ARGUMENT

Act I. reveals the conspiracy brewing against Cæsar. Scene i. Friendly plebeians, on the one side, rejoicing in his triumph, are dispersed by unfriendly tribunes, on the other side, jealous lest he attain extraordinary power through the favor of the people.

Scene ii. introduces the characters in significant action. Cæsar seeks Antony's help by the touch, during the Lupercal games, that was superstitiously supposed to make his wife bear him an heir, and hears a soothsayer bid him beware the Ides of March. Cassius spurs Brutus to lead the conspiracy against Cæsar. Brutus, though loath as a friend, is ready as a republican to consider it. Caska reports how Antony has just been offering the crown to Cæsar, with applause of the rabble. The three dis

affected men part, agreeing to meet again, Cassius resolving privately to secure Brutus by throwing scrolls in his window purporting to be from Romans calling on him to lead them against Cæsar's ambition.

Scene iii. During that night, full of prodigies that menace Cæsar, according to Cassius, Caska's allegiance is gained, and the group of conspirators meet.

Act II. joins Brutus and his influence in the conspiracy.

Scene i. Brutus finds the scrolls, is won over, and the conspirators meet with him. They agree to stab Cæsar at the Capitol the next morning, and to spare Antony at Brutus's will, although Cassius fears him. Brutus's wife

remonstrates with him for his lack of confidence in her, and he trusts her.

Scenes ii.-iii. Cæsar's wife urges him to yield to her ominous dreams and stay away from the Capitol. Decius enters, interprets the dreams as propitious, and decides him to go. Artemidorus and the soothsayers seek to warn him against danger.

Act III. shows the assassination, and the action of the people.

Scenes i.-iii. Cæsar disregards the warnings and is surrounded in the Capitol by the conspirators, who stab him in turn, Brutus last, when he cries, Et tu Brute!' and falls at the foot of Pompey's statue. Antony asks safeguard, and Brutus, against the advice of Cassius, yields it and permits him to speak at Cæsar's funeral after his own speech. He soothes the people; but Antony rouses them to mutiny; they fire the houses of the conspirators, and make them fly the city. So maddened is the mob that it tears to pieces an innocent poet who bears the same name as a conspirator.

tus.

Act IV. Cæsar's party and Brutus's make war.

Scenes i.-iii. Antony, young Cæsar, and Lepidus agree upon their proscription lists, and join forces against BruSmarting under news of his wife's suicide, Brutus quarrels with Cassius, and although they become reconciled, he overbears his more cautious counsel, and they prepare for immediate battle on the morrow. Brutus is visited by Cæsar's ghost that night.

Act V. The spirit of Cæsar triumphs.

Scenes i.-v. The generals hold a parley before the battle at Philippi. Brutus begins the attack hastily against Octavius, with success, but leaves Cassius to be surrounded by Antony's forces. Cassius runs on his own sword. Brutus rallies for a last attack, but meets defeat and falls on his own sword.

SOURCES

PLUTARCH'S Lives of Julius Cæsar, Marcus Brutus, and Marcus Antonius, translated by Sir Thomas North in 1579 from the French translation of James Amyot, are drawn upon by Shakespeare for the main events and many of the lesser incidents for the plot of this play. The general conception of the plot seems to be built upon Plutarch's statement of the reason for the conspiracy against Cæsar: But the chiefest cause that made him mortally hated, was the covetous desire he had to be called king: which first gave the people just cause, and next his secret enemies honest colour to bear him illwill.'

(1) The main events taken from the Life of Cæsar' for Act I. are: the tribunes' jealousy of his triumph over Pompey's sons; Antony's proffer of the crown three times to Cæsar during the Lupercal feast; the instigation of Brutus by Cassius, and by scrolls placed in his prætor's chair; the prodigies and portents. For Act II.: Calphurnia's dreams and Decius Brutus's intervention to decide Cæsar to go to the Senate house despite them; Artemidorus's and the soothsayer's warnings. For Act III. the assassination in the order described while the suit of Metellus Cimber is pressed, and Cæsar's fall at the foot of Pompey's statue, running blood; the mutiny of the people; Cinna the poet's destruction. For Act IV.: Cæsar's apparition to Brutus. For Act V.: a second apparition; the death of Cassius on the same sword that struck down Cæsar; the retreat of Brutus and his friends

to the Rocke' after the battle of Philippi, and his death on his own sword.

(2) Some of these events are repeated in the other Lives of Plutarch mentioned, and all three of the Lives drawn from repeat the incident of Cæsar's distrust of lean men like Cassius. From the Life of Brutus' is drawn for Act I.: the agreement between Cassius and Brutus, and the writings in his prætor's chair. For Act II. : Portia's claim as a discreet wife to know her husband's secret trouble, her trial of herself, her husband's confidence in her, and the anxiety leading her to inquire at her door of passers-by and to send messengers; the appeal of Brutus to rouse the sick Ligarius to join them. For Act III.: the fear of the conspirators lest Popilius had discovered the plot; the assassination as described; the yielding to Brutus in letting Antony live and speak for Cæsar against the opinion of all, especially of Cassius; the calming effect of Brutus's, the rousing effect of Antony's oration; and Cinna's destruction. For Act IV.: the proscription list agreed upon by the triumvirs; the quarrel of Brutus and Cassius at Sardis; the visit of the poet-peacemaker and the reconciliation; Portia's suicide; and Cæsar's ghost. For Act V.: the omens of the two eagles and the carnivorous birds; the farewell of the two generals; the conduct of the battles, Brutus's plan being followed for a headlong onset, after sending out bills of the order, against Cassius's cautious advice; his mistake about Titinius, farewell to Messala, and death on his own sword, followed by Brutus's last battle after three o'clock, the refusal of his friends to assist his suicide, and his death on his own sword.

(3) From the Life of Antony,' for Act I. is drawn the Lupercal feast incident; for Act III. the device to keep Antony employed in talk out of the Senate house' at the time of the assassination; his oration's effect in stirring the people to mutiny, to fire the conspirators' houses and make them flee the city, and to burn Cæsar's body in the market-place.

In Cæsaris Interfecti,' in Latin, by Richard Edes, played in Oxford in 1582, appears the phrase 'Et tu Brute,' not given in Plutarch. In Chaucer's 'Monk's Tale' the assassination is spoken of as taking place in the Capitol' instead of Pompey's porch,' as told in the 'Life of Brutus

There is no means of knowing whether any use was made of 'Cæsar and Pompey,' a play mentioned by Gosson in his 'Schoole of Abuse' (1579), or of the Tragedy of Cæsar and Pompey; or Cæsar's Revenge,' played in 1594, according to Henslowe's Diary.