I should say a little more about this play. First, Brutus is a very poor tactician. For all his nobility and honor and blah blah blah, he messes up at every turn. The only thing he does successfully is murder Caesar.
Then he lets Antony live, then he lets him speak at Caesar's funeral. This is the "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears" speech, and it leads to Rome turning against the conspirators. Then, he overrules Cassius and fights the decisive battle at Phillipi, which causes their defeat and his death. In short, his incompetence is the reason they all die. But I'm glad he lets Antony live. It's hard to knock a guy for failing to kill enough people.
Oh yeah, and right after they kill Caesar, he comes up with this idea that they should all bathe their hands in his blood and then walk around town crying "Liberty!" I wonder if Bush had to read this play in high school, because that sounds a lot like Mission Accomplished to me.
When I was in high school, we didn't read the whole play. We read the first three acts and then the teacher said: "The last two acts are just battles and aren't worth reading." The uh, the training for teachers is (or at least was 10 years ago) insufficient.
Listen, Hamlet is looming on the horizon. Not yet, but soon. I want you to read it with me, or at least watch the movie. It'll happen within the next couple of weeks for sure, so get to the library, get to the bookstore, set up your Netflix, whatever. Tomorrow, though, I think I'll start Antony and Cleopatra, finish up with Mark Antony.
Geez what a super bowl!
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