Julius Caesar is a key link between Shakespeare’s histories and his tragedies. Unlike the Caesar drawn by Plutarch in a source text, Shakespeare’s Caesar is surprisingly modern: vulnerable and imperfect, a powerful man who does not always know himself. The open-ended structure of the play insists that revealing events will continue after the play ends, making the significance of the history we have just witnessed impossible to determine in the play itself. John D. Cox’s introduction discusses issues of genre, characterization, and rhetoric, while also providing a detailed history of criticism of the play. Appendices provide excerpts from important related works by Lucretius, Plutarch, and Montaigne. A collaboration between Broadview Press and the Internet Shakespeare Editions project at the University of Victoria, the editions developed for this series have been comprehensively annotated and draw on the authoritative texts newly edited for the ISE. This innovative series allows readers to access extensive and reliable online resources linked to the print edition.

Enter, in procession, with music, CAESAR; ANTONY, for the course; CALPHURNIA, PORTIA, DECIUS, CICERO, BRUTUS, CASSIUS and CASCA; a great crowd following, among them a SOOTHSAYER.CAESAR.Calphurnia.CASCA.Peace, ho! Caesar speaks.[Music ceases.]CAESAR.Calphurnia.CALPHURNIA.Here, my lord.CAESAR.Stand you directly in Antonius' way, When he doth run his course. Antonius.ANTONY.Caesar, my lord?CAESAR.Forget not in your speed, Antonius, To touch Calphurnia; for our elders say, The barren, touched in this holy chase, Shake off their sterile curse.ANTONY.I shall remember.When Caesar says "Do this," it is perform'd.CAESAR.Set on; and leave no ceremony out.[Music.]SOOTHSAYER.Caesar!CAESAR.Ha! Who c

The first tragedy to be played in the new Globe Theatre, Julius Caesar is set at a crucial turning point in Roman history, as the Republican gives way to the imperial. Safely removed in time and place from Shakespeare’s Elizabethan England, Rome makes the perfect laboratory for the playwright’s free-ranging political analysis.

Presents a collection of critical essays about William Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar.

"The evil that men do lives after them;The good is oft interred with their bones..."How do you choose between the life of your friend and the future of your homeland? In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Brutus, "the noblest Roman of them all," has only his personal integrity to help him choose which is the greatest good and where he must place his allegiance. The wrong choice will result in certain personal and national devastation. With its stirring speeches and vivid images of men at both their noblest and most terrible, the play will leave the reader with a deeper understanding of what it means to be human. To make Julius Caesar more accessible to the modern reader, our Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition provides in-depth explanation, as well as historical background. Convenient sidebar notes and an extensive glossary help the reader navigate the complexities of the text and enjoy the beauty of Shakespeare's verse, the wisdom of his insights, and the impact of his drama.