Caesar takes no notice of this warning. Ah yes. things are going to go splendidly. Caesar also ignores artemidorus and his letter he spoke of in the last act because he is told it concerns himself and wants to show what a great man he is that he does'nt care about himself at all. OK I will admit that the role of Antony is starting to intrigue me very much... and the planneing to listen to brutus not to kill him but to get him out of the way. However, even in the death scene Caesar remains a dick... with pompous speeches.... do you think my irritation with government/congress in general right now is coloring my take on the play?
Again, brutus' justification taken from Cassius that by killing caesar they shortened his time of fearing death is really strange and flimsy. and then... the dipping their hands in the blood is so creepy to me and I get the we arent murderers we are liberators argument but STILL!
Antony is smart enough to send a servant before him with a lovely speech (I feel like this part could be a lot of fun) before coming to face the conspirators for himself. Antony's seeming fearlessness of death is quite lovely and his language is gorgeous. I'd be interested to see this scene with Antony being a bit naive and genuinely trusting that the conspirators knew something about his good friend he didn't and possibly really did have a reason to kill Caesar and is just not convinced by the end vs. Antony the brilliant politician playing his cards to stay alive/bring vengeance. Cassius, clearly the brains of the operation, does not like Antony's request to speak at Caesar's funeral one bit and warns brutus of this but Brutus is so confident he brushes Cassius aside (probably good or the play would be really short and end at this scene.)
This is a hefty scene with a ton of really excellent rhetoric and if I were teaching on rehtoric/focusing on that I would totally pick this scene to teach. but as for my personal reactions, aside from the rhetoric this scene is just a big old crowd sway in a less entertaining way than the Jack Cade back and forth (Can we PLEASE get to the Henry VI PLAYS?!?!?!?!?) Brutus wins the crowd over completely then Antony undoes all his good work (Side note: why the hell does brutus LEAVE and not listen to Antony?! Even if you had complete faith in his honor shouldn't you stay to hear what he says and how everyone reacts?! seriously. The scene ands with yet another servant delivering the information that Caesar has arrived. WITH LEPIDUS (TO LEPIDUS!!!!! find a more fun name to drunkenly scream than lepidus. you can't.)
3.3
This was one of the scenes that started changing my mind about the play. I was in it for a directing scene in my MFA program and my peer, Tony Tambasco, had some really strong and interesting ideas (only strengthened by the fact that the class was run by Giles Block, master of text at the globe and one of the most delightful people with whom you could ever have a cup of tea.) and the mob mentality of this scene is just brilliant and fierce and raw and harsh and I love it. again- I would really love someone to show me that this play as a whole is great because at the moment the sum of its parts seems a much better deal. Anyway basically the townspeople murder Cinna the poet instead of Cinna the conspirator. the artists never have a chance in these situations do they? :sigh: (side note, all this Cinna talk makes me want to go re-watch/read the hunger games...) and that's act 3. act 4. has lepidus. get excited.
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