Shakespeare's Julius Cæsar

Front matter

Class _PR £&Q B

Rnnlc

(qwifjhfN 0 (jtap\

Preface

The younger reader, and particularly the younger reader of our day, needs more, not less, help in dealing with a classic of the type of Julius Caesar than an older reader. Roman history is no longer studied minutely, but has been merged in an account of European or world history; and to understand Shakespeare’s references, more detailed apparatus must be provided.

But this material must be presented in palatable form and with a particular appeal to the psychology of young people. It is hoped that students of all kinds will be able to read right through this edition with both pleasure and profit, since everywhere in it the effort has been made to be interesting and to maintain scholarship without pedantry. Everything that is provided by way of supplement to the text of the play is not merely valuable in itself, but may be read with profit quite aside from its bearing on the play. Nothing is neglected that a student of the play ought to know, but all information is given in a fashion that makes it easy to grasp. Editorial matter is not provided in the usual incidental fashion, but is made vitally significant for its own sake.

Among the special features of the edition, these may be mentioned:

1. Full preliminary explanations are given, as largely as possible in narrative form. In these explanations many of the difficulties of the play are carefully antici¬ pated, so that the student will not need to hesitate or to stumble over them when he comes to them in his reading. In these explanations, moreover, the effort is

PREFACE iv

made to correlate new matter with information that the student already has at his command.

2. The pedagogical apparatus — questions on the text, examination of the dramatic technique, exercises, and the like — is extensive. It is placed at the back of the book, for most part, in order that only those who wish it may use it.

3. The book is illustrated, and its appearance will please readers.

4. Emphasis is laid on Julius Caesar as a play definitely intended for presentation on the stage. The history of the play in its own day and in the theater since Shakespeare is outlined; and particular attention is directed to the pages taken from Edwin Booth’s prompt-book of the play and to similar material ob¬ tained through the kindness of Mr. Robert B. Mantell and Mr. Fritz Leiber.

5. Words are explained in the glossary on a dictionary plan. Those who need to know what a word means will find the explanation in a convenient and readily accessible way.

6. Full notes on special points are given in a special section. The facts presented in this section are interest¬ ing in themselves; and students will carry away more than what is barely sufficient to explain the text.

7. The section giving material for supplementary reading will enable teachers to surround the play to as great a degree as is desired with an atmosphere of history and literature.

From the reading of the text as a whole students will carry away a complete idea of Julius Caesar and a great enrichment of the mind, with significant cultural infor¬ mation pleasurably acquired.

M. J. H.

Table Of Contents

PAGE

PREFACE. iii

Part One: Italy And The Ancient Romans

I. The Land of Italy . vii

II. A Visit to Rome . xii

III. A Boy in Ancient Rome . xvi

IV. The Gods of the Romans .xxiii

V. The Siege of Troy .xxix

VI. How Rome was Founded and how its Kings

were Driven Out . ..xxxv

VII. How Rome Conquered the World . xli

VIII. The Decay of the Republic .xlix

IX. The Career of Julius C/Esar . lvi

X. The Assassination of Caesar .lxiii

XI. Augustus Caesar and the Greatness of Rome lxx

Part Two: Shakespeare And His Times

I. Warwickshire and Stratford .lxxix

II. The Age of Elizabeth .lxxxv

III. William Shakespeare .xciv

IV. London and the London Playhouses .... civ

V. Shakespeare as a Playwright .cxiii

VI. Shakespeare’s Language and Verse .... cxxiii

VII. Julius Caesar as a Play .cxxx

Dramatis Personae .cxiii

THE TRAGEDY OF JULIUS C^SAR. 1

Part One: Passages Of Fact And Fiction For Supplementary Reading

I. Rome in Its Glory and Decay, by William

Stearns Davis. 97

v

VI

Contents

PAGE

II. Anecdotes of Julius Caesar, as Reported by

His Biographer Plutarch ..102

Part Two: Study Suggestions

I. Word Study.120

II. Questions on Character Analysis.123

III. Questions on Stagecraft .127

IV. The Play as a Whole. 132

V. Questions and Exercises on the Meter of

the Play.133

VI. Exercises and Projects.135

VII. Talks on Roman Manners and Customs . . 144

VIII. Talks on Elizabethan Manners and Customs 145

IX. Suggestions for Further Reading.146

X. Miscellaneous Suggestions.149

ITALY AND THE ANCIENT ROMANS

Chapter I The Land Of Italy

Open my heart, and you will see Graved inside of it, italy.

