And
let us swear our resolution.
-Cassius
Julius Caesar Act II scene i, line 113
This is the guys talking about killing Julius because they’re
afraid he’s going to proclaim himself king and ruin the republic. Do I have the
right word? Republic? I’m not sure. Feel free to correct me if you’d like.
Anyway, Cassius says ‘let us swear’ and Brutus replies with
a big old ‘Swear!? Schmotz to that!’ Why Schmotz? Here’s why:
No, not an oath:
if not the face of men,
The sufferance of our souls, the time's abuse,--
If these be motives weak, break off betimes,
And every man hence to his idle bed;
So let high-sighted tyranny range on,
Till each man drop by lottery. But if these,
As I am sure they do, bear fire enough
To kindle cowards and to steel with valour
The melting spirits of women, then, countrymen,
What need we any spur but our own cause,
To prick us to redress? what other bond
Than secret Romans, that have spoke the word,
And will not palter? and what other oath
Than honesty to honesty engaged,
That this shall be, or we will fall for it?
Swear priests and cowards and men cautelous,
Old feeble carrions and such suffering souls
That welcome wrongs; unto bad causes swear
Such creatures as men doubt; but do not stain
The even virtue of our enterprise,
Nor the 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 pass'd from him.
The sufferance of our souls, the time's abuse,--
If these be motives weak, break off betimes,
And every man hence to his idle bed;
So let high-sighted tyranny range on,
Till each man drop by lottery. But if these,
As I am sure they do, bear fire enough
To kindle cowards and to steel with valour
The melting spirits of women, then, countrymen,
What need we any spur but our own cause,
To prick us to redress? what other bond
Than secret Romans, that have spoke the word,
And will not palter? and what other oath
Than honesty to honesty engaged,
That this shall be, or we will fall for it?
Swear priests and cowards and men cautelous,
Old feeble carrions and such suffering souls
That welcome wrongs; unto bad causes swear
Such creatures as men doubt; but do not stain
The even virtue of our enterprise,
Nor the 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 pass'd from him.
Yes, that’s why. Who needs an oath
when we are righteous people doing a righteous thing? We would be bastards if
we don’t do this; so to hell with your stinking oath.
It’s a pretty cool speech, and
it’s got a lot of interesting stuff in it. Well of course it is and does; Will
wrote it! And we found it today through Total Randomness. (By the way, is this a famous speech?)
There's a lot of different things I could focus on from that speech, but I'm gonna talk about the following line.
So let high-sighted tyranny range on,
Till each man drop by lottery.
Here's a pic of a bunch of men and women from the greatest generation. They were not about to let tyranny range on, nor were they about to watch each man drop by lottery. No they were not. And I don't think they all got together to take an oath. They just up and did what was right.
BTW, that's my dad standing all the way on the left with the light shirt and big ears.
Happy Fourth everybody.
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