Act I
Scene i
1. Where does the first scene take place?
2. What is funny about being a “mender of bad soles?”
3. According to a laborer, why have the people left their shops and assembled together to celebrate? (ll 31-32)
4. Who was Pompey?
5. Why do Marullus and Flavius criticize the people for celebrating?
6. What was Lupercal, and when did it occur?
7. What character suggests that Caesar is ambitious, and that he “flies too high” and is a danger to free men?
Quotations – Identify the speaker of the following quotes & explain the context.
8. “O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,
Knew you not Pompey?”
9. “These growing feathers plucked from Caesar’s wing
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch”
Scene ii
10. In scene ii, who is instructed to stand in Antony's way and why?
11. What warning does the soothsayer give to Caesar?
12. What is Caesar’s response to the soothsayer’s warning?
13. What do Cassius and Brutus discuss after Caesar and his followers leave? (ll 25-31)
14. Cassius contrasts Brutus’s humility to Caesar’s pride and arrogance. Why?
15. What fear does Brutus blurt out when shots are heard and a trumpet sounds (ll 79-80)?
16. What two stories does Cassius tell to show Caesar’s humanity?
17. When Caesar returns from the race, which character’s face (his “countenance”) seems to disturb him?
18. How does Caesar contrast Cassius with Antony (give details)?
19. Why does Antony have to speak to Caesar from his right side?
20. When Brutus grasps Casca’s cloak, what does he want to know? (ll 215-217)
21. What other physical impairment does Caesar have?
22. According to Casca, did the Roman people seem to want Caesar to be king?
23. What had Caesar been offered (and what had he refused) in front of the people before his fainting?
24. Cassius’s major plan involves Brutus. What is his plan?
25. How does Cassius intend to persuade Brutus that he, Brutus, is nobler than Caesar? (ll 315-319)
Quotations – Identify the speaker of the following quotes & explain the context.
26. “Beware the Ides of March.”
27. “O, he sits high place in all the people’s hearts,
and that which would appear offense in us,
his countenance, like richest alchemy,
will change to virtue and to worthiness.”
28. “I do fear the people
Choose Caesar for their king.”
29. “Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much, such men are dangerous.”
Scene iii.
30. In scene iii, it is the evening before the Ides of March. Describe the weather.
31. What is Caesar supposed to do tomorrow?
32. Cassius compared the storm to whom?
33. According to Casca, what do the senators plan to do tomorrow? (ll 85-88)
34. What pledge (a pledge is a promise) does Casca give to Cassius?
35. Who is Cinna and according to him, getting what character’s cooperation would be more beneficial?
36. Cinna is to deliver forged letters to what three places? (ll 142-146)
37. According to Cassius, what fraction of Brutus remains to be won over?
Act Two
1. What has Brutus been thinking about that has prevented him from sleeping? (ll 10-34)
2. Brutus reads the letter that he receives. What is the purpose of the letter?
3. What relation is Cassius to Brutus?
4. Why did Lucius not recognize the other conspirators with Cassius when they arrived?
5. Why does Brutus put a stop to Cassius’s idea to also kill Mark Antony?
6. Brutus tells the conspirators to have happy faces when they go to the Capitol. Why?(ll 224-228)
7. What reason does Brutus give Portia as causing his changed behavior?
8. Does he tell Portia the REAL reason for this disturbed behavior?
Identify the speaker of the following quotes from scene i.
9. “O, let us have him! For his silver hairs
Will purchase us a good opinion
And buy men’s voices to commend our
deeds.”
10. “For Antony is but a limb of Caesar.
Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius.”
11. According to Calpurnia, what are some unusual sightings that have taken place today?
12. What decision does Caesar make regarding going to the Capitol or staying home? (l 28)
13. Caesar begins to re-consider going to the Capitol. What excuse does he consider offering?
14. Describe what happened in Calpurnia’s dream (ll 76-79)
15. How does Decius re-interpret the meaning of Calpurnia thought the dream meant?
16. Caesar requests the men to be near him at all times in the Capitol today. How is this request IRONIC considering the events that are going to happen?
Identify the speaker of the following quotes from scene ii.
17. “What mean you, Caesar? Think you to walk forth? You shall not stir out of your house today.”
18. “Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste death but once.”
19. Scene iii opens with Artemidorus reading a letter. Who is the letter for & what is its purpose?
20. In scene iv, why does Portia send Lucius to the Capitol?
21. Why does the soothsayer go toward the Capitol himself?
Identify the speaker of the following quote from scene iv.
22. “How hard it is for women to keep counsel!”
