moving lyric, die neunte: Julius Caesar

Shakespeares Drama „Julius Caesar“, geschrieben 1599.

Ob es Shakespeares Absicht war eine Rechtfertigung und ein Lob auf den Tyrannenmord zu schreiben ist unklar, da sich weder Caesar noch Brutus, der eigentliche Protagonist des Stücks als durch und durch gut hervorheben.

Die von moving lyric bebilderte 3. Szene des ersten Akts beschreibt die Situation nachdem Caesar von Antonius dreimal die Königswürde angeboten wurde und er dreimal auf sie verzichtet hatte.

Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene 3

CASCA. You pull’d me by the cloak; would you speak with me?
BRUTUS. Ay, Casca, tell us what hath chanced today
That Caesar looks so sad.
CASCA. Why, you were with him, were you not?
BRUTUS. I should not then ask Casca what had chanced.
CASCA. Why, there was a crown offered him, and being offered him,
he put it by with the back of his hand, thus, and then the
people fell ashouting.
BRUTUS. What was the second noise for?
CASCA. Why, for that too.
CASSIUS. They shouted thrice. What was the last cry for?
CASCA. Why, for that too.
BRUTUS. Was the crown offered him thrice?
CASCA. Ay, marry, wast, and he put it by thrice, every time gentler
than other, and at every putting by mine honest neighbours
shouted.
CASSIUS. Who offered him the crown?
CASCA. Why, Antony.
BRUTUS. Tell us the manner of it, gentle Casca.
CASCA. I can as well be hang’d as tell the manner of it. It was
mere foolery; I did not mark it. I saw Mark Antony offer him a
crown (yet ’twas not a crown neither, ’twas one of these
coronets) and, as I told you, he put it by once. But for all
that, to my thinking, he would fain have had it. Then he offered
it to him again; then he put it by again. But, to my thinking, he
was very loath to lay his fingers off it. And then he offered it
the third time; he put it the third time by; and still as he
refused it, the rabblement hooted and clapped their chopped hands
and threw up their sweaty nightcaps and uttered such a deal of
stinking breath because Caesar refused the crown that it had
almost choked Caesar, for he swounded and fell down at it. And
for mine own part, I durst not laugh for fear of opening my lips
and receiving the bad air.
CASSIUS. But, soft, I pray you, what, did Caesar swound?

CASCA. He fell down in the marketplace and foamed at [the] mouth and was speechless.
BRUTUS. ‘Tis very like. He hath the falling sickness.
CASSIUS. No, Caesar hath it not, but you, and I,
And honest Casca, we have the falling sickness.
CASCA. I know not what you mean by that, but I am sure Caesar fell
down. If the tagrag people did not clap him and hiss him
according as he pleased and displeased them, as they use to do
the players in the theatre, I am no true man.
BRUTUS. What said he when he came unto himself?
CASCA. Marry, before he fell down, when he perceived the common
herd was glad he refused the crown, he plucked me ope his doublet
and offered them his throat to cut. An had been a man of any
occupation, if I would not have taken him at a word, I would I
might go to hell among the rogues. And so he fell. When he came
to himself again, he said, if he had done or said anything amiss,
he desired their worships to think it was his infirmity. Three or
four wenches where I stood cried, “Alas, good soul!” and forgave
him with all their hearts. But there’s no heed to be taken of
them; if Caesar had stabbed their mothers, they would have done
no less.
BRUTUS. And after that he came, thus sad, away?
CASCA. Ay.
CASSIUS. Did Cicero say anything?
CASCA. Ay, he spoke Greek.
CASSIUS. To what effect?
CASCA. Nay, an I tell you that, I’ll ne’er look you i’ the face
again; but those that understood him smiled at one another and
shook their heads; but for mine own part, it was Greek to me. I
could tell you more news too: Marullus and Flavius, for pulling
scarfs off Caesar’s images, are put to silence. Fare you well.
There was more foolery yet, if could remember it.
CASSIUS. Will you sup with me tonight, Casca?
CASCA. No, I am promised forth.
CASSIUS. Will you dine with me tomorrow?
CASCA. Ay, if I be alive, and your mind hold, and your dinner worth
the eating.
CASSIUS. Good, I will expect you.
CASCA. Do so, farewell, both. Exit.
BRUTUS. What a blunt fellow is this grown to be!
He was quick mettle when he went to school.
CASSIUS. So is he now in execution
Of any bold or noble enterprise,
However he puts on this tardy form.
This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit,
Which gives men stomach to digest his words
With better appetite.
BRUTUS. And so it is. For this time I will leave you.
Tomorrow, if you please to speak with me,
I will come home to you, or, if you will,
Come home to me and I will wait for you.
CASSIUS. I will do so. Till then, think of the world.
Exit Brutus.
Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see
Thy honorable mettle may be wrought
From that it is disposed; therefore it is meet
That noble minds keep ever with their likes;
For who so firm that cannot be seduced?
Caesar doth bear me hard, but he loves Brutus.
If I were Brutus now and he were Cassius,
He should not humor me. I will this night,
In several hands, in at his windows throw,
As if they came from several citizens,
Writings, all tending to the great opinion
That Rome holds of his name, wherein obscurely
Caesar’s ambition shall be glanced at.
And after this let Caesar seat him sure;
For we will shake him, or worse days endure. Exit.

Weiterführende Links:

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Caesar_(Begriffsklärung)

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Cäsar_(Drama)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Caesar_(play)

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_Iulius_Caesar

http://www.william-shakespeare.de/julius_caesar/julius_caesar_1.htm (Deutsche Übersetzung des Stücks)

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