Saturday Mar 15, 2003
Friends, Romans, Countrymen
Julius Caesar, in Shakespeare’s play, does not heed the soothsayer’s now iconic and prophetic warning: Beware the ides of March, which, up until the bard penned that now famous line, had merely meant the 15th day of March on the calendar.
The play is ripe with omens. Why heed one omen and not another? Are you superstitious?
The play contains some of the most often quoted bits of biting dialog in Western literature. Here are a few that will certainly sound familiar.
”...but, for mine own
part, it was Greek to me.” —Casca
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.” —Cassius
“Et tu, Brute.” —Caesar
“Friend, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.” —Mark Anthony
“This [Brutus] was the noblest Roman of them all.” —Mark Anthony
Now go see the play, and read it, too.»
