Julius Caesar — Act III, Scene 1: The scene, retold in our own words

Foundation first: the language of the scene

Shakespeare's plays can be read in three layers: what is said, what is meant, and what the audience knows. In this scene the third layer is the richest, because we know the plot and the characters do not.

Quick check. "Speak, hands, for me!" is both an apostrophe and a personification. Why? Answer: Casca talks to his hands (apostrophe) and gives them the power to speak (personification).

How to read an extract in the exam. Ask four questions in order: Who is speaking? To whom? Where and when? What has just happened? Then explain the lines in your own words and add one short quotation. Almost every 3-mark question is answered by these four steps.

1. On the way into the Capitol

A crowd waits before the Capitol, among them Artemidorus and the Soothsayer. Caesar, in high spirits, sees the Soothsayer and says, "The ides of March are come" — meaning, "your warning has proved false; the day is here and I am safe." The Soothsayer quietly replies, "Ay, Caesar; but not gone" — the day is not yet over.

Artemidorus presses his written warning (his "schedule") on Caesar: "O Caesar, read mine first; for mine's a suit / That touches Caesar nearer." Decius Brutus distracts Caesar with Trebonius's petition. Caesar, playing the selfless ruler, replies: "What touches us ourself shall be last served." When Artemidorus insists, Caesar thinks him mad. Publius tells him to "give place", and Cassius rebukes him: "What, urge you your petitions in the street? / Come to the Capitol." Caesar never reads the warning — a striking piece of dramatic irony.

Why it matters. The Soothsayer and Artemidorus are Caesar's last two chances. Caesar's reply, "What touches us ourself shall be last served," sounds noble but is foolish. He uses the royal "us ourself", and the one paper that touches him most nearly goes unread. Pride, not stupidity, decides it: a ruler cannot be seen to push a street petitioner ahead of a senator. Publius tells Artemidorus to stand aside and Cassius cuts in, so the warning dies in the crowd.

2. Popilius Lena alarms Cassius

A senator, Popilius Lena, whispers to Cassius, "I wish your enterprise to-day may thrive," and then goes to speak with Caesar. Cassius panics: "I fear our purpose is discovered." He even swears that if the plot is known, "Cassius or Caesar never shall turn back, / For I will slay myself." Brutus stays calm: "Cassius, be constant: / Popilius Lena speaks not of our purposes; / For, look, he smiles, and Caesar doth not change." Meanwhile, as planned, Trebonius draws Mark Antony out of the way.

Why it matters. The plot now hangs by a thread, and the audience feels it. Cassius, who is quick to fear, urges Casca to be "sudden" and is ready to kill himself. Brutus reads the evidence calmly: Popilius smiles and Caesar's face does not change. This contrast shows why Brutus is the leader the conspirators need and why his judgement of people will later fail when the person is Antony.

3. In the Senate: Metellus Cimber's petition

Caesar takes his seat and asks, "Are we all ready? What is now amiss / That Caesar and his senate must redress?" — the words of a king rather than a fellow senator. Metellus Cimber kneels: "Most high, most mighty, and most puissant Caesar, / Metellus Cimber throws before thy seat / An humble heart." He begs Caesar to recall his brother, Publius Cimber, from banishment.

Caesar cuts him short. Such bowing and flattery ("couchings", "low-crooked court'sies", "base spaniel-fawning") might move ordinary men, but not Caesar. "Thy brother by decree is banished: / If thou dost bend and pray and fawn for him, / I spurn thee like a cur out of my way."

One by one the conspirators crowd around him to support the plea: Brutus kisses his hand "but not in flattery", and Cassius falls at his feet. Caesar is amazed that even Brutus pleads, but he refuses again in his most famous boast:

"But I am constant as the northern star, Of whose true-fix'd and resting quality There is no fellow in the firmament."

Just as the Pole Star alone stays fixed while all other stars move, Caesar claims to be the one man who never changes his mind. When Cinna and Decius kneel, he scorns them: "Hence! wilt thou lift up Olympus?" — as if he were a mountain of the gods that no one could move.

Why it matters. Metellus's kneeling is a trick: it gives the conspirators a reason to crowd round Caesar. The irony is sharp. Caesar scorns men who kneel to him, and the kneeling men are his killers. Notice too how small the matter is. Pardoning Publius Cimber would cost Caesar nothing, yet he refuses in order to prove that he never changes. His pride, not the petition, seals his fate. "Doth not Brutus bootless kneel?" means "Is Brutus not kneeling in vain?" To Caesar, even his dearest friend's plea is useless. That is why the next blow, from Brutus, hurts so much.

4. The assassination

Casca strikes first with the words, "Speak, hands, for me!" The others stab Caesar in turn. When Caesar sees Brutus among them, he cries, "Et tu, Brute! Then fall, Caesar!" ("You too, Brutus?") and dies — at the foot of Pompey's statue, the statue of the rival he had defeated.

