= Julius_Caesar

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= Julius_Caesar_(play) =
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Introduction
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'The Tragedy of Julius Caesar '(First Folio title: 'The Tragedie of
Ivlivs Cæsar'), often shortened to 'Julius Caesar', is a historical
tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written and
first performed in 1599. The play portrays the political conspiracy
that led to the assassination of the Roman dictator Julius Caesar and
Rome's subsequent civil war. Drawing primarily (with deviations in
various aspects) from Sir Thomas North's 1579 translation of 'Parallel
Lives' by Plutarch, Shakespeare presents a dramatised account of
Caesar's growing power, his murder by a group of senators led by
Cassius and Brutus, and the defeat of the conspirators by the forces
of Mark Antony and Octavius at the Battle of Philippi.

Although named after Caesar, the play focuses largely on Brutus, whose
moral and political dilemmas have often led critics to regard him as
its tragic hero. Central themes include the tension between personal
loyalty and public duty, the use of rhetoric in politics, and the
fragility of republican governance in the face of ambition and power.
Julius Caesar was among the first plays performed at the Globe Theatre
and has remained one of Shakespeare’s most frequently staged works. It
has been adapted in numerous forms and interpreted in diverse
political contexts, reflecting concerns from Elizabethan debates on
succession to modern discussions of dictatorship and democracy. The
play is widely studied for its exploration of character, persuasion,
and political morality, and it continues to influence literature,
theater, and political discourse.

Synopsis
======================================================================
The play opens with two tribunes Flavius and Marullus (appointed
leaders/officials of Rome) discovering the commoners of Rome
celebrating Julius Caesar's triumphant return from defeating the sons
of his military rival, Pompey. The tribunes, insulting the crowd for
their change in loyalty from Pompey to Caesar, attempt to end the
festivities and break up the commoners, who return the insults. During
the feast of Lupercal, Caesar holds a victory parade and a soothsayer
warns him to "Beware the ides of March," which he ignores. Meanwhile,
Cassius attempts to convince Brutus to join his conspiracy to kill
Caesar. Although Brutus, friendly towards Caesar, is hesitant to kill
him, he agrees that Caesar may be abusing his power. They then hear
from Casca that Mark Antony has offered Caesar the crown of Rome three
times. Casca tells them that each time Caesar refused it with
increasing reluctance, hoping that the crowd watching would insist
that he accept the crown. He describes how the crowd applauded Caesar
for denying the crown, and how this upset Caesar. On the eve of the
ides of March, the conspirators meet and reveal that they have forged
letters of support from the Roman people to tempt Brutus into joining.
Brutus reads the letters and, after much moral debate, decides to join
the conspiracy, thinking that Caesar should be killed to 'prevent' him
from doing anything against the people of Rome if he were ever to be
crowned.

The conspirators attempt to demonstrate that they killed Caesar for
the good of Rome, to prevent an autocrat. They prove this by not
attempting to flee the scene. Brutus delivers an oration defending his
actions, and for the moment, the crowd is on his side. However, Antony
makes a subtle and eloquent speech over Caesar's corpse, beginning
"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!" He deftly turns
public opinion against the assassins by manipulating the emotions of
the common people, in contrast to the rational tone of Brutus's
speech, yet there is a method in his rhetorical speech and gestures.
Antony reminds the crowd of the good Caesar had done for Rome, his
sympathy with the poor, and his refusal of the crown at the Lupercal,
thus questioning Brutus's claim of Caesar's ambition; he shows
Caesar's bloody, lifeless body to the crowd to have them shed tears
and gain sympathy for their fallen hero; and he reads Caesar's will,
in which every Roman citizen would receive 75 drachmas. Antony, even
as he states his intentions against it, rouses the mob to drive the
conspirators from Rome. The mob takes Caesar's body to the Forum,
lights his funeral pyre, and uses the pyre to light up torches for
burning down the homes of the conspirators. Amid the violence, an
innocent poet, Cinna, is confused with the conspirator Lucius Cinna
and is taken by the mob, which kills him for such "offences" as his
bad verses.

