Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-07/what-abraham-lincoln-liked-about-richar...

I wrote this essay mainly in response to Mr. Carter's Article, not as challenge or any acknowledgement of fault. I believe Caesar to be a masterwork of political drama, different but equally essential to Richard III.

The play opens during the Roman festival of Lupercalia, observed during the month of February, on the 13th through the 15th. The two characters, Flavius and Marullus, followers of Caesar's defeated ally then foe, Pompey Magnus, demonstrate that despite the festive atmosphere and lightheartedness of the "common" Roman characters, all is not well in Caesar's Rome.

Mar. May we do so?
You know it is the feast of Lupercal.
Flav. It is no matter; let no images 60
Be hung with Cæsar’s trophies. I’ll about
And drive away the vulgar from the streets:
So do you too where you perceive them thick.
These growing feathers pluck’d from Cæsar’s wing
Will make him fly an ordinary pitch, 65
Who else would soar above the view of men
And keep us all in servile fearfulness.

It is interesting to note that though Caesar is the namesake of the play, unlike Richard III, he has very little to do directly in the subsequent drama. To abstract, Caesar has become a symbol. His physical presence in the play is relatively insignificant. As Theseus slyly states in A Midsummer - Night's Dream, in regards to the Theater ...The. The best in this kind are but shadows, and the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them... Caesar is a shadow. His shadow dictates the action of the play. In the politics of power the theatrical shadow is the symbol that ultimately holds sway, and Caesar as a symbol in Rome is the most powerful force that has yet been unleashed upon the City.

Sooth. Beware the ides of March.

Caesar is a force. Is that force consistent with the polity and commonweal of Rome? After the festive gathering of Caesar and his train leave the stage, leaving behind them both Brutus and Cassius. Brutus is the embodiment of the ancient virtue of Rome. His ancestors were instrumental in founding the Republic. Caesar is a threat to that order.

Bru. Cassius,
Be not deceiv’d: if I have veil’d my look,
I turn the trouble of my countenance 45
Merely upon myself. Vexed I am
Of late with passions of some difference,
Conceptions only proper to myself,
Which give some soil perhaps to my behaviours;
But let not therefore my good friends be griev’d,— 50
Among which number, Cassius, be you one,—
Nor construe any further my neglect,
Than that poor Brutus, with himself at war,
Forgets the shows of love to other men.

Brutus is Rome at war over itself. He is the viscous civil wars she has been fighting since before Caesar, the wars of Marius and Sulla, and on into the contemporaneous action of the play. Cassius is an opportunist. He's vaguely orchestrated a cabal within the Senate of Rome, and needs Brutus for legitimacy. He plays coy, and plays friend and worthy counsel.

Cas. ’Tis just:
And it is very much lamented, Brutus,
That you have no such mirrors as will turn
Your hidden worthiness into your eye,
That you might see your shadow. I have heard, 65
Where many of the best respect in Rome,—
Except immortal Cæsar,—speaking of Brutus,
And groaning underneath this age’s yoke,
Have wish’d that noble Brutus had his eyes.

A piece of ironic flattery. He is recalling the ancient virtue of Brutus' ancestors, those that slew the Tyrannical Kings of Rome, whom avenged Lucrece, and instituted what eventually became the Republic of Rome. The topic is war. The topic is treason.

Brutus and Cæsar: what should be in that ‘Cæsar?’ 150
Why should that name be sounded more than yours?
Write them together, yours is as fair a name;
Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well;
Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with ’em,
‘Brutus’ will start a spirit as soon as ‘Cæsar.’ 155
Now, in the names of all the gods at once,
Upon what meat doth this our Cæsar feed,
That he is grown so great? Age, thou art sham’d!

The symbolic majesty of certain names, Caesar has lived through the ages...but think also of names like Napoleon...Washington ... There is something in the mysterious power of words that renders majesty.

Cæs. Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o’ nights.
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous

The powerful Caesar surrounded by sycophant. Brutus and Cassius alone in the shadows somewhere behind the stage of the festivities, they linger about in the periphery of the spheres of power, Cassius writhing with envy and Brutus hopelessly divided. Two Conspirators. The Republic is dying if not dead already, the mood of the play hinges on dislocation, it hinges on a lost way of life and those misguided fools who try forcibly to bring it back. Caesar is a political reality. The Rome that Brutus and Cassius harp upon has faded, or arguably never even existed. One, Cassius urges their fate through selfish gain, and yet the impetus of Brutus remains unanswered....What compelled him to sacrifice everything?

