The New Hudson Shakespeare: Julius Caesar Part 2

viii.]

These distinctive notes are of a nature more easily to be felt than described, and to make them felt examples will best serve. Take then a pa.s.sage from the soliloquy of Brutus just after he has pledged himself to the conspiracy:

'Tis a common proof, That lowliness is young ambition's ladder, 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. [II, i, 21-27.]

Here we have a full, rounded period in which all the elements seem to have been adjusted, and the whole expression set in order, before any part of it was written down. The beginning foresees the end, the end remembers the beginning, and the thought and image are evolved together in an even, continuous flow. The thing is indeed perfect in its way, still it is not in Shakespeare's latest and highest style. Now take a pa.s.sage from _The Winter's Tale_:

When you speak, sweet, I'ld have you do it ever: when you sing, I'ld have you buy and sell so, so give alms, Pray so; and, for the ordering your affairs, To sing them too: when you do dance, I wish you A wave o' the sea, that you might ever do Nothing but that; move still, still so, And own no other function. [IV, iv, 136-143.]

Here the workmanship seems to make and shape itself as it goes along, thought kindling thought, and image prompting image, and each part neither concerning itself with what has gone before, nor with what is coming after. The very sweetness has a certain piercing quality, and we taste it from clause to clause, almost from word to word, as so many keen darts of poetic rapture shot forth in rapid succession. Yet the pa.s.sage, notwithstanding its swift changes of imagery and motion, is perfect in unity and continuity.

III. EARLY EDITIONS

FOLIOS

On November 8, 1623, Edward Blount and Isaac Jaggard obtained formal license to print "Mr. William Shakespeere's Comedyes, Histories, and Tragedyes, soe many of the said copies as are not formerly entered to other men." This is the description-entry in _The Stationers' Registers_ of what is now known as the First Folio (1623), designated in the textual notes of this edition F1. _Julius Caesar_ is one of the plays "not formerly entered,"[1] and it was first printed, so far as is known, in this famous volume. It is more correctly printed than perhaps any other play in the First Folio and, as the editors of the Cambridge Shakespeare suggest, "may perhaps have been (as the preface falsely implied that all were[2]) printed from the original ma.n.u.script of the author."[3] It stands between _Timon of Athens_ and _Macbeth_, two very badly printed plays. The running t.i.tle is _The Tragedie of Julius Caesar_, but in the "Catalogve of the seuerall Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies contained in this Volume," the t.i.tle is given as _The Life and Death of Julius Caesar_.

[Footnote 1: This is strong evidence that the play had not been printed at an earlier date.]

[Footnote 2: "... Absolute in their numbers, as he conceiued them....

His mind and hand went together: And what he thought, he vttered with that easinesse, that wee haue sca.r.s.e receiued from him a blot in his papers" (Heminge and Condell's Address "To the great Variety of Readers," First Folio).]

[Footnote 3: Mr. F. G. Fleay in his Shakespeare Manual (1876) argues that "this play as we have it is an abridgement of Shakespeare's play made by Ben Jonson."]

The Second Folio, F2 (1632), the Third Folio, F3 (1663, 1664), and the Fourth Folio, F4 (1685), show few variants in the text of _Julius Caesar_ and none of importance.

THE QUARTO OF 1691

In 1691 _Julius Caesar_ appeared in quarto form. This Quarto contained one famous text variant, 'hath' for 'path' in II, i, 83. Though the Folio text here offers difficulties, and modern editors have suggested many emendations, no one has been inclined to accept the commonplace reading of the Quarto.

ROWE'S EDITIONS

In the Folios and in the Quarto of 1691 the play is divided into acts, but not into scenes, though the first act is headed _Actus Primus, Scaena Prima_. The first systematic division into scenes was made by Nicholas Rowe, poet laureate to George I, in the edition which he issued in six octavo volumes in 1709. In this edition Rowe, an experienced playwright, marked the entrances and exits of the characters and introduced many stage directions and the list of dramatis personae which has been the basis for all later lists. A second edition in eight volumes was published in 1714. Rowe followed very closely the text of the Fourth Folio, but modernized spelling, punctuation, and occasionally grammar.

These are the first critical editions of Shakespeare's plays.