Why it matters. Casca, who strikes first, cannot find words, so his hands must "speak". Brutus strikes last. Caesar's last words show what hurts him most: when he sees Brutus among the killers, he gives up, for the wound of friendship is deeper than the daggers. "Et tu, Brute!" is Latin for "And you, Brutus?" Caesar dies at the foot of the statue of the rival he defeated, so the scene ends in a cruel reversal.

5. "Liberty! Freedom!" — confusion in the Capitol

Cinna shouts, "Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!" Cassius wants it proclaimed from the public pulpits. The senators flee in panic. Brutus tries to calm everyone: "People and senators, be not affrighted; / Fly not; stand still: ambition's debt is paid" — that is, Caesar's ambition has been paid for with his life. Old Publius, too shocked to move, is reassured that no harm is meant to him or any other Roman.

Trebonius reports that Antony has fled home "amazed", and that men, wives and children "stare, cry out and run / As it were doomsday."

Brutus calmly accepts that all men must die some day. When Casca says that whoever cuts off twenty years of a man's life cuts off twenty years of fearing death, Brutus agrees: "So are we Caesar's friends, that have abridged / His time of fearing death." He then asks the conspirators to bathe their hands in Caesar's blood up to the elbows, smear their swords, and walk to the market-place crying "Peace, freedom and liberty!" Cassius proudly predicts that their "lofty scene" will be acted again in ages to come, in countries not yet born and languages not yet known — another dramatic irony, since we are watching it being acted.

Why it matters. The conspirators think they have done a noble act, so they speak in slogans: "Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!" Brutus speaks of killing as paying a debt: "ambition's debt is paid." Bathing their hands in blood is Brutus's idea. He wants the deed to look like a sacred sacrifice. Cassius and Brutus believe history will praise them; the irony is that Shakespeare's audience is watching that very "lofty scene" acted over. Brutus's remark that they have spared Caesar years of "fearing death" is weak logic. A man who has just done a terrible thing is trying to calm himself.

6. Antony's servant

A servant of Antony arrives, kneels and delivers a carefully worded message: Brutus is "noble, wise, valiant, and honest"; Caesar was "mighty, bold, royal, and loving." Antony will love Brutus living more than Caesar dead — if Brutus will let him come safely and explain why Caesar deserved to die.

Brutus, trusting, promises Antony safety on his honour: "I know that we shall have him well to friend." Cassius is uneasy: "yet have I a mind / That fears him much; and my misgiving still / Falls shrewdly to the purpose."

Why it matters. Antony sends a servant to test the ground before he goes himself. The message is skilful: it praises both men, gives Brutus all the credit, and asks only to be "resolved" (to be told) how Caesar deserved to die. That request is a trap. If the conspirators cannot give good reasons, they are exposed. Brutus believes the message; Cassius, who judges by motives, does not. This is the difference between the two men in one moment.

7. Antony meets the conspirators

Antony enters and speaks first to the corpse: "O mighty Caesar! dost thou lie so low? / Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, / Shrunk to this little measure?" Turning to the conspirators, he boldly offers his own life: if they mean to kill him too, there is no better hour than Caesar's death-hour, and no better weapons than the swords made rich with Caesar's blood.

Brutus assures him that their hands look bloody but their hearts are full of pity — pity for the wrongs of Rome, which drove out pity for Caesar ("As fire drives out fire, so pity pity"). They will receive him with love. Cassius, practical as ever, offers Antony a share of power: "Your voice shall be as strong as any man's / In the disposing of new dignities."

Antony then shakes the bloody hand of each conspirator by name — Brutus, Cassius, Decius, Metellus, Cinna, Casca, and finally Trebonius ("Though last, not least in love"). He admits his position is on "slippery ground": they may think him either a coward or a flatterer. He apologises to Caesar's spirit for making peace with his enemies, comparing Caesar to a noble deer (hart) brought down by hunters: "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."

Cassius asks plainly whether Antony will be counted among their friends. Antony replies that he will be a friend to all of them on the condition that they give him reasons why Caesar was dangerous. Then he makes his real request: to carry Caesar's body to the market-place and speak at his funeral.

Why it matters. Offering his life is a calculated risk. The conspirators want to look like "sacrificers", not murderers, so they cannot easily kill a man who mourns his friend. Antony then names their suspicion before they can ("either a coward or a flatterer"), which disarms it. Each bloody handshake is a promise he does not mean, and "Pardon me, Julius!" is an apology to the dead man for the act he is performing. The hunting images turn Caesar into a noble stag and the conspirators into hunters; the pun on hart and heart adds that Caesar was the heart of Rome.

