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    The Complete Julius Caesar: An Annotated Edition of the Shakespeare Play
    The Complete Julius Caesar: An Annotated Edition of the Shakespeare Play
    The Complete Julius Caesar: An Annotated Edition of the Shakespeare Play
    Ebook270 pages2 hours

    The Complete Julius Caesar: An Annotated Edition of the Shakespeare Play

    By Donald J. Richardson

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    About this ebook

    Of the five major Shakespearean tragediesHamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet,
    King Lear, and OthelloKing Lear is perhaps the most challenging. Issues of rulership, family and blood, are overlaid with bastardy, loyalty, lust, and deceit. Add to this the apparently gratuitous on-stage blinding of Gloucester, the deaths of Cordelia, Lear, Gloucester, and Kent, and one might be inclined to agree with Samuel Johnson that The good suffer more than the evil, that love and suffering, in this play, are almost interchangeable terms and the driving force of the action is derived from the power of the evil to inflict mental agony upon the good (quoted in Kermode, 505).
    However, one would be mistaken to accept wholeheartedly the happy endings of the eighteenth and nineteenth century revisionists. While the pleasant ending would certainly ease the sensibilities of the audience, it would omit the Aristotlean concepts of hamartia and the purgation of fear and pity attendant upon actually witnessing Shakespeares King Lear, the necessary catharsis, a possible scapegoat for our own emotions.
    Of course, the ending is to some extent unpleasant and even shocking; however, one can argue that the ending is organic to the play; the ending IS, to a great extent, the play.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse
    Release dateJul 18, 2013
    ISBN9781481775014
    The Complete Julius Caesar: An Annotated Edition of the Shakespeare Play
    Author

    Donald J. Richardson

    Although he has long been eligible to retire, Donald J. Richardson continues to (try to) teach English Composition at Phoenix College in Arizona. He defines his life through his teaching, his singing, his volunteering, and his grandchildren.

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      Book preview

      The Complete Julius Caesar - Donald J. Richardson

      © 2013 by Donald J. Richardson. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

      Published by AuthorHouse 07/17/2013

      ISBN: 978-1-4817-7502-1 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4817-7500-7 (hc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4817-7501-4 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2013912553

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Contents

      About the Book

      About the Author

      ACT I

      ACT II

      ACT III

      ACT IV

      ACT V

      Works Cited

      Other Books by Donald J. Richardson

      Dust in the Wind, 2001

      Rails to Light, 2005

      Song of Fools, 2006

      Words of Truth, 2007

      The Meditation of My Heart, 2008

      The Days of Darkness, 2009

      The Dying of the Light, 2010

      Between the Darkness and the Light, 2011

      The Days of Thy Youth, 2012

      Those Who Sit in Darkness¸ 2013

      The Complete Hamlet, 2012

      The Complete Macbeth, 2013

      The Complete Romeo and Juliet, 2013

      The Complete King Lear, 2013

      For Shakespeare lovers everywhere

      About the Book

      Because Julius Caesar has been required reading in most high schools, it may be the Shakespeare play most familiar to students. However, as one reader protested, it can’t be much of a play when the hero dies early in the third act. However, many of us have been instructed that Julius Caesar is not the protagonist; Brutus is. This is apparently made clear by Mark Antony’s comment over Brutus’ body in Act V: This was the noblest Roman of them all.

      On a closer reading, however, it seems that Brutus is certainly not the noblest. A comparison between Julius Caesar and Brutus reveals many similar traits: both are ambitious, both are quite pompous, and both speak of themselves in the third person. Actually, neither one of them is a model Roman. Perhaps Mark Antony comes closest to being the actual protagonist. One could even advance the argument that Cassius acts most honorably of the plotters; he is certainly the most level-headed; yet Brutus has his way and contravenes Cassius’ advice repeatedly, always to ill effect. Perhaps none of these men is the true protagonist; maybe there isn’t one.

      About the Author

      The Complete Julius Caesar is the fifth book in the series of Shakespeare plays edited (conflated) by Donald J. Richardson. As an instructor of English Composition at Phoenix College in Arizona, Richardson says he is striving to present the plays in their most accessible format, primarily for student benefit but instructive for non-traditional students as well. I am learning myself, he says. Not only that, it is an enjoyable and satisfying project.

