1

Julius Caesar

Week 1

As with all of Shakespeare’s Roman plays, his principal source is Sir Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch’s Lives of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. Here he takes material from his Lives of Caesar, Marc Antony and Brutus.

1.1

  • Historically the play is situated as the First Triumvirate (Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great & Crassus) is already disintegrating: the Senate (symbol of the Republic) is side-lined by the three powerful triumvirs; Pompey now dead – killed in battle of Pharsalus by Caesar’s army;
  • Plebeians seem to crave a hero in whom they can invest their enthusiasm – no longer committed to the Republican ideals;
  • Plebeians out of tune with the tribunes, their own representatives – treat them with disrespect;
  • Tribunes point out the plebeians’ hypocrisy and fickleness in formerly idolising Pompey while they now rejoice in Caesar’s having triumphed over Pompey who was not a foreign enemy but a fellow Roman;
  • Tribunes realise that if Caesar continues to gain power he will over-ride the Senate completely and their own roles will be redundant –they will be reduced to “servile fearfulness”.

1.2

  • Caesar’s authority already obvious: “When Caesar says ‘Do this’ it is performed;
  • Caesar already plans to form a dynasty – hence his anxiety for an heir (N.B. Calphurnia’s current barrenness – 6-9);
  • Caesar’s (fatal) arrogance in dismissing the soothsayer as a “dreamer” – he is anxious to create a persona for himself that suggests that he is impervious to normal mortal feelings of fear;
  • JC possibly the most consciously rhetorical play in the canon: N.B. Aristotle’s notions of Rhetoric: Ethos (i.e. character, credibility of speaker); Pathos (appeal to emotions); Logos (plausibility of argument). See Attachment.
  • N.B. Cassius’s cautious questioning of Brutus – approaches initially on a purely personal level (i.e. Br.’s personal regard and affection for Cassius);
  • Br.’s response introduces the theme of civil strife in respect of his own personal self (37-47) – civil war will have consumed Rome itself before the play is finished;
  • Cass. represents himself as a mirror to reflect Br.’s ‘hidden’ qualities:
  • Cass. itemizes his own qualities, asserting Ethos (his personal plausibility);
  • Br.’s assertion of his own dedication to “honour” when exercised for the “general good” (85-89) provides Cass. with his theme, latching on to the idea of ‘honour’ (92) and the dishonour of living “In awe of such a thing as I myself”;
  • Cass. creates memorable mental ‘pictures’ in two anecdotes which establish Caes.’s bodily weakness: Caes. rescued from Tiber; Caes.’s fever when “this god did shake” – yet such a “feeble” man can now “bear the palm alone”;
  • Cass. now places ‘Caesar’ and ‘Brutus’ as if in opposing scales weighing one against the other and concluding that Br.’s equal should have “grown so great”;
  • Provokes Brutus with by contrasting the idea of ‘Rome’ with “one man” – i.e. Great v Small – and the “shame” that such a great empire should be dominated by “one only man”;
  • He cunningly reminds Br. of his revered ancestor, Lucius Junius Brutus who had been a founder member of the original Republic in driving the tyrant kings from power – thus implying that Br. should emulate his ancestor bypreventing another tyrant from dominating Rome;
  • Brutus responds cautiously: we note his very different language from that used by Cassius – essentially balanced, rational; he paints no vivid mental pictures in words – ending with a vow (but without naming ‘Caesar’) that he would rather be a “villager” – i.e. not a Roman citizen – than to consider himself ‘Roman’ under the “hard conditions” that are likely to prevail in the future.
  • Caes. and his retinue return – their mood nervous, anxious; Caes. expresses to Antony his suspicions of Cassius who “thinks too much” and who seems to understand the real motives behind men’s actions – concluding with absurd bravado and claiming that he, personally, is immune to fear;
  • As Caes. and his train exit again Cass. detainsCascawho describes how Caes. had been offered a crown by Ant. on three occasions but had refused it, if with increasing reluctance. Caes. clearly understands how to ‘work a crowd’, understanding that the people will respond well to such an apparent reluctance to his accepting more honours;
  • Casca tells of Caes’s swooning and frothing at the mouth – Caes. is epileptic but Cass. uses it as further evidence of his physical ‘weakness’ – Caes. himself reveals that he is deaf in one ear.
  • Casca also brings information that Murellus and Flavius (the tribunes in 1.1) have been “put to silence” for removing celebratory scarves from the statues of Caes. Historically these tribunes were imprisoned but a modern audience probably understands them to have been executed;
  • Cassius, Casca and Brutus agree to meet again socially, no doubt to explore further the principal subject of this scene;
  • Cass. ends the scene with a soliloquy in which he acknowledges the ‘noble mind’ of Brutus but is confident that he can be manipulated (“seduced”) by someone less noble than himself;
  • Cass. will convince Br. that the people of Rome look to him for leadership by throwing in at his windows numerous letters in different handwritings; the letters will emphasise the “great opinion” that the people have both for Brutus personally and for his noble family, the Brutii and will hint at Caes.’s ambition. Thus Br. will be persuaded that he has a public duty to oppose Caesar.