Month: November 2015

Setting: a street in Rome 

Characters: artemidorus

Summary: artemidorus is reading a letter he has written to Caesar. In this letter he has said that Caesar should be carful when he sees these people Brutus, Cassius, casca, cinna, trebonius, metellus, Decius, and caius. He also sais that one of these men that will turn on you and kill you. 

‘o, pardon me…that I am meek and gentle with these butchers!’

I believe that in this quote from Antony’s soliloquy Antony is apologising to Caesars ghost. He is apologising because he is being way too gentle with the conspirators. He has already convinced the conspirators that he is one of them. Another interpretation of this could be that Antony is apologising because of the thing he will do next. So he could be saying forgive me but you can’t stop me from avenging your death.

‘Thou art the ruins of the noblest man that ever lived in the tides of times’

I believe that in this quote of Antony’s soliloquy he is saying here lies the remains of the noblest man that once live in the stream of history. Here he is being respectful to Caesar and is showing that he was a respected and good man but this had to happen to free all of the people of Rome. He continues to convince the conspirators that he is “one of them.”

“Which, like dumb mouths,do ope their ruby lips to beg the voice and utterance of my tongue”

I believe that in this quote he is saying that they are like clueless mouths, open their red lips, as though they want to beg me to speak. Here he is showing that he is not very happy that the conspirators had killed Caesar and now they want him to speak for them at the funeral.

“Cry ‘Havoc,’ and let slip the dogs of war; That this foul deed shall smell above the earth With carrion men, groaning for burial.”

I belive that this quote means that they will unleash the war dogs. This bad deed will make the sky stink with dead bodies that groan to be buried. He said this because he knows that now Caesar is dead they will take over and ruin the whole of Rome they will kill people that disagree with him and they won’t even bother to bury them.