At the Battle of Philippi, Cassius and Brutus, knowing that they will
probably both die, smile their last smiles to each other and hold
hands. During the battle, Cassius has his servant kill him after
hearing of the capture of his best friend, Titinius. After Titinius,
who was not captured, sees Cassius's corpse, he commits suicide.
However, Brutus wins that stage of the battle, but his victory is not
conclusive. With a heavy heart, Brutus battles again the next day. He
asks his friends to kill him, but the friends refuse. He loses and
commits suicide by running on his sword, held for him by a loyal
soldier.
The play ends with a tribute to Brutus by Antony, who proclaims that
Brutus has remained "the noblest Roman of them all" because he was the
only conspirator who acted, in his mind, for the good of Rome. There
is then a small hint at the friction between Antony and Octavius which
characterizes another of Shakespeare's Roman plays, 'Antony and
Cleopatra.'

Characters
======================================================================
* Julius Caesar

'Triumvirs after Caesar's death'
* Octavius Caesar
* Mark Antony
* Lepidus

'Conspirators against Caesar'
* Marcus Junius Brutus (Brutus)
* Caius Cassius
* Casca
* Decius Brutus
* Cinna
* Metellus Cimber
* Trebonius
* Caius Ligarius

'Tribunes'
* Flavius
* Marullus

'Roman Senate Senators'
* Cicero
* Publius
* Popilius Lena

'Citizens'
* Calpurnia - Caesar's wife
* Portia - Brutus' wife
* Soothsayer - a person supposed to be able to foresee the future
* Artemidorus - sophist from Knidos
* Cinna - poet
* Cobbler
* Carpenter
* Poet (believed to be based on Marcus Favonius)
* Lucius - Brutus' attendant

'Loyal to Brutus and Cassius'
* Volumnius
* Titinius
* Young Cato - Portia's brother
* Messala - messenger
* Varrus
* Clitus
* Claudio
* Dardanius
* Strato
* Lucilius
* Flavius (non-speaking role)
* Labeo (non-speaking role)
* Pindarus - Cassius' bondman

'Other'
* Caesar's servant
* Antony's servant
* Octavius' servant
* Messenger
* Other soldiers, senators, plebeians, and attendants

Sources
======================================================================
The main source of the play is Thomas North's translation of
Plutarch's 'Lives'.

Deviations from Plutarch
==========================
* Shakespeare places Caesar's triumph on the day of Lupercalia (15
February), when in reality, he triumphed over Pompey six months
earlier.
* For dramatic effect, he makes Capitoline Hill the venue of Caesar's
death rather than the 'Curia Pompeia' (Curia of Pompey).
* Caesar's murder, the funeral, Antony's oration, the reading of the
will, and the arrival of Octavius all take place on the same day in
the play. However, historically, the assassination took place on 15
March (The Ides of March), the will was published on 18 March, the
funeral was on 20 March, and Octavius arrived only in May.
* Shakespeare makes the Triumvirs meet in Rome instead of near Bononia
to avoid an additional locale.
* He combines the two Battles of Philippi although there was a 20-day
interval between them.
* Shakespeare has Caesar remark 'Et tu, Brute?' ("And you, Brutus?")
before he dies. Plutarch and Suetonius each reported that Caesar said
nothing, with Plutarch adding that he pulled his toga over his head
when he saw Brutus among the conspirators, though Suetonius does
record other reports that Caesar said "" ("This is violence"). The
Latin words 'Et tu, Brute?', however, were not devised by Shakespeare
for this play since they are attributed to Caesar in earlier
Elizabethan works and had become conventional by 1599.

Shakespeare deviated from these historical facts to curtail time and
compress the facts so that the play could be staged more easily. The
tragic force is condensed into a few scenes for heightened effect.

Date and text
======================================================================
'Julius Caesar' was originally published in the First Folio of 1623,
but a performance was mentioned by Thomas Platter the Younger in his
diary in September 1599. The play is not mentioned in the list of
Shakespeare's plays published by Francis Meres in 1598. Based on these
two points, as well as several contemporary allusions, and the belief
that the play is similar to 'Hamlet' in vocabulary, and to 'Henry V'
and 'As You Like It' in metre, scholars have suggested 1599 as a
probable date.

The text of 'Julius Caesar' in the First Folio is the only
authoritative text for the play. The Folio text is notable for its
quality and consistency; scholars judge it to have been set into type
from a theatrical prompt-book.

The play contains many anachronistic elements from the Elizabethan
era. The characters mention objects such as doublets (large, heavy
jackets) - which did not exist in ancient Rome. Caesar is mentioned to
be wearing an Elizabethan doublet instead of a Roman toga. At one
point a clock is heard to strike and Brutus notes it with "Count the
clock".

Historical background
=======================
Julius Caesar was written around 1599, during the reign of Elizabeth
I, a period marked by political uncertainty regarding the succession
to the English throne. Although England was at peace, Elizabeth had
refused to name her successor, which raised concerns about potential
instability, rebellion, or the possibility of a civil war similar to
that of Rome unfolding after her death. Maria Wyke has written that
the play reflects this general anxiety over the royal succession.
Shakespeare’s dramatisation of Caesar’s assassination and the
subsequent civil war would have resonated with Elizabethan audiences
aware of these anxieties.

Protagonist debate
====================
Critics of Shakespeare's play 'Julius Caesar' differ greatly in their
views of Caesar and Brutus. Many have debated whether Caesar or Brutus
is the protagonist of the play. Intertwined in this debate is a
smattering of philosophical and psychological ideologies on
republicanism and monarchism. One author, Robert C. Reynolds, devotes
attention to the names or epithets given to both Brutus and Caesar in
his essay "Ironic Epithet in 'Julius Caesar'". He points out that
Casca praises Brutus at face value, but then inadvertently compares
him to a disreputable joke of a man by calling him an alchemist, "Oh,
he sits high in all the people's hearts,/And that which would appear
offense in us/ His countenance, like richest alchemy,/ Will change to
virtue and worthiness" (I.iii.158-160). Reynolds also talks about
Caesar and his "Colossus" epithet, which he points out has obvious
connotations of power and manliness, but also lesser-known
connotations of an outward glorious front and inward chaos.

Myron Taylor, in his essay "Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar' and the
Irony of History", compares the logic and philosophies of Caesar and
Brutus. Caesar is deemed an intuitive philosopher who is always right
when he goes with his instinct; for instance, when he says he fears
Cassius as a threat to him before he is killed, his intuition is
correct. Brutus is portrayed as a man similar to Caesar, but whose
passions lead him to the wrong reasoning, which he realizes in the end
when he says in V.v.50-51, "Caesar, now be still:/ I killed not thee
with half so good a will".

Joseph W. Houppert acknowledges that some critics have tried to cast
Caesar as the protagonist, but that ultimately Brutus is the driving
force in the play and is, therefore, the tragic hero. Brutus attempts
to put the republic over his relationship with Caesar and kills him.
Brutus makes the political mistakes that bring down the republic that
his ancestors created. He acts on his passions, does not gather enough
evidence to make reasonable decisions, and is manipulated by Cassius
and the other conspirators.

Traditional readings of the play may maintain that Cassius and the
other conspirators are motivated largely by envy and ambition, whereas
Brutus is motivated by the demands of honor and patriotism. Certainly,
this is the view that Antony expresses in the final scene. But one of
the central strengths of the play is that it resists categorising its
characters as either simple heroes or villains. The political
journalist and classicist Garry Wills maintains that "This play is
distinctive because it has no villains". It is a drama famous for the
difficulty of deciding which role to emphasise. The characters rotate
around each other like the plates of a Calder mobile. Touch one and it
affects the position of all the others. Raise one, and another sinks.
But they keep coming back into a precarious balance.

Performance history
======================================================================
The play was probably one of Shakespeare's first to be performed at
the Globe Theatre. Thomas Platter the Younger, a Swiss traveler, saw a
tragedy about Julius Caesar at a Bankside theatre on 21 September
1599, and this was most likely Shakespeare's play, as there is no
obvious alternative candidate. (While the story of Julius Caesar was
dramatized repeatedly in the Elizabethan/Jacobean period, none of the
other plays known is as good a match with Platter's description as
Shakespeare's play.)

After the theatres re-opened at the start of the Restoration era, the
play was revived by Thomas Killigrew's King's Company in 1672. Charles
Hart initially played Brutus, as did Thomas Betterton in later
productions. 'Julius Caesar' was one of the very few Shakespeare plays
that was not adapted during the Restoration period or the eighteenth
century.

