The New Hudson Shakespeare: Julius Caesar Part 1

The New Hudson Shakespeare: Julius Caesar.

by William Shakespeare.

PREFACE

The text of this edition of _Julius Caesar_ is based upon a collation of the seventeenth century Folios, the Globe edition, and that of Delius.

As compared with the text of the earlier editions of Hudson's Shakespeare, it is conservative. Exclusive of changes in spelling, punctuation, and stage directions, very few emendations by eighteenth century and nineteenth century editors have been adopted; and these, with every variation from the First Folio, are indicated in the textual notes. These notes are printed immediately below the text so that a reader or student may see at a glance the evidence in the case of a disputed reading and have some definite understanding of the reasons for those differences in the text of Shakespeare which frequently surprise and very often annoy. A consideration of the more poetical, or the more dramatically effective, of two variant readings will often lead to rich results in awakening a spirit of discriminating interpretation and in developing true creative criticism. In no sense is this a textual variorum edition. The variants given are only those of importance and high authority.

The spelling and the punctuation of the text are modern, except in the case of verb terminations in _-ed_, which, when the _e_ is silent, are printed with the apostrophe in its place. This is the general usage in the First Folio. Modern spelling has to a certain extent been followed in the text variants; but the original spelling has been retained wherever its peculiarities have been the basis for important textual criticism and emendation.

With the exception of the position of the textual variants, the plan of this edition is similar to that of the old Hudson Shakespeare. It is impossible to specify the various instances of revision and rearrangement in the matter of the Introduction and the interpretative notes, but the endeavor has been to retain all that gave the old edition its unique place and to add the results of what seems vital and permanent in later inquiry and research.

While it is important that the principle of _suum cuique_ be attended to so far as is possible in matters of research and scholars.h.i.+p, it is becoming more and more difficult to give every man his own in Shakespearian annotation. The amount of material acc.u.mulated is so great that the ident.i.ty-origin of much important comment and suggestion is either wholly lost or so crushed out of shape as to be beyond recognition. Instructive significance perhaps attaches to this in editing the works of one who quietly made so much of materials gathered by others. But the list of authorities given on page li will indicate the chief source of much that has gone to enrich the value of this edition. Professor W. P. Trent, of Columbia University, has offered valuable suggestions and given important advice; and to Mr. M. Grant Daniell's patience, accuracy, and judgment this volume owes both its freedom from many a blunder and its possession of a carefully arranged index.

INTRODUCTION

NOTE. In citations from Shakespeare's plays and nondramatic poems the numbering has reference to the Globe edition, except in the case of this play, where the reference is to this edition.

I. SOURCES

No event in the history of the world has made a more profound impression upon the popular imagination than the a.s.sa.s.sination of Julius Caesar.

Apart from its overwhelming interest as a personal catastrophe, it was regarded in the sixteenth century as a happening of the greatest historical moment, fraught with significant public lessons for all time.

There is ample evidence that in England from the beginning of Elizabeth's reign it was the subject of much literary and dramatic treatment, and in making the murder of "the mightiest Julius" the climax of a play, Shakespeare was true to that instinct which drew him for material to themes of universal and eternal interest.

THE MAIN STORY

I. _North's Plutarch._ There is no possible doubt that in _Julius Caesar_ Shakespeare derived the great body of his historical material from _The Life of Julius Caesar_, _The Life of Marcus Brutus_, and _The Life of Marcus Antonius_ in Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch.[1] This work was first printed in 1579 in a ma.s.sive folio dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. A second edition appeared in 1595, and in all probability this was the edition read by Shakespeare. The t.i.tle-page is reproduced in facsimile on page ix. This interesting t.i.tle-page gives in brief the literary history of North's translation, which was made not directly from the original Greek of Plutarch, but from a French version by Jacques Amyot, bishop of Auxerre.[2] In 1603 appeared a third edition with additional _Lives_ and new matter on the t.i.tle-page.[3] There were subsequent editions in 1612,[4] 1631, 1656, and 1676. The popularity of this work attested by these reprintings was thoroughly deserved, for North's Plutarch is among the richest and freshest monuments of Elizabethan prose literature, and, apart altogether from the use made of it by Shakespeare, is in itself an invaluable repertory of honest, manly, idiomatic English. No abstract of the Plutarchian matter need be given here, as all the more important pa.s.sages drawn upon for the play are quoted in the footnotes to the text. These will show that in most of the leading incidents the great Greek biographer is closely followed, though in many cases these incidents are worked out and developed with rare fertility of invention and art. It is very significant that in the second half of _The Life of Julius Caesar_, which Shakespeare draws upon very heavily, Plutarch emphasizes those weaknesses of Caesar which are made so prominent in the play. Besides this, in many places the Plutarchian form and order of thought, and also the very words of North's racy and delectable English are retained, with such an embalming for immortality as Shakespeare alone could give.[5]

