 Family Theater presents Gene Raymond, Wendell Corrie, and Tom Tully. From Hollywood, the Mutual Network in cooperation with Family Theater presents Wendell Corrie and Gene Raymond in William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. To introduce the drama, your host and narrator, Tom Tully. Thank you, Gene Baker. Family Theater's only purpose is to bring to everyone's attention a practice that must become an important part of our lives if we are to win peace for ourselves. Peace for our families and peace for the world. Family Theater urges you to pray. Pray together as a family. Tonight, Family Theater takes great pleasure in presenting William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar starring Wendell Corrie as Mark Antony and Gene Raymond as Brutus. How shall we know a man? By his deeds, history says there goes a conqueror, or perhaps there goes a god. Julius Caesar was labeled both of these, and sometime tyrant too, by his enemies and even by his friends. Brutus was Caesar's friend, but so disturbed was he where Caesar's power might lead Caesar that he joined the conspiracy which struck Caesar down. History must call Brutus an assassin. Yet this was the man of whom his enemy Mark Antony was to say, this was the noblest Roman of them all. Roman's son shines down upon a holiday. Caesar has returned in triumph from Munda in Spain where he has crushed in conclusive battle the sons of Pompeii. His frowning white statues are hung with colored scarves and have been bedecked with badges by an adoring populace. Caesar has come home. The adulation reaches such a fever pitch that Brutus, Caesar's friend, is bold to whisper worriedly. What means this shouting? I do fear the people choose Caesar for their king. The wily, casious Caesar's enemy takes advantage of this now. Aye, do you fear it? Then must I think you would not have it so? I would not, Cassius. Yet I love him well. Why, man, he death-destroyed the narrow world like a colossus, and we petty men walk under his huge legs and peep about to find ourselves dishonorable graves. He gods of death amaze me, a man of such temperate heart. The games are done, and Caesar is returning. Antonio's Caesar? Let me have men about me that are fat, sleek-headed men and such as sleeper knights. Young, casious, haphaline, and hungry look. He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous. Fear him not, Caesar. He's not dangerous. He's a noble Roman and well-given. Would he were fatter? But I fear him not. Yet if my name were liable to fear, I do not know the man I should avoid so soon as that spare Cassius. Caesar! Huh? Who calls? Who is it in the press that calls on me? I hear a tongue shweller than all the music cries, Caesar. Speak! Caesar is turned to hear. Beware the Ides of March! What man is that? A soothsayer bid you beware the Ides of March. Set him before me, let me see his face. Fellow, come from the throng. Look upon Caesar. What says thou to me now? Speak once again. Beware the Ides of March! He's a dreamer. Let us leave him. Pass! Brutus, as they pass by, plucked Casca by the sleeve. And he will, after his sour fashion, tell you what hath preceded were they note today. I will do so. You pulled me by the cloak. Would you speak with me? I, Casca, tell us what is chance today that Caesar looks so sad. That he was a crown offered him, and being offered him, he put it by with the back of his hand. Thus, and the people fell as shouted. Who offered him the crown? By Anthony. I saw Mark Anthony offer him a crown, and he put it by. Heard you that, Cassius? Caesar put it by. But for all that to my thinking, he would faint have had it. And then Anthony offered it to him again, and then he put it by again. But to my thinking, he was very low to lay his fingers off it. And then Anthony offered it the third time. Was the crown offered him thrice? Aye, yes. He put it the third time by. And after that, he came thus sad away. Aye. And he did. And farewell. There was more foolery yet, if I could remember it. You dine with me tomorrow, Casca. I will expect you. Do so. Farewell, both. Men at some time are masters of their fates. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings. Brutus and Caesar. What should be in that Caesar? Why should that name be sounded more than yours? Write them together, yours is his fairer name. Sound them, doth become the mouth as well. Weigh them, tis is heavy. Conjure with them. Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Caesar. Now in the names of all the gods at once, upon what meat that this our Caesar feed, that he has grown so great. Aye, so it is. For this time I will leave you. Tomorrow, if you please, to speak with me, come home to me and I will wait for you. I will do so. Till then, think of the world. Well, Brutus, now art noble, yet I see thy honorable metal may be wrought from that it is disposed. For who so firm that cannot be seduced? Whoever knew the heavens, Minnesota? You are dull, Casca. You look pale and gaze. Put on fear and cast yourself in wonder to see the strange impatience of the heavens. Now could I, Casca, name to thee a man most like this dreadful night that thunders, lightens, open graves and roars as doth the lion in the capital? Aye, it is Caesar that you mean, is it not, Cassius? Indeed they say the senators tomorrow are meant to establish Caesar as a king. Now know, you, Casca, that I have moved already some certain of the noblest-minded Romans to undergo with me an enterprise of honorable, dangerous consequence in the complexion of the element in favors like the work we have in hand. Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible. Since Cassius first did wet me against Caesar, I have not slept. Between the acting of the dreadful thing and the first motion, all the interim is like a phantasma or hideous dream. It must be by his death and for my part I know no personal cause to spurn at him. But for the general, he would be crowned how that might change his nature. There's the question, crown him? And then I grant we put a sting in him that at his will he may do danger with. And therefore, think him as a serpent's egg, which hatched, would as his kind grow mischievous, then kill him in the shell. And so, with fear of Caesar's harm, not that it had been done, but that were only possible, noble Brutus gave his scruples over to the wily Cassius. But even as the terrible alliance formed around him, Brutus insisted on its lofty purpose. The others, being lesser men, became excited at the scent of blood. Basically, were they stirred by the morrow's work. Assassination. Shall no man else be touched but only Caesar? This is well urged. I think it is not meat, Mark Antony, so well-beloved of Caesar should outlive Caesar. Our course will seem too bloody, Cassius, to cut the head off and then hack the limbs like wrath and death and envy afterwards. We all stand up against the spirit of Caesar and in the spirit of men there is no blood. Oh, that we could come by Caesar's spirit and not dismember Caesar, but alas, Caesar must bleed for it. And, gentle friends, let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully. Which so appearing to the common eyes we shall be called purgers, not murderers. And for Mark Antony, think not of him, for he can do no more than Caesar's arm when Caesar's head is off. Our heaven, our earth, have been at peace tonight. Thrice hath Calpurnia in her sleep, cried out, help, oh, they murder Caesar. Servant Gobid the priest, do present sacrifice. Bring me the opinions of their success. I will, my lord. What mean you, Caesar? Think you to walk forth? You shall not stir out of your house today. Caesar shall forth. The things that threatened me near looked but on my back. When they shall see the face of Caesar, they have vanished. The cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once. Caesar shall go forth. My lord. But say the augurus. They would not have you to stir forth this day. Alas, my lord, your wisdom is consumed in confidence. Do not go forth today. Call it my fear that keeps you in this house and not your own. Mark Antony shall say I am not well. And for thy humour, I will stay at home. Odysseus, he shall tell them so. Caesar, all hail! Good morrow, worthy Caesar. I come to fetch you to the Senate House. And you are coming very happy time to bear my greeting to the Senators and tell them that I will not come today. Now you know, the Senate has concluded to give this day a crown to mighty Caesar. If you will send them words you will not come, their minds may change. If Caesar hide himself, shall they not whisper? Low, Caesar is afraid. How foolish do your fears seem now, Calpurnia. I have named I did yield to them. Give me my robe, for I will go. Caesar. Welcome, Cassius. What, Brutus, are you stirred so early too? If you please, Caesar, to be so good to Caesar as to hear me, beware the Ides of March. The Ides of March shall come. Aye, Caesar, but not gone. What is this fellow mad, sir? Or give place! Let him speak. All he makes to Caesar, mark him. My fear of purpose is discovered. Casca be sudden, for we fear prevention. Are we all ready? What is now amiss that Caesar and his Senate must redress? Cassius, Casca, Cassius. Now, speak hands for me! Brutus. What is this? Bring me for my cause in this assembly any dear friend to Caesar. To him I say that Brutus' love to Caesar was no less than his. Friend, demand why Brutus rose up. This is my answer. Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more. You rather Caesar were living and die all slaves than Caesar were dead to live all free men? As Caesar loved me, I weep for him. As he was fortunate, I rejoiced at it. As he was valiant, I honor him. But, as he was ambitious, I slew him. Who is here so base that would be a bondman? If any speak for him I have offended. Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman? If any speak for him I have offended. Who is here so vile who would not love his country? If any speak for him I have offended. I pause for a reply. Here comes Mark Antony. Though he had no hand in Caesar's death, he shall receive the benefit of his dying, a place in the commonwealth as which of you shall not. Welcome, Mark Antony. O mighty Caesar, doth thou lie so low? Are all like conquest glories, triumphs, spoils shrunk to this little measure? Fairly well. I hope that you should give me reasons why and wherein Caesar was dangerous. Our reasons are so full of good regard that were you, Antony, the son of Caesar. You should be satisfied. That's all I seek. And am moreover, suitor that I may speak in the order of his funeral? You shall, Mark Antony. No, not what you do. Do not consent that Antony speak by leave and by permission. And that we are contented Caesar shall have all true rights and lawful ceremonies. It shall advantage us more than do us wrong. I know not what may fall. I like it not. Good countrymen, let me depart alone and for my sake stay here with Antony. Do grace to Caesar's corpse and grace his speech tending to Caesar's glories. Which, Mark Antony, by our permission is allowed to make. Gentlemen, lend me your ears. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them. The good is often teared with their bones. So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus have told you Caesar was ambitious. If it were so, it were a grievous fault. And grievously has Caesar answered it. Here, under the leave of Brutus and the rest, for Brutus is an honorable man. So are they all, all honorable men, come I to speak at Caesar's funeral. He was my friend, faithful and just to me. But Brutus says he was ambitious and Brutus is an honorable man. He has 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's stuff. Yet Brutus says he was ambitious and Brutus is an honorable man. You all did see that on the lopercow, I thrice presented him a kingly crown, which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition? Yet Brutus says he was ambitious and sure, he is an honorable man. I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, but here I am to speak what I do know. You all did love him once, not without cause. What cause withholds you then to mourn for him? Oh judgment thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason. Bear with me, my heart is in the coffin of Caesar, and I must pause till it come back to me. Me thinks there is much reason in his sayings. Caesar has had great wrong. Caesar would not take the crown therefore it certainly was not ambitious. Now mark him, he begins to speak. Oh masters, if I were disposed to stir your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage, I should do Brutus wrong and Cassius wrong. Who you all know are honorable men. I will not do them wrong. I rather choose to wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you, than I will wrong such honorable men, whose daggers have stabbed Caesar. Jesus! My sweet friends, let me not stir you up to such a sudden flood of mutiny. I come not friends to steal away your hearts. I am no art or as Brutus is, but as you know me all, a plain blunt man that loved my friend and that they know full well that gave me public leave to speak of him. For I have neither wit nor words nor worth, action nor utterance, nor the power of speech to stir man's blood. I only speak right out. I tell you that which you cells do know show you sweet Caesar's wounds poor, poor dumb mouths and bid them speak for me. But were I Brutus and Brutus Antony, there were an Antony would ruffle up your spirits and put a tongue in every wound of Caesar that should move the stones of Rome to rise and mutiny. Take what cost I will. Antony seizing on this moment of riot and disorder formed a triumvirate with the boyish Octavia Caesar and the scapegoat Lepidus. They joined their legions and marched in search of the only threat enemies of Brutus and Cassius. Cassius! I have here received letters that young Octavius and Mark Antony come down upon us with a mighty power bending their expedition toward Philippi. Myself have letters of the self-same tenor. What do you think of marching to Philippi presently? I do not think it good. You're the reason. This it is. It is better that the enemy seek us. So shall he waste his means, weary his soldiers, doing himself offence whilst we lying still full of rest, defense and nimbleness. Good reasons must of force give place to better. The people between Philippi and this ground do stand but in a forced affection for they have grudged us contribution. The enemy marching along by them by them shall make a fuller number up come on refreshed, new-added and encouraged. From which advantage we shall cut him off if at Philippi we do face him there. These people at our back. Then with your will go on. We shall march along ourselves and meet