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Beware the Ides of March
Caesar: The ides of March are come.
Soothsayer: Ay, Caesar, but not gone.
— Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene 1.
The word ides is derived from the ancient Roman calendar and comes from the Latin idus, which, as Oxford explains it, means “a day falling roughly in the middle of each month (the 15th day of March, May, July, and October, and the 13th of other months) from which other dates were calculated.”
In the beginning of Shakespeare’s excellent play, Julius Caesar has this premonitory exchange with the soothsayer:
Soothsayer: Caesar!
Caesar: Ha! who calls?
Casca: Bid every noise be still: peace yet again!
Caesar: Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music,
Cry ‘Caesar!’ Speak; Caesar is turn’d to hear.
Soothsayer: Beware the ides of March.
Caesar: What man is that?
Brutus: A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.
Caesar: Set him before me; let me see his face.
Cassius: Fellow, come from the throng; look upon Caesar.
Caesar: What say’st thou to me now? Speak once again.
Soothsayer: Beware the ides of March.
Caesar: He is a dreamer; let us leave him: pass.
— Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene 2.
The soothsayer, as you know, is soon vindicated.
And yet, as Nabokov noted, it’s not for his stories that we primarily love Shakespeare, but rather:
“The verbal-poetical texture of Shakespeare is the greatest the world has ever known, and is immensely superior to the structure of his plays as plays. With Shakespeare, it is the metaphor that’s the thing, not the play.”
Published in Literature
I’m glad you reminded me while there still is time. I usually take Shakespeare’s advice and take precautions on the Ides of March, but this year I forgot (until now).
I was thinking about posting something about Shakespeare and Julius Caesar and whether the play is too opposed to his assassination. I don’t mean to diminish the play’s many virtues, but I don’t like the historical Caesar (and I really hate Marc Antony).
You know he died in a rented toga? Brutus made a rent, Cassius made a rent….
He was a master of rhetoric, but that’s a poor example of it.
It’s a better example of his dramatic sense because Caesar’s betrayer is there to hear the supernatural warning as well. A director might even have Brutus fetch the soothsayer for Caesar (“Set him before me”).
Et tu Doc?
Who let the dogs out?
Regards,
Jim
Yeah, but is there a cocktail?!
bah! Such gadzookery, Jay.
Do we start with the Roman jokes?
A Roman walks into a bar, holds up two fingers and say “five beers, please.”
A Roman walks into a bar and says “I’ll have a martinus.” The bartender says, “Don’t you mean a martini?” The man replies “if I wanted a double, I would have asked for one.”
Seawriter
We have a saying: The day’s not over yet! People say that on surviving some crisis or crises in the workday, and wishing to signal continued vigilance and awareness of how nasty Fate can be.
I’d always thought it purely a subliminal desire to avoid tempting Fate. Now it seems more than that: literary inheritance, modified over time. What an interesting thought! Thank you, @rayharvey.
The whole Roman system of numbering days of the month seems absurdly complex:
It kept the Greeks and Etruscans from figuring out what day the Romans planned to attack, though.
Seawriter
I like your comment, but I don’t entirely agree that this is a poor example. There are better, to be sure, but I must say, I don’t regard this as poor.
And that’s no small thing. ;-)
Whoa!
Friend, that may be the best thing I’ve seen all day.
Thank you.
Thank you, @jzdro, for your beautiful explication, which is more eloquent by far than anything I could muster.
Ha-ha-ha!
I’ve never heard either of those, you son-of-a-gun.
My friend, there’s always a cocktail.
(I recommend the Carpet-Licker)
I’m glad you, sir, took the time to read my scribbles.
Thank you for dropping by.
How dare you make me spit coffee all over my computer screen!
The historical Caesar had his points: He was smart. He had some class. He ate and drank with his foot-soldiers, and by all accounts, his soldiers did love him. Yes, I know: he overthrew the Senate and became dictator — which I don’t countenance — but let us not forget either how utterly corrupt the Senate had become.
He was far better than Augustus, Tiberius, and Nero — not saying a lot, I know, but it’s something.
What was so wrong with Augustus? I thought as benevolent dictators go he was one of the more benevolent, that the Empire was peaceful and prosperous under his rule.
I’m kinda afeared to click on the link. . .but here goes. . .
. . .looks like a waste of a perfectly good glass of wine (not your video, the aforementioned cocktail).
He wasn’t too bad. I once read that he wouldn’t even come out of his tent during battles because he was either superior or cowardly, and I admit that’s always tainted my opinion of him.
I also didn’t like that, as I also once read, he let his power-hungry wife influence him a lot.
But you’re point is well-made and well-taken: Augustus ruled during Rome’s hay-day, and it was a period of relative peace.
That’s a bastardized Carpet-Licker if ever I saw one!
Everyone knows a true Carpet-Licker is enjoyed primarily for its rent-down-the-middle — not unlike Caesar’s toga, come to think of it.
I seem to recall from the History of Rome podcast that he was rather frail, and was once confided to his tent by a rather severe illness, which his enemies claimed was just an excuse to cover up his cowardice.
In any case there’s little doubt Caesar was a better general than Augustus.
Shouldn’t the cocktail be an Irish whiskey minus two? Not sure how you concoct that….
But if you are drinking it, you survived the ides. No need to subtract anything!
No doubt. But Augustus stabilized the whole show after the ruinous wars; Rome could get back to business again. Caesar would have been a fine dinner companion, and if he’d had time he probably would have given Rome all sorts of nice shiny things – paid for by expropriated property, of course. There’s a whiff of Chavez that comes off the fellow.