— Browning

Italy, the land where many of the scenes of Julius Caesar take place, has been a great and important coun¬ try in both ancient and modern times.

To-day “sunny Italy” is a powerful kingdom occupy¬ ing the peninsula that juts into the Mediterranean Sea from the Alps. Here forty million people live in a territory of more than a hundred thousand square miles. Under a hot sun the fertile soil yields rich harvests of grain, grapes, oranges, chestnuts, and olives. Iron, sulphur, and mercury add to the wealth of the land; and because of its numerous industries, such as silk¬ making, shipbuilding, glassmaking, and engineering, Italy holds a high place in the world of commerce.

“On the whole,” says William Stearns Davis, of Italy, “it is the most favored land bordering the Mediter¬ ranean, if not — area considered — in the entire world.”

The industry and thrift of the Italian people are pro¬ verbial. The overflow of population in their homeland has brought about a constant emigration to other coun¬ tries; and the United States, in particular, has received from Italy many millions of active workmen, skilled and unskilled.

Throughout its history Italy has been famous for dramatic events. Famous men and women have

vii viii ITALY AND THE ANCIENT ROMANS through the ages made Italy notable; great statesmen, great writers, great artists, great musicians, great inventors, great leaders of religion. Among the great statesmen may be mentioned Cavour, who helped to make Italy the nation it is to-day by joining into a single commonwealth the various sections into which the country had for centuries been split. Greatest of Italian writers was Dante, who wrote a splendid epic of the afterworld, The Divine Comedy, with its three sec¬ tions: Inferno, Purgatory, Paradise. Italy has produced more great painters and sculptors, perhaps, than any other land; most famous of them are Michelangelo and Raphael, whose works of art are the universal admiration of mankind.

Great musicians, too, have come from Italy, which has no rival except Germany in the field of grand opera. Rossini, Verdi, and Puccini have written some of the most melodious of modern music dramas. Most noted of Italian inventors is, without question, Marconi, whose work with the wireless made possible that modern miracle. No man of religion for many centuries has made a deeper impression on all the world than St. Francis of Assisi, whose lowly, poetic character is re¬ vered by peoples of all religions.

Each year thousands of tourists visit Italy in order to see and admire the astonishing wealth of interesting things to be seen in that land. Wandering under the beautiful blue skies of Italy, they visit the cathedrals of Rome and Milan and the art galleries of these cities and of Florence. They admire the harbor of Naples, with Vesuvius flaming or rumbling at its center. They inspect the great workshops of the land, the lemon and chestnut groves, the remains of ancient and mediaeval times, the magnificent palaces of the Renaissance

THE LAND OF ITALY ix

period, the canals of Venice, and Corsica, birthplace of Napoleon.

Always to-day the Italians remember that they are the descendants and the heirs of the ancient Romans, and they are proud in this memory. To the intelligent Italian, Julius Csesar and ancient Rome still live in the influence they continue to exert on modern times. An Italian who knows the history of his remarkable land will point to evidence everywhere that the Romans of old are not forgotten. In the government of his country and of the Church, in the remains of ancient roads and aqueducts and forums, in the character of his literature, in customs handed down from Roman times, and in other ways Italy is still Rome.

Chiefly, of course, he will point to the language that Italians speak. Italian is a direct descendant of the Latin that the Romans spoke, just as French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Rumanian are descendants from the same language. Rut Italian is closest of all to Latin. It was more than an allegory when in The Divine Comedy Dante described his journey through the next world and told how Virgil, greatest of Roman authors, became his guide as he entered the portals of Inferno. As Virgil guided Dante, so Latin and Latin literature have guided modern Italian literature.

