All. Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire! Kill! Slay! Let not a traitor live! Ant. Stay, countrymen. First Cit. Peace there! hear the noble Antony. 5 Sec. Cit. We'll hear him, we'll follow him, we'll die with him. Ant. Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up To such a sudden flood of mutiny. They that have done this deed are honorable: I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts: 15 But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man, That love my friend; and that they know full well I tell you that which you yourselves do know; Show you sweet Cæsar's wounds, poor poor dumb mouths, And bid them speak for me: but were I Brutus, 25 Would ruffle up your spirits and put a tongue 10 15 In every wound of Cæsar that should move All. We'll mutiny. First Cit. We'll burn the house of Brutus. Third Cit. Away, then! come, seek the conspirators. Ant. Yet hear me, countrymen; yet hear me speak. All. Peace, ho! Hear Antony. Most noble Antony! Ant. Why, friends, you go to do you know not what: Wherein hath Cæsar thus deserved your loves? Alas, you know not: I must tell you, then: You have forgot the will I told you of. All. Most true. The will! Let's stay and hear the will. Ant. Here is the will, and under Cæsar's seal. To every Roman citizen he gives, To every several man, seventy-five drachmas. Sec. Cit. Most noble Cæsar! We'll revenge his death. Third Cit. O royal Cæsar! Ant. Hear me with patience. All. Peace, ho! Ant. Moreover, he hath left you all his walks, And with the brands fire the traitors' houses. 5 Fourth Cit. Pluck down forms, windows, anything. [Exeunt CITIZENS with the body.] Ant. Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot, Take thou what course thou wilt! to bury Cæsar: Shakespeare uses the phrase of his own country. In Rome bodies were burned, not buried. answered: atoned for. - the general coffers: the public treasury. on the Lu'percal: during the feast of Lupercus, a Roman god. — parchment : this word comes from Pergamus, a city in Asia Minor, where skins of sheep and goats were first prepared for use as writing material. — the commons: the common people. Roman citizens were divided into two classes, the patricians or aristocrats, and the plebeians or the commons. testament: will. — napkins: handkerchiefs. issue: children. — hearse: bier. - Nervii: "the bravest warriors of all the Belgæ." Cæsar's conquest of them was the most glorious victory of his campaign. — Cassius, Casca, Brutus: the chief conspirators. As rushing: as if rushing. — resolved: convinced. — most unkindest: this use of a double superlative was common until after the days of Queen Elizabeth. — statua: statue. -dint: power. This word meant originally a blow: then the mark of a blow and now force or strength, as when we say "by dint of.". about about face! let us be off! - let me not stir you up: Antony knows that his own self-restraint and his appeal to the hearts of the people are his surest weapons. - wit: mental ability. The word meant originally the power to know. Its present meaning is much narrower. — every several man: an emphatic phrase like our "each individual man.' - seventy-five drachmas about eleven dollars. On this side Tiber: Shakespeare was mistaken. Cæsar's gardens were across the Tiber. - walk abroad: supply forms: benches. - ex'eunt; they go out (Latin). in. : 5 10 THE JOY OF THE HILLS1 EDWIN MARKHAM EDWIN MARKHAM (1852- ) is an American poet, educator, and reformer. I ride on the mountain tops, I ride; I have found my life and am satisfied; Checking the field lark's rippling notes- From steep to steep; Over my head through the branches high I ride on the hills, I forgive, I forget I leave you a blur behind. I am lifted elate the skies expand: 1 From "The Man with the Hoe and Other Poems," published by McClure, Phillips & Co. Copyrighted, 1899, by Edwin Markham. 5 10 Here the world's heaped gold is a pile of sand. I swing as one in a dream I swing Down the airy hollows, I shout, I sing! My body's a bough in the wind, my heart a bird! THE MELANCHOLY NIGHT LEW. WALLACE GENERAL LEWIS WALLACE (1827-1905) was a popular American writer. 66 Ben-Hur" is his best-known book. NOTE.The melancholy night" (July 1, 1520) is famous in history. Cortes, with his soldiers, was attempting to leave the city when he was attacked by the natives and his force reduced to a third of its original number. This selection is taken from "The Fair God." At sunset a cold wind blew from the north, followed by 15 a cloud which filled the valley with mist; soon the mist turned to rain; then the rain turned to night, and the night to deepest blackness. The Christians, thinking only of escape from the city, saw the change of weather with sinking hearts. With 20 one voice they had chosen the night as most favorable for the movement, but they had in mind then a semidarkness warmed by south winds and brilliant with stars; not a time like this so unexpectedly come upon them,-tempest added to gloom, icy wind splashing the earth with icy water. |