5.1 About the play
| Point | Detail |
|---|---|
| author | William Shakespeare |
| first performed | 1599, at the Globe Theatre, London |
| source | Plutarch's Lives, in Sir Thomas North's translation (1579) |
| setting of Act III, Sc. 1 | Rome: before the Capitol, then the Senate house |
| date in the story | the Ides of March (15 March), 44 BC |
| form | five acts, mostly blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) |
5.2 Key events in order
- Caesar: "The ides of March are come." Soothsayer: "Ay, Caesar; but not gone."
- Artemidorus's warning is set aside.
- Popilius Lena alarms Cassius; Brutus calms him.
- Trebonius draws Antony away.
- Metellus Cimber pleads for his brother; Brutus and Cassius join; Caesar refuses ("northern star").
- Casca strikes first; Caesar: "Et tu, Brute!"; dies at the foot of Pompey's statue.
- "Liberty! Freedom!"; Brutus: "ambition's debt is paid"; hands bathed in blood.
- Antony's servant asks for safe-conduct.
- Antony mourns, shakes hands, asks to speak at the funeral.
- Cassius objects; Brutus sets conditions.
- Antony's soliloquy: "thou bleeding piece of earth"; prophecy of civil war.
- Octavius is within seven leagues of Rome.
5.3 Who said it?
| Line | Speaker | To whom |
|---|---|---|
| "The ides of March are come." | Caesar | Soothsayer |
| "What touches us ourself shall be last served." | Caesar | Artemidorus |
| "I wish your enterprise to-day may thrive." | Popilius Lena | Cassius |
| "I fear our purpose is discovered." | Cassius | Brutus |
| "Are we all ready? What is now amiss …" | Caesar | the Senate |
| "I spurn thee like a cur out of my way." | Caesar | Metellus Cimber |
| "I am constant as the northern star" | Caesar | the conspirators |
| "Speak, hands, for me!" | Casca | — |
| "Et tu, Brute! Then fall, Caesar!" | Caesar | Brutus |
| "Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!" | Cinna | all |
| "ambition's debt is paid" | Brutus | people and senators |
| "How many ages hence …" | Cassius | the conspirators |
| "yet have I a mind / That fears him much" | Cassius | Brutus |
| "O mighty Caesar! dost thou lie so low?" | Antony | Caesar's body |
| "You know not what you do" | Cassius | Brutus (aside) |
| "O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth" | Antony | Caesar's body (soliloquy) |