8. Brutus's fatal decision

Brutus agrees at once. Cassius warns him in an aside: "You know not what you do: do not consent / That Antony speak in his funeral: / Know you how much the people may be moved / By that which he will utter?" Brutus overrules him: he himself will speak first and explain the reasons for Caesar's death, and will announce that Antony speaks with their permission — which, he believes, will do them more good than harm. Cassius mutters, "I know not what may fall; I like it not."

Brutus then lays down conditions for Antony:

1. Antony must not blame the conspirators in his speech;
2. he must speak all the good he can of Caesar;
3. he must say he speaks by their permission;
4. he must speak from the same pulpit, after Brutus has finished.

Otherwise, Antony shall have no part in the funeral. Antony agrees: "Be it so; / I do desire no more."

Why it matters. This is the hinge of the play. Brutus makes three errors at once: he lets Antony speak, he lets him speak after him, and he believes that a list of conditions will control a skilful speaker. The conditions limit what Antony may say, but not how he says it. Brutus trusts reason to beat feeling. Cassius, who knows crowds, sees at once that "the people may be moved / By that which he will utter."

9. Antony's soliloquy

Left alone with the body, Antony drops his mask:

"O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, That I am meek and gentle with these butchers! Thou art the ruins of the noblest man That ever lived in the tide of times. Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood! Over thy wounds now do I prophesy …"

He prophesies a curse on Italy: civil war ("Domestic fury and fierce civil strife"), so much blood and destruction that mothers will merely smile to see their infants cut to pieces, and Caesar's spirit, "ranging for revenge, / With Ate by his side come hot from hell," will "Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war", until the foul deed "shall smell above the earth / With carrion men, groaning for burial."

Why it matters. A soliloquy is where a character cannot lie, so Antony's mask falls. Compare the words: Brutus said "sacrificers"; Antony says "butchers". The wounds are "dumb mouths" that beg him to speak, and in the next scene he will say he can "put a tongue in every wound". Two old words need care: Ate is the Greek goddess of discord and revenge, and havoc was the order to kill and plunder without mercy. The prophecy of civil war tells the audience what lies ahead, so the rest of the play feels like the working out of a curse.

10. Octavius's servant

A servant arrives: Octavius Caesar, Caesar's adopted heir, is within seven leagues of Rome. Antony tells him that Rome is dangerous for Octavius now; he must wait until Antony has tested, in his funeral speech, how the people take the conspirators' "cruel issue". The two carry off Caesar's body.

Why it matters. Octavius, the next ruler of Rome, stays at the edge of the story. "Seven leagues" is about twenty-one miles, since a league is roughly three miles. Antony's first thought is political: he will "try" the people in his speech before bringing Octavius in. The scene ends not with mourning but with a plan.

Worked examples

Example 1 (context question, 3 marks). "The ides of March are come." Who is the speaker, to whom is he speaking and why does he say this?

Model answer. Caesar says this to the Soothsayer outside the Capitol. In Act I the Soothsayer had warned him, "Beware the ides of March." Caesar says it lightly, as if to mock the warning, because the day has arrived and nothing has happened to him.

Why this scores: the speaker and listener (1 mark), the earlier warning (1 mark), Caesar's mocking tone (1 mark). This matches the pattern of ICSE 2025 specimen, Q2(ii).

Example 2 (character question, 3 marks). "What touches us ourself shall be last served." What does this show about Caesar, and what is the irony?

Model answer. Caesar pretends to put public business before his own, but his words show his pride: he uses the royal "us ourself" and is sure that nothing can harm him. The irony is that the paper that "touches" him most nearly, Artemidorus's warning, would have saved his life, and he never reads it.

Why this scores: pride (1 mark), the royal "we" as evidence (1 mark), the irony (1 mark).

Example 3 (meaning of a line, 3 marks). Explain: "I spurn thee like a cur out of my way."

Model answer. Caesar says this to Metellus Cimber, who kneels and begs for his banished brother. A cur is a worthless dog. Caesar means that if Metellus bows and flatters him, he will kick him aside like a dog. It shows his contempt for flattery and his hard, proud refusal.

Why this scores: speaker and listener (1 mark), the meaning of cur and the whole line (1 mark), what the line shows about Caesar (1 mark).

Example 4 (device and context, 3 marks). "Speak, hands, for me!" Who says this, what happens next, and what device is used?

Model answer. Casca says this and strikes Caesar first. The other conspirators then stab Caesar in turn, and Brutus strikes last. Casca addresses his hands as if they could speak (apostrophe and personification).

Why this scores: speaker and the first blow (1 mark), what follows (1 mark), the device named and explained (1 mark).

Example 5 (personal response, 4 marks). Do you think Brutus was wise to let Antony speak at Caesar's funeral? Give reasons.

