INTRODUCTION ARGUMENT OF THE PLAY “HE TRAGEDIE OF JULIUS CÆSAR' is of the Roman general and the civil war which followed. Cæsar is not the hero. The chief position is held by Brutus, and the final climax is attained with his death. Julius Cæsar is accorded a popular triumph in Rome on account of his victories. Mark Antony, his friend, offers him a crown, which is declined. Meantime Cassius and other enemies of Cæsar plan a conspiracy against him and induce Brutus, a noble Roman, to join it. In Act II some of the conspirators come to Cæsar's house to urge his attendance at the Senate, Cæsar being minded to beware the Ides of March' and stay at home on this ominous day. He goes with them and (Act III) is shortly afterward stabbed by each conspirator in turn. Mark Antony obtains permission to deliver a funeral oration. Brutus speaks first and wins public approval for what has been done. Antony's speech, however, cancels this effect and sets the populace so furiously against the conspirators that they flee the city. In Act IV Brutus and Cassius collect an army in their support against that of a triumvirate of Cæsar's partizans. Brutus is visited by the ghost of Cæsar, who warns him that they will meet again at Philippi. In Act V the two armies engage at Philippi, when the battle is lost to Brutus and Cassius, and both these leaders find means to end their lives. SOURCES As in the case of Coriolanus' and Anthonie and Cleopatra,' Shakespeare found much of his material for Julius Cæsar' already fashioned in prose in Sir Thomas North's celebrated version of Plutarch's Lives,' particularly those of Brutus, Cæsar, and Antony. The playwright not only borrowed from the biographer in the plot and catastrophes, but many of the speeches themselves are merely poetic paraphrases of North's language. Notable variations from this rule occur in the orations of Brutus and Antony over the body of Cæsar, neither of these speeches being suggested by North. No source for them is forthcoming, unless we find traces of similar thought to Antony's speech in Appian's History of the Civil War' (translation of 1578), and a likeness to Brutus's harangue in Belleforest's History of Hamlet.' The last two sources, however, are mere conjecture, and must not give rise to the supposition that Shakespeare was slavishly indebted to earlier writers for this play. Where parallels can be found in North's Plutarch, his most direct source, the playwright's transforming touch is most evident, molding prose narrative into lines and scenes of poetic and dramatic beauty. For stage representation, also, the original chronicle is much condensed: Cæsar's triumph is made coincident with the Lupercalia,' separated 6 from it historically by six months; the two battles of Philippi, really twenty days apart, are merged into one; the assassination of Cæsar, the funeral orations, and the arrival of Octavius are placed on the same day, though intervals actually occurred. Plutarch states that Cæsar was killed in the Curia Pompeiana. Shakespeare places the event in the Capitol, but follows other English writers in this, the earliest being Chaucer, in his Monk's Tale.' Other plays on this popular subject both preceded and followed Shakespeare's; but it is improbable that he was indebted to any predecessor. He himself is evidence that he knew of one such play. In Hamlet' Polonius says that in his university days he did enact Julius Cæsar "' and was killed in the Capitol' by Brutus. Richard Edes's Latin play, Cæsaris Interfecti,' was played in Oxford in 1582; and this play is probably the one Shakespeare had in mind. Gosson, in his School of Abuse' (1579), mentions Cæsar and Pompey.' Machyn refers in his Diary' to a play on Julius Cæsar, produced as early as 1562. Henslowe's " Diary' alludes to a production of Cæsar and Pompey' in 1594. Shakespeare's play called forth several rival productions, the first being by Munday, Webster, Drayton, and others, entitled Cæsar's Fall' (1602). DURATION OF THE ACTION The historical period extends from the triumph of Cæsar, October, 45 B.C., to the battle of Philippi, in the autumn of the year 42 B.C. The time represented on the stage is six days, with intervals: Day 1, Act I, scenes i and ii. Interval. Day 2, Act I, scene iii. Day 3, Acts II and III. |