them at Philippi. When this news reached the rival camp. Oh, what message comes? Prepare your generals. The enemy comes in gallant show. Their bloody sign of battle is hung out and something to be done immediately. They stand and would have parley. Mark Antony, shall we give sign of battle? No, Octavius. We will answer on their charge. Make forth. The generals would have some words. Words before applause. Is it so, countryman? Not that we love words better as you do. Good words are better than bad strokes, Octavius. In your bad strokes, Brutus you give good words. Witness the hole you made in Caesar's heart. Crying long live. Hail Caesar. Come, come. The cause. If arguing make us sweat the proof it will turn to redder drops. Look, I draw a sword against conspirators. When thank you that the sword goes up again never till Caesar's three and thirty wounds be well avenged. Come, Anthony, away. Defiance traitors, hurry in your teeth. If you dare fight today come to the field. I perceive but cold demeanor and Octavius' wing. Sudden push gives them the overthrow. Ride, soldiers. Let them all come down. So saying Brutus launches an impetuous charge although the legions of his four Octavius are surrounded his ally Cassius is left unguarded on his flank and open to attack. Mark Anthony sees the opportunity and surrounds outnumbered Cassius. Up a hill from which the carnage may be overlooked Cassius watches and gives way to despair. Begging his servant hold his sword he throws himself upon its point and dies. The word of this sad news is brought to Brutus. He succumbs to all the haunting fears of conscience which have nagged him since that fateful day. The Ides of March. Oh Julius Caesar, thou art mighty yet. Thy spirit walks abroad and turns our swords in our own proper entrails. Fly, my lord, there is no tarrying here. Peace, my countrymen. My heart doth joy that yet in all my life I found no man but he was true to me. I shall have glory by this living day more than Octavius and Mark Anthony by this vile conquest shall attain untrue. Fly, my lord, fly! Hence I will follow. My trippy strato, stay by thy lord. Thou art a fellow of good respect if my life hath had some snatch of honor in it. Hold then my sword and turn away thy face while I do run upon it. Wilt thou, strato? Give me your hand first. Fare you well, my lord. Caesar, now be still. I killed not thee with half so good a will. This was the noblest Roman of them all. All the conspirators save only he. Did what they did in envy of great Caesar. He only, in 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. This is Tom Tully again. Family theater is dedicated to the homes of our nation and therefore to our nation because a nation is after all only a family of families and a family is a little nation in itself. The major virtues of one are the major virtues of the other. A strong, enduring nation is one that has those very virtues which can make a family survive all the evil attacks which can be launched against it. These virtues are solidarity and unity. The kind of solidarity and unity which comes from respect for one another. A common desire for the right and good. A sense of the personal dignity of every one of God's creatures. So one's love of one's country begins at home in one's own home. The beginning is with kindness and charity and respect for each member of the family. As John Henry Newman once put it, we fulfill the injunction to love all men by the act of loving those nearest to us. Every fine family is a contribution to the nation as a whole. The nation that prays together will remain strong and united just as the family that prays together stays together. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. From Hollywood Family Theater has brought you Gene Raymond and Wendell Corey and William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar with Tom Tully as your host and narrator. Others in our cast for Tudor Owen, Raymond Burr, Howard McNeer, Bill Lally, Bob Cole, Stan Waxman, Charlotte Fletcher and Don Doolittle. The script was adapted by Byrne Driscoll with music convolved and conducted by Harry Zimmerman and was directed for Family Theater by J. F. Mansfield. This series of Family Theater broadcasts is made possible by the thousands of you who felt the need for this type of program, by the mutual network which has responded to this need, and by the hundreds of stars of stage, screen and radio who have so unselfishly given of their time and talent to appear on our Family Theater stage. To them and to you, our humble thanks. This is Gene Baker expressing the wish of Family Theater that the blessing of God may be upon you and your home and inviting you to join us next week at this time when Family Theater will present William Lundigan in the Black Tulip. Join us, won't you? Throughout the world and originates in the Hollywood studios of the world's largest network, the mutual broadcasting system.