IV. THE t.i.tLE

It has been justly observed that Shakespeare shows much judgment in the naming of his plays. From this observation several critics have excepted _Julius Caesar_, p.r.o.nouncing the t.i.tle a misnomer, on the ground that Brutus, and not Caesar, is the hero of it. It is indeed true that Brutus is the hero, but the play is rightly named, for Caesar is not only the subject but also the governing power of it throughout. He is the center and springhead of the entire action, giving law and shape to everything that is said and done. This is manifestly true in what occurs before his death; and it is true in a still deeper sense afterwards, since his genius then becomes the Nemesis or retributive Providence.

V. DRAMATIC CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT

_Julius Caesar_ is a tragedy of a normal Shakespearian type, in which is represented a conflict between an individual, or group of individuals, and certain forces which environ, antagonize, and overwhelm. The unity of action and of interest is the personality of Julius Caesar. In dramatic technique the play is simple and effective. Out of ma.s.ses of detail and historical incident the dramatist has shaped a symmetrical and well-defined plot marked by (1) the exposition, or introduction, (2) the complication, or rising action, (3) the climax, or turning point, (4) the resolution, or falling action, and (5) the catastrophe, or conclusion. It is almost a commonplace of criticism that the opening scene of a Shakespeare play strikes the keynote of the action. It certainly does in a remarkable way in _Julius Caesar_, introducing, on the one side, a group of excited citizens friendly to Caesar, and, on the other, two tribunes hostile to him. It foreshadows the character-contrasts in the play and the conflict between the state and the individual. The exposition continues through the second scene, in which are introduced the leading characters in significant action and interaction. At the close of this scene Ca.s.sius lays his plans to win Brutus over to the conspiracy, and the complication, or rising action, of the drama begins. Through the last scene of the first act and the four scenes of the second act the growth of the complication is continued, with brief intervals of suspense, until, in the first scene of the third act, the climax is reached in the a.s.sa.s.sination of Caesar and the wild enthusiasm of the conspirators. With the entry of Antony's servant begins the resolution, or falling action (see note, p. 89, l.

123), and from now, through intervals of long suspense and many vicissitudes,[1] the fortunes of the chief conspirators fall inevitably to the catastrophe.

a.n.a.lYSIS BY ACT AND SCENE[2]

[Footnote 1: For an interesting defense of the so-called 'dragging'

tendency and episodical character of the third scene of the fourth act, see Professor A. C. Bradley's _Shakespearean Tragedy_, pp. 55-61.]

[Footnote 2: "It must be understood that a play can be a.n.a.lyzed into very different schemes of plot. It must not be thought that one of these schemes is right and the rest wrong; but the schemes will be better or worse in proportion as--while of course representing correctly the facts of the play--they bring out more or less of what ministers to our sense of design."--Moulton.]

I. THE EXPOSITION, OR INTRODUCTION (TYING OF THE KNOT)

_Act I, Scene i._ The popularity of Caesar with the Roman mob and the jealousy of the official cla.s.ses--the two motive forces of the play--are revealed. The fickleness of the mob is shown in a spirit of comedy; the antagonism of Marullus and Flavius strikes the note of tragedy.

_Act I, Scene ii, 1-304._ The supreme characters are introduced, and in their opening speeches each reveals his temperament and foreshadows the part which he will play. The exposition of the situation is now complete.

II. THE COMPLICATION, RISING ACTION, OR GROWTH (TYING OF THE KNOT)

_Act I, Scene ii, 305-319._ In soliloquy Ca.s.sius unfolds his scheme for entangling Brutus in the conspiracy, and the dramatic complication begins.

_Act I, Scene iii._ Casca, excited by the fiery portents that bode disaster to the state, is persuaded by Ca.s.sius to join "an enterprise of honourable-dangerous consequence" (lines 123-124). The conspirators are a.s.signed to their various posts, and Ca.s.sius engages to secure Brutus before morning.

_Act II, Scene i._ The humane character of Brutus, as master, husband, and citizen, is elaborated, and his att.i.tude to Caesar and the conspiracy of a.s.sa.s.sination clearly shown. He joins the conspirators--apparently their leader, in reality their tool. In lines 162-183 he pleads that the life of Antony be spared, and thus unconsciously prepares for his own ruin.

_Act II, Scene ii._ Caesar is uneasy at the omens and portents, and gives heed to Calpurnia's entreaties to remain at home, but he yields to the importunity of Decius and starts for the Capitol, thus advancing the plans of the conspirators. The dramatic contrast between Caesar and Brutus is strengthened by that between Calpurnia in this scene and Portia in the preceding.

_Act II, Scene iii._ The dramatic interest is intensified by the warning of Artemidorus and the suggestion of a way of escape for the protagonist.

_Act II, Scene iv._ The interest is further intensified by the way in which readers and spectators are made to share the anxiety of Portia.

III. THE CLIMAX, CRISIS, OR TURNING POINT (THE KNOT TIED)

_Act III, Scene i, 1-122._ The dramatic movement is now rapid, and the tension, indicated by the short whispered sentences of all the speakers except Caesar, is only increased by his imperial utterances, which show utter unconsciousness of the impending doom. In the a.s.sa.s.sination all the complicating forces--the self-confidence of Caesar, the unworldly patriotism of Brutus, the political chicanery of Ca.s.sius, the unscrupulousness of Casca, and the fickleness of the mob--bring about an event which changes the lives of all the characters concerned and threatens the stability of the Roman nation. The death of Caesar is the climax of the physical action of the play; it is at the same time the emotional crisis from which Brutus comes with altered destiny.

IV. THE RESOLUTION, FALLING ACTION, OR CONSEQUENCE (THE UNTYING OF THE KNOT)

_Act III, Scene i, 123-298._ With Brutus's "Soft! who comes here? A friend of Antony's" begins the resolution, or falling action, of the play. "The fortune of the conspirators, hitherto in the ascendant, now declines, while 'Caesar's spirit' surely and steadily prevails against them."--Verity. Against the advice of Ca.s.sius, Brutus gives Antony permission to deliver a public funeral oration. Antony in a soliloquy shows his determination to avenge Caesar, and the first scene of the falling action closes with the announcement that Octavius is within seven leagues of Rome.

_Act III, Scene ii--Scene iii._ The orations of Antony, in vivid contrast to the conciliatory but unimpa.s.sioned speeches of Brutus, fire the people and liberate fresh forces in the falling action. Brutus and Ca.s.sius have to fly the city, riding "like madmen through the gates of Rome." In unreasoning fury the mob tears to pieces an innocent poet who has the same name as a conspirator.

_Act IV, Scene i._ Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus, having formed a triumvirate of which Antony is the master spirit, agree on a proscription list and join forces against Brutus and Ca.s.sius, who "are levying powers."

_Act IV, Scene ii._ Brutus and Ca.s.sius, long parted by pride and obstinacy, meet to discuss a plan of action.

_Act IV, Scene iii._ This is one of the most famous individual scenes in Shakespeare (see note, page 123). Its intensely human interest is always conceded, but its dramatic propriety, because of what seems a 'dragging'

tendency, has been often questioned. The scene opens with Brutus and Ca.s.sius bandying recriminations, and the quarrel of the two generals bodes disaster to their cause. As the discussion proceeds, they yield points and become reconciled. Brutus then quietly but with peculiar pathos tells of Portia's death by her own hand. In all the great tragedies, with the notable exception of _Oth.e.l.lo_, when the forces of the resolution, or falling action, are gathering towards the denouement, Shakespeare introduces a scene which appeals to an emotion different from any of those excited elsewhere in the play. "As a rule this new emotion is pathetic; and the pathos is not terrible or lacerating, but, even if painful, is accompanied by the sense of beauty and by an outflow of admiration or affection, which come with an inexpressible sweetness after the tension of the crisis and the first counter-stroke. So it is with the reconciliation of Brutus and Ca.s.sius, and the arrival of the news of Portia's death."--Bradley. While the shadow of her tragic pa.s.sing overhangs the spirits of both, Brutus overhears the shrewd, cautious counsel of Ca.s.sius and persuades him to a.s.sent to the fatal policy of offering battle at Philippi. That night the ghost of Caesar appears to Brutus.

_Act V, Scene i._ The action now falls rapidly to the quick, decisive movement of the denouement. The antagonists are now face to face. Brutus and Ca.s.sius have done what Antony and Octavius hoped that they would do.

The opposing generals hold a brief parley in which Brutus intimates that he is willing to effect a reconciliation, but Antony rejects his proposals and bluntly charges him and Ca.s.sius with the wilful murder of Caesar. Ca.s.sius reminds Brutus of his warning that Antony should have fallen when Caesar did. Antony, Octavius, and their army retire, and the scene closes with the n.o.ble farewell without hope between Brutus and Ca.s.sius.