![]() (Schanzer 466)ĥPlatter almost certainly refers to Shakespeare's play as performed in the newly-built Globe Theatre on the south bank of the Thames. Confirming this inference is a striking record-an eyewitness account by a Swiss visitor to London, Thomas Platter:ĤOn the 21st of September, after dinner, at about two o'clock, I went with my party across the water in the straw-thatched house we saw the tragedy of the first Emperor Julius Caesar, very pleasingly performed, with approximately fifteen characters. The play seems to have been performed for the first time in 1599, because no references to it occur before that year. If Shakespeare was in a phase of writing one of the dramatic genres exclusively or even predominantly when he likely wrote Julius Caesar, it might be a clue to the kind of play Julius Caesar is. ![]() Is it a "history" ("life and death") of powerful men in political contention, or is it a tragedy?ģOne way to answer the question might be to refer to the date when the play was composed, as distinct from its printed publication in 1623. Though the difference may be nothing but an accident of printing, it nonetheless provides a useful basis for asking what kind of play Julius Caesar is. In the First Folio's table of contents, however, the play is identified simply as The Life and Death of Julius Caesar (13). Those who organized the First Folio, then, seem to have thought of Julius Caesar as a tragedy. Moreover, the title page of the play itself in the First Folio identifies it as The Tragedy of Julius Caesar (Hinman 717), and the same identification appears in the running title at the top of each page of the play (718-38). In this collection the plays are separated into one of three genres-comedy, history, or tragedy-with Julius Caesar printed fifth among the tragedies. The earliest text was published in the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays, now called the First Folio, in 1623, seven years after the playwright's death. Genre and DateĢFrom the beginning of its life as a printed play, Julius Caesar has raised questions about its genre. Finally, the introduction turns to the implicit sense of Rome that comes through in Shakespeare's Roman plays, including Julius Caesar. Shakespeare's poetic imagination is the third topic, especially as it manifests itself in the imagery and symbolism of Julius Caesar. A good deal of critical attention has also been paid to Plutarch's influence, which is evident principally in characterization and plot, the second topic of the introduction. These innovations in Julius Caesar call for some sense of what scholars have made of the play's genre and date, the two questions with which the introduction begins. ![]() The next play he likely wrote after Julius Caesar was Hamlet, which suggests that tragedy-a genre he had tried twice but not yet perfected-may have been on his mind as he wrote about Caesar's assassination and Brutus's failed attempt at political resistance. Moreover, in turning to Roman history, he departed from his long interest in English history, about which he had written nine plays. ![]() He had tried his hand only once before with classical subject matter, in Titus Andronicus, but he would eventually write three plays based on Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, from which he drew for the first time in Julius Caesar. 1Julius Caesar marks several departures for Shakespeare from his previous practice as a playwright. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |