... [40. Portia] of principle and will. In Portia there is the same profound and passionate feeling, and all her sex's softness and timidity, held in check by that self-discipline, that stately dignity, which she thought became a woman 'so fathered and so husbanded.' The fact of her inflicting on herself a voluntary wound to try her own fortitude is perhaps the strongest proof of this disposition. Plutarch relates that on the day on which Cæsar was assassinated Portia was overcome with terror, and even swooned away, but did not in her emotion utter a word which could affect the conspirators. Shakespeare has rendered this circumstance literally [II, iv]. . . . There is another beautiful incident related by Plutarch which could not well be dramatised. When Brutus and Portia parted for the last time in the island of Nisida, she restrained all expression of grief that she might not shake his fortitude; but afterwards, in passing through a chamber in which there hung a picture of Hector and Andromache, she stopped, gazed upon it for a time with a settled sorrow, and at length burst into a passion of tears.—OECHELHAÜSER (Einführungen, etc., i, 229): Portia herself mentions her 'once commended beauty'; therefore it would be quite proper to represent her in the present time as a handsome woman, about thirty years old. She is, although well built and intellectual, by no means a masculine woman; of tender nature (according to Plutarch she was sickly), her emotion in the scene with Lucius completely shattered her, and almost fainting she staggered home. In the fourth act we hear that she has killed herself; she could not bear the separation from her husband and the accounts of his illsuccess.-HUDSON (Life, Art, etc., ii, 238): The delineation of Portia is completed in a few, brief, masterly strokes. Once seen, the portrait ever after lives, an old and dear acquaintance of the reader's inner man. Like some women I have known, Portia has strength enough to do and to suffer for others, but very little for herself. As the daughter of Cato and wife of Brutus, she has set in her eye a pattern of how she ought to think and act, being 'so father'd and husbanded'; but still her head floats merged over the ears in her heart; and it is only when affection speaks that her spirit is hushed into the listening which she would fain yield only to the speech of reason. She has a clear idea of the stoical calmness and fortitude which appears so noble and so graceful in her Brutus; it all lies faithfully reproduced in her mind; she knows well how to honour and admire it; yet she cannot work it into the texture of her character; she can talk it like a book, but she tries in vain to live it. Portia gives herself that gash without flinching, and bears it without a murmur, as an exercise and proof of manly fortitude; and she translates her pains into smiles, all to comfort and support her husband. So long as this purpose lends her strength, she is fully equal to her thought, because here her heart keeps touch perfectly with her head. But, this motive gone, the weakness, if it be not rather the strength, of her woman's nature rushes full upon her; her feelings rise into an uncontrollable flutter, and run out at every joint and motion of her body; and nothing can arrest the inward mutiny till affection again whispers her into composure, lest she spill something that may hurt or endanger her Brutus. O noble Portia!-STAPFER (p. 370): Portia as she appears in Plutarch is, I think, an even finer and more interesting character to study than she is in Shakespeare. The poet has undoubtedly enriched the historian's account with the more vivid life of the drama, and has given more force to her words, more distinctness to her actions, but he could add no further feature of any importance to her character. History furnishes a complete and finished portrait of Portia, to which poetry may give a warmer SCENE, For the three first Acts, and beginning of the Fourth in Rome: For the remainder 4I 44 41-44. and beginning...Philippi.] at Rome: afterwards, at an Isle near Mutina; at Sardis; and Philippi. Theob.+. glow and richer colouring, but which in its essential lines it can never improve. It is only fair that this should be openly and clearly stated, that Plutarch may have the full credit of his victories in a most unequal combat, in which it would seem that his highest success could only consist in not being entirely beaten. But not only does the poet's rendering not surpass his model, but it seems to me to fall a little short of it, and to leave out some of its beauties, which apparently belong peculiarly to the form of narrative and refuse to be transplanted into dramatic regions. It requires all the wooden inflexibility of a systematic admiration not to regret the absence in Shakespeare's tragedy of the beautiful scene in which Brutus and Portia take leave of each other at Elea. 510 THE TRAGEDIE OF IVLIVS CÆSAR. Actus Primus. Scana Prima. Enter Flauius, Murellus, and certaine Commoners ouer the Stage. Flauius. Her a you not Ence: home you idle Creatures, get you home: Is this a Holiday? What, know 1. TRAGEDIE] TRAGEDY F3F4. 