Casca. A common slave—you know him well by sight—
Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn
Like twenty torches join’d; and yet his hand,
Not sensible of fire, remain’d unscorch’d. 20
Besides,—I have not since put up my sword,—
Against the Capitol I met a lion,
Who glar’d upon me, and went surly by,
Without annoying me; and there were drawn
Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women, 25
Transformed with their fear, who swore they saw
Men all in fire walk up and down the streets.
And yesterday the bird of night did sit,
Even at noon-day, upon the market-place,
Hooting and shrieking. When these prodigies 30
Do so conjointly meet, let not men say
‘These are their reasons, they are natural;’
For, I believe, they are portentous things
Unto the climate that they point upon.

The world is upside down. The forces of emotive fury, which are the true reservoir of politics, have conjoined with the natural elements. Luckily we have the great philosopher and statesman, Cicero, to assuage our concern...

Cic. Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time: 35
But men may construe things after their fashion,
Clean from the purpose of the things themselves.

The only Republican remedy is death. Has Caesar reached a point to where he simply cannot be killed? We know the answer. The Elizabethans knew the answer. Brutus and Cassius do not.

Bru. It must be by his death: and, for my part,
I know no personal cause to spurn at him,
But for the general. He would be crown’d: 15
How that might change his nature, there’s the question:
It is the bright day that brings forth the adder;
And that craves wary walking. Crown him?—that!
And then, I grant, we put a sting in him,
That at his will he may do danger with. 20
The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins
Remorse from power; and, to speak truth of Cæsar,
I have not known when his affections sway’d
More than his reason. But ’tis a common proof,
That lowliness is young ambition’s ladder, 25
Whereto the climber-upward turns his face;
But when he once attains the upmost round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend. So Cæsar may: 30
Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since the quarrel
Will bear no colour for the thing he is;
Fashion it thus; that what he is, augmented,
Would run to these and these extremities;
And therefore think him as a serpent’s egg 35
Which, hatch’d, would, as his kind, grow mischievous,
And kill him in the shell.

We suddenly find ourselves in the mind of Brutus. The mind of the Classic Roman. The times are changing, and changing in an infinite variety, why must it be you alone to seek redress...So, the man is a Tyrant? Do the people clamor for his head? Or a misguided faction of Roman Noblemen, some perhaps basely envious of his great political and military fortune?

The genius and the mortal instruments
Are then in council; and the state of man,
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then
The nature of an insurrection.

The failure of Brutus and Cassius is that they over-intellectualize their plot, they over-estimate their appeal to the Roman people, and they under-estimate the power of Caesar's ghost, they fail to realize how deep-rooted it has become in the hearts and minds of the people, they under-estimate Antony's ability to play to it, his ability to conjure it before a crowd, their appeal to cold stoic reason of dead Republican Virtue contrasted with the lust of a burgeoning Empire...Take Brutus' defense:

Bru. Be patient till the last. 15
Romans, countrymen, and lovers! hear me for my cause; and be silent, that you may hear: believe me for mine honour, and have respect to mine honour, that you may believe: censure me in your wisdom, and awake your senses, that you may the better judge. If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Cæsar’s, to him I say, that Brutus’ love to Cæsar was no less than his. If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Cæsar, this is my answer: Not that I loved Cæsar less, but that I loved Rome more. Had you rather Cæsar were living, and die all slaves, than that Cæsar were dead, to live all free men? As Cæsar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honour him; but, as he was ambitious, I slew him. There is tears for his love; joy for his fortune; honour for his valour; and death for his ambition. Who is here so base that would be a bondman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so vile that will not love his country? If any, speak; for him have I offended. I pause for a reply.

Brutus puts forth the sacred doctrines that have governed Rome for Centuries, and there should be no reply...Not anymore, the times have changed. Enter Antony, a claimant to that change...

Ant. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones; 55
So let it be with Cæsar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Cæsar was ambitious;
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Cæsar answer’d it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest,— 60
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men,—
Come I to speak in Cæsar’s funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious; 65
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Cæsar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Cæsar hath wept; 70
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown, 75
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know. 80
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Cæsar, 85
And I must pause till it come back to me.

Antony doesn't try to appeal to the crowds' dormant sense of virtue, he appeals directly to their instincts. He doesn't offer any intellectual justification, and Antony is coy, ostensibly he appears to flatter Brutus while inciting an uproarious mob that no longer has a demagogue to pander them or flatter anymore.