CW: suicide Enter Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras. CLEOPATRA My desolation does begin to make A better life. ’Tis paltry to be Caesar. Not being Fortune, he’s but Fortune’s knave, A minister of her will. And it is great To do that thing that ends all other deeds, Which shackles accidents and bolts up change, Which sleeps […]
Continue ReadingCaesar, doing reputation management, damage control: I didn’t start this! (5.1.69-77) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare
CAESAR Gallus, go you along. Where’s Dolabella, [Exit Gallus] To second Proculeius? ALL BUT CAESAR Dolabella! CAESAR Let him alone; for I remember now How he’s employed. He shall in time be ready. Go with me to my tent, where you shall see How hardly I was drawn into this war, How calm and […]
Continue ReadingCaesar: tell Cleopatra not to worry! (I want to take her ALIVE) (5.1.56-68) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare
CW: suicide CAESAR Bid her have good heart. She soon shall know of us, by some of ours, How honourable and how kindly we Determine for her. For Caesar cannot lean To be ungentle. EGYPTIAN So; the gods preserve thee! Exit CAESAR Come hither, Proculeius. Go, and say We purpose her no shame. Give […]
Continue ReadingCaesar, what are your intentions towards Cleopatra, then? (5.1.48-56) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare
CAESAR Hear me, good friends— Enter an Egyptian But I will tell you at some meeter season. The business of this man looks out of him; We’ll hear him what he says.—Whence are you? EGYPTIAN A poor Egyptian, yet the Queen my mistress, Confined in all she has, her monument, Of thy intents desires instruction, […]
Continue ReadingCaesar: O, Antony! that it’s come to this! (5.1.35-48) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare
CAESAR O, Antony, I have followed thee to this. But we do lance Diseases in our bodies. I must perforce Have shown to thee such a declining day, Or look on thine. We could not stall together In the whole world. But yet let me lament, With tears as sovereign as the blood of hearts, […]
Continue ReadingCaesar’s really upset – and he WANTED Antony dead (5.1.26-35) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare
CAESAR Look you, sad friends, The gods rebuke me; but it is tidings To wash the eyes of kings. GALLUS And strange it is That nature must compel us to lament Our most persisted deeds. MAECENAS His taints and honours Waged equal with him. GALLUS A rarer spirit never Did steer humanity; but you […]
Continue ReadingAntony’s really dead, look, here’s his bloody sword (5.1.19-26) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare
DERCETUS He is dead, Caesar, Not by a public minister of justice, Nor by a hired knife; but that self hand Which writ his honour in the acts it did Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it, Splitted the heart. This is his sword; I robbed his wound of it. Behold it […]
Continue ReadingCaesar: Antony, dead? that’s earth-shattering… (5.1.12-19) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare
CAESAR What is’t thou sayst? DERCETUS I say, O Caesar, Antony is dead. CAESAR The breaking of so great a thing should make A greater crack. The round world Should have shook lions into civil streets, And citizens to their dens. The death of Antony Is not a single doom; in the name lay A […]
Continue ReadingCaesar: this is beyond a joke, Antony has to surrender… (5.1.1-12) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare
Enter Caesar [with his council of war]: Agrippa, Dolabella, Maecenas, [Gallus, and Proculeius] CAESAR Go to him, Dolabella, bid him yield. Being so frustrate, tell him how he mocks The pauses that he makes. DOLABELLA Caesar, I shall. [Exit] Enter Dercetus with the sword of Antony CAESAR Wherefore is that? And what art thou that […]
Continue ReadingCleopatra: oh my girls, it’s time… (4.16.84-93) #BurningBarge #SlowShakespeare
CW: suicidal ideation CLEOPATRA How do you, women? What, what, good cheer! Why, how now, Charmian? My noble girls! Ah, women, women! Look, Our lamp is spent, it’s out. Good sirs, take heart; We’ll bury him, and then what’s brave, what’s noble, Let’s do’t after the high Roman fashion, And make death proud to […]
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