decisive
movement of the denouement. The antagonists are now face to face. Brutus
and Cassius have done what Antony and Octavius hoped that they would do.
The opposing generals hold a brief parley in which Brutus intimates that
he is willing to effect a reconciliation, but Antony rejects his
proposals and bluntly charges him and Cassius with the wilful murder of
Caesar. Cassius reminds Brutus of his warning that Antony should have
fallen when Caesar did. Antony, Octavius, and their army retire, and the
scene closes with the noble farewell without hope between Brutus and
Cassius.

_Act V, Scene ii._ The opposing armies meet on the field, and a final
flare-up of hope in the breast of Brutus is indicated by his spirited
order to Messala to charge. The scene implies that Cassius was defeated
by being left without support by Brutus.

V. DENOUEMENT, CATASTROPHE, OR CONCLUSION (THE KNOT UNTIED)

_Act V, Scene iii._ The charge ordered by Brutus has been successful,
and Octavius has been driven back, but Cassius is thus left unguarded,
and Antony's forces surround him. He takes refuge on a hill and sends
Titinius to see "whether yond troops are friend or enemy." Believing
Titinius to be slain, he begs Pindarus to stab him, and Cassius dies
"even with the sword that kill'd" Caesar. With the same sword Titinius
then slays himself, and Brutus, when Messala bears the news to him,
exclaims in words that strike the keynote of the whole falling action
and denouement:

O Julius Caesar, thou art mighty yet!
Thy spirit walks abroad, and turns our swords
In our own proper entrails.

_Act V, Scene iv._ Like Hamlet, Brutus at the last is a man of supreme
action. He rallies his forces for a last attack. With hopeless failure
before him, he is at once a heroic figure and one of infinite pathos.
Young Cato falls. Lucilius is attacked; assuming the name of Brutus, he
is not killed but taken prisoner. Antony recognizes him and gives orders
that he be treated kindly.

_Act V, Scene v._ Brutus dies by his own sword, and his last words tell
the story of failure and defeat. Like a true Roman, he meets his doom
without a murmur of complaint. He had been true to his ideals. The
tragic denouement comes as the inevitable consequence, not of wilful
sin, but of a noble mistake. In death he commands the veneration of both
Antony and Octavius, who pronounce over his body the great
interpretation of his character, and in their speeches the tra