Mojo, The Bard, & Me

 

Today’s Totally Random Lines

 

That this foul deed shall smell above the earth

With carrion men, groaning for burial.

 

Marc Antony

Julius Caesar         Act III, Scene i, Line 274

 

Okay kids, we’ve got ourselves a humdinger this morning. I gave you the last two lines of Antony’s soliloquy, but I’m going to give you the whole darn thing in a minute. First though, a little setup.

This is the scene in the play where Brutus, Cassius, & Co, kill Caesar. “Et tu Brute?” and all that. Then Marc Antony shows up on the scene. Now Marc Antony is a very big fan of the dead guy lying on the ground. Brutus explains why they did it, and hopes that Antony will go along with them. He assures them that he will, and then as soon as they leave, he gives us this soliloquy to tell us how he really feels. Ready? If I can type the whole thing, you can read it. It’s really good. Will at his best. Ate, by the way, is the Greed Goddess of discord and revenge.

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,--

Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips,

To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue,--

A curse shall light upon the limbs of men;

Domestic fury and fierce civil strife

Shall cumber all the parts of Italy;

Blood and destructions shall be so in use,

And dreadful objects so familiar,

That mothers shall but smile when they behold

Their infants quarter’d with the hands of war;

All pity choked with custom of fell deeds:

And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge,

With Ate by his side come hot from hell,

Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice

Cry ‘Havoc,’ and let slip the dogs of war;

That this foul deed shall smell above the earth

With carrion men, groaning for burial.

 

Cry ‘Havoc,’ and let slip the dogs of war. Now don’t try to tell me you’ve never heard that phrase. And now you see the proper context for it; where it comes from. That’s right, Marc Antony is out for revenge. Watch out Brutus and Cassius and the rest of you guys.

Look at this guy! Amazing!

I read him the whole thing and asked him if he could do a good let slip the dogs of war face. He suggested I use this camera angle.

I have to say, I'm intimidated. 

How about you?