Notable performances
======================
* 1864: Junius Jr., Edwin and John Wilkes Booth (later the assassin of
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln) made their only appearance onstage
together in a benefit performance of 'Julius Caesar' on 25 November
1864, at the Winter Garden Theater in New York City. Junius Jr. played
Cassius, Edwin played Brutus and John Wilkes played Mark Antony. This
landmark production raised funds to erect a statue of Shakespeare in
Central Park, which remains to this day.
* 29 May 1916: A one-night performance in the natural bowl of
Beachwood Canyon, Hollywood drew an audience of 40,000 and starred
Tyrone Power Sr. and Douglas Fairbanks Sr. The student bodies of
Hollywood and Fairfax High Schools played opposing armies, and the
elaborate battle scenes were performed on a huge stage as well as the
surrounding hillsides. The play commemorated the tercentenary of
Shakespeare's death. A photograph of the elaborate stage and viewing
stands can be seen on the Library of Congress website. The performance
was lauded by L. Frank Baum.
* 1926: Another elaborate performance of the play was staged as a
benefit for the Actors Fund of America at the Hollywood Bowl. Caesar
arrived for the Lupercal in a chariot drawn by four white horses. The
stage was the size of a city block and dominated by a central tower 80
ft in height. The event was mainly aimed at creating work for
unemployed actors. Three hundred gladiators appeared in an arena scene
not featured in Shakespeare's play; a similar number of girls danced
as Caesar's captives; a total of three thousand soldiers took part in
the battle sequences.
* 1937: 'Caesar', Orson Welles's famous Mercury Theatre production,
drew fevered comment as the director dressed his protagonists in
uniforms reminiscent of those common at the time in Fascist Italy and
Nazi Germany, drawing a specific analogy between Caesar and Fascist
Italian leader Benito Mussolini. 'Time' magazine gave the production a
rave review, together with the New York critics. The fulcrum of the
show was the slaughter of Cinna the Poet (Norman Lloyd), a scene that
stopped the show. 'Caesar' opened at the Mercury Theatre in New York
City in November 1937 and moved to the larger National Theater in
January 1938, running a total of 157 performances. A second company
made a five-month national tour with 'Caesar' in 1938, again to
critical acclaim.
* 1950: John Gielgud played Cassius at the Shakespeare Memorial
Theatre under the direction of Michael Langham and Anthony Quayle. The
production was considered one of the highlights of a remarkable
Stratford season and led to Gielgud (who had done little film work to
that time) playing Cassius in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's 1953 film
version.
* 1977: Gielgud made his final appearance in a Shakespearean role on
stage as Caesar in John Schlesinger's production at the Royal National
Theatre. The cast also included Ian Charleson as Octavius.
* 1994: Arvind Gaur directed the play in India with Jaimini Kumar as
Brutus and Deepak Ochani as Caesar (24 shows); later on he revived it
with Manu Rishi as Caesar and Vishnu Prasad as Brutus for the
Shakespeare Drama Festival, Assam in 1998. Arvind Kumar translated
'Julius Caesar' into Hindi. This production was also performed at the
Prithvi international theatre festival, at the India Habitat Centre,
New Delhi.
* 2005: Denzel Washington played Brutus in the first Broadway
production of the play in over fifty years. The production received
universally negative reviews but was a sell-out because of
Washington's popularity at the box office.
* 2012: The Royal Shakespeare Company staged an all-black production
under the direction of Gregory Doran.
* 2012: An all-female production starring Harriet Walter as Brutus and
Frances Barber as Caesar was staged at the Donmar Warehouse, directed
by Phyllida Lloyd. In October 2013, the production transferred to New
York's St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn.
* 2018: The Bridge Theatre staged 'Julius Caesar' as one of its first
productions, under the direction of Nicholas Hytner, with Ben Whishaw,
Michelle Fairley, and David Morrissey as leads. This mirrors the
play's status as one of the first productions at the Globe Theatre in
1599.

Adaptations and cultural references
======================================================================
One of the earliest cultural references to the play came in
Shakespeare's own 'Hamlet'. Prince Hamlet asks Polonius about his
career as a thespian at university, and Polonius replies: "I did enact
Julius Caesar. I was killed in the Capitol. Brutus killed me." This is
a likely meta-reference, as Richard Burbage is generally accepted to
have played leading men Brutus and Hamlet, and the older John Heminges
to have played Caesar and Polonius.

