Julius Caesar
Written: c. 1599; Text: First Folio 1623 (Tragedy); no quarto editions
Source: Plutarch (c.46-120). Lives (Thomas North's English translation in 1579)
Characters: Brutus, Mark Antony, Cassius, Julius Caesar, Portia, Calpurnia
Setting: Rome, and other locations in Italy
Time: c. 44-42 BC
Xxx xxx
Notes on Julius Caesar
Politics and the People
Read the NoteShakespeare often wrote about politics but most often he dealt with political infighting at court. Two of his Roman plays, however, deal specifically with politicians’ relationship with the people, the fickle masses. Julius Caesar and Coriolanus offer interesting observations about these fraught relationships, which are as true today as they were both in Elizabethan and Roman times. In both plays,
… continue reading this note
The Snare of Vanity
Read the NoteIn Act 2, Scene 1 of Julius Caesar, Decius Brutus uses “betrayed” to mean fooled, tricked or misled. A person can escape a unicorn by hiding behind a tree; a bear can be misled by seeing itself in a mirror; an elephant can be tricked into falling into a hole; a lion caught in a trap; and men seduced by flatterers.
… continue reading this note
Wives and Troubled Husbands
Read the NoteLady Percy’s plea to Hotspur in Henry IV, Part 1, is similar to Portia’s plea to Brutus in Julius Caesar. In both a wife is pleading with her husband to disclose the thoughts that seem to trouble him deeply. A difference, however, is that some psychologists consider Lady Percy’s speech a clinical description of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
… continue reading this note
Pandering, Contempt and the Masses
Read the NoteMany of Shakespeare’s plays deal with political intrigue at court between political leaders. However, in Julius Caesar and Coriolanus, more than in other plays, the themes address the relationships between political leaders and the masses. Since both plays are set in historic Rome and not in Shakespeare’s England, they can deal with the themes of democracy and the wisdom of the populace to govern themselves through a republican form of representation.
… continue reading this note
Video: Friends, Romans, Countrymen
Read the NoteMarlon Brando as Mark Antony in the 1953 film of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar directed by Joseph Mankiewicz.
… continue reading this note
Video: Romans, countrymen, and lovers
Read the NoteJames Mason as Brutus in the 1953 film of Julius Caesar directed by Joseph Mankiewicz.
… continue reading this note
Video: Thou bleeding piece of earth
Read the NoteMarlon Brando as Mark Antony in the 1953 film of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar directed by Joseph Mankiewicz.
… continue reading this note
Quotes from Julius Caesar
Hence! Home, you idle creatures, get you home!
Read the QuoteFlavius
Hence! Home, you idle creatures, get you home!
Is this a holiday? What, know you not,
Being mechanical, you ought not walk
Upon a laboring day without the sign
Of your profession?—Speak, what trade art thou?
Carpenter
Why, sir, a carpenter.
Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home?
What tributaries follow him to Rome,
… continue reading this quote
Brutus, I do observe you now of late
Read the QuoteCassius
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.
Brutus
Cassius,
Be not deceiv’d. If I have veil’d my look,
… continue reading this quote
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Read the QuoteWhy, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs, and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.Adynaton & Simile
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Men at some time are masters of their fates;
… continue reading this quote
That you do love me, I am nothing jealous
Read the QuoteBrutus
That you do love me, I am nothing jealous;
What you would work me to, I have some aim.
How I have thought of this, and of these times,
I shall recount hereafter.Isocolon For this present,
I would not (so with love I might entreat you)
Be any further mov’d. What you have said
I will consider;
… continue reading this quote
Let me have men about me that are fat
Read the QuoteCaesar
Let me have men about me that are fat,
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep a-nights.
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look,
He thinks too much; such men are dangerous.
Mark Antony
Fear him not, Caesar, he’s not dangerous,
He is a noble Roman, and well given.
Julius Caesar
Would he were fatter!
… continue reading this quote
Such men as he be never at heart’s ease
Read the QuoteSuch men as he be never at heart’s ease
Whiles they behold a greater than themselves,
And therefore are they very dangerous.
… continue reading this quote
Well, Brutus, thou art noble
Read the QuoteWell, Brutus, thou art noble; yet I see
Thy honorable mettle may be wrought
From that it is dispos’d; therefore it is meet
That noble minds keep ever with their likes;
For who so firm that cannot be seduc’d?Rhetorical Question and Ellipsis
Caesar doth bear me hard, but he loves Brutus.
If I were Brutus now and he were Cassius,
… continue reading this quote
Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time
Read the QuoteIndeed, it is a strange-disposed time;
But men may construe things after their fashion,
Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.
… continue reading this quote
You are dull, Casca
Read the QuoteYou are dull, Casca; and those sparks of life
That should be in a Roman you do want,
Or else you use not. You look pale, and gaze,
And put on fear, and cast yourself in wonder,Polysyndeton
To see the strange impatience of the heavens;
But if you would consider the true cause
Why all these fires,
… continue reading this quote
I know where I will wear this dagger then
Read the QuoteI know where I will wear this dagger then;
Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius.
Therein, ye gods, you make the weak most strong;
Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat;Anaphora
Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,Polysyndeton
Can be retentive to the strength of spirit;
… continue reading this quote