[Footnote 1: Professor W. W. Skeat's _Shakespeare's Plutarch_ (The Macmillan Company) gives these _Lives_ in convenient form with a text based upon the edition of 1612.]

[Footnote 2: A Latin translation of Plutarch's _Lives_ was printed at Rome as early as 1470, and there is evidence that through a Latin version the work first attracted the attention of Amyot. But his famous French version, first published in 1559, shows thorough familiarity with the original Greek text.]

[Footnote 3: This t.i.tle-page is given in facsimile as the frontispiece of this volume.]

[Footnote 4: There is a famous copy of this edition in the Greenock Library with the initials "W. S." at the top of the t.i.tle-page and seventeenth century ma.n.u.script notes in _The Life of Julius Caesar_. See Skeat's _Shakespeare's Plutarch_, Introduction, p. xii.]

[Footnote 5: See Trench's _Lectures on Plutarch_, Leo's _Four Chapters of North's Plutarch_, and Delius's _Shakespeare's Julius Caesar und seine Quellen in Plutarch_ (_Shakespeare Jahrbuch_, XVII, 67).]

[Ill.u.s.tration:

THE LIVES OF THE n.o.bLE GRECIANS AND ROMANES, COMPARED TOGETHER BY THAT GRAVE LEARNED PHILOSOPHER AND HISTORIOGRAPHER, _Plutarch of Chaeronea_: Translated out of Greeke into French by IAMES AMIOT, Abbot of Bellozane, Bishop of Auxerre, one of the Kings priuie counsell, and great Amner of France, and out of French into English, by _Thomas North_.

Imprinted at London by Richard Field for Bonham Norton.

1595.

In _Julius Caesar_ Shakespeare's indebtedness to North's Plutarch may be summed up as extending to (1) the general story of the play; (2) minor incidents and happenings, as Caesar's falling-sickness, the omens before his death, and the writings thrown in Brutus's way; (3) touches of detail, as in the description of Ca.s.sius's "lean and hungry look" and of Antony's tastes and personal habits; and (4) noteworthy expressions, phrases, and single words, as in III, ii, 240-241, 246-248; IV, iii, 2; IV, iii, 178; V, i, 80-81; V, iii, 109.

On the other hand, Shakespeare's alteration of Plutarchian material is along the lines of (1) idealization, as in the characters of Brutus and Ca.s.sius; (2) amplification, as in the use Antony makes of Caesar's rent and b.l.o.o.d.y mantle; and (3) simplification and compression of the action for dramatic effect, as in making Caesar's triumph take place at the time of "the feast of Lupercal," in the treatment of the quarrel between Brutus and Ca.s.sius, which in Plutarch lasts for two days, and in making the two battles of Philippi occur on the same day. See note, p. 159, ll.

109-110. See also below, The Scene of the a.s.sa.s.sination.

2. _Appian's Roman Wars._ In 1578 there was published in London an English translation of the extant portions of Appian's _History of the Roman Wars both Civil and Foreign_, with the interesting t.i.tle page shown in facsimile on page xi.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

AN AVNCIENT Historie and exquisite Chronicle _of the Romanes warres, both_ Ciuile and Foren.

Written in Greeke by the n.o.ble Orator and Historiographer, _Appian_ of _Alexandria_, one of the learned Counsell to the most mightie Emperoures, _Traiane_ and _Adriane_

In the which is declared:

_Their greedy desire conquere others.

Their mortall malice to destroy themselves.

Their seeking of matters to make warre abroad.

Their picking of quarels to fall out at home.

All the degrees of Sedition, and the effects of Ambition.

A firme determination of Fate, thorowe all the changes of Fortune.