3. Actus Primus. Scœna Prima] Act I. Scene i. Rowe. SCENE. Rome. Rowe. a Street in Rome Theob. et seq. (subs.) 4, 5. Enter Flauius...the Stage] Ff, Cam.+. Enter a Rabble of Citizens: Flavius and Murellus driving them. Capell. Enter Flavius, Marullus, and a body of Citizens. Collier, 5 8 Hal. Enter Flavius, Marullus, and a Murellus, and...] Marullus, a Carpenter, a Cobbler, and... Jennens. Commoners] Plebeians Han. 5. ouer...Stage] Om. Pope et seq. 8. Holiday] Holy-day F, Rowe. 1. The Tragedie] GILDON (p. 377): This Play or History is call'd Julius Cæsar, tho' it ought rather to be call'd Marcus Brutus; Cæsar is the shortest and most inconsiderable part in it, and he is kill'd in the beginning of the Third Act. But Brutus is plainly the shining and darling character of the Poet; and is to the end of the Play the most considerable Person. If it had properly been call'd Julius Cæsar it ought to have ended at his Death, and then it had been much more regular, natural, and beautiful. But then the Moral must naturally have been the punishment or ill Success of Tyranny.-STEEVENS: It appears from Peck's Collection of divers curious historical Pieces (appended to his Memoirs, &c., of Oliver Cromwell), p. 14, that a Latin play on this subject had been written: Epilogus Cæsaris interfecti, quomodo in scenam prodiit ea res, acta, in Ecclesia Christi, Oxon. Qui Epilogus a Magistro Ricardo Eedes, et scriptus et in proscenio ibidem dictus fuit, A. D. 1582. Meres, whose Wit's Commonwealth was published in 1598, enumerates Dr Eedes among the best tragic writers of that time.-MALONE: From some words spoken by Polonius in Hamlet, I think it probable that there was an English play on this subject before Shakespeare commenced as a writer for the stage. Stephen Gosson, in his School of Abuse, 1579, mentions a play entitled The History of Cæsar and Pompey. William Alexander, afterwards Earl of Sterline, wrote a tragedy on the story and with the title of Julius Cæsar. It may be presumed that Shakespeare's play was posterior to his; for Lord Sterline, when he composed his Julius [1. The Tragedie of Ivlivs Cæsar] Cæsar, was a very young author, and would hardly have ventured into that circle within which the most eminent dramatic writer of England had already walked. The death of Cæsar, which is not exhibited, but related to the audience, forms the catastrophe of his piece. In the two plays many parallel passages are found, which might, perhaps, have proceeded only from the two authors drawing from the same source. However, there are some reasons for thinking the coincidence more than accidental. A passage in The Tempest: 'The cloud-capped towers,' etc., IV, i, 152, seems to have been copied from one in Darius, another play of Lord Sterline's, printed at Edinburgh in 1603. His Julius Cæsar appeared in 1607, at a time when he was little acquainted with English writers; for both these pieces abound with scotticisms, which, in the subsequent folio edition, 1637, he corrected. But neither The Tempest nor Julius Cæsar of our author was printed until 1623. It should also be remembered that our author has several plays founded on subjects which had been previously treated by others. Of this kind are King John, Rich. II., 1 Henry IV., 2 Henry IV., Henry V., Rich. III., Lear, Ant. & Cleo., Meas. for Meas., Tam. of Shr., Mer. of Ven., and, I believe, Timon and 2 and 3 Hen. VI., whereas no proof has hitherto been produced that any contemporary writer ever presumed to new-model a story that had already employed the pen of Shakespeare. On all these grounds it appears more probable that Shakespeare was indebted to Lord Sterline than that Lord Sterline borrowed from Shakespeare. If this reasoning be just, this play could not have appeared before the year 1607. I believe it was produced in that year. [See Appendix: Date of Composition, MALONE. The reference, in the foregoing note, to a play The History of Cæsar and Pompey, mentioned by Gosson in his Schoole of Abuse, has been repeated by subsequent editors. It was, however, HALLIWELL, in 1864 (Folio ed., Introd.), who gave the correct reference, as Gosson's second pamphlet: Plaies Confuted in Five Actions, to which Collier (Introduction to the Shakespeare Society's edition of The Schoole of Abuse, p. vii) assigns the date of the 'autumn of 1581, or spring of 1582.' The passage to which Malone refers is as follows: 'So was the history of Cæsar and Pompey, and the play of the Fabii at the Theatre, both amplified there, where the Drummes might walke, or the pen ruffle.'-English Drama and Stage under the Tudor and Stuart Princes: Roxburghe Library; ed. W. C. Hazlitt; p. 188. -ED.]