Julius

Cesar

Assasination of Cesar, “Et tu Brute?”

B rutus and Cassius, two patriotic Romans, lead a conspiracy to assassinate a powerful and popular
political leader. He is their friend, but they are convinced that his power is a threat to the liberty
of the republic. They succeed in their conspiracy, but the result is a civil war in which both are killed.

(Cassius complains about the fact that Julius Cesar has become so great and important)

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,

But in ourselves, that we are underlings. underlings – inferiors

(Julius Cesar expresses his distrust of Cassius)

Let me have men about me that are fat;

Sleek-headed men and such a sleep o’nights;
Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look; Yon – over there / lean – thin
He thinks too much; such men are dangerous.
(Mark Antony gives this speech over the body of the murdered Cesar)

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; So let it be with Cesar. The noble Brutus
I come to bury Cesar, not to praise him Hath told you that Cesar was ambitious;
The evil that men do lives after them If it were so, it was a grievous fault;
The good is oft interred with their bones interred – burried And grievously hath Cesar answered it.
Cesar’s ghost appears to Brutus: “We will meet at Philippi”.
 Antony &
M Cleopatra
ark Antony and Octavius are fighting one another for the domination of Rome. Antony is an
experienced soldier and politician, but he is distracted by the love of an Egyptian Queen. In the
end, Antony kills himself, thinking that his lover is dead; the Queen also commits suicide rather than
fall prisoner to the victorious Octavius.

(Cleopatra is reminded that she was once in love with

Julius Cesar, just as she is now in love with Marc Antony)

My salad days,
When I was green in judgment.

Cleopatra adorns herself in her finest clothes and jewels and sails
down the Nile river on a splendid barge to meet her lover, Marc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lawrence_Alma-Tadema-_Anthony_and_Cleopatra.JPG
Antony.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Castro_Battle_of_Actium.jpg

Antony and Cleopatra’s forces are defeated at Actium

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Death_of_Cleopatra_arthur.jpg

Cleopatra’s kills herself by letting an asp (a poisonous snake) bite her

 The Taming of the Shrew
T he young and beautiful Bianca, daughter of a rich father, wants to marry Hortensio, but her father
insists that she must remain single until her older sister, Katherine marries. Katherine is a shrew –
a bad tempered, contentious woman – and so no one wants to have her for a wife. But Hortensio has a
friend, Petruchio, who is willing to marry Katherine for the sake of the father’s money.
Forced by her father to marry Petruchio, Katherine is has to endure her husband’s outrageous behavior:
He uses vulgar language during the wedding ceremony, drinks the communion wine, strikes the priest
and kisses her with a loud “smack”. Later, he takes away the food she is about to eat, saying that it is
not well prepared. Katherine complains and insults him, but Petruchio pretends to take pleasure in
everything she does or says. Petruchio’s erratic behavior transforms Katherine into a model of
submission and obedience. At the end of the play, she gives to the other women a discourse about the
duties of wives to their husbands.
This is one of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies. It has been made into a musical show called “Kiss
me Kate” and has been interpreted in movies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Taming_of_the_shrew.jpg

“There’s small choice in rotten apples”

 Richard II
T he ineptitude and foolish pride of a young king antagonize his subjects and lead to rebellion. The
King is certain that he rules by the grace of God and so he cannot imagine that his throne is really
in danger. But Bolingbroke, the head of a noble family, finally convinces the King to abdicate. The
King makes many poetic speeches lamenting his situation, but finally he is led away to the Tower of
London, where he is later killed.

(John of Guant, Bolingbroke’s father expresses his love for England)

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, sceptered isle – island ruled by the scepter of a king
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise, demi-paradise – almost paradise
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world, breed – race
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house, moat – ditch around a castle
Against the envy of less happier lands,-
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England. plot – space of land / realm – kingdom

http://www.antiqueart.net/graphics/shakes/horiz/48.jpg

Richard gives his crown to Bolingbroke

 Richard

Richard woos the Lady Anne

The Two Princes in the Tower http://www.shmoop.com/media/images/large/richard-iii-2.jpg

Richard is killed at the Battle of Bosworth.