Act Three
1. What group of men accompanies Caesar to the Capitol?
2. What two people have gathered to watch Caesar’s procession and represent a bad omen for him?
3. Who whispers a “good luck message” to Cassius (hint: see line 12)?
4. Who has the job of getting Antony out of the way?
5. Who decides which conspirator would stab Caesar first?
6. Which character stabs Caesar first? (see stage direction at top of page 739)
7. What words does Caesar utter as he realizes Brutus, the man he thought was his friend, is also a conspirator?
8. What do Brutus & Cassius advise Publius to do & why (hint: see lines 92-93)
9. According to Brutus, who should bear the consequences of their actions?
10. In what building does Caesar die?
11. How does Brutus feel about Antony now that Caesar is dead?
12. What request does Antony make regarding Caesar’s funeral (hint: lines 227-230)?
13. Alone with the body of Caesar, Antony delivers a soliloquy. What does Antony say he will do?
Identify the speaker and the quote.
14. “But I am as constant as the Northern Star,
Of whose true-fixed and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.
The skies are painted with unnumbered sparks
They are all fire, and every one doth shine;
But there’s but one in all that doth hold his
place.”
15. Et tu, Brute?
16. ‘Stoop, Romans, stoop
And let us bathe our hands in Caesar’s blood
. . .[and] cry, “Peace, freedom, and liberty!”
’
Scene ii
17. In scene 2, why does Brutus divide the crowd?
18. According to Brutus, what flaw of Caesar caused the conspirators to kill him?
19. How does crowd react to Brutus’s words?
20. What does Brutus do while Antony addresses the crowd? (hint: see lines 57-63)
21. What is Antony’s purpose in giving his funeral speech?
22. Why did the people pile up benches, tables, and stalls? (hint: see lines 257-262)
23. What message does the servant bring?
Identify the speaker and explain the context
24. “Bear with me,
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.”
25. “You will compel me then to read the will?
Then make a ring about the corpse of Caesar
And let me know you him that made the will.”
26. “For Brutus, as you know was Caesar’s angel.
Judge, O you gods, how Caesar loved him!
This was the most unkindest cut of all . . .”
27. In scene iii, what is this Cinna’s occupation?
27. What does the crowd seem to think of this Cinna?
28. What other character (in Act II) had an ominous dream?
Act Four
Scene i
1. Who are the members of the second triumvirate?
2. What kind of list are the three making at the beginning of the scene?
3. What does Antony say they will do to Caesar’s will?
4. What is Antony’s opinion of Lepidus?
5. What reason does Antony give for letting Lepidus help in choosing who shall die?
Identify the speaker and explain the context
6. “Therefore let our alliance be combined,
Our best friends made, and our best means stretched out;”
7. In scene ii, why does Brutus suggest that he and Cassius talk inside the tent?
Identify the speaker and explain the context
8. “When love begins to sicken and decay
9. It useth an enforced ceremony.”
10. In scene iii, why is Cassius mad at Brutus?
11. What does Brutus accuse Cassius of?
12. For what has Brutus asked Cassius that he (Brutus) did not receive?
13. What does Brutus refuse to do as a means of raising money for his army?
14. What happened to Portia and how?
15. Brutus and Cassius have a disagreement about battle strategy. Who wins the argument?
16. What unexpected visitor does Brutus see when everyone else is asleep and what does he say?
17. Before the battle of Philippi, Brutus tells Cassius:
There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyages of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
-- IV.iii.216-219
Identify the speaker.
18. “
Remember March; the ides of March remember.
Did not great Julius bleed for justice’s sake?
What villain touched his body that did not stab
And not for justice?”
19. “Art thou anything?
Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil,
That mak’st my blood cold and my hair to stare?
Speak to me what thou art.”
Act V
Scene i
1. About what do Octavius and Antony argue?
2. What is significant about this day for Cassius?
3. What are two things Brutus says he will never do, even if he loses the war?
Scene iii
4. Who wins the first battle?
5. What does Cassius send Titinius to do?
6. Who does Cassius decide to kill and why?
7. How does the death in #7 help Pindarus?
8. What mistake caused the death in #7?
9. What does Titinius do when Messala goes to inform Brutus of the death?
Scene iv
10. What happens to Cato?
11. Who does Lucilius pretend to be?
12. What happens to Lucilius?
Scene v
13. What does Brutus ask Clitus, Dardanius, and Volomnius to do?
14. How does Brutus die?
15. According to Marc Antony, why is Brutus better than the other conspirators?
Quotations – Who said it and to whom?
16. “In you bad strokes, Brutus, you give good words;
Witness the hole you made in Caesar’s heart,
Crying “Long live! Hail, Caesar!”
17. “A peevish schoolboy, worthless of such honor,
Joined with a masker and a reveler!”
18. “This morning are they fled away and gone,
And in their steads do ravens, crows, and kites
Fly o’er our heads and downward look on us
As we were sickly prey.”
19. 19.“Why then, lead on. O that a man might know
The end of this day’s business ere it come!
But is sufficeth that the day will end,
And then the end is know. Come, ho! Away!”
20. 20. “---Caesar, thou art revenged
Even with the sword that killed thee.”
21. 21.“This was the noblest Roman of them all.
All the conspirators save only he
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar.