a famous ancestor of Brutus to win him over. Brutus sees that these people do not “love” him as well a lover. They love him as a would-be ruler. They want him to live up to his famous ancestry and once again defeat an “evil”“By all your vows of love, and that great vow which did incorporate and make us one” (Portia, Act II, line 273, Scene III). Now here we are with real, true love. What Portia is saying to Brutus is, I love you and I want you to be able to trust me with whatever it is that is bugging you. This is when of course Brutus has made up his mind to betray his friend by killing him. He is going to kill Caesar and he’s not feeling to happy about this. Portia wants her husband to be able to trust her, because of the vows of forever that they took on their wedding day. “Caesar beware of Brutus; take heed of Cassuis; come not near Casca; have an eye to Cinna; trust not Trebonius; mark well Metellus Cimber; Decius; Brutus love thee not…” (Artemidorus, Act II, Scene III, line 1-4). What “Art” is saying here is that Brutus is not a trustworthy friend. He is not someone that you want to be near and someone who is out to do harm to you. He is not the friend that you think him to be. Beware Caesar.“Mark Antony shall not love Caesar dead so well a Brutus living” (the words of Mark Antony as told to the murders by a servant, Act III, Scene I, line 33). The big moment has come and gone. Caesar is now dead. What Mark is saying here is that, ‘hey Caesars dead. Yeah I looked up to this guy and he was great but he’s dead. I can’t look up to a dead person, then I’d be looking down. Now I have you, Brutus, to look up to. You are the new cool guy.’“With this I depart, that, as I slew my best lover for the good of Rome” (Brutus, Act III, Scene II, line 45). Brutus just got through telling all the peasants that the death of...
