THE TRAGEDY OF JULIUS CÆSAR 66 THE tragedy of Julius Cæsar was first printed in the Folio of 1623. The earlier limit for the date of its composition is presumably fixed by its absence from the list given in Meres's Palladis Tamia in 1598; and a later limit is found in an allusion to the speeches of Brutus and Antony to the citizens in John Weever's Mirror of Martyrs, published in 1601. But Weever states in his Dedication that his work "some two years ago was made fit for the print"; and this piece of evidence is strengthened by an apparent reference in Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour (1599). In this play (m. i.) Clove, a talker of fustian, is made to quote, reason long since is fled to animals," which may, perhaps, derive its point from Julius Cæsar, III. ii. 109. With the date thus suggested, 1599, the metrical tests and the characteristics of style are in sufficient agreement; and few modern critics place the play later than 1601. An argument has been based on the use of the word "eternal" in 1. ii. 160. In 1600, it is urged, Shakespeare was still using "infernal" in such passages, but after that date he substituted eternal," apparently out of deference to the Puritan agitation which culminated in legislation against profanity and other abuses on the stage. But this loses its force when it is observed that the change may here, as in other instances, have been made at a later date, and that it is by no means certain that Shakespeare wished to say "'infernal." The history of Julius Cæsar had been treated on the Elizabethan stage before Shakespeare wrote his tragedy, but it has not yet been shown that he made use of any earlier version, though some scholars have argued that the present play is the result of the combination of two earlier dramas dealing respectively with the death and the avenging of Julius Cæsar. The evidence from an extant Dutch play of foreign origin has not yet been brought to bear on the problem. It is not questioned, however, that Shakespeare drew heavily on Plutarch's lives of Cæsar, Brutus, and Antony, which he read in Sir Thomas North's translation of Amyot's French version. A large portion of the play consists merely of North's language turned into blank verse, with that subtle heightening of the imaginative quality which Shakespeare habitually added to his sources; and much that has puzzled readers in the unheroic character of Cæsar finds its explanation in the text of Plutarch. Cæsar's great exploits are narrated in Plutarch's Life, but in the earlier part which Shakespeare did not use; and the later section taken alone conveys very much the same impression of Cæsar's pomposity and weaknesses as is given by the earlier part of the play. The characters of Casca and Lepidus are hardly hinted at by Plutarch. Cassius is strengthened by changing him from a man who was too familiar with his friends, and would jest too broadly with them," to one who smiles seldom, and by the omission of the petty causes of his hatred of Cæsar. Brutus is still more idealized. Several details that might have taken from his dignity are omitted, and the boy Lucius is invented that by the picture of their relations might be emphasized the tenderness of Brutus's disposition. The soliloquy of Brutus in which the workings of his mind before the assassination are laid bare, the scene in the orchard, that in which the conspirators bathe their arms in Cæsar's blood, and the speech of Antony over Cæsar's dead body are wholly Shakespeare's; while the orations of Brutus and Antony at Cæsar's funeral are elaborated from the slightest hints. FLAVIUS and MARULLUS, tribunes. ARTEMIDORUS of Cnidos, a teacher of Rhetoric. CALPURNIA, wife to Cæsar. SCENE: Rome; the neighbourhood of Sardis; the neighbourhood of Philippi.] O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome, And do you now put on your best attire? Run to your houses, fall upon your knees, Flav. Go, go, good countrymen, and, for this fault, Assemble all the poor men of your sort; Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears Into the channel, till the lowest stream If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies. You know it is the feast of Lupercal. Flav. It is no matter; let no images Be hung with Caesar's trophies. I'll about And drive away the vulgar from the streets; So do you too, where you perceive them thick. These growing feathers pluck'd from Caesar's wing. Will make him fly an ordinary pitch, Who else would soar above the view of men (Scene II. A public place.) Enter Caesar; Antony, for the course; Calpurnia, Portia, Decius, Cicero, Brutus, Cassius, and Casca; (a great crowd following, among them) a Soothsayer; after them Marullus and Flavius. 869a When he doth run his course. Antonius! Ant. Caesar, my lord? Caes. Forget not, in your speed, Antonius, To touch Calpurnia; for our elders say, The barren, touched in this holy chase, Shake off their sterile curse. I shall remember; Ant. When Caesar says, "Do this," it is perform'd. Caes. Set on; and leave no ceremony out. (Flourish.) Caes. Ha! who calls? Casca. Bid every noise be still; peace yet again. Caes. Who is it in the press that calls on me? I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music, Caes. of March. Caes. Set him before me; let me see his face. Cas. Fellow, come from the throng; look up on Caesar. Caes. What say'st thou to me now? once again. Sooth. Beware the ides of March. Speak Caes. He is a dreamer; let us leave him: (Sennet. Exeunt all but Brutus and Cas. Will you go see the order of the course? Bru. Not I. Cas. I pray you, do. Bru. I am not game some; I do lack some part Of that quick spirit that is in Antony. Сав. Brutus, I do observe you now of late; I have not from your eyes that gentleness And show of love as I was wont to have. You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand Over your friend that loves you. Bru. Cassius, Be not deceiv'd. If I have veil'd my look, Of late with passions of some difference, Which give some soil perhaps to my behav- But let not therefore my good friends be Among which number, Cassius, be you one-- Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war, By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations. Tell me, good Brutus, can you see your face? Bru. No, Cassius; for the eye sees not itself But by reflection, by some other things. And it is very much lamented, Brutus, That you have no such mirrors as will turn That you might see your shadow. I have heard, Where many of the best respect in Rome, |