In 1851, the German composer Robert Schumann wrote a concert overture
'Julius Caesar', inspired by Shakespeare's play. Other musical
settings include those by Giovanni Bononcini, Hans von Bülow, Felix
Draeseke, Josef Bohuslav Foerster, John Ireland, John Foulds, Gian
Francesco Malipiero, Manfred Gurlitt, Darius Milhaud, and Mario
Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

The Canadian comedy duo Wayne and Shuster parodied 'Julius Caesar' in
their 1958 sketch 'Rinse the Blood off My Toga'. Flavius Maximus,
Private Roman Eye, is hired by Brutus to investigate the death of
Caesar. The police procedural combines Shakespeare, 'Dragnet', and
vaudeville jokes and was first broadcast on 'The Ed Sullivan Show'.

In 1984, the Riverside Shakespeare Company of New York City produced a
modern dress 'Julius Caesar' set in contemporary Washington, called
simply 'CAESAR!', starring Harold Scott as Brutus, Herman Petras as
Caesar, Marya Lowry as Portia, Robert Walsh as Antony, and Michael
Cook as Cassius, directed by W. Stuart McDowell at The Shakespeare
Center.

In 2006, Chris Taylor from the Australian comedy team The Chaser wrote
a comedy musical called 'Dead Caesar' which was shown at the Sydney
Theatre Company in Sydney.

The line "The Evil That Men Do", from the speech made by Mark Antony
following Caesar's death ("The evil that men do lives after them; The
good is oft interred with their bones.") has had many references in
media, including the titles of:
* A song by Iron Maiden.
* A politically oriented film directed by J. Lee Thompson in 1984.
* A novel in the 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' series.

The 2008 movie 'Me and Orson Welles', based on a book of the same name
by Robert Kaplow, is a fictional story centered around Orson Welles'
famous 1937 production of 'Julius Caesar' at the Mercury Theatre.
British actor Christian McKay is cast as Welles, and co-stars with Zac
Efron and Claire Danes.

The 2012 Italian drama film 'Caesar Must Die' (), directed by Paolo
and Vittorio Taviani, follows convicts in their rehearsals ahead of a
prison performance of 'Julius Caesar'.

In the Ray Bradbury book 'Fahrenheit 451', some of the character
Beatty's last words are "There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats,
for I am armed so strong in honesty that they pass me as an idle wind,
which I respect not!"

The play's line "the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in
ourselves", spoken by Cassius in Act I, scene 2, is often referenced
in popular culture. The line gave its name to the J.M. Barrie play
'Dear Brutus', and also gave its name to the best-selling young adult
novel 'The Fault in Our Stars' by John Green and its film adaptation.
The same line was quoted in Edward R. Murrow's epilogue of his famous
1954 'See It Now' documentary broadcast concerning Senator Joseph R.
McCarthy. This speech and the line were recreated in the 2005 film
'Good Night, and Good Luck'. It was also quoted by George Clooney's
character in the Coen brothers film 'Intolerable Cruelty'.

The line "And therefore think him as a serpent's egg / Which hatched,
would, as his kind grow mischievous; And kill him in the shell" spoken
by Brutus in Act II, Scene 1, is referenced in the Dead Kennedys song
"California über alles".

The title of Agatha Christie's novel 'Taken at the Flood', titled
'There Is a Tide' in its American edition, refers to an iconic line of
Brutus: "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the
flood, leads on to fortune." (Act IV, Scene III).

The line "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the
flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is
bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now
afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our
ventures" is recited by Jean-Luc Picard at the end of the 'Star Trek:
Picard' series finale, "The Last Generation." The play was previously
discussed in a conversation between Julian Bashir and Elim Garak in
the 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine' episode "Improbable Cause".

