Preface. The First Edition. Julius Cæsar was first published in the Folio of 1623. It was printed with exceptional care, and its text is so accurate, that (as the Cambridge editors rightly observe) it may perhaps have been printed from the original manuscript of the author. In this respect it contrasts strongly with the play preceding it in the Folio, the tragedy of Timon of Athens. It would seem that the printing of Julius Cæsar was proceeded with before the Editors had procured the copy for Timon (vide Preface to "Timon"). The play is mentioned in the Stationers' Registers, under date of Nov. 8, 1623, as one of sixteen plays not previously entered to other men. The Source of the Plot. Shakespeare derived his materials for Julius Cæsar from Sir Thomas North's famous translation of Plutarch's "Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans," and more especially from the Lives of Cæsar, Brutus, and Antony. In this play, as in the case of Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra, it is impossible to over-estimate Shakespeare's debt to North's monumental version of the work which has been described as "most sovereign in its dominion over the minds of great men in all ages." In Julius Cæsar, as in the other Roman plays, the dramatist has often borrowed North's very expressions,* while "of the incident there is almost nothing which he does not owe to Plutarch." Nevertheless, a comparison of the play with its original reveals the poet's transforming power; he has thrown "a rich mantle of poetry over all, which is not wholly his own." + The literary history of North's book is briefly summarised on its title-page :—“ The Lives of the Noble Grecians, compared together by that grave learned philosopher and historiographer PLUTARKE OF CHERONIA, translated out of Greek into French by JAMES AMYOT, Abbot of Bellozane, Bishop of Auxerre, one of the King's Privy Council, and great Amner of France, and now out of French into English by THOMAS NORTH. 1579."‡ Specially noteworthy is Shakespeare's compression of the action, * One example will suffice to show the correspondence of the verse and prose : "I dare assure thee that no enemy Shall ever take alive the noble Brutus: The gods defend him from so great a shame! (V. iv. 21-25. Cp." I dare assure thee, that no enemy hath taken or shall take Marcus Brutus alive, and I beseech God keep him from that fortune: for wheresoever he be found, alive or dead, he will be found like himself."—(North's Life of Brutus). Vide Trench's Lectures on Plutarch (pp. 64-65). The best modern edition is that now in course of publication in Mr Nutt's "Tudor Translations"; Vol. I. contains an excellent introductory study by Mr Wyndham. Prof. Skeat's Shakespeare's Plutarch (Macmillan) is a valuable and handy book for students. It is impossible to say which edition of North's Plutarch was used by Shakespeare: new editions appeared in 1595, 1603, and 1612. As far as Julius Cæsar is concerned the choice is limited to the first and second for the purposes of dramatic representation, e.g. (i) Cæsar's triumph is made coincident with the Lupercalia (historically it was celebrated six months before); (ii) the combination of the two battles of Philippi (the interval of twenty days being ignored); (iii) the murder, the funeral orations, and the arrival of Octavius, are made to take place on the same day (not so actually). Again, Shakespeare departs from Plutarch in making the Capitol the scene of the murder, instead of the Curia Pompeiana. In this point, however, he follows a literary tradition, which is already found in Chaucer's Monk's Tale: "In the Capitol anon him hente (i.e. seized) This false Brutus, and his other foon, And stikked him with bodëkins anoon With many a wound, and thus they let him lie." (It will be remembered that Polonius in his student-days "did enact Julius Cæsar," " I was killed i' the Capitol; Brutus killed me. "It was a brute part," observed Hamlet, "to kill so capital a calf there," Hamlet, III. ii. 108-110). The Date of Composition. Perhaps the most valuable piece of external evidence for the date of Julius Cæsar is to be found in Weever's Mirror of Martyrs, printed in 1601; the following lines are obviously a direct reference to the present play: "The many-headed multitude were drawn By Brutus' speech, that Cæsar was ambitious. When eloquent Mark Antonie had shewn His virtues, who but Brutus then was vicious?" editions. The Greenock 1612 edition, with the initials W. S. and with some suggestive notes in the Life of Julius Cæsar, was certainly not used for the present play (zide Preface to Coriolanus). dramatist has often borrowed North's very expressions,* while "of the incident there is almost nothing which he does not owe to Plutarch." Nevertheless, a comparison of the play with its original reveals the poet's transforming power; he has thrown "a rich mantle of poetry over all, which is not wholly his own." + The literary history of North's book is briefly summarised on its title page :-"The Lives of the Noble Grecians, compared together by that grave learned philosopher and historiographer PLUTARKE OF CHERONIA, translated out of Greek into French by JAMES AMYOT, Abbot of Bellozane, Bishop of Auxerre, one of the King's Privy Council, and great Amner of France, and now out of French into English by THOMAS NORTH. 1579."‡ Specially noteworthy is Shakespeare's compression of the action, * One example will suffice to show the correspondence of the verse and prose : "I dare assure thee that no enemy Shall ever take alive the noble Brutus: The gods defend him from so great a shame! He will be found like Brutus, like himself." (V. iv. 21-25. Cp." I dare assure thee, that no enemy hath taken or shall take Marcus Brutus alive, and I beseech God keep him from that fortune: for wheresoever he be found, alive or dead, he will be found like himself."—(North's Life of Brutus). ↑ Vide Trench's Lectures on Plutarch (pp. 64-65). The best modern edition is that now in course of publication in Mr Nutt's "Tudor Translations"; Vol. I. contains an excellent introductory study by Mr Wyndham. Prof. Skeat's Shakespeare's Plutarch (Macmillan) is a valuable and handy book for students. It is impossible to say which edition of North's Plutarch was used by Shakespeare: new editions appeared in 1595, 1603, and 1612. As far as Julius Cæsar is concerned the choice is limited to the first and second for the purposes of dramatic representation, e.g. (i) Cæsar's triumph is made coincident with the Lupercalia (historically it was celebrated six months before); (ii) the combination of the two battles of Philippi (the interval of twenty days being ignored); (iii) the murder, the funeral orations, and the arrival of Octavius, are made to take place on the same day (not so actually). Again, Shakespeare departs from Plutarch in making the Capitol the scene of the murder, instead of the Curia Pompeiana. In this point, however, he follows a literary tradition, which is already found in Chaucer's Monk's Tale: "In the Capitol anon him hente (i.e. seized) This false Brutus, and his other foon, And stikked him with bodēkins anoon With many a wound, and thus they let him lie." (It will be remembered that Polonius in his student-days "did enact Julius Cæsar," "I was killed i' the Capitol; Brutus killed me." "It was a brute part," observed Hamlet, “to kill so capital a calf there," Hamlet, III. ii. 108-110). The Date of Composition. Perhaps the most valuable piece of external evidence for the date of Julius Cæsar is to be found in Weever's Mirror of Martyrs, printed in 1601; the following lines are obviously a direct reference to the present play : "The many-headed multitude were drawn By Brutus' speech, that Cæsar was ambitious. When eloquent Mark Antonie had shewn His virtues, who but Brutus then was vicious?" editions. The Greenock 1612 edition, with the initials W. S. and with some suggestive notes in the Life of Julius Cæsar, was certainly not used for the present play (zide Preface to Coriolanus). |