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Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar. “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears...”. Lupercalia. The play begins in 44 B.C. It is February 15, the day of the annual Festival of Lupercalia, honoring Lupercus (also called Faunus), the Roman god of fertility .

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Julius Caesar

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  1. Julius Caesar “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears...”

  2. Lupercalia • The play begins in 44 B.C. • It is February 15, the day of the annual Festival of Lupercalia, honoring Lupercus (also called Faunus), the Roman god of fertility. • On this special day, Romans performed rites to promote the fertility of croplands and forests, as well as the fertility of women of child-bearing age. • Also commemorated the legend of the she-wolf that nurtured the mythological founders of Rome–Romulus and Remus, twin sons of Mars, the god of war. It was in the cave of Lupercus, on Rome’s Palatine Hill, that the wolf suckled the twin boys. Oddly, while glorifying the memory of the she-wolf during Lupercalia, the Romans also gave thanks to Lupercus for protecting shepherds’ flocks from wolves.

  3. Julius Caesar - Lupercalia • In Shakespeare’s play, Lupercalia takes on even more significance, for it is the day when mighty Julius Caesar parades through the streets near the Palatine Hill in a triumphal procession celebrating his victory over Pompey the Great in the Roman Civil War.  

  4. Settings • The play begins in Rome on February 15, 44 B.C. • The play ends in Philippi, Greece, in 42 B.C. • Part of the action is also set in the camp of Brutus and Cassius near Sardis (in present-day Turkey).  

  5. Dates & Sources • Date Written: 1598-1599   First Printing: 1623 as part of the First Folio  Probable Main Source:Caesar, Parallel Lives by Plutarch (46?-120?), as translated by Sir Thomas North from Jacques Amyot's French version. The French version was a translation of a Latin version of Plutarch's original Greek version. • Shakespeare may also have borrowed ideas from Dante's Divine Comedy(in which Brutus and Cassius occupy the lowest circle of hell) and Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales(in which "The Monk's Tale" presents Caesar as a victim rather than a villain). 

  6. “The live-long day.” (I.i.42) • “Beware the ides of March.” (I.ii.13) • “Men at some time are masters of their fates:The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,But in ourselves, that we are underlings.” (I.ii.139-141) • “Cowards die many times before their deaths;The valiant never taste of death but once.Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,It seems to me most strange that men should fear;Seeing that death, a necessary end,Will come when it will come” (II.ii.34-39) • “Yond' Cassius has a lean and hungry look;He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.” (I.ii.194-195)

  7. “Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar!” (III.i.77) • “He that cuts off twenty years of lifeCuts off so many years of fearing death.” (III.i.101) • “Cry, 'Havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war.” (III.i.268) • “Passion, I see, is catching.” (III.i.283) • “But, for my own part, it was Greek to me.” (I.ii.283) • Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods,Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds. (II.i.173) • “Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” (III.ii.22)

  8. “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.The evil that men do lives after them;The good is oft interred with their bones.” (III.ii.79-82) • “When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept;Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.” (III.ii.97-98) • “This was the most unkindest cut of all” (III.ii.189) • “His life was gentle, and the elementsSo mixed in him that Nature might stand upAnd say to all the world, ‘This was a man!’” (V.v.68-70)

  9. THEMES • WHAT MAKES A GOOD LEADER? • Caesar? • Has more love than fear • Strong ruler…too strong? • Great thinkers and voices silenced overshadowed under such a rule (Cicero held at bay) • Still arrogant, prideful, as witnessed on the day of his death: how easily he is goaded into going to the Capitol (II, ii) and his political stubbornness before the stabbing (III.i) • Ignores Soothsayer (never ignore the Soothsayer) • Cassius • A man who “gets the job done” • Achieves ends by any means necessary • Capable of building support • Brutus (the tragic hero) • Perceived as a man of virtue and integrity; inspires devotion; loving to family • Intellectual-idealist: considers all sides, then commits to a course of action • Does not want to believe he might be wrong (true of anyone) • Shows mercy to Mark Antony, which comes back to bite him: not ruthless enough? • Mark Antony • Loyal • Plays his cards close to the vest: cautious; a strategic genius • Politically canny: knows the hearts and minds of the people and how to win them • Powerful orator

  10. THEMES (Cont.) • FATE or CIRCUMSTANCE? (“a Tide in the affairs of men”) • Learn to ride the wave to win fortune instead of being pulled underneath • Beware the ides of March. • THE POWER OF ORATORY/ELOQUENCE • a great Roman value • THE LAWLESS MOB • The picture Shakespeare paints of the citizenry isn’t pretty: • An overly credulous, emotional citizenry easily swayed and stoked to violence • Reactive, not considerate • A lesson in trusting royalty instead of having emotional reactions • Demonstrably wrong when swept away by emotion: the slaying of Cinna the poet • AN “AWFUL RULE”: tyrant or defender of the peace? • Caesar a surrogate for royalty • We may fear his or her power (what if it goes wrong?), but if we stand as one behind our leader, peace is maintained • DIVINE RIGHT • Traditional Christian doctrine said the 27 BC to 180 AD “Pax Romana” (“Roman Peace”) established by Caesar Augustus was heaven sent to be the setting for the coming of Christ • Best to trust in the order of things? Especially “the divine right of kings” and queens? • Remember too the Biblical echoes (Jesus) and parallels with Macbeth’s “unholy” & bloody ambition)

  11. THEMES (cont.) • YOU BREAK IT, YOU BOUGHT IT • Murder is a bloody business (Mark Antony reminds us of every stab wound) • Be prepared for the consequences of your choices • THE IRONY OF FRIENDSHIP IN POLITICS • A great Roman value but is there room for it in politics? Should emotions be involved in the cutthroat business of government? Better to be feared than loved? • Cassius and Brutus: a friendship tested • Moral disappointment and disagreement • Their choices clouded by wishing to be loved and respected by the other • Shakespeare: the first post-modernist • How many ages henceShall this our lofty scene be acted o'er,In states unborn, and accents yet unknown! (3.1.111)

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