Film and television adaptations
=================================
'Julius Caesar' has been adapted to a number of film productions,
including:
* 'Julius Caesar' (Vitagraph Company of America, 1908), produced by J.
Stuart Blackton and directed by William V. Ranous, who also played
Antony.
* 'Julius Caesar' (Avon Productions, 1950), directed by David Bradley,
who played Brutus; Charlton Heston played Antony and Harold Tasker
played Caesar.
* 'Julius Caesar' (MGM, 1953), directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and
produced by John Houseman; starring James Mason as Brutus, Marlon
Brando as Antony and Louis Calhern as Caesar.
* 'An Honourable Murder' (1960), directed by Godfrey Grayson; depicted
the play in a modern business setting.
* 'The Spread of the Eagle', a 1963 BBC series comprising
'Coriolanus', 'Julius Caesar', and 'Antony & Cleopatra'.
* 'Julius Caesar' (BBC, 1969), a television adaptation in the Play of
the Month series, directed by Alan Bridges.
* 'Julius Caesar' (Commonwealth United, 1969), directed by Stuart
Burge, produced by Peter Snell, starring Jason Robards as Brutus,
Charlton Heston as Antony and John Gielgud as Caesar.
* 'Heil Caesar' (BBC, 1973), a three-part television play written by
John Griffith Bowen that was "a modern-dress modern-dialogue rewrite
of the play, updated to an unnamed present-day regime that's about to
switch from democracy to dictatorship unless Brutus and his
conspirators act to prevent it." It was intended as an introduction to
Shakespeare's play for schoolchildren, but it proved good enough to be
shown on adult television, and a stage version was later produced. The
British Universities Film & Video Council database states that the
work "transforms the play into a modern political conspiracy thriller
with modern dialogue and many strong allusions to political events in
the early 1970."
* 'Julius Caesar' (BBC/Time-Life TV, 1978), a television adaptation in
the BBC Television Shakespeare series, directed by Herbert Wise and
produced by Cedric Messina, starring Richard Pasco as Brutus, Keith
Michell as Antony and Charles Gray as Caesar.
* The HBO series 'Rome' frequently referenced notable moments and
lines from the Shakespeare play.
* 'Julius Caesar' (2010), is a short film starring Randy Harrison as
Brutus and John Shea as Julius Caesar. Directed by Patrick J Donnelly
and produced by Dan O'Hare.
* 'Caesar Must Die' (2012), is an Italian film about a group of prison
inmates rehearsing a play. Ultimately, the prison life and the play
become indistinguishable and Mark Antony's Friends, Romans... speech
is delivered in a prison courtyard with hundreds of prisoners peeking
from their cell windows taking the role of Roman citizens. While the
film is fictional, the actors are actual prison inmates playing
themselves.
* 'Julius Caesar' (2012), a BBC television film adaptation of the
Royal Shakespeare Company stage production of the same year directed
by Gregory Doran with an all-Black cast, sets the tragedy in
post-independence Africa with echoes of the Arab Spring. The film
stars Paterson Joseph as Brutus, Ray Fearon as Antony, Jeffery Kissoon
as Caesar, Cyril Nri as Cassius and Adjoa Andoh as Portia.

* 'Zulfiqar' (2016), a Bengali-language Indian film by Srijit Mukherji
that is an adaptation of both 'Julius Caesar' and 'Antony and
Cleopatra' and a tribute to the film 'The Godfather'.
* 'Et Tu' (2023), an American independent comedy horror-thriller film
by Max Tzannes, set around a regional theater production of the play
and its director being driven into madness.

Contemporary political references
===================================
Modern adaptions of the play have often made contemporary political
references, with Caesar depicted as resembling a variety of political
leaders, including Huey Long, Margaret Thatcher, and Tony Blair, as
well as Fidel Castro and Oliver North. Scholar A. J. Hartley stated
that this is a fairly "common trope" of 'Julius Caesar' performances:
"Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, the rule has been to
create a recognizable political world within the production. And often
people in the title role itself look like or feel like somebody either
in recent or current politics." A 2012 production of 'Julius Caesar'
by the Guthrie Theater and The Acting Company "presented Caesar in the
guise of a black actor who was meant to suggest President Obama." This
production was not particularly controversial.

In 2017, however, a modern adaptation of the play at New York's
Shakespeare in the Park (performed by The Public Theater) depicted
Caesar with the likeness of then-president Donald Trump and thereby
aroused ferocious controversy, drawing criticism by media outlets such
as 'The Daily Caller' and 'Breitbart' and prompting corporate sponsors
Bank of America and Delta Air Lines to pull their financial support.
The Public Theater stated that the message of the play is not
pro-assassination and that the point is that "those who attempt to
defend democracy by undemocratic means pay a terrible price and
destroy the very thing they are fighting to save." Shakespeare
scholars Stephen Greenblatt and Peter Holland agreed with this
statement. Pallotta stated that "I have never read anyone suggesting
that 'Julius Caesar' is a play that recommends assassination. Look
what happens: Caesar is assassinated to stop him from becoming a
dictator. Result: civil war, massive slaughter, creation of an
emperor, execution of many who sympathized with the conspiracy.
Doesn't look much like a successful result for the conspirators to
me." The play was interrupted several times by right-wing protesters,
who accused the play of "violence against the right", and actors and
members of theatres with Shakespeare in the name were harassed and
received death threats, including the wife of the play's director
Oskar Eustis. The protests were praised by American Family Association
director Sandy Rios who compared the play with the execution of
Christians by damnatio ad bestias.

