That one of two bad ways you must conceit me,
Either a coward or a flatterer.
(III. i. 191.)
And what more dexterous course could he adopt than to assert his devotion to Caesar without restraint, with undiminished emphasis: and at the same time to profess his respect for the conspirators, “the choice and master spirits of this age,” and his readiness to join them if they prove that Caesar deserved to die. This honourable and reasonable attitude, which honour and reason would in reality prescribe, must especially impress Brutus, to whom Antony is careful chiefly to address himself. He enters a doubtful suppliant; at the end of the scene not only are his life and credit safe, but he has won from Brutus’ magnanimity the means to overthrow him.
It is characteristic of Antony that he has no scruple about using the vantage ground he has thus acquired. He immediately determines to employ the liberty of speech accorded him against the men who have granted it. To Octavius’ servant, who enters ere he has well ended his soliloquy, he says:
Thou shalt not back till I have borne this corse
Into the market place: there shall I try,
In my oration, how the people take
The cruel issue of these bloody men.
(III. i. 291.)