And finally, an evident demonstration, That peoples rule must give place, and Princes power prevayle._

With a continuation, bicause that parte of _Appian_ is not extant, from the death of _s.e.xtus Pompeius_, second sonne to _Pompey_ the Great, _till the overthrow of_ Antonie _and_ Cleopatra, after the vvhich time, _Octavia.n.u.s Caesar_, had the Lords.h.i.+p of all, alone.

?as???d? ???t???, desp?t?d? t' ?p?e????at?

IMPRINTED AT LONDON _by Raufe Newbery, and_ Henrie Bynniman.

Anno. 1578.

In this translation of Appian the events before and after Caesar's death are described minutely and with many graphic touches. Compare, for example, with the quotation from Plutarch given in the note, p. 68, l.

33, this account of the same incident in Appian: "The day before that Caesar should go to the senate, he had him at a banquet with Lepidus ...

and talking merrily what death was best for a man, some saying one and some another, he of all praised sudden death." Here are some of the marginal summaries in Appian: "Caesar refuseth the name of King," "A crown upon Caesar's image by one that was apprehended of the tribunes Marullus and Sitius," "Caesar hath the Falling-Sickness," "Caesar's Wife (hath) a fearful Dream," "Caesar contemneth sacrifices of evil Luck,"

"Caesar giveth over when Brutus had stricken him," "The fear of the Conspirators," "The bad Angel of Brutus."

What gives interest and distinction to Appian's translation as a probable source for material in _Julius Caesar_ is that in it we have speeches by Antony, Brutus, and Lepidus at the time of the reading of Caesar's will. In this translation Antony's first speech begins, "They that would have voices tried upon Caesar must know afore that if he ruled as an officer lawfully chosen, then all his acts and decrees must stand in force...." On Antony's second speech the comment is, "Thus wrought Antony artificially." His speech to the Senate begins, "Silence being commanded, he said thus, 'Of the citizens offenders (you men of equal honour) in this your consultation I have said nothing....'" The speech of Lepidus to the people has this setting: "When he was come to the place of speech he lamented, weeping, and thus said, 'Here I was yesterday with Caesar, and now am I here to inquire of Caesar's death....

Caesar is gone from us, an holy and honourable man in deed.'" The effect of this speech is commented on as follows: "Handling the matter thus craftily, the hired men, knowing that he was ambitious, praised him and exhorted him to take the office of Caesar's priesthood." A long speech by Brutus follows the reading of Caesar's will. It begins: "Now, O citizens, we be here with you that yesterday were in the common court not as men fleeing to the temple that have done amiss, nor as to a fort, having committed all we have to you.... We have heard what hath been objected against us of our enemies, touching the oath and touching cause of doubt...." The effect of this speech is thus described: "Whiles Brutus thus spake, all the hearers considering with themselves that he spake nothing but right, did like them well, and as men of courage and lovers of the people, had them in great admiration and were turned into their favour."

3. _Earlier Plays._ As already mentioned, England had plays on the subject of Julius Caesar from the first years of Elizabeth's reign. As not one of these earlier plays is extant, there can be no certainty as to whether Shakespeare drew upon them for materials or inspiration, but, as Professor Herford says, "he seems to be cognisant of their existence." His opening scene is addressed to a public familiar with the history of Pompey and Pompey's sons. Among these earlier plays was one almost contemporary with the first production of _Gorboduc_, the first English tragedy. It is referred to under the name of _Julyus Sesar_ in an entry in Machyn's _Diary_ under February 1, 1562. In _Plays confuted in five Actions_, printed probably in 1582, Stephen Gosson mentions the history of _Caesar and Pompey_ as a contemporary play. A Latin play on Caesar's death was acted at Oxford in 1582, and for it Dr. Richard Eedes (Eades, Edes) of Christ Church wrote the epilogue (_Epilogus Caesaris Intersecti_). In Henslowe's _Diary_ under November 8, 1594, a _Seser and pompie_ is mentioned as a new play. Mr. A. W. Verity (_Julius Caesar_, The Pitt Press edition) makes the interesting suggestion that in III, i, 111-116, there may be an allusion to these earlier plays. Cf. also _Hamlet_, III, ii, 107-111, quoted below.

THE SCENE OF THE a.s.sa.s.sINATION

In transferring the a.s.sa.s.sination of Caesar from the _Porticus Pompeia_ ("Pompey's porch," I, iii, 126) to the Capitol, Shakespeare departed from Plutarch and historical accuracy to follow a popular tradition that had received the signal imprimatur of Chaucer: