Julius Caesar William Shakespeare Directed by Shana Cooper Caius Ligarius, Decius Brutus, Metellus Cimber, Trebonius, Cinna Fellow conspirators and assassins. Flavius and Marullus Tribunes of the people, still loyal to Caesar’s vanquished enemy Pompey. A Soothsayer Warns Caesar to “beware the Ides of March.” Notes by Garrett Eisler Cinna the Poet Not to be confused with Cinna the Conspirator— Armando Durán (Julius Caesar) until, tragically, he is. Who’s Who Commoners and Plebeians of Rome A mob to be swayed. Julius Caesar Roman military conqueror, now Consul of the Roman Republic with unprecedented dictatorial The Story power. In his mid-50s and in failing health. The place is Rome, the year is 44 BC. Julius Caesar, Marcus Brutus the great general and now Consul of the Roman Senator, respected statesman, friend of Caesar’s. Republic, has just eliminated his chief rival, Proud descendant of Lucius Junius Brutus, a Pompey, and now faces an unobstructed path to founding father of the Republic. A stoic, sole power. But he is aging—weakened by epi- philosophically. lepsy and partially deaf—and his wish for greater authority starts to concern even longtime admir- Caius Cassius ers like Marcus Brutus, one of the most respected Fellow senator, opposed to Caesar’s power grab; men in the Senate. This growing faction wor- hatches a plot to assassinate him. ries about Caesar’s crackdown on civil liberties (eliminating any remaining support for Pompey) Mark Antony and about his monarchical ambitions that are Caesar’s loyal soldier and, ultimately, avenger. so clearly at odds with the civic virtues of the A stirring orator. 500-year-old Republic. Amid these tensions, Brutus is approached Octavius by his colleague Cassius with a proposition: to Caesar’s adopted son and heir. Now a young man, lead a secret plot to assassinate Caesar and he will eventually rule as Caesar Augustus. restore Republican rule. Brutus is hesitant at first, but Cassius wears down his resistance Portia with appeals to his patriotism, his devotion to Wife of Brutus and daughter of the admired republican ideals and his vanity. Remembering anti-Caesar statesman Cato. his great ancestor Lucius Junius Brutus—who overthrew the last Roman king and helped found Calpurnia the Republic—Brutus answers the call and ends Wife of Caesar, superstitious and worried for her up leading the conspiracy. While he loves Caesar husband’s safety. personally and does not fault his actions so far, he reasons that his friend must die as a preven- Caska tive measure. “Therefore think him as a serpent’s A leading conspirator against Caesar. egg,” he tells himself, “and kill him in the shell.” 23 Julius Caesar parallel writers Shakespeare and Democracy Julius Caesar is not just based Despite warnings from a Soothsayer, his wife Shakespeare’s lasting popularity in the United on a true story, but on a very Calpurnia and other well-wishers (and several States may appear to suggest his plays appeal ominous supernatural prophecies), Caesar pro- to a democratic sensibility. But would the play- specific historical source: the ceeds during the ill-fated “Ides of March” to the wright—a loyal servant of two very powerful Greek biographer Plutarch, capitol, where Brutus and his fellow assassins monarchs—have been surprised by that kind who chronicled the lives of 50 await with daggers. The deed is done swiftly and of reception? messily—the conspirators, covered in his blood, In the case of Julius Caesar, American audi- great statesmen of antiquity in proudly display the evidence, crying “Liberty! ences have historically been inclined to see the his Parallel Lives (circa 100 AD), Freedom! Tyranny is dead!” Confident they will conspirators as freedom fighters out to vanquish pairing various ancient Greeks be vindicated in the public eye, Brutus spares the a tyrant, the man who “crossed the Rubicon,” life of Caesar’s right-hand man, Mark Antony, marched his armies on his native country and with (then) more recent Roman whom Cassius counsels killing as well. Antony began the transformation of Rome from a repub- counterparts. Henry V, writ- cunningly feigns cooperation while secretly plot- lic into an empire. Caesar’s very name has long ten in 1599 just before Julius ting revenge. At Caesar’s funeral, Brutus makes been synonymous with power-hungry dictator- the fatal mistake of letting Antony address the ships, and the idea of tyrannicide has always Caesar, has many references assembled “friends, Romans, countrymen.” While been a popular American rallying cry. Many of the to Plutarch’s subjects. When at first persuaded by Brutus’s cold, logical argu- Founding Fathers were known fans of the play, a 1579 English translation by ment for Caesar’s death, the fickle mob just as including Thomas Jefferson, who could have been quickly gives in to Antony’s oratorical brilliance channeling it when he wrote, “The tree of liberty