The Prince of Ides, or: Stopping by Brutus on a Snowy Evening
Whose corpse this is I think I knowMy heart is in the coffin though
A crown we did present him thrice
Ambitionless, the man said "No."
Julius C. sure thought it queer
To die with Pompey's statue near
Holes we counted 42
In racy tunic tight and sheer
He gives the dinner bell a shake
Like Banquo's Ghost at a clambake
Uneasy dead will make such sounds
And noble Brutus'd better quake
The wounds are jagged, dark and deep
But I've revenge I've yet to reap
And with the fishes B. will sleep
And with the fishes B. will sleep
For your edification and moral uplift, here is Antony's funeral oration from Julius Caesar (with many thanks to Sheila Hallissy, sophomore English teacher extraordinaire):
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest--
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men--
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.
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by Marty Barrett at Wednesday, March 15, 2006
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