Art and Culture Quotes - Julius Caesar | Julius Caesar- Summary, Themes & Characters - Novels PDF Download

CASCA

If the tag-rag people did not clap him and hiss him, according as he pleased and

displeased them, as they use to do the players in the  theater, I am no true man. 

[...]

Marry, before he fell down, when he perceived  the common herd was glad he refused the crown, 

he plucked me ope his doublet and offered them his throat to cut. An I had been a man of any occupation, 

if I would not have taken him at a word, I would I  might go to hell among the rogues. And so he fell. When he came to himself again, he said, if he  had done or said any thing amiss, he desired their worships to think it was his infirmity. (1.2.269-272; 274-282)

Here Casca describes Caesar's theatrical behavior in front of the adoring crowd.  After refusing Antony's offer of the crown three times, Caesar faints dramatically, and the crowd loves him all the more for it.  Casca suggests that when Caesar appears before his ollowers, he presents himself as an actor of politics, and the "tag-rag [common, or poor] people" respond to his theatrics like an enthusiastic audience at a playhouse. 

CASCA

And then he offered it the third time. He put it the 

third time by, and still as he refused it the rabblement 

hooted and clapped their chapped hands and 

threw up their sweaty nightcaps and uttered such a 

deal of stinking breath because Caesar refused the 

crown that it had almost choked Caesar, for he 

swooned and fell down at it. And for mine own part, 

I durst not laugh for fear of opening my lips and 

receiving the bad air. (1.2.253-261)

In the last passage, we pointed out how Casca knows that Caesar's dramatic refusal of the crown and fainting spell are just cheap tricks used to curry favor with the "hoot[ing]" and "clap[ing]" crowd.  Here Casca continues to describe Caesar's adoring crowd as though they were an audience watching a performance in an Elizabethan playhouse. 

In this passage, Shakespeare also seems to be making an inside joke when Casca refers to the loud audience's "stinking breath."  Crowded Elizabethan theaters were notoriously smelly places (there being no mouthwash or deodorant at the time).  Plus, Elizabethans thought the plague was contracted by breathing in strong odors like bad breath.  So when Casca says he was afraid to laugh at Caesar and the crowd because he didn't want to open his "lips" and breath in the "bad air," he's suggesting that 1) the crowd's bad breath might make him faint like Caesar and 2) he might catch the plague.  So basically, Casca is bagging on Caesar's rowdy crowd and Shakespeare is bagging on the theatergoers who pay to watch his plays at the same time.

CAESAR

[...] he loves no plays,

As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music;

Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort

As if he mock'd himself and scorn'd his spirit

That could be moved to smile at anything.

Such men as he be never at heart's ease

Whiles they behold a greater than themselves,

And therefore are they very dangerous. (1.2.213-220)

Oh snap! When Julius Caesar wants to insult Cassius, he hurls the worst insult ever – Cassius doesn't like "plays"!  (That's Shakespeare the playwright's way of saying that Cassius is a "dangerous" guy.)

BRUTUS

Good gentlemen, look fresh and merrily.

Let not our looks put on our purposes,

But bear it, as our Roman actors do,

With untired spirits and formal constancy: (2.1.243-246)

Brutus is pretty crafty here, don't you think? He urges the conspirators to pretend everything is hunky dory so nobody will catch on to their secret plot to assassinate Caesar.  What's interesting is that when Brutus tells the plotters to behave like "actors," Shakespeare makes an explicit connection between stage acting and rebellion. 

Brain Snack: This connection between acting and rebellion is pretty provocative because government censors and officials were always worried that playhouses where large crowds gathered could potentially incite riots and acts of treason. This was even more of a concern if the play portrayed rebellion against a monarch or powerful political leader onstage, or if it used the stage as a political platform.

CAESAR

Caesar should be a beast without a heart

If he should stay at home to-day for fear.

No, Caesar shall not. Danger knows full well

That Caesar is more dangerous than he.

We are two lions littered in one day,

And I the elder and more terrible.

And Caesar shall go forth. (2.2.45-51)

Ever notice the way Julius Caesar likes to talk about himself in the third person? This is called "illeism," and it's pretty common in the play – Cassius and Brutus do it too. What's up with that?

