Shakespeare's Tragedy of Julius C?sar
Edited, With Notes (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Shakespeare's Tragedy of Julius Csar: Edited, With Notes<br><br>Knight believes it to be "one of the latest works of Shakespeare." Craik comes to the conclusion that it "can hardly be assigned to a later date than the year 1607, but there is nothing to prove that it may not be of considerably earlier date." White infers from the style that "it was probably brought out between 1605 and 1608." Gervinus (in his Shakespeare Commentaries'] decides that it "was composed before 1603, about the same time as Hamlet and he adds that this is "confirmed not only by the frequent external references to Ciesar which we find in Hamlet, but still more by the inner relations of the two plays." More recently (in his folio edition of Shakespeare, 1865), Halliwell has shown that it was written " in or before the year 1605. This appears "from the following lines in Wee-vcr's Mirror of Martyrs, printed in that year-lines which unquestionably are to be traced to a recollection of Shakespeare's drama, not to that of the history as given by Plutarch: " ' The many-headed multitude were drawne By Brutus' speech, that Caesar was ambitious ;<br><br>When eloquent Mark Antonie had showne His vertucs, who but Brutus then was vicious"'<br><br>II. THE HISTORICAL SOURCES OF THE PLAY.<br><br>It appears from Peck's "Collection of divers curious historical pieces, etc." (appended to his Memoirs of Oliver Crom-7veil), that a Latin play on this subject, entitled "Epilogus Csaris interfecti," had been written as early as 1582, by Dr. Richard Eedes, and acted at Christ Church College, Oxford. This was very likely the drama referred to in Hamlet (in. 2):<br><br>"Hamlet. My lord, you play'd once i' th' university, you say <br><br>Polonius. That did I, my lord ; and was accounted a good actor.<br><br>Hamlet. What did you enact<br><br>Polonius. I did enact Julius Csar: I was kill'd i' th' Capitol;<br><br>Brutus kill'd me."<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.