Be patient till the last. Romans, countrymen, and lovers! Hear me for my cause, and be silent that you may hear. Believe me for mine honor, and have respect to mine honor that you may believe. Censure me in your wisdom, and awake your senses that you may the better judge. If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Caesar’s, to him I say that Brutus' love to Caesar was no less than his. If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more. Had you rather Caesar were living and die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live all free men? As Caesar loved me, I weep for him. As he was fortunate, I rejoice at it. As he was valiant, I honor him. But, as he was ambitious, I slew him. There is tears for his love, joy for his fortune, honor for his valor, and death for his ambition. Who is here so base that would be a bondman? If any, speak—for him have I offended. Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman? If any, speak—for him have I offended. Who is here so vile that will not love his country? If any, speak—for him have I offended. I pause for a reply.
ALL
None, Brutus, none
BRUTUS
Then none have I offended. I have done no more to Caesar than you shall do to Brutus. The question of his death is enrolled in the Capitol. His glory not extenuated wherein he was worthy, nor his offenses enforced for which he suffered death.
Enter Mark ANTONY with CAESAR’s body
Here comes his body, mourned by Mark Antony, who, though he had no hand in his death, shall receive the benefit of his dying—a place in the commonwealth—as which of you shall not? With this I depart: that, as I slew my best lover for the good of Rome, I have the same dagger for myself when it shall please my country to need my death.
ALL
Live, Brutus! Live, live!
FIRST PLEBEIAN
Bring him with triumph home unto his house!
SECOND PLEBEIAN
Give him a statue with his ancestors!THIRD PLEBEIAN
Let him be Caesar!
FOURTH PLEBEIAN
Caesar’s better parts
Shall be crowned in Brutus!
FIRST PLEBEIAN
We’ll bring him to his house with shouts and clamors.
BRUTUS
My countrymen—
SECOND PLEBEIAN
Peace, silence! Brutus speaks.
FIRST PLEBEIAN
Peace, ho!
BRUTUS
Good countrymen, let me depart alone.
And, for my sake, stay here with Antony.
Do grace to Caesar’s corpse, and grace his speech
Tending to Caesar’s glories, which Mark Antony
By our permission is allowed to make.
I do entreat you, not a man depart,
Save I alone, till Antony have spoke.
Brutus Imitatio
A Hype up speech for your peewee football team after you’ve
just finished firing their coach
Be patient with me.
Fans, Trainers, Players; listen to what I have to say and be silent so you may
listen. Believe me for my honor, and respect my honor so you may believe what I
say. Be wise to allow yourself to be the better judge. If in the audience there
are any dear acquaintances of our good friend Michael to them I say Michael’s
friendship to me was no less than his. Why is he gone now? Because he wasn’t
good.
Would you rather
live in eternal glory or parish a failure. He’s a good man, I feel bad for the
guy. He was average, and I respect that. As he was welcoming, I appreciate him.
But, as he suffered defeat, I had to let him go. We feel sorry for the man, joy
for his time with us, honor for his grace, but we had to let him go, because,
well, he sucked. I mean really guys, do you enjoy this failure. Please, speak
up if you enjoy failing. Who here is so comfortable now that they do not want
to be victorious. If this is you then speak up. Who here is so proud of losing
like this for your community, for your families, for your brethren. If you are
proud of losing then speak, for it is you who I have offended. I will pause for
a reply.
None? Then we can
agree that I have offended no one. I’ve done no more to Michael than you’ll
probably do to me. The glory he earned will not be diminished, and neither will
the reasons why he is not with us anymore change.
Here you all are
mourning the loss of him. But guys this wasn’t because of you. You guys had
nothing to do with his suckingness, there’s nothing you could have done to help
him suck less, but we will benefit from his loss, through a new start. This is
all I have to say. As I blackballed Michael for your betterment, I expect the
same execution when all of you do not need me anymore.
Now, Gentlemen,
Good Gentleman, I know you want victory. So tonight fight for honor, tonight fight
for the man beside you, fight for your parents, fight for your future, fight so
that you can survive. Tonight, lets go out there and win this peewee football
game.
Imitatio Reflection
The original text
I decided to use for my imitation was Marcus Junior Brutus’s speech from
William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
In the novel, Caesar is the newfound dictator of the Roman Empire. After being
a witness to Caesar’s growth of power, Brutus is persuaded to join the
conspiracy against Caesar for the reason being that he was gaining too much
power and demonstrating his king-like abilities as a ruler. In fear, and in my
opinion jealousy, Brutus, along with the other senator conspirators, decided to
assassinate Caesar. After the assassination Brutus gave the speech that I
choose to make an imitation of in order to justify the conspirators murder of
Caesar.
