The Rhetoric of Exemplarity in Julius Caesar

CASSIUSTell me, good Brutus, can you see your face?BRUTUSNo Cassius; for the eye sees not itselfBut by reflection, by some other things.CASSIUS ’Tis just, And it is very much lamented, Brutus, That you have no such mirrors as will turnYour hidden worthiness into your eye,That you might see your shadow: I have heardWhere many of the best respect in Rome(Except immortal Caesar) speaking of Brutus.And groaning underneath the age’s yoke, Have wished that noble Brutus had his eyes.

JC, 1.2.50-62

AGRIPPA A rarer spirit neverDid steer humanity; but you gods will give usSome faults to make us men. Caesar is touched. MECENUS

When such a spacious mirror’s set before him, He needs must see himself.

A & C, 5.1.31-5

For there is nether picture, nor image of marble, nor arche of triumph, nor piller, nor sumptuous sepulchre, that can match the durablenes of an eloquent history, furnished with the properties which it ought to haue. Again, I mind not to stand much vpon this, that it hath a certaine troth in it, in that it alwayes professeth to speake truth, & for that the proper ground therof is to treate of the greatest & highest things that are done in the world: insomuch that (to my seeming) the great profit thereof is as Horace sayth, that it is commonly called the mother of trothe & vprightnes, which commendeth it so greatly, as it nedeth not elswhere to seeke any authoritye, or ornament of dignitie, but of her very selfe. For it is a certaine rule and instruction, which by examples past, teacheth vs to iudge of things present, & to foresee things to come: so as we may knowe what to like of, & what to follow, what to mislike, and what to eschew.

Amyot, To The Reader in North’s Plutarch (1579), sig. *iii v.

So as it is not possible for any case to rise either in peace or warre, in publike or priuate affaires, but that the person which shall haue diligently red, well conceiued, & throughly remembred histories, shall find matter in them whereat to take light, & counsell wherby to resolue himselfe to take a part, or to geue aduice vnto others, how to choose in doutfull & daungerous cases that, which may be for their most proffit, and in time to find out to what poynt the matter will come if it be well handled: and how to mo|derate him selfe in prosperitie, and how to cheere vp and beare him selfe in aduersitie.

Amyot, To The Reader in North’s Plutarch (1579), sig. *iiii r.

CAESAR

But yet let me lament With tears as sovereign as the blood of heartsThat thou, my brother, my competitorIn top of all design, my mate in empire,Friend and companion in the front of war,The arm of mine own body, and the heartWhere mine his thoughts did kindle—that our starsUnreconciliable should divide Our equalness to this. Hear me, good friends—Enter an EgyptianBut I will tell you at some meeter season:

Antony & Cleopatra, 5.1.40-49

compet-ere, in its post-classical active sense ‘to strive after (something) in company or together’, com- together + petere to aim at, go toward, try to reach, seek, etc.:

compete, v.2

1. intr. To enter into or be put in rivalry with, to vie with another in any respect. 2. To strive with another, for the attainment of a thing, in doing something.

CAESAR

But yet let me lament With tears as sovereign as the blood of heartsThat thou, my brother, my competitorIn top of all design, my mate in empire,Friend and companion in the front of war,The arm of mine own body, and the heartWhere mine his thoughts did kindle—that our starsUnreconciliable should divide Our equalness to this. Hear me, good friends—Enter an EgyptianBut I will tell you at some meeter season:

A & C, 5.1.40-49

SOOTHSAYER Thy daemon, that thy spirit which keeps thee, isNoble, courageous, high, unmatchable, Where Caesar’s is not; but near him, thy angelBecomes afeard, as being o’erpowered—thereforeMake space enough between you…

Thy lustre thickens,When he shines by—I say again, thy spirit Is all afraid to govern thee near him; But he away, ’tis noble.

A & C, 2.3.16-…28.

This treaty conteineth the liues of Demetrius, surnamed the Fortgainer, & M. Antony the Triumuir, & great examples to confirme the saying of Plato: That from great minds, both great vertues & great vices do procede. They were both giuen ouer to women & wine, both valliant & liberal, both sumptuous & high minded, fortune serued them both alike, not only in the course of their liues, in attempting great matters, somtimes with good, somtimes with ill successe, in getting & losing things of great consequence, ouerthrowing both when they feared not, restoring both when they hoped not. But also in their ende there was no great difference, thone brought to his death by his mortal enemies, & the others fortune not much vnlike.