“My Kingdom for a Horse!”

A clever, utterly unscrupulous prince murders his two nephews and commits numerous other
crimes and deceptions in order to become King of England. In the end, his subjects rebel against
him and he is killed on the battlefield.
 Hamlet

http://shakespeareobra.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/hamlet.jpg

Hamlet sees the ghost of his father

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Brevity is the soul of wit.
(Hamlet and Horatio see the ghost of Hamlet’s father)

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
(Someone comment on Hamlet’s pretended insanity)
Though this be madness, yet there’s method in it.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be.
Assume a virtue if you have it not.
I must be cruel, only to be kind.

There’s nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Inconstancy: thy name is woman!

A young Danish prince is disturbed by his father’s death and his mother’s remarriage to a man he
dislikes. The prince’s antipathy toward his stepfather turns to thoughts of revenge when his
father’s ghost appears to tell him that he was murdered by this very man. The prince makes plans to
avenge his father by killing the king. Meanwhile, he pretends to be insane so that the things he does
will not arouse suspicion. However, the king is afraid of his stepson and suspects that he knows the
truth. Therefore, he arranges a duel in which the prince is killed by means of a sword whose tip
contains poison. The prince succeeds in killing the king before he dies himself.
(Hamlet contemplates suicide)

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer

sling – weapon for throwing stones / outrageous – uncontrolled

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, `tis a consummation that flesh is heir to – that mortals inherit

Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub; perchance – perhaps / there’s the rub – that’s the problem

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil shuffled off this mortal coil – discarded this mortal body

Must give us pause. There’s the respect respect – consideration

That makes calamity of so long life;

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, bear – endure / whips – blows with a whip / scorns – insults

The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, contumely – insolence

The pangs of disprized love, the law’s delay, pangs – pains / disprized – despised

The insolence of office, and the spurns the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes – the offenses
that patient, deserving people endure from those of lesser merit.
That patient merit of the unworthy takes
might his quietus make – might find peace for himself
When he himself might his quietus make
bodkin – sharp point fardels – burdens
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death, dread – fear

The undiscovered country from whose bourn bourn – boundary, border

No traveller returns, puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have, ills – problems, pains

Than fly to others that we know not of?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eug%C3%A8ne_Ferdinand_Victor_Delacroix_018.jpg

Hamlet at the graveside of Ophilia.

“Alas, poor Yurik, I knew him well.”

 The Merchant of Venice

http://www.artprints.com/-ap/The-Three-Caskets-The-Merchant-of-Venice-Act-III-Scene-II-Posters_p221386_.htm

The Three Caskets: Whoever wished to marry Portia must correctly choose
the box that contains her portrait, or promise never to marry anyone.

A young man, Bassanio borrows money from his friend, Antonio, in order to woo Portia, a young
lady. However, Antonio is able to help Bassanio only by borrowing money from a Jewish
moneylender named Shylock. The promissory note says that Shylock can claim “a pound of flesh” if
Antonio does not repay the loan within the stipulated time. By a series of misfortunes, Antonio is
unable to pay, and the Venetian judge is forced to allow Shylock to claim his “pound of flesh”. But just
in time, Portia, disguised as a lawyer, appears in court and argues that Shylock can take his pound of
flesh only if he can do so without shedding blood. In the end, Shylock is humiliated, Antonio set free,
and Bassanio and Portia married.

They are as sick that surfeit with too much, as they surfeit – eat in excess
That starve with nothing.
The devil can cite scripture for his purpose.
Shylock complains of the way Jews are treated:

Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs,

dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means,
warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer
as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us,
do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that.
If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility?
Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his
sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge.
The villainy you teach me, I will execute,
and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man.

It is a wise father that knows his own child.

