My+D.J.'s

Julius Caesar Act 2 Scene 1 DJ

Passage: (Act 2, scene 1, starting at line 114)

CASSIUS  :

And let us swear our resolution.

BRUTUS:

No, not an oath: if not the face of men, The sufferance of our souls, the time's abuse,-- If these be motives weak, break off betimes, And every man hence to his idle bed; So let high-sighted tyranny range on, Till each man drop by lottery. But if these, As I am sure they do, bear fire enough To kindle cowards and to steel with valour The melting spirits of women, then, countrymen, What need we any spur but our own cause, To prick us to redress? what other bond Than secret Romans, that have spoke the word, And will not palter? and what other oath Than honesty to honesty engaged, That this shall be, or we will fall for it? Swear priests and cowards and men cautelous, Old feeble carrions and such suffering souls That welcome wrongs; unto bad causes swear Such creatures as men doubt; but do not stain The even virtue of our enterprise, Nor the insuppressive mettle of our spirits, To think that or our cause or our performance Did need an oath; when every drop of blood That every Roman bears, and nobly bears, Is guilty of a several bastardy, If he do break the smallest particle Of any promise that hath pass'd from him.
 * Interpretation:**

Cassius : Lets make an oath so we can be sure to go through with this and we can trust everyone. Brutus: Why make and oath? We are all noble Roman’s we should not need to make an oath.

That is the shortened version of what he said. This passage is important because the men that want to kill Caesar are all standing around. They are talking about how to kill him and they propose a plan then they talk about how they should make an oath so that they know they can trust one another. Brutus immediately disagrees and says that if we are noble men of Rome we shouldn’t need to make an oath to swear that we will do this. and what other oath Than honesty to honesty engaged. This line is significant in particular because it means that if we are honest then we shall not need this oath. In the end the people end up following what Brutus says. Romans are honor-bound to keep a promise they have made.