Here is a description of the advantages of Italy as an ancient writer, Strabo, saw them:

“We shall now summarize the qualities which have helped raise the Romans to so great a height of pros¬ perity. One point is its insular position, by which it is securely guarded; for the seas form a natural protec¬ tion round it, with the exception of a short frontier, which too is fortified by almost impassable mountains. A second is that the harbors, though few, are capacious

X ITALY AND THE ANCIENT ROMANS and admirably situated. They are of great service for enterprises against foreign places, for defence against invasions, and for the reception of abundant merchan¬ dise. A third advantage is the climate, in which ani¬ mals and plants may be accommodated with every variety of mild and severe temperature. In length it ex¬ tends north and south; Sicily, a large island, we must consider an addition to it.

“Situated as it is between the extremes of heat and cold, and having such a length, it enjoys a great variety of temperate climate. This advantage is increased by another feature; the Apennines extend through its whole length, and leave on each side plains and fruitful hills; so that there is no district which does not enjoy the best products of both hill and plain.”

1. Where is Italy? What are its area and population? 2. What are some of the products of Italy? What are some of its industries? 3. Why is the United States especially interested in the Italian people? 4. Name one great states¬ man Italy has produced; a great writer, a great artist, a great musician, a great inventor, a great man of religion. 5. What things of interest do tourists find in Italy? 6. What are some of the ways in which modern Italy is still connected with ancient Rome? 7. Of what language is Italian an offshoot? What other languages come from the same source?

1. Bring to class a full report on the place of Italy in modern commerce. Tell particularly about its trade with America.

2. Have you ever made a trip to Italy? Do you know any one who has traveled through that land? Have you relatives or friends who were born there? Give from your own expe¬ rience or from the experience of others some interesting and

THE LAND OF ITALY xi entertaining facts about Italy. How do parts of the country iookP What are some strange or beautiful sights? What are some quaint customs of the people?

3. What is the name of the greatest living Italian states¬ man? Tell, briefly, the story of his career.

4. Bring to class reproductions of some famous works of art by Italian masters or a poem by an Italian writer or a piece of music by an Italian composer.

5. Has English been influenced by the Latin? Mention some words of Latin derivation in English.

Chapter II A Visit To Rome

Everyone soon or late comes round by Rome. — Browning

The Forum , where the immortal accents glow ,

And still the eloquent air breathes — burns with Cicero.

— Byron

You are traveling (let us imagine) in Italy, and you have come to Rome, “the Eternal City.” What inter¬ esting sights should you want to visit? What memories of the storied past would these sights recall?

You may, perhaps, begin by visiting the noble dome of St. Peter’s Cathedral and the Sistine Chapel, monu¬ ments to the genius of Michelangelo, Raphael, and other great artists. If you ascend to the dome itself, one hundred and fifty feet above the level of the ground, you see a mighty panorama: Rome itself is spread before you, the cradle of a great civilization. In the distance lie the Tiber, the Mediterranean Sea, the Apennine Mountains.

In the Sistine Chapel is the famous series by Michel¬ angelo: The Creation, The Deluge, and The Last Judg¬ ment; and in the Vatican near by you may stand in awe before many paintings of Raphael.

The Coliseum may next attract you. Ruilt by several Roman emperors, this great amphitheater, ruined as it is, testifies to the magnificence of the Roman rule. The Coliseum was used for combats of gladiators and wild beasts. Sometimes the arena was filled with water, and it became the scene of nautical displays. It is estimated that it held seats for eighty-seven thousand persons, with standing room for twenty thousand more, xii

A VISIT TO ROME xiii

Over the great ruins the soft earth has fallen, and from it trailing plants have sprung; wild flowers bloom there in season, and the long grass nods in the breeze. The bright lizard darts like green fire along the walls; and birds fill the hollow arena with song.

For a student of Julius Caesar, however, there can be no place in Rome more attractive than the ruins of the Forum. In its height of glory, at the time of the Roman emperors who came after Caesar, the Roman Forum must have been one of the world’s wonders, with its temples to the gods, its statues, its pillars and arches, its rostra for speakers. Here, one remembers, Cicero and Caesar spoke. It was, in ancient times, at the exact center of the city, with the seven hills of Rome grouped picturesquely around it. In the Forum met all the po¬ litical and all the commercial activities of Rome. The ground, at first swampy, was drained in time, and the Forum became an increasingly important part of the city. Gradually to the chief Forum were added others, until there were six in all. They covered twenty-five and one-half acres; in them people gathered for business, for meeting in public, for promenading, and for political purposes.

