Shakespeare and Human Character

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 09.03.06

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction
  2. Rationale
  3. Objectives
  4. Strategies
  5. Activities and Lesson Plans
  6. Assessment
  7. Bibliography
  8. Teacher Resources
  9. Filmography
  10. Appendix 1: Sample Quotes
  11. Appendix 2: Implementing New Mexico State and District 6 th Grade Standards
  12. Appendix 4: Overview of Step Up to Writing
  13. Notes

A Tide in the Affairs of Men: Looking at Leadership in Shakespeare's Roman Plays

Terri Blackman

Published September 2009

Tools for this Unit:

Appendix 1: Sample Quotes

Regarding Caesar:

I could be well moved, if I were as you;

If I could pray to move, prayers would move me;

But I am constant as the Northern Star,

Of whose true-fixed and resting quality

There is no fellow in the firmament.

The skies are painted with unnumb'red sparks,

They are all fire and every one doth shine;

But there's but one in all doth hold his place.

So in the world; 'tis furnished well with men,

And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive;

Yet in the number I do know but one

That unassailable holds on his rank,

Unshaked of motion, and that I am he

Let me a little show it, even in this -

That I was constant Cimber should be banished,

And constant do remain to keep him so.

Julius Caesar, Julius Caesar, Act Three, Scene One, 55-73.

He hath brought many captives home to Rome,

Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill;

Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?

When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept;

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honorable man.

You all did see that on the Lupercal

I thrice presented him a kingly crown,

Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?

Antony, Julius Caesar, Act Three, Scene Two, 90-99.

Regarding Brutus:

O, he sits high 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.

Casca, Julius Caesar, Act One, Scene Three, 157-160.

This was the noblest Roman of them all.

All the conspirators save only he

Did that they did in envy of great Caesar;

He, only in a general honest thought

And common good to all, made one of them.

His life was gentle, and the elements

So mixed in him that Nature might stand up

And say to all the world," This was a man!"

Antony, Julius Caesar, Act Five , Scene Five, 68-75.

Regarding Antony:

Post back with speed and tell him what hath chanced.

Here is a mourning Rome, a dangerous Rome,

No Rome of safety for Octavius yet.

Hie hence and tell him so. Yet stay awhile;

Thou shalt no back till I have borne this corse

Into the marketplace; there shall I try

In my oration how the people take

The cruel issue of these bloody men;

According to the which, thou shalt discourse

To young Octavius of the state of things.

Lend me your hand.

Antony, Julius Caesar, Act Three, Scene One, 287-297

Take but good note, and you shall see in him

The triple pillar of the world transformed

Into a strumpet's fool. Behold and see.

Philo, Antony and Cleopatra, Act One, Scene One, 11-13.

Regarding Cassius:

Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet I see

Thy honorable mettle may be wrought

From that it is disposed; therefore it is meet

That noble minds keep ever with their likes;

For who so firm that cannot be seduced?

Cassius, Julius Caesar, Act One, Scene Two, 308-312.

Now know you, Casca, I have moved already

Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans

To undergo with me an enterprise

Of honorable dangerous consequence;

And I do know, by this they stay for me

In Pompey's porch; for now, this fearful night,

There is no stir or walking in the streets,

And the complexion of the element

In favor's like the work we have in hand,

Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible.

Cassius, Julius Caesar, Act One, Scene Three, 125-130.

Regarding Octavius:

Antony Octavius, lead your battle softly on

Upon the left hand of the even field.

Octavius Upon the right hand I; keep thou the left.

Antony Why do you cross me in this exigent?

Octavius I do not cross you; but I will do so.

Julius Caesar, Act Five, Scene One, 16-20.

'Tis done already, and the messenger gone.

I have told him Lepidus was grown too cruel,

The he his high authority abused

And did deserve his change; for what I have conquered,

I grant him part; but then in his Armenia,

And other of his conquered kingdoms, I

Demand the like.

Caesar (Octavius), Antony and Cleopatra, Act Three, Scene Six, 31-37.

Regarding Cleopatra:

The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne,

Burned on the water: the poop was beaten gold;

Purple the sails, and so perfumèd that

The winds were lovesick with them; the oars were silver,

Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke and made

The water which they beat to follow faster,

As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,

It beggared all description: she did lie

In her pavilion, cloth-of-gold of tissue,

O'erpicturing that Venus where we see

The fancy outwork nature:

Enobarbus, Antony and Cleopatra, Act Two, Scene Two, 197-207.

Sink Rome, and their tongues rot

That speak against us! A charge we bear i' th' war,

And as the president of my kingdom will

Appear there for a man. Speak not against it,

I will not stay behind.

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