      ACT I

      SCENE I. Rome. A street.

      Enter FLAVIUS, MARULLUS, and certain Commoners

      FLAVIUS

      1 Hence! home, you idle creatures get you home:   Idle: (1) foolish, useless, worthless, (2) loafing (Raffel, 3)

      2 Is this a holiday? what! know you not,

      3 Being mechanical, you ought not walk   Mechanical: of the artisan class (Riverside, 1,151)

      4 Upon a laboring day without the sign   Sign . . . profession: e.g. tools, aprons, etc. (Riverside, 1,151)

      5 Of your profession? Speak, what trade art thou?

      FIRST COMMONER

      6 Why, sir, a carpenter.   Carpenter: carpenters did heavy, construction-type woodworking; joiners did small, finer, cabinetmaker-type woodworking (Raffel, 3)

      MARULLUS

      7 Where is thy leather apron and thy rule?   Rule: yardstick (Raffel, 3)

      8 What dost thou with thy best apparel on?

      9 You, sir, what trade are you?

      SECOND COMMONER

      10 Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but,   In . . . workman: (1) as far as skilled workmanship is concerned; (2) compared with a skilled workman (Riverside, 1,151)

      11 as you would say, a cobbler.   Cobbler: (1) mender of shoes; (2) botcher (the sense understood by Marullus) (Riverside, 1,151)

      MARULLUS

      12 But what trade art thou? answer me directly.   Trade: way of life, employment (Raffel, 4); directly: in plain language (Riverside, 1,151)

      SECOND COMMONER

      13 A trade, sir, that, I hope, I may use with a safe

      14 conscience; which is, indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles.   Soles: "With obvious quibble on souls." (Riverside, 1,151)

      MARULLUS

      15 What trade, thou knave? thou naughty knave, what trade?   Naughty: good-for-nothing (Bertram, 1); knave: rogue (Raffel, 4)

      SECOND COMMONER

      16 Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me: yet,   Out with me: pun (Loban, 509); angry with me (Bertram, 2)

      17 if you be out, sir, I can mend you.   If . . . you: i.e. if your shoes have holes, I can repair them (but Marullus understands ‘if you are subject to anger, I can reform you’) (Riverside, 1,151)

      MARULLUS

      18 What meanest thou by that? mend me, thou saucy fellow!   Saucy fellow: insolent/presumptuous/rude person (negative) (Raffel, 4)

      SECOND COMMONER

      19 Why, sir, cobble you.   Cobble you: Both ‘fix your shoes’ and ‘hit you with stones’ (Hadfield, 44)

      FLAVIUS

      20 Thou art a cobbler, art thou?

      SECOND COMMONER

      21 Truly, sir, all that I live by is with the awl: I   Awl: tool used for piercing leather (homonym of ‘all’); there is a sexual overtone, since ‘awl’ = penis (Raffel, 4)

      22 meddle with no tradesman’s matters, nor women’s   Tradesman’s: other tradesman’s (Raffel, 4)

      23 matters, but withal I am, indeed, sir, a surgeon   Withal: yet (with pun on ‘with awl’) (Riverside, 1,151); surgeon: medical man, physician (Raffel, 4)

      24 to old shoes; when they are in great danger, I

      25 recover them. As proper men as ever trod upon   Recover: resole (with pun on the sense ‘cure’); as . . . leather: as handsome men as ever wore shoes (proverbial) (Riverside, 1,152); proper: good, worthy, of high quality (Raffel, 4)

      26 neat’s leather have gone upon my handiwork.   neats-leather: cowhide; gone: walked (Riverside, 1,152)

      FLAVIUS

      27 But wherefore art not in thy shop today?   Wherefore: why (Raffel, 5)

      28 Why dost thou lead these men about the streets?

      SECOND COMMONER

      29 Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes, to get myself

      30 into more work. But, indeed, sir, we make holiday,

      31 to see Caesar and to rejoice in his triumph.   Triumph: triumphal procession (Riverside, 1,152)

      MARULLUS

      32 Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home?   What . . . home?: Marullus reminds the commoners that Caesar had been fighting against their fellow Romans, not conquering new lands (i.e., bring home conquests) (Hadfield, 44)

