Mark Antony

Who He Is

Mark Antony is the friend and right hand of Julius Caesar, the runner at the Lupercal festival and the one who offers him the crown three times. Cassius fears him as a shrewd schemer; Brutus takes him for a man of sport, revelry, and company, and spares him because he thinks that, without Caesar's head, he has only the strength of his arm. He speaks tenderly to the body, shakes the murderers' hands, asks to speak at the funeral, and turns the crowd against them. Then, together with Octavius and Lepidus, he marks who must die and, at Philippi, defeats Cassius's wing and protects Lucilius. In the end, he pronounces Brutus's eulogy.

Trajectory

In Act I, Scene 2, at the Lupercal procession, he runs the race Caesar ordered him to run, with the task of touching Calpurnia, and says that when Caesar commands, it is done. He defends Cassius before Caesar, saying he is not dangerous and is a noble Roman. It is he who offers the crown, three times, according to Casca.

In Act II, Scene 1, he is not present, but he is the subject of talk. Cassius wants him to fall with Caesar, because, being beloved of the chief, he may be a shrewd schemer, and Brutus spares him: he is only one of Caesar's limbs, given to sports, a dissolute life, and company, and if he loves Caesar, all he will do is kill himself with grief. Trebonius says he will live and laugh at this later.

In Act III, Scene 1, he is held outside the Senate by Trebonius and, when the blow falls, flees home in fright. He sends a servant to kneel before Brutus and say that he honors Brutus and that, living, Brutus is dearer to him than Caesar dead. He arrives, sees the body, and offers himself to the assassins, saying he will find no time so good to die as the hour of Caesar's death. Brutus welcomes him, and Antony shakes the hand of each one, naming them all. He asks Caesar's pardon for having shaken the hands of those who killed him and compares him to a stag struck down by many princes. He obtains leave to speak at the funeral, and Cassius warns Brutus, to no avail. Alone, he swears over the body, prophetically, that a curse will fall on men, that civil fury will seize Italy, and that Caesar's spirit, coming from hell with Ate at its side, will let slip the dogs of war. He sends Octavius's servant back to tell his master that Rome is not yet safe for him. In Act III, Scene 2, after Brutus, he mounts the platform:

He repeats that Brutus is an honorable man until the phrase becomes an accusation, recalls that Caesar brought in prisoners whose ransoms filled the treasury, wept for the poor, and three times refused the crown that he himself offered him. He says he would rather not read the will and keeps the reading for when the crowd demands it. He comes down, shows Caesar's cloak, points to where Cassius's dagger passed and where Casca's knife opened the tear, and says that Brutus was Caesar's angel. He says he is no orator, but a plain man who shows the wounds, the mouths that cannot speak, and asks them to speak for him. When the crowd rises, he holds them back to read the will: seventy-five drachmas to every citizen and Caesar's gardens to the people. When the citizens leave to burn the conspirators' houses, he says that now disaster is loose, and that they may take whatever road they wish.

In Act IV, Scene 1, with Octavius and Lepidus, he strikes out the names of those who must die and agrees to include his nephew, Publius, in exchange for Lepidus's brother. When Lepidus leaves to fetch the will, he calls him an insignificant man, good for errands, and says he will carry the honors as the ass carries gold, to groan and sweat, and will then be dismissed to graze. When Octavius reminds him that Lepidus is a proven soldier, he answers that his horse is one too, and that he has more days of life than the young man. He warns that Brutus and Cassius are raising troops and that the alliance must be strengthened.

In Act V, Scene 1, at Philippi, he argues with Octavius over each one's position, hears that he imposes his own, and answers Brutus at the parley with the hole he made in Caesar's heart. He accuses the conspirators of having bowed and fawned like dogs before the blow, and calls Casca a dog who struck from behind. In Act V, Scene 3, he invades Cassius's tents and surrounds the rest of his troops. In Act V, Scene 4, on discovering that the prisoner is Lucilius and not Brutus, he says he would rather have men like him as friends and orders him well treated. In Act V, Scene 5, he reaches Brutus's body and says:

Themes Embodied

Antony uses words as the opposite of Brutus. Brutus speaks in prose, asks to be believed on his honor, and offers an argument; Antony speaks in verse, says he is no orator, and trades the argument for things the people see and gain: the cloak, the wounds, the will, the drachmas. He repeats "Brutus is an honorable man" until it turns into irony. Before the same crowd, one wins applause, the other wins action.

The man who knows when to read the will also knows when to discard Lepidus. In Rome, Antony offers himself to death, speaks tenderly to the body, and shakes the murderers' hands, and in Act IV he strikes out names, including that of his own nephew. Each gesture serves the moment.

The final eulogy is the only point where the orator does not seem to calculate: Antony recognizes in Brutus what the other conspirators lacked, and says it to the dead enemy, before Octavius. The play leaves open whether this is generosity or the last gesture of a rhetoric that always knew what it was saying. Power divides, in this pair of victors, between the one who speaks and the one who commands: the scene in which Antony calls Octavius Caesar and hears his order already shows where power will pass. Language and Narration is Antony's weapon, and he uses it to reverse the meaning of the crime.

Relationships

• Mark Antony: the historical Roman general and politician. What is described here is the character of the play, not the historical man.
• Julius Caesar: the friend he serves and buries with words, and whose spirit he invokes to let slip the dogs of war.
• Brutus: the man who spares him and to whom he answers with the eulogy of the dead enemy.
• Cassius: the only one who wanted to kill him, and whom he defeats at Philippi.
• Octavius: the young ally whom Antony thinks he can guide and who does not yield his position to him at Philippi.
• Casca: the conspirator he calls the dog who struck Caesar from behind.