Thence you may wander to many other places of interest in Rome. Everywhere the eye is filled with beautiful landscapes and impressive buildings. There are palaces and ruins, gardens and statuary, distant views of villas and cottages, triumphal arches and columns, galleries crammed with art treasures, churches, shops, and the river.

You may visit the ruined tombs along the Via Appia (or Appian Road). You may go to St. John Lateran, older even than St. Peter’s. You may cross the Tiber on any of a number of bridges, some of which date back xiv ITALY AND THE ANCIENT ROMANS far into ancient times. You may gaze at Trajan’s Column, almost a hundred feet high and bearing pic¬ tures that show the achievements of this Roman conqueror. You may marvel at the Baths of Caracalla, regarded by some as the most imposing object in Rome with the exception of the Coliseum; it is a huge struc¬ ture, that makes the beholder think with awe of the greatness of its builders. You may turn to the Arch of Titus, with its reminders of the sack of Jerusalem by this Roman general. You may stand astonished before the marvelous arches of the old aqueducts, or wander in the ruins of the palace of the Caesars.

Rome still grows and still raises to the sky new build¬ ings, so that none may doubt the greatness of the modern inhabitants of the city. One of the most magnificent of the recent memorials is that erected as a reminder of the World War.

One can well understand why Lord Byron, the great English poet, when he gazed on the ruins of ancient Rome before the activity of Italy reborn added new glories to the old, should have exclaimed:

O Rome! my country! city of the soul!

The orphans of the heart must turn to thee,

Lone mother of dead empires! and control In their shut breasts their petty misery.

What are our woes and sufferance? Come and see The cypress, hear the owl, and plod your way O’er steps of broken thrones and temples.

1. For what is St. Peter’s noted? 2. What glories of art does the Sistine Chapel hold? 3. Give some facts as to the Coliseum. 4. What could one find in the ancient Roman Forum? How many forums were there altogether? 5. What are some other places of interest in Rome? 6. What, accord-

A VISIT TO ROME xv ing to some travelers, is the most imposing object in Rome aside from the Coliseum? 7. Name a modern memorial of Rome. 8. Give one phrase that Ryron applied to Rome. Why did he refer to the cypress and the owl?

1. Read one of the following books, and bring to class some additional facts as to Rome: George S. Hillard’s Six Months in Italy; Francis Wey’s Rome; Charles Dickens’s Pictures from Italy; Caroline A. Mason’s The Spell of Italy.

2. Read the fourth canto of Lord Byron’s Childe Harold , and select what you think is the finest stanza dealing with Rome.

3. Write a letter, as if from Rome, describing some of your experiences in the Eternal City.

4. Bring to class as many pictures as you can find of scenes in Rome, particularly of places mentioned in this chapter.

Chapter III A Boy In Ancient Rome

“ Civ is Romanus sum.” It was the proudest boast of the inhabitants

of the ancient world to be able to say: “ I am a Roman citizen. ”

The City that by temperance, fortitude,

And love of glory towered above the clouds.

■— Rogers

If you had been Marcus Cornelius Paulus, a Roman lad, you would have been very proud of your name. For your name indicated the famous family to which you belonged, and on it depended your social standing, even your property rights.

The most important part of this name was the second, Cornelius. This was the nomen. Marcus was the praenomen, and Paulus the cognomen. The nomen was the name of the gens or clan to which the boy belonged, the cognomen showed the branch of the clan, and the praenomen was his given name.

Marcus wore a special toga with a purple hem; when he reached manhood, this would be exchanged for the famous white toga of the Roman citizen. A line in Virgil speaks of

Romans, lords of the world, the race that is clad with the toga.

This toga usually was put on with the help of a slave. Spread out, it was oval in form; and after it had been adjusted, one end was thrown over the left shoulder. A victorious general wore a toga all of purple.