Thomas North, The Lives of the and emotional manipulation, appealing to their must be refreshed from time to time with the Noble Grecians and Romans, earlier hero worship of Caesar. With the citizenry blood of patriots and tyrants.” was reissued in London in 1595, riled up into a vengeful passion, Brutus and Cassius take flight, raising an army to hold their Americans’ take on the play Shakespeare clearly read it tenuous grip on power. The play has a long legacy in the U.S. as a rous- thoroughly. He obviously kept A civil war breaks out between the pro- and ing pro-democracy pageant. Published scripts the book handy, relying on it anti-Caesar forces. Antony is joined by the young and performances proliferated widely during Octavius, Caesar’s adopted son and heir (and the the American Revolution. In the Civil War, the in later years for Antony and future emperor Caesar Augustus). Despite some Confederacy co-opted Shakespeare for their own Cleopatra, Coriolanus and Timon testiness between these two potential rivals cause; John Wilkes Booth, hailing from a family of of Athens. (they turn against each other in a later play, famous Shakespearean actors, was so obsessed Antony and Cleopatra), their united forces prove with the role of Brutus that he acted out his own Parallels between too strong for the conspirators. On top of every- assassination, in a theatre no less, shouting a line Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and thing, Brutus learns that Portia, his wife and of Latin—“sic semper tyrannis” (“thus always Plutarch are unmistakable. The confidante, has committed suicide rather than to tyrants”)—clearly evoking the world of the face the news of his defeat. Both Brutus and play, if not quoting exactly. In the 20th century, chapters on Caesar, Brutus and Cassius then take their own lives as well, rather actor-director Orson Welles updated the free- Antony in Lives supply many of than be led as captives through Rome. Order is dom- fighter interpretation with his 1937 stage the play’s signature events— restored by Antony and Octavius’s victory, but production set in the Rome of Mussolini, replete the audience knows that the Roman Republic is with jackboots, armbands and Nuremberg-rally including Cassius’s persuasion already effectively dead and the Empire of Caesar imagery for Antony’s funeral oration. He even of Brutus to lead the conspiracy, Augustus is soon to begin. retitled the play Caesar: Death of a Dictator. Brutus’s tortured deliberations But was Shakespeare really approaching Roman history as a small-r republican or a over the matter, details of the small-d democrat? It surely would have been assassination itself, and even risky to fully advocate the violent overthrow of the appearance of a prescient a beloved ruler in 1599, a time of much anxiety over England’s “homeland security,” including Soothsayer. But just as Plutarch several revealed plots against Queen Elizabeth herself. With the nation threatened by Catholic- Protestant religious turmoil within and foreign 24 jenny graham jenny Antony quite deliberately and skillfully is suspected of taking liberties unleashes mob violence in his manipulation of with history, Shakespeare allows the plebeians. “Now let it work,” he prays pri- vately, “Mischief, thou art afoot.” Shakespeare himself necessary dramatic shows us the chilling effects of such mass hyste- license with Plutarch, especially ria in the very next scene, when citizens corner a with the historical timeline man named Cinna, which also happens to be the name of one of the conspirators. He pleads with of events. In real life, Brutus them that he is just an innocent poet, not the and Cassius did not meet their man they seek, but the mob attacks him anyway. demise until two years after “Tear him for his bad verses,” they say. So much for vox populi. the assassination. Shakespeare, The funeral oration and the murder of Cinna more excitingly, charts their mark a key tonal shift midway through the play swift downfall in the immediate from the lofty justifications of the assassina- tion to the act’s bloody repercussions and the wake of their crime, giving conspiracy’s ultimate failure. This tragic reversal the final scenes a swift and gives the text a balance and juxtaposition that tragic inevitability. is essential to considering Shakespeare’s true Elsewhere, Shakespeare Julius Caesar (2011): Mark Antony (Danforth Comins) weeps after political mindset while writing. Rather than sim- the murder of Caesar (Vilma Silva), as Brutus (Jonathan Haugen) ply a blanket anti-democracy or pro-tyrannicide seizes on brief descriptions in ponders the momentous deed. statement, Julius Caesar more objectively appears Plutarch and expands them into powers abroad, the ever-present monitoring to be a continuous debate between the two epic scenes. Of Antony’s eulogy of London’s public theatres loomed especially extremes.