Question

Read the excerpt from act 3, scene 1, of Julius Caesar. [ANTONY.] First, Marcus Brutus, will I shake with you— Next, Caius Cassius, do I take your hand— Now, Decius Brutus, yours;—now yours, Metellus;— Yours, Cinna;—and my valiant Casca, yours;— Though last, not last in love, yours, good Trebonius. Gentlemen all,—alas, what shall I say? My credit now stands on such slippery ground That one of two bad ways you must conceit me: Either a coward or a flatterer. That I did love thee, Caesar, O, 'tis true. If then thy spirit look upon us now, Shall it not grieve thee dearer than thy death, To see thy Antony making his peace, Shaking the bloody fingers of thy foes— Most noble!—In the presence of thy corse? What is the best summary of this monologue? Antony shakes all the conspirators’ hands, starting with Brutus and ending with Trebonius. He says he knows that they must not know what to think of him, since he was an ally of Caesar’s. Antony shakes the hands of all the conspirators and says he knows that his love for Caesar puts him in an unstable position. Then he imagines that it would break Caesar’s heart to see Antony making peace with his assassins. Antony makes peace with the conspirators and acknowledges how that would hurt Caesar. Antony laments making peace with the conspirators in the presence of Caesar’s body and wishes he would have done it after Caesar was buried.

Answer 1

Although it is a little bit confusing to discern the various options, the best summary of this monologue is Antony shakes the hands of all the conspirators and says he knows that his love for Caesar puts him in an unstable position. Then he imagines that it would break Caesar’s heart to see Antony making peace with his assassins.

This scene takes place right before Antony's praising oration over Caesar's corpse, and right after Brutus's speech in defense of their actions. Antony sincerely shakes the hands of the perpetrators, but, by doing so, he acknowledges that they might judge him as a coward or a flatterer, who is afraid of sharing Caesar's fate, and that Caesar's spirit might suffer from seeing him doing that.      

(Mark) Antony was a supporter of Julius Caesar and had served as his general, and when, as part of a conspiracy, he was assassinated at the hands of various Roman senators on the Ides of March of 44 BC, he eventually became his successor. He, nevertheless, spared the assassins a punishment, but eventually fought against two of them, Brutus and Cassius, in a civil war.