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless’d;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
http://shakespeareobra.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/merchant-of-venice.jpg

Portia, disguised as a lawyer, confronts Shylock in order to save

the life of Bassanio’s friend, Antonio
 As You Like It

http://www.shicho.net/38/wp-content/uploads/Scene-from-As-You-Like-It-Francis-Hayman-c-1750.jpg
After losing to Orlando in a wrestling the match, Charles seeks to kill Orlando. At this
wrestling match, Orlando and Rosalind see one another and instantly fall in love.

O rlando falls in love with a young woman, Rosalind. But before he can woo her, he has to flee to
the forest because he is told that his older brother, Charles, seeks to kill him. In the forest
Orlando unexpectedly meets an exiled Duke who was a good friend of his father. It happens that
Rosalind has also been forced to go to the forest by a Duke who is the enemy of her father (the same
exiled Duke that Orlando has met with). She disguises herself as a boy so that neither Orlando, nor her
own father, recognizes her. She pretends to give Orlando advice about how to woo a woman, and the
two engage in a role-play in which she “pretends” to be Orlando’s beloved Rosalind. The play ends
with enemies reconciled and pairs of lovers getting married in the forest.

Sweet are the uses of adversity,

Do you not know I am a woman? Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,
When I think, I must speak. Wears yet a precious jewel in his head

I do desire we may be better strangers. I earn that I eat, get that I wear,
owe no man hate,
All the world’s a stage. envy no man's happiness,
glad of other men's good,
Forever and a day. content with my harm. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DeverellAsYouLikeIt.JPG
 Mock Marriage of Orlando and Rosalind

Othello

http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/5700/5784/othello_6.htm

Othello and Iago

A black man, who is a brave, noble hearted soldier, marries a beautiful lady of Venice. But his
servant, Iago, is jealous of his master’s happiness and decides to bring about his downfall. He
convinces his master that the lady, Desdemona, has been unfaithful, and in this way persuades her
husband to murder her. Too late, he realizes that he has been deceived. He kills himself in remorse and
sorrow, and Iago is led to execution.

Trifles light as air trifles – insignificant things

Are to the jealous confirmations strong

As proofs of holy writ. holy writ – sacred scripture

The robb’d that smiles, steals something from the thief.

O, beware, my lord, of jealousy!

It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on.

http://l-adam-mekler.com/othello.jpg

Othello murders Desdemona

 King Lear
A n old king decides to retire from the duties of government. He divides his kingdom among his
three daughters, according to their professions of love for him. Two of the daughters profess
great love for their father, and so receive generous tracts of land. But the youngest girl, Cordelia, is
unwilling to make flowery professions of love. The king is angry and sends her away without anything.

It is the king’s plan to go and live with each daughter by turns. But he soon finds that he is unwelcome,
and his daughter’s ingratitude causes him to go insane. In this way he wanders about the kingdom until
Cordelia finds him and the two become reconciled. For a short while, the king is happy to be with
Cordelia, but soon both of them are captured by soldiers and Cordelia is killed. The king dies of grief.

I am a man more sinned against than sinning.

As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; wanton – careless

They kill us for their sport.

Plate sin with gold,

And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks;
Arm it in rags, a pigmy’s straw doth pierce it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cordelia%27s_Portion.jpg i

King Lear divides his kingdom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kinglearpainting.jpeg
Lear and his Jester in the storm
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lear_and_Cordelia.jpg

Lear and Cordelia are reconciled

Henry V
King Henry V invades France during the Hundred Year’s War, wins a great victory at the Battle of
Agincourt and woos Katherine, daughter of the King of France. Just before the Battle of Agincourt,
Henry inspires his tired, hungry and outnumbered soldiers by calling them a “band of brothers” who
will, in years to come tell their children, grandchildren and neighbors so that “gentlemen in England
now abed (in bed) will think themselves curses that they were not here”.

If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires:
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England:
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more, methinks, would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man's company
hat fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
Cw%252Fs1600%252Fenri1.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F
%252Fcinemagnificus.blogspot.com%252F2012%252F05%252Fenrique-v-de-
kenneth-branagh-1989-henry.html%3B468%3B328
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
for he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
http://literaryundertakings.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/yeames.jpg