JULIUS CAESAR

tragedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, produced in 15991600 and published in the First Folio of 1623 from a transcript of a promptbook. Based on Sir Thomas North's 1579 translation (via a French version) of Plutarch's Bioi paralleloi (Parallel Lives), the drama takes place in 44 BC, after Caesar has returned to Rome. Fearing Caesar's ambition, Cassius forms a conspiracy among Roman republicans. He convinces the reluctant BrutusCaesar's trusted friendto join them. Brutus, troubled and sleepless, reveals his dark secret to his wife, Portia. Caesar's wife, Calpurnia, fears for his life, but her concerns are rebuffed. Then, as planned, Caesar is slain in the Senate on March 15, the ides of March. His friend Mark Antony, who has expediently accepted the bloodied hands of the conspirators, gives a stirring funeral oration that inspires the crowd to turn against them. Octavius, Caesar's nephew, forms a triumvirate with Antony and Lepidus; Brutus and Cassius are eventually defeated at the Battle of Philippi, where they kill themselves to avoid further dishonour. The play has been called the tragedy of Brutus, an honourable man caught up in a fate he cannot understand. Shakespeare examines the nature of rebellion and political power and employs dramatic irony to great effect. The figure of Julius Caesar held particular fascination for the Elizabethans. He was a soldier, scholar, and politician (Francis Bacon held him in special regard for the universality of his genius); he had been killed by his greatest friend (Shakespeare alluded to the bastard hand of Brutus in Henry VI, Part 2); and he was seen as the first Roman to perceive and, in part, to achieve the benefits of a monarchical state. Shakespeare's Caesar appears in just three scenes and is murdered before the play is half finished, though several characters respond to and reflect upon the central fact of the great man. This is the dramatic strategy of an ironist, or of a writer who wishes to question human behaviour and to observe interactions and consequences. In fact, Caesar influences the whole play, for he appears after his death as a bloodstained corpse and as a ghost before battle. Both Brutus and Cassius die conscious of Caesar and even speak to him as if he were present. And then his heir takes command, to part the glories of what is for him a happy day. In other ways Julius Caesar is shaped differently from the histories and tragedies that precede it, as if in manner as in subject matter Shakespeare was making decisive changes. The scene moves only from Rome to the battlefield, and with this new setting language becomes more restrained, firmer, and sharper. Extensive descriptive images are few, and single words such as Roman, honour, love, friend, and proper names are repeated as if to enforce contrasts and ironies. In performance this sharp verbal edgelinked with commanding performances and the various excitements of debate, conspiracy, private crises, political eloquence, mob violence, supernatural portents, personal antagonisms, battle, and deathsholds attention. The play continues to have popular appeal and to fascinate.