Trying Times…
Ah! Here, as promised, on the woefully neglected class log, is some help for the test on Monday for you Promelites and anyone else who may be looking.
First, a few sample quotations and responses from Act I. These are the same we looked at in class, and have no bearing on your upcoming test, except to serve as examples of what an identification answer looks like. Here we go:
Sample #1:
Poor man, I know he would not be a wolf
But that he sees the Romans are but sheep;
He were no lion, were not the Romans hinds.
Sample response:
Cassius is talking to Casca about Julius Caesar. He uses animal imagery here to help make his point that Caesar is powerful (a wolf and a lion) only because the Roman people are weak (sheep and hinds). This fits with Cassius’ usual arguments that Caesar is not fit to rule because he is weak.
Sample #2:
O he sits high in all the people’s hearts;
And that which would appear offense in us,
His countenance, like richest alchemy,
Will change to virtue and to worthiness.
Sample response:
Casca is speaking here, near the end of Act I, telling Cassius how important Brutus is to their cause. He says that, because of Brutus’ good reputation with the people, Brutus’ support on their side will be like ‘alchemy,’ changing their ugly crime into something noble. This quote shows us that the conspirators are using Brutus primarily for his good reputation, and nothing more.
…and here are actual quotes that will appear on Monday’s test:
But ‘tis a common proof
That lowliness is young ambition’s ladder,
Whereto the climber upward turns his face;
But when he once attains the upmost round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend. So Caesar may;
Then lest he may, prevent.. . . . .
Between the acting of a dreadful thing
And the first motion, all the interim is
Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream.
The genius and the mortal instruments
Are then in council, and the state of a man,
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then
The nature of an insurrection.. . . . .
O conspiracy,
Sham’st thou to show thy dang’rous brow by night,
When evils are most free? O, then by day
Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough
To mask thy monstrous visage?. . . . .
But do not stain
The even virtue of our enterprise,
Nor th’ insuppressive mettle of our spirits,
To think that or our cause or our performance
Did need an oath; when every drop of blood
That every Roman bears, and nobly bears,
Is guilty of a several bastardy
If he do break the smallest particle
Of any promise that hath passed from him.. . . . .
O, let us have him for his silver hairs
Will purchase us a good opinion,
And buy men’s voices to comment our deeds.
It shall be said his judgment ruled our hands;
Our youths and wildness shall no whit appear,
But all be buried in his gravity.. . . . .
We all stand up against the spirit of Caesar,
And in the spirit of men there is no blood.
O, that we then could come by Caesar’s spirit,
And not dismember Caesar! But alas,
Caesar must bleed for it.. . . . .
Set on your foot,
And with a heart new-fired I follow you,
To do I know not what; but it sufficeth
That Brutus leads me on.. . . . .
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear,
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.. . . . .
My heart laments that virtue cannot live
Out of the teeth of emulation.
There they are! Remember, you’ll only have to choose three of these to write about, along with one of the essay questions.
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