All Romans of good family were educated in Greek — the language and the literature, as well as in their own tongue and writers. Marcus would receive his training partly from a well-educated slave, who was frequently

XVI

A BOY IN ANCIENT ROME xvii

his personal attendant, took him to school every morn¬ ing, waited for him until his lessons were over, and some¬ times carried his books for him.

The boy would learn reading, writing, and arithme¬ tic. Usually he studied carefully the fundamental laws of Rome, known as the “Laws of the Twelve Tables.” As he progressed, he studied literature, especially poetry, and particularly the great Greek poet Homer, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey. These contained stories of the Trojan War and of the wanderings of Ulysses. With the study of literature went history, mythology, geography, and language. The teachers of these subjects were usually Greek slaves, prisoners of war perhaps, often well-born and well-educated persons. They had a great influence on their pupils. In particu¬ lar, those that wished to attain high rank in literature or in politics learned from Greek teachers the rules of writing and of speaking — the art of rhetoric, as it was called. Their aim was to learn above all how to speak in public and how to present an argument in a persuasive way. Sometimes a Roman youth would even visit some city in Greece, in order to attend there a famous school of rhetoric.

Some of the most important lessons that Marcus would learn, however, he learned at home. The pater¬ familias, or head of the Roman family, exerted great authority over every member of the family; and the first lesson a Roman lad would learn would be that of instant obedience and of deep reverence for his elders. In the best days of the Roman Republic a boy would be constantly with his father. He would assist his father at his work if he were a farmer; if the family lived in the city, he helped him to receive guests, he accompanied him when he went to speak in the Forum, he watched xviii ITALY AND THE ANCIENT ROMANS him at his daily business. At home the Roman boy learned respect for the gods, and a sense of truth and honor was instilled in him.

How the old Roman houses looked we can still learn from those that have been excavated at Pompeii, that ancient city which was covered by an inundation of lava from Mount Vesuvius, and which lay concealed for centuries. The exterior of the houses was very plain, and there were no windows in front. Originally a Ro¬ man house consisted of only an oblong room, called the atrium. This was the living room, the kitchen, the dining room, and the bedroom. To give light there was a hole in the roof, through which the rain fell, to be caught in a basin beneath; there was only one door, with the hearth opposite to it.

But as the Romans accumulated wealth and became more inclined to luxury, they built bigger and more comfortable homes. Marcus lived in a house in which the principal room was still the atrium. But now this was only the living room, and around it were a number of smaller rooms in which the members of the family slept, and in which their goods were stored. To the rear of the atrium wa^ the special office of the master of the house, who kept here his valuables and papers; and beyond this was the peristyle, a court open to the sky and surrounded by a colonnade. Farther to the rear was usually the dining room, and back of that the kitchen. The floor of the atrium was usually a mosaic, pieces of colored stone skillfully pieced together to make a picture. The walls and ceiling were often deco¬ rated. In the peristyle a fountain played, and surround¬ ing it were fragrant and beautiful flowers.

Sometimes the Roman houses were heated by furnaces, from which warmed air would be conveyed

Metropolitan Museum of Art.

►— 1 •

c+

tr

E- o

OQ

pT

o

CD p

OQ

CD

O

CTQ

O

CL

P

P

Q-

p-

CD

O

CD p

p

O

Hr* hd

a i—i

w

H

a

a

o

a o

S a

o

d a a

CD

C+

o p

WKWi m

Sh

c6

O

*4-1

o

m

M o 3

rO

o>

o

Sh

o

to

X 5

o to

G> c3

Sh

c 3

a to oi

to

Sh

o 3

CX

T 5

O o

a

o

Sh

Ph

Goldwyn Picture Corporation.

A BOY IN ANCIENT ROME xix by pipes to the floors of some of the rooms, but generally a Roman kept warm in winter by putting on more clothing. Charcoal braziers were, however, customary in many houses.

Marcus, like other Roman men and boys, wore only one piece of jewelry — a signet ring. But his mother % and sisters wore rings, brooches, pins, bracelets, neck¬ laces, and earrings. The Roman lady wore an inner tunic with short sleeves, a long outer tunic, and an outer garment like the toga when she went out of doors. Often the outer garment was drawn up to make a hood for the head. Men and women alike wore sandals, those for the women often being highly embroidered.