In a book called Roman Shakespeare, literary critic Coppelia Kahn argues that when characters talk like this, it is "as though they are spectators and audience of themselves as public figures" (78). Sounds right to us, and we also might add that Caesar is a pretty admiring "audience" of himself.

According to Kahn, the repeated third person references are examples of the play's "public mode." In other words, Caesar, Brutus, and Cassius are very much aware of the public roles they play. We also know that these guys are pretty active when it comes to shaping and creating their public images.

Brain Snack: During the 1996 US presidential election campaign, candidate Bob Dole often referred to himself in the third person. (At one point, he said, "If you had to leave your children with Bob Dole or Bill Clinton, I think you'd probably leave them with Bob Dole" (source). Other famous "illeists" include Fez (That 70's Show), Elmo (Sesame Street), The Rock (actor Dwayne Johnson), and The Todd (Scrubs).

CASSIUS

[...]How many ages hence

Shall this our lofty scene be acted over

In states unborn and accents yet unknown! (3.1.124-126)

Cassius predicts how the actions of the conspirators against Julius Caesar will be "acted" out in future "states unborn and accents yet unknown."  This is Shakespeare's way of winking at the audience, who is watching this play centuries later, in a "state unborn" (16th century England), being performed in a language that didn't exist yet (English).  

CASSIUS

[Aside to Brutus] You know not what you do. Do not consent

That Antony speak in his funeral.

Know you how much the people may be moved

By that which he will utter? (3.1.255-259)

When Brutus grants Antony permission to speak at his friend Caesar's funeral, Cassius seems to be the only person who knows how dangerous Antony's speech will be.  As we know, Antony plays the crowd perfectly (just like Caesar did back in Act 1), and his delivery of a carefully crafted speech helps incite a civil war.

CINNA THE POET 

Truly, my name is Cinna.

FIRST PLEBEIAN 

Tear him to pieces! He's a conspirator.

CINNA THE POET 

I am Cinna the poet, I am Cinna the poet!

FOURTH PLEBEIAN

Tear him for his bad verses, tear him for his bad verses!

CINNA THE POET 

I am not Cinna the conspirator.

FOURTH PLEBEIAN

It is no matter. His name's Cinna. 

Pluck but his name out of his heart, and turn him 

going. (3.3.28-36)

Poets don't get any love in Julius Caesar, do they?  After Caesar is assassinated, chaos ensues on the streets of Rome and nobody is safe.  Here, Cinna the poet is mistaken for Cinna the conspirator, but even after he declares his true identity to the angry mob, he's ripped to shreds for his "bad verses."  Gee, is poet and playwright Will Shakespeare trying to tell us something?  Check out the quote below for more on this.

BRUTUS

Cassius, be content.

Speak your griefs softly. I do know you well.

Before the eyes of both our armies here

(Which should perceive nothing but love from us),

Let us not wrangle. Bid them move away.

Then in my tent, Cassius, enlarge your griefs,

And I will give you audience. (4.2.46-52)

Brutus knows how dangerous it is for him to argue with Cassius on what amounts to a public "stage."  Because he knows the troops are watching closely, he urges Cassius into the tent, where these two generals can hash out their differences in private.

Poet 

For shame, you generals, what do you mean?

Love and be friends as two such men should be,

For I have seen more years, I'm sure, than ye.

CASSIUS 

Ha, ha, how vilely doth this cynic rhyme!

BRUTUS 

Get you hence, sirrah! Saucy fellow, hence!

CASSIUS 

Bear with him, Brutus. 'Tis his fashion.

BRUTUS 

I'll know his humor, when he knows his time.

What should the wars do with these jigging fools?— 

Companion, hence!

CASSIUS 

Away, away, be gone! (4.3.149-158)

Now this is weird.  What the heck is a poet doing roaming around on a battlefield?  After Brutus and Cassius get into a heated argument, the poet shows up and urges the guys to "love, and be friends." Unfortunately, Brutus and Cassius assume that "jigging fools" don't have anything valuable to say about politics, warfare, or even friendship. But it seems pretty clear that Shakespeare (whose work was important enough that he gained royal patronage from King James I) disagrees.  If you want to know more, go to "Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory" and check out our discussion of "Poets and Teachers."