Model answer. No, Brutus was not wise. First, he ignored Cassius, who warned him about how much the people might be moved by Antony's words. Second, he agreed to let Antony speak after him, so Antony had the last word. Third, his conditions did not stop Antony from using the crowd's feelings; Antony obeyed them in words and still turned the people against the conspirators. Trust in Antony's "friendship" proved fatal.

Why this scores: a clear opinion (1 mark) and three supporting reasons from the text (3 marks). The examiners ask for confidence and honesty in opinions, so state your view in the first line.

Example 6 (a full extract question, 16 marks). Read the extract and answer.

(i) Where does this scene take place? Why does Antony say that he is willing to die? [3] (ii) What does Brutus mean by "yet see you but our hands … Our hearts you see not"? [3] (iii) Explain "As fire drives out fire, so pity pity". [3] (iv) What does Cassius add immediately afterwards? What is he trying to do? [3] (v) What does Antony do next? Do you think Brutus was right to trust him? Give a reason. [4]

Model answers. (i) The scene takes place in the Capitol (Senate house), near Caesar's body. Antony says he would not find a better hour or better swords than those of the men who have just killed Caesar; he is testing whether they mean to kill him too. (ii) Brutus says that Antony sees only bloody hands, which make the conspirators look cruel. He cannot see their hearts, which are full of pity for Rome, so he should not judge them by the blood. (iii) One fire is put out by a stronger fire; in the same way their pity for Rome drove out their pity for Caesar. They killed Caesar out of pity for the wrong done to Rome. (iv) Cassius says that Antony's voice will be as strong as any man's in giving out the new honours. He is trying to win Antony over by offering him a share of power. (v) Antony asks to shake the bloody hand of each conspirator and then asks for reasons for Caesar's death. Brutus was not right to trust him: Antony's calm friendship was an act, and in his soliloquy he calls the same men "butchers".

Why this scores: every answer matches the number of marks. Each 3-mark answer has three short points: place and reason; contrast between hands and hearts; the meaning of the comparison. Part (v) is a personal response, so the opinion (1 mark) is backed by a reason from the text (the soliloquy).

Example 7 (long answer, about 120 words). Describe Antony's character as shown in this scene.

Model answer. Antony is loyal: he mourns over Caesar's body and swears revenge. He is brave: he offers his own life to the men who have killed Caesar. He is clever: his servant's message is carefully balanced, and he names the conspirators' suspicion before they can ("a coward or a flatterer"). He is a skilful actor: he shakes the bloody hands and asks pardon of Caesar while he plans to destroy the killers. He is passionate: in his soliloquy he calls them "butchers" and foretells civil war. Finally he is ruthless: he will test the people with his speech before he lets Octavius come.

Why this scores: six qualities, each with a quotation or event. The examiners prefer "quality plus evidence" to a retelling.

Doubts cleared

Q. Why does Caesar refuse to read Artemidorus's letter? Artemidorus says it concerns Caesar nearly. Caesar answers that his own business must come last, which is his way of looking modest and above petty things. The letter lies unread, and that is the great mistake of his pride.

Q. What does "Et tu, Brute!" mean? It is Latin for "And you, Brutus?" Caesar sees his dearest friend among his killers, and the shock of betrayal ends his will to fight.

Q. Why do the conspirators bathe their hands in Caesar's blood? Brutus wants the murder to look like a holy sacrifice and a public act of freedom. The conspirators also mean to show themselves openly in the market-place, to take the blame as "the doers".

Q. Why does Antony shake the conspirators' hands if he hates them? Antony is alone and outnumbered. If he shows anger, they will kill him. By acting as a friend he gets permission to speak at the funeral, which is the weapon he needs.

Q. Who strikes Caesar first, and who last? Casca strikes first ("Speak, hands, for me!"); Brutus strikes last.

Mistakes to avoid

• Mixing up people with similar names. Popilius Lena is the senator who whispers to Cassius; Publius is the old senator who is too shocked to run; Publius Cimber is the banished brother of Metellus.
• Giving the wrong first striker. It is Casca, not Brutus.
• Retelling the whole scene for a 3-mark question. Answer only what is asked, in one or two lines per mark.
• Copying lines from the extract. The examiners say that candidates who copy the passage lose marks: explain in your own words.

Check yourself

1. What do the Soothsayer's words "but not gone" mean?
2. What were the tasks of Trebonius, Metellus Cimber and Casca?
3. Which of Brutus's decisions does Cassius oppose, and why?

Answers: 1. The Ides of March have come, but the day is not over, so the danger is still ahead. 2. Trebonius draws Antony away; Metellus presents the petition that lets the conspirators crowd round Caesar; Casca strikes first. 3. Letting Antony speak at the funeral, because the people may be moved by his words.