...place by his famous anticipation of future revivals as theater shows: Cassius. Stoop then, and wash. How many ages hence Shall this our lofty scene be...acted over. In states unborn, and accents yet unknown! Brutus. How many times shall Caesar bleed in sport, That now on Pompey's basis lies along, No worthier...

...in effect to Cassius' lines in Shakespeare's theater when, kneeling over the fallen Caesar, he asks "How many ages hence / Shall this our lofty scene...over / In states unborn and accents yet unknown!" 66 In both the Shakespearean and Sophoclean theater the audience enjoys a double perspective; the past...

...Caesar's blood and Cassius alludes to the fumre theatrical performance which the audience is wimessing 'How many ages hence / Shall this our lofty scene be acted over, / In states unbom and accents yet unknown'. Also without a source in Plutarch is Cleopatra's 'The quick comedians...

...and those of the audience forward to endless re-enactments, both political and theatrical: CASSIUS How many ages hence Shall this our lofty scene be...acted over, In states unborn and accents yet unknown! BRUTUS How many times shall Caesar bleed in sport, That now on Pompey's basis lies along, No worthier...

...their own dramas repeated on stages centuries into the future, as in Casca's lines in Julius Caesar. How many ages hence Shall this our lofty scene be acted over In states unborn and accents yet unknown!21 The idea of projecting the theatre of Shakespeare's time forward into our present, of giving...

...he touches a deep vein of civic conduct and identity. The actors of the future whom Cassius invokes ("How many ages hence / Shall this our lofty scene be acted over") match the actors of the present. For "actor," like other terms in this play, is not really a universal...

...metatheatrical moments such as Shakespeare's glance forward in time from the period of Julius Caesar itself, How many ages hence Shall this our lofty scene be...acted over, In states unborn and accents yet unknown ! ( ¡ulitis Caesar 3.1. 112—14) Cassius refers directly to the way he and his fellow conspirators...

...weapons o'er our heads, Let's all cry, Teace, freedom, and liberty!' no CASSIUS Stoop then, and wash. How many ages hence Shall this our lofty scene be...acted over, In states unborn, and accents yet unknown! BRUTUS How many times shall Caesar bleed in sport, That now on Pompey's basis lies along, No worthier...

...in his play, the most notable being Cassius's exclamation in the bloody wake of the assassination: 'How many ages hence / Shall this our lofty scene...over, / In states unborn and accents yet unknown!' (III. i. 111-13). Shakespeare's litde selfreflexive joke in the midst of tragedy is characteristic...

...murmured Cassius, as his kneeling friends, some boldly, some fearfully, fumbled in the dead man's wounds, "shall this our lofty scene be acted over in states unborn and accents yet unknown?" and he gazed round at the wrenched and broken circle of empty chairs, as if the countless generations...