutus... 424 00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:18,583 by appealing to their sentiments about the dead Caesar. 425 00:26:24,763 --> 00:26:27,755 Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. 426 00:26:30,769 --> 00:26:34,102 I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. 427 00:26:35,107 --> 00:26:39,339 The evil that men do lives after them; Good is oft interred with their bones. 428 00:26:39,444 --> 00:26:42,106 So let it be with Caesar. 429 00:26:43,115 --> 00:26:47,108 The noble Brutus hath told you Caesar was ambitious. 430 00:26:48,453 --> 00:26:51,115 If it were so, it was a grievous fault... 431 00:26:52,124 --> 00:26:55,116 and grievously hath Caesar answered it. 432 00:26:56,628 --> 00:27:00,462 Here, under leave of Brutus and rest for Brutus is an honourable man. 433 00:27:00,565 --> 00:27:03,557 So are they all, all honourable man... 434 00:27:03,735 --> 00:27:07,068 Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral. 435 00:27:08,907 --> 00:27:10,568 He was my friend... 436 00:27:11,910 --> 00:27:14,572 faithful and just to me. 437 00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:17,981 But Brutus says he was ambitious... 438 00:27:18,083 --> 00:27:21,075 and Brutus is an honourable man. 439 00:27:22,254 --> 00:27:25,917 He hath brought many captives home to Rome... 440 00:27:26,258 --> 00:27:29,250 whose ransoms did the general coffers fill. 441 00:27:29,594 --> 00:27:32,586 Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? 442 00:27:32,931 --> 00:27:36,594 When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept. 443 00:27:37,602 --> 00:27:40,594 Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. 444 00:27:42,441 --> 00:27:46,775 Yet Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honourable man. 445 00:27:50,449 --> 00:27:52,679 You all did see... 446 00:27:52,784 --> 00:27:56,345 that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him a kingly crown... 447 00:27:56,455 --> 00:28:02,394 which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition? 448 00:28:02,728 --> 00:28:08,064 Yet Brutus says he was ambitious, and sure he is an honourable man. 449 00:28:11,403 --> 00:28:16,397 I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke... 450 00:28:17,409 --> 00:28:21,743 but here I am to speak what I do know. 451 00:28:22,414 --> 00:28:27,750 You all did love him once, not without cause. 452 00:28:28,420 --> 00:28:32,083 What cause withholds you then to mourn for him? 453 00:28:33,091 --> 00:28:37,755 O judgement, thou art fled to brutish beasts... 454 00:28:38,430 --> 00:28:40,660 and men have lost their reason! 455 00:28:40,766 --> 00:28:43,428 Brutus, when they are planning the murder... 456 00:28:44,102 --> 00:28:46,662 talks about coming by Caesar's spirit... 457 00:28:46,772 --> 00:28:49,764 'oh that we could come by Caesar's spirit... 458 00:28:51,109 --> 00:28:56,103 without killing him but alas Caesar must bleed for it'. 459 00:28:57,115 --> 00:28:59,777 He would like to kill Caesar's spirit but let his body live on. 460 00:29:00,118 --> 00:29:02,712 In fact precisely the reverse happens... 461 00:29:03,055 --> 00:29:07,048 and they kill Caesar's body and his spirit lives on. 462 00:29:09,061 --> 00:29:13,725 Antony from the very corpse after the assassination releases the spirit... 463 00:29:14,066 --> 00:29:18,298 Caesar's the spirit thirsting for revenge with Arty by his side. 464 00:29:18,403 --> 00:29:22,737 He is released to haunt the core of the Republic. 465 00:29:23,408 --> 00:29:26,400 Good boy, good night. 466 00:29:27,412 --> 00:29:30,074 Let me see. Let me see. 467 00:29:31,249 --> 00:29:33,240 Is not the leaf turned down where I left reading? 468 00:29:36,088 --> 00:29:38,079 Here it is, I think. 469 00:29:38,590 --> 00:29:41,923 How ill this taper burns! 470 00:29:43,095 --> 00:29:45,427 Ha! Who comes here? 471 00:29:46,098 --> 00:29:50,432 I think it is the weakness in my eyes that shapes this monstrous apparition. 472 00:29:50,769 --> 00:29:52,760 It comes upon me. 473 00:29:53,438 --> 00:29:57,101 Art thou any thing? Art thou some god, some angel... 474 00:29:57,442 --> 00:30:02,106 or some devil, that mak'st my blood cold and my hair to stare? 475 00:30:02,781 --> 00:30:08,447 - Speak to me what thou art. - Thy evil spirit, Brutus. 476 00:30:08,787 --> 00:30:15,784 - Why com'st thou? - Thou shalt see me at Philippi. 477 00:30:16,461 --> 00:30:18,793 Well; then I shall see thee again? 478 00:30:18,964 --> 00:30:21,956 Ay, at Philippi. 479 00:30:22,467 --> 00:30:26,130 Why, I will see thee at Philippi then. 480 00:30:26,972 --> 00:30:29,964 Now I have made my heart strong, thou vanishest... 481 00:30:31,309 --> 00:30:34,642 I'll spirit, I would hold more words with thee. 482 00:30:34,980 --> 00:30:37,312 Julius Caesar is a play about Roman history... 483 00:30:37,649 --> 00:30:41,551 just as the English history plays are about the history of England. 484 00:30:41,653 --> 00:30:44,884 But of course, the play ends as some of the English history plays do... 485 00:30:44,990 --> 00:30:46,548 in multiple deaths. 486 00:30:46,658 --> 00:30:51,220 To that extent it is a tragic play. It isn't a single tragedy... 487 00:30:51,329 --> 00:30:56,562 it isn't a one man tragedy as one might say Macbeth is, or King Lear is... 488 00:30:56,668 --> 00:30:59,660 or Hamlet, but nevertheless... 489 00:31:00,005 --> 00:31:02,838 if one had to choose a single figure of the play as a tragic hero... 490 00:31:02,941 --> 00:31:05,603 it certainly wouldn't be Caesar. Caesar is... 491 00:31:05,944 --> 00:31:08,936 the center of the play up until the end of Act III... 492 00:31:09,281 --> 00:31:11,841 but the figure whose story runs through the play... 493 00:31:11,950 --> 00:31:15,511 and whose death is the real emotional climax of the play is Brutus. 494 00:31:15,620 --> 00:31:19,181 So if this is a tragedy, it is not tragedy of Julius Caesar... 495 00:31:19,291 --> 00:31:21,623 it is of Marcus Brutus. 496 00:31:22,460 --> 00:31:24,121 O conspiracy... 497 00:31:24,462 --> 00:31:29,456 seeks thou to hide thy dangers brow by night when the evils are most free. 498 00:31:29,801 --> 00:31:31,462 O' then by day... 499 00:31:32,137 --> 00:31:37,131 when are they find the cabin dark enough to mask this monsterous visage.