Plutarch’s Lives, trans. Thomas North

MURELLUSYou blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things! Oh you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome, Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oftHave you climbed up to walls and battlements, To towers and windows, yea, to chimney tops, Your infants in your arms, and there have satThe livelong day, with patient expectation, To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome:…And do you now cull out a holiday?And do you now strew flowers in his way, That comes in triumph over Pompey’s blood?...Pray to the gods to intermit the plagueThat needs must light on this ingratitude.

JC, 1.1.36-43; 50-5; 55-6.

BRUTUSInto what dangers would you lead me, Cassius, That you would have me seek into myselfFor that which is not in me.CASSIUSTherefore, good Brutus, be prepared to hear.And since you know you cannot see yourselfSo well as by reflection, I your glassWill modestly discover to yourselfThat of yourself which you yet know not of.

JC, 1.2.63-70.

BRUTUSFor let the gods so speed me as I loveThe name of honour more than I fear death.CASSIUSI know that virtue to be in you, Brutus,As well as I do know your outward favour.Well, honour is the subject of my story. I cannot tell what you and other men Think of this life: but for my single selfI had as lief not be as live to beIn awe of such a think as I myself.I was born as free as Caesar, so were you; We have both fed as well, and we can bothEndure the winter’s cold as well as he.

JC, 1.2. 88-99

Caesar said to me, ‘Dar’st thou, Cassius, nowLeap in with me into this angry floodAnd swim to yonder point?’ Upon the word, Accoutred as I was, I plunged in And bade him follow; so indeed he did.The torrent roared, and we did buffet itWith lusty sinews, throwing it aside, And stemming it with hearts of controversy.But ere we could arrive the point proposedCaesar cried, ‘Help me, Cassius, or I sink!’I, as Aeneas, our great ancestorDid from the flames of Troy upon his shoulderThe old Anchises bear, so from the waves of TiberDid I the tired Caesar: and this man Is now become a god, and Cassius isA wretched creature, and must bend his bodyIf Caesar carelessly but nod on him. JC, 1.2.102-118

‘Brutus’ and ‘Caesar’: what should be in that ‘Caesar’?Why should that name be sounded more than yours?Write them together: yours is as fair a name: Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well. Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with ’em,‘Brutus’ will start as spirit as soon as ‘Caesar’. Now in the names of all the gods at once, Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feedThat he is grown so great? Age, thou art shamed!Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!When went there by an age, since the great flood, But it was famed with more than with one man. When could they say, till now, that talked of Rome, That her wide walks encompassed but one man? Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough, When there is in it but one only man.

JC, 1.2.141-56

You and I have heard our fathers sayThere was a Brutus once that would have brookedTh’eternal devil to keep his state in RomeAs easily as a king.

JC, 1.2.157-60

CAESARWould he were fatter! But I fear him not:Yet if my name were liable to fearI do not know that man I should avoid So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much, He is a great observer, and he looks Quite through the deeds of men…Such men as he be never at their heart’s easeWhiles the behold a greater than themselves, And therefore are they very dangerous. I rather tell thee what is to be fearedThan what I fear: for always I am Caesar. Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf, And tell me truly what thou think’st of him.

JC, 1.2.197-

CAESARI 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-fixed and resting quality There is no fellow in the firmament. The Skies are painted with unnumbered sparks: They are all fire, and every one doth shine;But there’s one in all doth hold his place. So in the world: ’tis furnished well with me, And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive. Yet in the number I do know but oneThat unassailable holds on his rankUnshaked of motion. And that I am heLet me a little show it even in this,That I was constant Cimber should be banishedAnd constant do remain to keep him so. JC, 3.1.58-73.

ANTONY O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!Thou are the ruins of the noblest manThat ever lived in the tide of times.

(Julius Caesar, 3.1.255-8)

BRUTUS Are yet two Romans living such as these?The last of all the Romans, fare thee well!It is impossible that ever RomeShould breed thy fellow.

(Julius Caesar, 5.3.98-101)

CASCAO he sits high in all the people’s hearts: And that which would appear offence in usHis countenance, like richest alchemy,Will change to virtue and to worthiness.CASSIUSHim, and his worth, and our great need of himYou have right well conceited.

JC, 1.2. 88-99

ANTONY This was the noblest Roman of them all.All the conspirators save only heDid that they did in envy of great Caesar;He only in a general honest thoughtAnd common good to all make one of them.His life was gentle; and all the elementsSo mix’d in him that Nature might stand upAnd say to all the world ‘This was a man’.

Julius Caesar, 5.5.68-75