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JoyLouise seems to have missed this post, a somewhat abridged version of the bard's "Julius Caesar". So here it is a second time no less.
A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.
BRUTUS
I am not gamesome: I do lack some part
Of that quick spirit that is in Antony.
Let me not hinder, Cassius, your desires;
I'll leave you.
CASSIUS
Brutus, I do observe you now of late:
I have not from your eyes that gentleness
And show of love as I was wont to have:
You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand
Over your friend that loves you.
CAESAR
Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o' nights:
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
ANTONY
Fear him not, Caesar; he's not dangerous;
He is a noble Roman and well given.
CASSIUS
So is he now in execution
Of any bold or noble enterprise,
However he puts on this tardy form.
This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit,
Which gives men stomach to digest his words
With better appetite.
BRUTUS
It must be by his death: and for my part,
I know no personal cause to spurn at him,
But for the general. He would be crown'd:
How that might change his nature, there's the question.
It is the bright day that brings forth the adder;
And that craves wary walking. Crown him?--that;--
And then, I grant, we put a sting in him,
That at his will he may do danger with.
The abuse of greatness is, when it disjoins
Remorse from power: and, to speak truth of Caesar,
I have not known when his affections sway'd
More than his reason. But 'tis a common proof,
That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,
Whereto the climber-upward turns his face;
But when he once attains the upmost round.
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend. So Caesar may.
Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since the quarrel
Will bear no colour for the thing he is,
Fashion it thus; that what he is, augmented,
Would run to these and these extremities:
And therefore think him as a serpent's egg
Which, hatch'd, would, as his kind, grow mischievous,
And kill him in the shell.
LUCIUS
Sir, March is wasted fourteen days.
Knocking within
CAESAR
I must prevent thee, Cimber.
These couchings and these lowly courtesies
Might fire the blood of ordinary men,
And turn pre-ordinance and first decree
Into the law of children. Be not fond,
To think that Caesar bears such rebel blood
That will be thaw'd from the true quality
With that which melteth fools; I mean, sweet words,
Low-crooked court'sies and base spaniel-fawning.
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.
Know, Caesar doth not wrong, nor without cause
Will he be satisfied.
METELLUS CIMBER
Is there no voice more worthy than my own
To sound more sweetly in great Caesar's ear
For the repealing of my banish'd brother?
BRUTUS
I kiss thy hand, but not in flattery, Caesar;
Desiring thee that Publius Cimber may
Have an immediate freedom of repeal.
CAESAR
What, Brutus!
CASSIUS
Pardon, Caesar; Caesar, pardon:
As low as to thy foot doth Cassius fall,
To beg enfranchisement for Publius Cimber.
CASSIUS
I could be well moved, if I were as you:
If I could pray to move, prayers would move me:
But I am constant as the northern star,
Of whose true-fix'd and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.
The skies are painted with unnumber'd sparks,
They are all fire and every one doth shine,
But there's but one in all doth hold his place:
So in the world; 'tis furnish'd well with men,
And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive;
Yet in the number I do know but one
That unassailable holds on his rank,
Unshaked of motion: and that I am he,
Let me a little show it, even in this;
That I was constant Cimber should be banish'd,
And constant do remain to keep him so.
CASCA first, then the other Conspirators and BRUTUS stab CAESAR
CAESAR
Et tu, Brute! Then fall, Caesar.
Dies
CINNA
Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!
Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets.
CASSIUS
Some to the common pulpits, and cry out
'Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement!'
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Well, I've not long been in, Rollo, yet there's still no way I'm going to read a screed of Shakes that'll make me nod off before I reach the end. Those bleedin' boring school days are long gone.
Can you précis it and get your point across quicker, by any chance?
EDIT: and now, in the cold light of Monday morning, and after scanning your piece over breakfast, may I say that I am not superstitious. I doubt whether TM is either, being a Christian.
Were you warning us, Rollo, or was it something else?
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Shakespeare boring?
Then why quote one Oft repeated line with no context.
As it is I made a major precis for you to no avail.
Silk purses, sows ears.
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Yup, boring. I had enough of it at school.
Why use ten words when twenty will do?
BRUTUS
I'm leaving you as you care more for Antony.
CASSIUS
I knew you'd stopped loving me.
CAESAR
Young, virile, clever men are a threat to my dominance.
ANTONY
Take no notice, Caesar, he's one of us.
CASSIUS
He's posturing and pretending.
BRUTUS
Kill him as he is devious.
LUCIUS
..... eggs them on .....
CAESAR
If you're siding with him, I'm no longer friends with you.. Oh, and by the way, I hate sycophants.
MC
(Too late, MC is on his knees)
Sorry, Caesar, please forgive him.
BRUTUS
Caesar, I'll 'suck up to you' if you forgive him.
CAESAR
Repeat that, Brutus!
CASSIUS
(He is on his knees and obsequious so needs no words.)
..... and so on ....
Well, by now, Rollo, if Caesar had been endowed with some nous, he'd have taken his ball and gone. Instead, he had enough of an air of superiority that he thought he was indestructible.
And I guess my previous paragraph was what you were getting at, Rollo, with T May in mind. :-D
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“When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.”
A A Milne
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Shakespeare to Milne what a span.....
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My bear has a button in his ear.
:-)
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And all in one lifetime, Caroline.
Creativity is wonderful for where would be without it,?
Wordsmiths, blacksmiths, engineers, artists etc - when you are a bear of bigger brain, rather than constantly quoting and copying from others, you can create things yourself. Much more satisfying and mind-stretching, don't you think?
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I have no soft toys, Steiff or otherwise.
I recall that when I was about seven someone broke my doll and it never bothered me a jot.
I loved my bikes though.
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JoyLouise :-D
I used to ride for hours on my bike, in fact I passed the adult cycling proficiency test before they realized they'd given me the wrong one. No stuffed toys either though....
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Maybe we should all copy out a long bit of Shakespeare.
Think how interesting the boards would be.
it would save having to have any original ideas.
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here is my take on Shakespeare from another thread, which I posted a couple of years ago:
To renew, or not to renew, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous RR’s,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them: banned, to post
No more; and by post, to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That Flesh is heir to? 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To renew, to post,
To post, perchance to offend; aye, there's the rub,
For in that renewing of GR, what posts may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coin,
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:-D :-D :-D
There are some interesting bits in Shakespeare.
"The Devil can cite Scripture for his purpose"
Or for the overly long winded:
"More of your Conversation would infect my brain"
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