Read the extract from 'Julius Caesar' Act 3, Scene 1, given below and answer the questions that follow: Antony: Pardon me, Julius! Here wast thou bay'd, brave hart; Here didst thou fall; and here thy hunters stand, Sign'd in thy spoil, and crimson'd in thy lethe. O world, thou wast the forest to this hart; And this indeed, O world, the heart of thee. How like a deer, strucken by many princes, Dost thou here lie! Cassius: Mark Antony — Antony: Pardon me, Caius Cassius: The enemies of Caesar shall say this; Then, in a friend, it is cold modesty.
What request does Antony make to Brutus a little later in the scene? Who warns Brutus against granting this request? What reason does this person give for doing so? What does this tell us about this person’s character?
Topic: Act 3 Scene 1 — permission to speak
Answer
Antony requests permission to carry Caesar’s body to the market-place and to speak at his funeral from the pulpit, as befits a friend.
Cassius warns Brutus against granting it. He draws Brutus aside and tells him he does not know what he is doing.
His reason is that Antony is a skilled and moving speaker: the people will be stirred by his funeral oration, and there is no telling how far they may be roused against the conspirators.
It shows Cassius as shrewd, practical and a far better judge of men than Brutus. He is cautious and calculating where Brutus is idealistic, and he understands that politics is decided by feeling and not by reason — a judgement the rest of the play proves entirely correct.
Four tasks, 4 marks — take them in order and do not merge the last two. The character point is the high-value one: Cassius is usually read as the villain beside the noble Brutus, yet here he is right and Brutus is fatally wrong. A closing sentence noting that Brutus overrules him, and that this single decision loses the conspirators everything, shows genuine grasp of the play.