The 2018 Bridge Theatre production also incorporates modern political
imagery. The commoners in the first scene sing modern punk music and
Caesar distributes red hats to the audience that are remarkably
similar to Donald Trump's campaign merchandise. The conspirators also
use modern firearms during the assassination and the Battle of
Phillipi.

See also
======================================================================
* 1599 in literature
* Assassinations in fiction
* Caesar's Comet
* Mark Antony's Funeral Speech
* "The dogs of war"
* List of idioms attributed to Shakespeare

Bibliography
==============
* Boyce, Charles. 1990. 'Encyclopaedia of Shakespeare', New York,
Roundtable Press.
* Chambers, Edmund Kerchever. 1923. 'The Elizabethan Stage'. 4
volumes, Oxford: Oxford University Press. .
* Halliday, F. E. 1964. 'A Shakespeare Companion 1564-1964'.
Shakespeare Library ser. Baltimore, Penguin, 1969. .
* Houppert, Joseph W. "Fatal Logic in 'Julius Caesar'". South Atlantic
Bulletin. Vol. 39, No. 4. Nov. 1974. 3-9.
* Kahn, Coppelia. "Passions of some difference": Friendship and
Emulation in Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar: New Critical Essays. Horst
Zander, ed. New York: Routledge, 2005. 271-83.
* Parker, Barbara L. "The Whore of Babylon and Shakespeares's Julius
Caesar." Studies in English Literature (Rice); Spring '95, Vol. 35
Issue 2, p. 251, 19p.
* Reynolds, Robert C. "Ironic Epithet in Julius Caesar". Shakespeare
Quarterly. Vol. 24. No.3. 1973. 329-33.
* Taylor, Myron. "Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and the Irony of
History". Shakespeare Quarterly. Vol. 24, No. 3. 1973. 301-8.
* Wells, Stanley & Michael Dobson, eds. 2001. 'The Oxford
Companion to Shakespeare', Oxford University Press

External links
======================================================================
* Text of '[https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Foyer/plays/JC.html
Julius Caesar]', fully edited by John Cox, as well as
original-spelling text, facsimiles of the 1623 Folio text, and other
resources, at the [http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/ Internet
Shakespeare Editions]
* [http://shakespeare-navigators.com/JC_Navigator/ 'Julius Caesar'
Navigator] Includes Shakespeare's text with notes, line numbers, and a
search function.
* [http://nfs.sparknotes.com/juliuscaesar/ No Fear Shakespeare]
Includes the play line by line with interpretation.
* [http://www.bl.uk/works/julius-caesar 'Julius Caesar'] at the
British Library
*
*
*
[https://archive.today/20121212071742/http://tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/julius_caesar/
'Julius Caesar'] - by The Tech
* [http://www.maximumedge.com/shakespeare/juliuscaesar.htm 'Julius
Caesar'] - Searchable and scene-indexed version.
* [http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/ebooks/modern-julius-caesar.htm
'Julius Caesar' in modern English]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=UOM 'Julius Caesar' translated
into Latin by Dr. Hilgers]
* [http://www.webenglishteacher.com/juliuscaesar.html Lesson plans for
'Julius Caesar'] at Web English Teacher
*
* [http://www.prx.org/pieces/23945/ Quicksilver Radio Theater
adaptation of 'Julius Caesar', which may be heard online], at PRX.org
(Public Radio Exchange).
*
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150402101642/http://read.libripass.com/william_shakespeare-julius_caesar.htm
'Julius Caesar'] Read Online in Flash version.
* [http://clearshakespeare.com/category/caesar/ Clear Shakespeare
'Julius Caesar'] - A word-by-word audio guide through the play.

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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Caesar_(play)