Having Mr. Pagsi over for his talk to the HEdCen faculty and staff about Teaching As A Vocation last Friday (14 September 2007) brought back a flood of memories for me. He was my first year high school teacher in both English and Filipino, and my mentor in the Dulaang Sibol, the Ateneo High School drama group/brotherhood.

Learning to love the English language was among the gifts we received from Mr. Pagsi in our lit course. He introduced us to the works of the Bard, and the first Shakespearean play we took up (if I remember correctly; this was over three decades ago!) was Julius Caesar.

For one major English assignment, he asked us to pick any soliloquy from the tragedy to memorize and recite in class. Most of my classmates went for the classic “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears” speech of Marc Antony from Act III, Scene 2. I chose a less familiar soliloquy, still by Marc Antony, taken from Act III, Scene 1, where Antony stands alone, grieving over the corpse of Julius Caesar, despairing and seething with rage, swearing to avenge his lord’s murder:

ANTONY

O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,
That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!
Thou art the ruins of the noblest man
That ever lived in the tide of times.
Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood!
Over thy wounds now do I prophesy,–
Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips,
To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue–
A curse shall light upon the limbs of men;
Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy;
Blood and destruction shall be so in use
And dreadful objects so familiar
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quarter’d with the hands of war;
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds:
And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
Cry ‘Havoc,’ and let slip the dogs of war;
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.

This brief but emotionally stunning piece bears the power that only words of righteous grief can possess. For sheer imagery alone, the scene combines nearly unparalleled gore and intimacy and pain. Despite never having watched it staged, I saw in my mind’s eye how Antony, kneeling and cradling the lifeless bloodied Caesar in his arms, blinded by tears and wracked with helpless guilt for not having been around to protect his king, made his wretched and grisly oath.

Ahh, how vividly I remember the passion that Mr. Pagsi inspired from his students…

Posted in: Exit Stage Write, Reflectcelfer | | September 2007