...Antony's funeral speech for Caesar in Julius Caesar, which suggests that a sympathetic 'commons' might 'kiss dead Caesar's wounds, And dip their napkins in his sacred blood' (3.2. 127, 129-30), evokes the spectacle of Catholic relic-hunters at executions. 50 Sonnet 124's reference...

...closet. Tis his will. Let but the commons hear this testament, Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read, And they would go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds And dip their napkins in his sacred blood — 145 Yea, beg a hair of him for memory And, dying, mention it within their wills, Bequeathing it...

...'tis his will. Let but the commons hear this testament — Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read — And they would go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds, And dip their napkins in his sacred blood; Yea, beg a hair of him for memory, And dying, mention it within their wills, Bequeathing it as a rich...

...hands is merely the blood of murder: "Let but the commons hear [Caesar's] testament," he predicts, "And they would go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds, / And dip their napkins in his sacred blood, /Yea, beg a hair of him for memory" (3. 2. 134-38). 92 The exact nature of the sacredness Antony attributes...

...remains in the minds of the plebeians, as Antony intends, Let but the commons hear this testament . . . And they would go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds, And dip their napkins in his sacred blood; Yea beg a hair of him for memory, And dying mention it within their wills Bequeathing it as a rich...

...aloud. "Let but the commons hear this testament,"39 he had exclaimed when he first mentioned the will, "And they would go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds, /And dip their napkins in his sacred blood." ° This rhetorical association of Caesar's will with bloody cloth helps Antony equate Caesar's bequests,...