THE TRAGEDY OF JULIUS CÆSAR BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE WITH AN APPENDIX CONTAINING BY FRANKLIN THOMAS BAKER, A. M. TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY NEW YORK: CINCINNATI CHICAGO HARVARD 7X172. Copyright, 1892, 1898, by JUL. CÆSAR. W P. 19 INTRODUCTION. SHAKESPEARE'S "Tragedie of Julius Cæsar was probably written about In Weever's“ Mirror of Martyrs," published in 1601, are the year 1600. the lines, 'The many-headed multitude were drawn By Brutus' speech, that Cæsar was ambitious; When eloquent Mark Antony had shown His virtues, who but Brutus then was vicious?" We know of nothing which could have suggested these lines to Weever, except Shakespeare's "Julius Cæsar." In Plutarch no such scene exists. Thus it seems that the play must have been produced upon the stage as early as 1601, though its first appearance in print was in the Folio of 1623. The action of the drama extends from the spring of the year 44 B.C. to the autumn of 42 B.C.; that is, over a period of about two years and a half. The historical materials of the play were found by Shakespeare in the lives of Cæsar, Brutus, and Antony, as given in Sir Thomas North's trans lation of Plutarch's "Lives," published in 1579. "North did not," says Skeat, "make his translation from the original Greek, or even from a Latin version, but from a French version by Jaques Amyot, Bishop of Auxerre, who is said to have followed the Latin text. As a strict and accurate version, it may, accordingly, have been surpassed in some points by others extant in English; yet it has merits of its own which must not be hastily overlooked. In particular, it must be observed that the translation by Amyot was very faithful, spirited, and well executed; and, though North fell into some mistakes which Amyot had avoided, his English is especially good, racy, and well expressed. He had the advantage of writing at a period when nervous and idiomatic English was well understood and commonly written; so that he constantly uses expressions which illustrate, in a very interesting manner, the language of our Authorized Version of the Bible. But whatever may be the occasional drawbacks of North's version on the score of inaccuracy, we know that it was his version, and no other, which Shakespeare used; it was from North, and no one else, that he imitated certain phrases, expressions, and characteristics so familiar to all readers, though very few know which those phrases are." [From Trench's "Lectures on Plutarch."] Whatever Latin Shakespeare may have had, he certainly knew no Greek, and thus it was only through Sir Thomas North's translation that the rich treasure-house of Plutarch's "Lives was accessible to him. Nor do I think it too much to affirm that his three great Roman plays, reproducing the ancient Roman world as no other modern poetry has ever done, I refer to "Coriolanus," "Julius Cæsar," and "Antony and Cleopatra,' would never have existed, or, had Shakespeare lighted by chance on these arguments, would have existed in forms altogether different from those in which they now appear, if Plutarch had not written, and Sir Thomas North, or some other in his place, had not translated. We have in Plutarch not the framework or skeleton only of the story, no, nor yet merely the ligaments and sinews, but very much also of the flesh and blood wherewith these are covered and clothed. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that the whole play of "Julius Cæsar" is to be found in Plutarch. Shakespeare, indeed, has thrown a rich mantle of poetry over all, which is often wholly his own; but of the incident there is almost nothing which he does not owe to Plutarch, even as continually he owes the very wording to Sir Thomas North. Yet Shakespeare never abdicates his royal preeminence. Thus Plutarch tells us of that funeral oration by Mark Antony, how "to conclude his oration he unfolded before the whole assembly the bloody garments of the dead, thrust through in many places with their swords, and called the malefactors cruel and cursed murtherers." It is well said. —a graphic touch; but mark how Shakespeare has taken possession of it: "You all do know this mantle: I remember The first time ever Cæsar put it on; That day he overcame the Nervii. Look! in this place ran Cassius' dagger through: Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabb'd; And as he pluck'd his cursed steel away, Mark how the blood of Cæsar follow'd it, As rushing out of doors, to be resolv'd If Brutus so unkindly knock'd, or no; For Brutus, as you know, was Cæsar's angel." Nowhere does Shakespeare make any pretense of concealing his obligations to Plutarch; and we can only admire that grand confidence in his own resources which left him free without scruple to adopt and turn by assimilation to his own uses whatever he anywhere found which was likely to prove serviceable to the needs of his art. [From Plutarch's "Julius Cæsar," North's edition of 1612.] At that time the feast Lupercalia was celebrated, the which in old time men say was the feast of shepherds or herdmen, and is much like unto the feast of the Lycæans in Arcadia. But howsoever it is, that day there are divers noblemen's sons, young men, (and some of them magistrates themselves that govern then), which run through the city, striking in sport them they meet in their way with leather thongs, hair and all on, to make them give place. And many noblewomen and gentlewomen also go of purpose to stand in their way, and do put forth their hands to be stricken, as scholars hold them out to their schoolmaster to be stricken with the ferula: persuading themselves that [in this manner they will avoid sterility]. Cæsar sat to behold that sport upon the pulpit for orations, in a chain of gold, apparelled in triumphant manner. Antonius, who was Consul at that time, was one of them that ran this holy course. So when he came into the market-place, the people made a lane for him to run at liberty, and he came to Cæsar, and presented him a diadem wreathed about with laurel. Whereupon there rose a certain cry of rejoicing, not very great, done only by a few appointed for the purpose. But when Cæsar refused the diadem, then all the people together made an outcry of joy. Then Antonius offering it him again, there was a second shout of joy, but yet of a few. But when Cæsar refused it again the second time, then all the whole people shouted. Cæsar having made this proof, found that the people did not like of it, and thereupon rose out of his chair, and commanded the crown to be carried unto Jupiter in the Capitol. After that, there were set up images of Cæsar in the city, with diadems upon their heads like kings. Those the two tribunes, Flavius and Marullus, went and pulled down, and furthermore, meeting with them that first saluted Cæsar as king, they committed them to prison. . . . Cæsar was so offended withal, that he deprived Marullus and Flavius of their tribuneships. . . . ... Now they that desired change, and wished Brutus only their prince and governor above all other, they durst not come to him themselves to tell him what they would have him to do, but in the night did cast sundry papers into the Prætor's seat, where he gave audience, and the most of them to this effect: "Thou sleepest, Brutus, and art not Brutus indeed." Cassius, finding Brutus' ambition stirred up the more by these seditious bills, did prick him forward and egg him on the more, for a private quarrel he had conceived against Cæsar. Cæsar also had Cassius in great jealousy, and suspected him much: whereupon he said on a time to his friends, “what will Cassius do, think ye ? |