Marc Antony's Speech from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest—
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men—
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath 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 stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
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 honourable 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?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.

What is the meaning of the word grievous in line 7 of this speech?
Difficult
Political
Severe
Sorrowful

Respuesta :

I would say sorrowful due to the context, however difficult would also make sense. As it is referring to the fault as his downfall I would stick with 'sorrowful' as the answer.
The answer is actually severe. It can’t be difficult, because it doesn’t make sense in the context of the statement. Nor could it be sorrowful, because at the moment Antony is the only one who see’s his death as such. Nor would it be political, because Caesar’s death in the play isn’t entirely politically driven. Therefore only sever could make sense, because it matches the context of the sentence, the tone of the speech, AND the plot of the play Julius Caesar.