      33 What tributaries follow him to Rome,   Tributaries: captive princes who will pay tribute (Riverside, 1,152)

      34 To grace in captive bonds his chariot-wheels?   To grace: honor, adorn; captive: prisoner’s

      (Raffel, 5)

      35 You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!   Blocks: of solid wood; senseless: unable to use their senses (Raffel, 5)

      36 O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,

      37 Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft   Pompey: former triumvir with Caesar and Crassus, defeated by Caesar at Pharsalia in 48 B.C. and subsequently murdered (Riverside, 1,152); many: quantity; oft: frequently (Raffel, 5)

      38 Have you climb’d up to walls and battlements,   Battlements: indented parapets on top of walls… . (Raffel, 5)

      39 To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops,

      40 Your infants in your arms, and there have sate   Sate: sat (Riverside, 1,152)

      41 The livelong day, with patient expectation,   Livelong: whole long (Raffel, 5)

      42 To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome:   Pass: go along (Raffel, 5)

      43 And when you saw his chariot but appear,   But: just, barely, only (Raffel, 6)

      44 Have you not made an universal shout,   Universal: i.e., participated in by everyone (Raffel, 6)

      45 That Tiber trembled underneath her banks,   That: so that; Tiber: river flowing through Rome into the Mediterranean (Raffel, 6)

      46 To hear the replication of your sounds   Replication: reverberation (Riverside, 1,152)

      47 Made in her concave shores?   Concave: curved like inside of a circle (convex = curved like outside of a circle) (Raffel, 6)

      48 And do you now put on your best attire?

      49 And do you now cull out a holiday?   Cull out: pick this as (Riverside, 1,152)

      50 And do you now strew flowers in his way

      51 That comes in triumph over Pompey’s blood? Be gone!   That: he who (Raffel, 6); blood: offspring. Caesar had defeated Pompey’s sons at Munda in Spain in 45 B.C. Marullus is making Plutarch’s point that Romans would not celebrate triumphs over Romans, as well as complaining of the crowd’s forgetfulness of Pompey. (Riverside, 1,152)

      52 Run to your houses, fall upon your knees,

      53 Pray to the gods to intermit the plague   Intermit: withhold (Riverside, 1,152)

      54 That needs must light on this ingratitude.   Needs: necessarily; light: descend (Raffel, 6); That . . . ingratitude: that will inevitably come as punishment for your ungrateful behavior (Hadfield, 46)

      FLAVIUS

      55 Go, go, good countrymen, and, for this fault,   Fault: defect, failing, wrong (Raffel, 6)

      56 Assemble all the poor men of your sort;   Sort: kind, rank, class (Raffel, 6)

      57 Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears

      58 The channel, till the lowest stream   Channel: running water (‘river’) (Raffel, 6)

      59 Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.   Do . . . all: swells to its highest flood level

      (Bertram, 3)

      Exeunt all the Commoners   Exeunt: plural of ‘exit’ (Raffel, 7)

      60 See whether their basest metal be not mov’d;   See . . . mov’d: note how even their base natures are affected (Riverside, 1,152)

      61 They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness.

      62 Go you down that way towards the Capitol;   Capitol: towering Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter (Raffel, 7)

      63 This way will I

      64 disrobe the images,   Disrobe the images: Caesar’s supporters had set up statues of him wearing royal crowns (Riverside, 1,152)

      65 If you do find them deck’d with ceremonies.   Ceremonies: symbols of state (Riverside, 1,152); triumphal wreaths and garlands (Bertram, 4); deck’d: adorned, covered; ceremonies: symbols of regard (flowers, scarves, crowns) (Raffel, 7)

      MARULLUS

      66 May we do so?

      67 You know it is the feast of Lupercal.   Feast of Lupercal: the Lupercalia, a Roman festival celebrated on February 15. (Caesar’s triumph was actually held in October.) (Riverside, 1,152)

      FLAVIUS

      68 It is no matter; let no images

      69 Be hung with Caesar’s trophies. I’ll about,   Caesar’s trophies: ornaments in honor of Caesar (Riverside, 1,152); about: go around (Raffel, 7)

      70 And drive away the vulgar from the streets:   Vulgar: common people, plebs (Riverside, 1,152)

      71 So do you too, where you perceive them thick.   Thick: gathered in groups (Hadfield, 47)

      72 These growing feathers pluck’d from Caesar’s wing   These . . . pitch:

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