In
analyzing the original speech I had to reread and evaluate the passage numerous
times in order to understand the early roman type of English that the speech
was written in. With each sentence I also decided to annotate the intended
message Brutus was trying to perceive. Ultimately, I concluded that Brutus was
trying to convince the public of Caesar’s ambition. To which Brutus utilized to
prove that Caesar’s tyrant was becoming a thing that eventually would not be able
to be controlled or stopped. Not that he murdered his best friend for his own
betterment, but for the good of Rome; was the justification he finally claimed.
Interpretation
of the speech was a key element in being able to successfully imitate Brutus’ words.
As a result, I decided to seek different interpretations of the speech. My
ideology was that perhaps I was reading Brutus’ speech in a different limelight
that it was not intended to be read as; and, as I mention before, the
interpretation of the speech would ultimately help me write a better imitation.
By comparing other interpretations of Brutus’ speech to the interpretation I
deciphered I believed it to be a better opportunity that would essentially
result in a final translation of Brutus’ speech. In order to do so, I compared
my translation to a website called Sparknotes’ modern text interpretation. What
I discovered was a close similarity between the two that helped me realize a
final translation to Brutus’ speech.
After
finally deciphering the speech I selected, it was time to begin forming my
imitation of the speech. In selecting an overall topic I knew I wanted to
relate my imitation to something bizarre, something that my audience would not
expect me to relate it to. Keep in mind Brutus’ intentions are to convince the
Empire of Rome that he killed Caesar for their betterment of Rome, and partly
to convince them not to murder him or any of the other conspirators. To have
this intention, but completely reverse the situation in which you would utilize
this speech limited the ways I could interpret it into. Regardless, I was set
on a humorous imitation from the start. Essentially, it is a chief reason why I
chose to use Brutus’ speech; because I wanted to reverse the overall
explanation for my speech from a serious explanation to a hilarious
explanation, at least through the reader’s eyes, not to the intended audience
in the speech. The intended audience in the speech is supposed to comprehend
this as a serious speech.
In
decided my topic I decided to go with speech to a peewee football team that
explained why their couch got fired and why I am replacing him. In a sense it
has the same intention as Brutus’ speech. Brutus kills Caesar in order to rule
the Roman Empire while I fire the head coach of the peewee football team in
order to become the head coach. The situation is similar, yet still extremely
different, however this is why I went with this topic; because no is expecting
this form of rhetoric to be orated to a bunch of eight year olds playing
football. Can you imagine if I actually gave this speech to a peewee football
team? The reactions would be hilarious to watch. The kids would obviously be
sad that Coach Michael is gone and the parents would be confused as to why I
decided to use this speech out of everything else I could have said. To
reiterate, my intentions aimed towards humor for the reader.
Furthermore,
I intended my imitation to be vague and general. If I would have hinted at the
fact that I was giving a speech to a peewee football team the ending would not
be as funny as it was intended to be. The way I see it the last sentence in my
speech is the punch line to a hilarious joke, simply because it builds a
curious momentum that raises the question as to who Michael is and who the narrator
is talking to.
In
the process of step two I realized substituting main words in my speech gave me
the element of surprise. By using words like failure, glory, victory, and honor
the reader is not expecting me to conclude with “lets go out there and win this
peewee football game.” If I were a stranger to my speech I would assume some
sort of war or at least something that does not relate to kids. The language I
use is not elementary and would probably only be understood to adults, which
makes it that more of a plot twist.
For
my final paragraph I took a few lines out of the movie Immortals and imitated them to relate to my speech. The lines I
imitated are from an army general hyping his troops for a battle that will
decide the fate of their lives. In relation I used it to pump of a bunch of
kids before a meaningless peewee football game. The imitation was unnecessary,
but I decided to fit it in because it gave the punch line that much more of a
surprise.
Overall
I enjoyed the imitatio project. It taught me that ancient rhetoric can be
translated into diverse manners and be used for any situation that ranges from
a hype of speech for troops before a war to a hype up speech for kids before a
football game. Nevertheless the ability to translate ancient rhetoric to modern
times is extremely lenient and can ultimately be a benefit.
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