In Julius Caesar ActIII sceneIII I have a Doubt regarding Mark Antony's words Please Solve my problem?

Question

Antony says-"O, now you weep; and , I perceive, you feel The dint of pity:these are gracious drops.please explain this line.

Answer 1

When Anthony started his speech, the crowd was glad Caesar was dead, because Brutus had convinced them that Caesar had been ambitious and cared only for his own power, not the people of Rome. Marc Anthony was sad that none would weep for Caesar, after all the good he'd done for them.

"You all did love him once, not without cause
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?"

[...]

"But yesterday the word of Caesar might
have stood against the world, now lies he there
and none so poor to do him reference"
(meaning no one will "lower themselves" to pay dead Caesar their respects.")

As the speech goes on, Marc Anthony talks about all the great things Caesar did for the people of Rome, and reads out Caesars will, where he leaves most of his possessions to the poor (for examples, his gardens are to be turned into public parts, and money is to be given to the poor).

Finally, people begin to remember Caesar as a great and generous leader and start crying over his death.

"O, now you weep; and , I perceive, you feel The dint of pity:these are gracious drops"

Anthony is saying, basically "Finall you're weeping and I see you're beginning to feel pity/sympathy Caesar - that's a good thing."

From there, eh goes on to make people angry at the conspirators, so that by the end of the speech, the enraged mob rushes to Brutus' and Cassius' house sto burn them down.

The beauty of it is that Marc Anthony does all this NOT by speaking badly of the conspirators - which he had to swear not to do to get their permission to speak in public at all - but only by praising Caesar and talking to people about their feelings, while at the same time "warning" them against blaming the "honorable men" (i.e. the conspirators).

So he manages to get the crowd to do what he thinks they should do - attack those who slew Caesar - without breaking his vow.

Hope this helps. :)

Answer 2

Its Act 3 Scene 2.

Well its just that after Brutus had spoken the mob had believed that Brutus had done the best and that Caesar was too ambitions and hence they didn't feel any pity. But now after Anthony had told them the truth the begin to understand. It just means that

"You are all crying now, I think you feel pity for Caesar. What you are giving to Caesar in return are those gracious drops -tears."

I think you are in 10th facing the board exam tommorow?
If so All the best. I am writing it too.

If not..... hope you understood it.

Cheers!!!