The day of the Romans was determined entirely by the hours of sunrise and sunset. The actual day fell into twelve parts. If Marcus on any particular day was with his father from sunrise to the time he retired for the night, he began by sitting with him at his breakfast — usually very light,* consisting possibly of a few olives or bread dipped in wine or honey, or a little cheese. His father attended to his letters, received business callers, and took care of his clients , those who sought favors from him.

Then father and son set out to the heart of the city. Crossing a bridge over the Tiber, they came to the foot of the Palatine Hill. They found themselves in the cattle market. But more than cattle were bought and sold here, and the boy would gaze with curiosity at the numerous shops and listen to the bargaining that went on busily in them.

As they passed out of the cattle market, father and son would come shortly to a valley between the Palatine and Aventine Hills; and here was the Circus Maximus , from very early times the place of amusement of the

XX ITALY AND THE ANCIENT ROMANS

Romans. In the days before the republic the country folk had played their games here, and in the course of time more seats and shelters had been added, and in still later days it became capable of holding one hundred and fifty thousand spectators. f As they left the Circus Maximus, Marcus and his father reached the Via Sacra, or Sacred Highway, per¬ haps the ancient world’s most famous street. Originally it derived its name from the religious rites which were performed on it, in connection with a procession to the Temple of Jupiter, chief of the Roman gods. Along the Via Sacra passed the triumphal parades of victorious Roman generals, great processions in which the con¬ queror and his army led in triumph hosts of the defeated people and carried the spoils that had been captured.

This road wound through the heart of Rome, varying in width at different places. Beside it were some of the most important buildings in the city. It passed through the Forum, at the entrance to which stood various temples. At one point Marcus would see the rostra, a platform ornamented with the beaks or prows of ships captured in battle. From this orators addressed the Roman crowd and sought to obtain their votes. Nearby was the assembly place of the people. He saw the senate house and the law court and the state prison; and so, at the end of the Via Sacra, he reached the Capitol. On the Capitol itself stood the great Temple of Jupiter. Here came the magistrates to take their oaths of office; here came victorious generals to offer the booty that they had taken in warfare against the enemies of Rome.

In one of the buildings near the Capitol and on the road to it Marcus and his father might pause, to listen to a speech from the rostra, to attend a law suit in the law court, or to hear an argument in the senate house.

A BOY IN ANCIENT ROME xxi

On their way home, and all business was generally completed by the sixth or seventh hour, they perhaps stopped to take part in some ceremony, such as the naming of the child of a friend on its ninth day, or the assuming of the toga by a boy reaching manhood, or a wedding.

The noonday meal was simple, consisting of bread, wine, nuts, and fruits. Then every one in Rome took his noonday nap, or siesta; and the streets of the city were completely deserted. In the late afternoon Ro¬ mans went to the baths or the gymnasium. The baths were elaborate affairs, containing not only facilities for exercising and cleanliness but libraries and art galleries as well.

The evening meal was the chief one of the day. Couches on which three people took their ease were used instead of chairs. The meal began with prayers to the gods; and in the best days of Rome only three courses were served. But later, as the products of the civilized world began to pour into the city, meals became more and more elaborate; and oysters from Britain found their place on the table alongside a boar’s head from Asia Minor.

1. What were the three parts of a Roman name? What did each indicate? 2. What toga did a Roman boy wear? A Roman citizen? A Roman conqueror? 3. What did the Roman boy study besides the language and literature of his own peo¬ ple? Who gave him instruction in this subject? 4. What art did Romans of ambition particularly study? 5. What lessons did a Roman boy learn at home? 6. Describe a Ro¬ man house. 7. What did Roman ladies wear? 8. How was the Roman day determined and divided? 9. What did a Roman gentleman do in the morning? 10. Describe a walk xxii ITALY AND THE ANCIENT ROMANS through Rome. 11. Who was Jupiter? 12. Tell about the three Roman meals. 13. What was the Via Sacra? 14. Where did Romans go for amusement? For exercise?