martedì 7 ottobre 2008

Rotture 3 - For Brutus is an honourable man

Grande, grandissimo Guglielmo Scuotilancia (W. Shakespeare).


SCENE II. The same. The Forum.

[...]


BRUTUS.
Then none have I offended. I have done no more to Caesar (35)
than you shall do to Brutus. The question of his death is
enroll'd in the Capitol, his glory not extenuated, wherein he
was worthy;, nor his offenses enforced, for which he suffered
death.

[Enter Antony and others, with Caesar's body.]

Here comes his body, mourned by Mark Antony, who, though he had
no hand in his death, shall receive the benefit of his dying, a
place in the commonwealth; as which of you shall not? With this
I depart-- that, as I slew my best lover for the good of Rome, I
have the same dagger for myself, when it shall please my country
to need my death. (45)

[...]

ANTONY.
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: (80)
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,-- (85)
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honorable men,--
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious; (90)
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: (95)
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, (100)
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. (105)
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, (110)
And I must pause till it come back to me.

Julius Caesar - Act 3, Scene 2

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