-COLLIER (Introd., p. 5): It is a new fact [1842], ascertained from an entry in Henslowe's Diary, 22nd May, 1602, that Anthony Munday, Michael Drayton, John Webster, Thomas Middleton, and other poets were engaged upon a tragedy entitled Cæsar's Fall. The probability is that these dramatists united their exertions in order without delay to bring out a tragedy on the same subject as that of Shakespeare, which, perhaps, was then performing at the Globe Theatre with success. Malone states that there is no proof that any contemporary writer 'had presumed to new-model a story that had already employed the pen of Shakespeare.' He forgot that Ben Jonson was engaged upon a Richard Crookback in 1602; and he omitted, when examining Henslowe's Diary, to observe that in the same year four distinguished dramatists, and 'other poets,' were employed upon Cæsar's Fall. [In a foot-note Collier remarks that Lord Sterling's [sic] Julius Cæsar was first printed in 1604, which date may be accounted for, he thinks, by the popularity of Shakespeare's tragedy about 1603, and, therefore, this 'date is of consequence.' Of this earlier date Malone appears to have been unaware.]—UPTON: The real length of time in Julius Cæsar is as follows: About the middle of February, A. U. C. [1. The Tragedie of Ivlivs Cæsar] 709 [B. C. 44], a frantic festival, sacred to Pan, and called Lupercalia, was held in honor of Cæsar, when the regal crown was offered to him by Antony. On the 15th of March in the same year he was slain. November 27, A. U. C. 710, the triumvirs met at a small island, formed by the river Rhenus, near Bononia, and there adjusted their cruel proscriptions. A. U. C. 711 Brutus and Cassius were defeated near Philippi.-Bathurst (p. 79): This play does not contain so much of high poetical passages, delicate descriptions, nor tender touches of feeling as often occur in many of Shakespeare's plays; but then it has very little that is not quite easy to understand; it is full of active business; of spirit in the dialogue; contains a good deal of dignity without being stiff or tiresome, and very considerable expression of character; besides, the extraordinary merit of one long speech, that of Antony to the people, which alone would be sufficient to attract us to the play. Shakespeare in this play, as in some others, was taken out of his usual turn and taste by founding a play strictly upon history. This makes him more regular. 3. Actus Primus] OECHELHAÜSER (Einführungen, i, 234): The First Act takes place in an open square decorated with statues and memorials, a temple or a palace with a colonnade in the distance. Cæsar's train, both in its entrance and exit, passes across the stage diagonally, or goes along a raised street, or viaduct winding downwards. Over this way Cinna rushes during the storm. The greatest care is to be taken to render this dreadful night as realistic as possible.-VERITY: The value of this scene is twofold: (1) It indicates the feeling of Rome towards Cæsar; among the official classes he has jealous enemies, with the crowd he is popular. (2) It illustrates the fickleness of the crowd, a point of which so much is made on the occasion of Antony's great speech. Also the reference to the Lupercalia fixes the time of the action of the play at its opening.-F. C. KOLBE (Irish Monthly, Sept., 1896, p. 511): The power of the people is a force external to the action of the play, yet it underlies and determines that action; in such cases it is Shakespeare's habit to begin the play with the underlying force, as, e. g., the Ghost in Hamlet, the Witches in Macbeth, and the storm in The Tempest. The mob then, thus shouting for Cæsar, is confronted by the Tribunes, who remind them of their love for Pompey, and chide them for cheering the man who comes in triumph over Pompey's blood. . . . It is the first muttering of the storm against Cæsar; and the spirit of the storm is the veiled figure of the Nemesis of Pompey, justifying the conspiracy that is to be. It is the beginning of the dip of the wave of public opinion which curls in continuous motion throughout the play,—it is crested with Cæsar's triumph, sinks to its trough at Cæsar's death, and rises once more crested with Cæsar's revenge. 4. Murellus] THEOBALD: I have, upon the authority of Plutarch, &c., given to this tribune his right name, Marullus. 4. Flauius, Murellus] FRANCIS GENTLEMAN, author of the Dramatic Censor, has written a number of comments, for the most part laudatory, on passages and scenes of the stage arrangement of Julius Cæsar as given in Bell's British Theatre. On the present line Gentleman remarks: "Though ludicrous characters appear very incompatible with tragedy, yet the mob, in this historical piece, are natural, justifiable, and exceedingly well supported; several characters, to reduce an enormous multiplicity and insignificance of some, are judiciously blended with others; particularly those of Flavius and Marullus, in the first scene, are thrown into Casca and Decius Brutus.'-The wisdom of a change which reduces the multi |