Julius Caesar

A tragedy of politics

Julius Caesar is William Shakespeare's play about the plot to kill Caesar in 44 BC and the civil war that follows. It was one of the first plays staged at the new Globe Theatre: a Swiss traveler, Thomas Platter, saw it there on September 21, 1599. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623. Shakespeare took the story from Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, in Thomas North's English translation of 1579, and kept close to it.

The title character dies at the start of Act 3. The real center of the play is Marcus Brutus, an honest man who joins the conspiracy because he fears Caesar will become a tyrant. The play asks whether a good man can do a terrible act for the public good, and what happens when ideals meet the practical skill of a politician like Mark Antony.

The main characters:

• Julius Caesar, Rome's most powerful general, newly returned in triumph.
• Brutus, a respected senator and Caesar's friend, who leads the conspiracy.
• Cassius, the plot's organizer, sharp and envious.
• Mark Antony, Caesar's loyal friend, an athlete and a brilliant speaker.
• Casca, a blunt conspirator who strikes the first blow.
• Octavius, Caesar's young adopted heir.
• Portia, Brutus's wife, and Calpurnia, Caesar's wife.
• The Soothsayer, who warns Caesar.

The main themes are honor and ambition, public and private selves, the power of rhetoric, fate and omens, and the fickle Roman crowd.

Act 1: the ides of March

Rome celebrates Caesar's victory over the sons of his old rival Pompey. Two tribunes scold the common people for forgetting Pompey so fast and strip the decorations from Caesar's statues.

At the feast of Lupercal, a Soothsayer calls out to Caesar to beware the ides of March, March 15. Caesar dismisses him as a dreamer.

While Caesar goes to the games, Cassius tests Brutus. He has noticed that Brutus seems troubled. He tells stories of Caesar's weakness: Caesar once nearly drowned in the Tiber and had to be rescued by Cassius, and he shook with fever in Spain. How has such a man become a god? Cassius tells Brutus that the fault is not in their stars but in themselves, that they are underlings. Brutus admits he fears the people will make Caesar king. He promises to think about it.

Casca reports what happened offstage. Antony offered Caesar a crown three times. Each time Caesar refused it, more reluctantly, and the crowd cheered. Then Caesar fell down in a fit. Caesar himself has noticed Cassius and tells Antony that the man has a lean and hungry look and thinks too much.

That night a violent storm fills Rome with strange signs: a lion in the streets, men on fire, a bird of night at noon. Cassius recruits Casca. He also plans to throw forged letters, written as if by different citizens, into Brutus's window, all urging him to act.

Act 2: Brutus decides

In his orchard Brutus works through the case in a soliloquy. He has no personal grievance against Caesar. The danger is what Caesar might become if he is crowned. Brutus decides to treat him like a serpent's egg and kill him in the shell. He reads the forged letters as the voice of Rome.

The conspirators arrive. Brutus takes charge at once. He refuses to let them swear an oath, since Romans of honor need none. He refuses to include Cicero. Most important, he refuses Cassius's advice to kill Antony too. They should be sacrificers, he says, not butchers.

When they leave, Portia asks what is troubling him. She has stabbed herself in the thigh to prove she can bear pain and keep a secret. Brutus promises to tell her everything.

At Caesar's house, Calpurnia has dreamed of his statue spouting blood while Romans washed their hands in it. The priests' sacrifice found a beast with no heart. Caesar agrees to stay home for her sake. Then the conspirator Decius arrives, reinterprets the dream as a sign that Rome will draw new life from Caesar, and adds that the Senate means to offer him a crown today. Caesar is ashamed of his fears and goes.

Act 3: the assassination and the funeral

On the way to the Capitol, Caesar tells the Soothsayer that the ides of March have come. The Soothsayer replies that they have not yet gone. A teacher named Artemidorus tries to hand Caesar a note revealing the plot, and Caesar refuses to read it first.

In the Senate, the conspirators surround Caesar with a false petition to recall a banished man. Caesar refuses. He says he is as constant as the Northern Star. Casca strikes first, then the others. Brutus strikes last. Caesar, seeing him, says "Et tu, Brute?" (and you, Brutus?) and dies.

The conspirators wash their hands in Caesar's blood and shout of liberty. Antony sends a message asking for safe conduct. He arrives, grieves over the body, shakes each bloody hand, and asks to speak at the funeral. Cassius objects. Brutus agrees, on the condition that Antony speaks after him and does not blame the conspirators. Alone with the body, Antony promises revenge and civil war.

At the funeral Brutus speaks first, in plain prose. He did not love Caesar less but loved Rome more. Caesar was ambitious, so he killed him. The crowd cheers and wants to crown Brutus. Brutus leaves Antony to speak alone, a fatal mistake.

Antony begins, "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears." He says he comes to bury Caesar, not to praise him. He repeats again and again that Brutus is an honorable man, while listing Caesar's refusals of the crown and his gifts to Rome, until the phrase becomes an accusation. He shows the crowd Caesar's torn cloak and points to each wound. He reveals the will: every citizen gets money, and Caesar's gardens become public parks. The crowd riots. In the street a mob tears apart a poet named Cinna because he shares a name with a conspirator. Brutus and Cassius flee Rome.

Act 4: the quarrel and the ghost

Antony, Octavius and Lepidus now rule as a triumvirate. They draw up a list of enemies to execute, trading the lives of relatives. When Lepidus leaves, Antony calls him a tool to be used and cast aside.

Near Sardis, in Brutus's tent, Brutus and Cassius quarrel. Brutus accuses Cassius of taking bribes and of refusing to send him gold to pay his troops. Cassius says Brutus no longer loves him. They reconcile. Brutus then reveals that Portia is dead. She grew desperate in his absence and swallowed fire.

They argue about strategy. Cassius wants to wait for the enemy to tire. Brutus wants to march to Philippi and fight at once, because there is a tide in the affairs of men that must be taken at the flood. Cassius gives way.

That night, while Brutus reads, the ghost of Caesar appears and calls itself his evil spirit. It tells him he will see it again at Philippi.