1. Study the character of Brutus. (How far is the fate of Brutus deserved, retributive? How far is undeserved, or but partly deserved, pathetic? What traits of character are implied in the style of Brutus's speech?) 2. Study the character of Cassius. (Do you find your respect for Cassius continually increasing through the play?) It makes an interesting exercise to have one part of the class present the good side of the character of Cassius, and the other part the bad side. 3. Study the character of Cæsar. (Is the portrayal of Cæsar's character in this play inadequate and unworthy? If you find that it is, how do you account for this fact?) 4. Study the character of Antony. (If you have read Antony and Cleopatra, note how far we are prepared here for the display of Antony's character made in that play. Or if you have read elsewhere the story of Antony's later life, how far are we here prepared for that?) 5. Study the character of Portia. 6. Of Casca. 7. Of the Roman populace. 8. Point out instances in the play in which a character is portrayed by means of the influence, the effect, that he exerts upon others. 9. What character is portrayed especially in this way? 10.* Why was it especially desirable or necessary to portray this character by this means? D. ADDITIONAL GENERAL QUESTIONS 1. Is this play rightly named? 2. How would you state in a single sentence the main lesson, or teaching, of this play? 3. What is the authority for the text, the language, of this play? 4. Which part of the play do you find the more interesting, that which precedes or that which follows the great speech of Antony? 5.* Can you state any reasons why it is natural, or even necessary, that the half which you select should be the more interesting? 6. Point out a number of incidents and passages of the play which especially need to be seen upon the stage to be fully appreciated. 7.* Point out a number of cases in which seemingly trivial or unnecessary details are presented, partly, at least, we may believe, in order to give to the play an impression of reality and lifelikeness. 8.* Judging from this play, and any others that you may have read, mention a few of the most important characteristics, peculiarities, of a drama. 9. Point out all the places where Pompey is referred to. What is the significance of these references? 10.* At what points are our minds prepared for historical situations and events which were subsequent to the close of the play? 11. What scene in the play could best be omitted? Why? 12. What incident, not forming a complete scene? Why? 13. By "dramatic blindness I mean the blindness of a character to the true state of affairs. Point out several cases in this play. 14.* By "dramatic irony" I mean cases in which the words spoken are true in some farther sense which either the speaker or the hearer does not dream of, or which is hidden from them both. Point out one case in this play. 15.* Why are dramatic blindness and dramatic irony very effective devices in a drama? 16. Point out all the instances of the supernatural in the play, whether this is distinct or only suggested. 17. Does a modern reader feel that this element is too prominent? 18.* Point out the cases in which incidents, occurrences, are narrated by the characters, and not presented by dialogue and acting as taking place before our eyes. 19.* Try to see in each case why the incident was narrated and not presented. E. THE RELATION OF THE PLAY TO PLUTARCH With a very few exceptions this topic has been kept out of the Notes and out of the previous questions. A general statement concerning this subject has been given under Section VIII of this Introduction, and all the passages from Plutarch that are concerned are given in the Appendix. How far the pupil shall go in comparing the play with the source, the teacher may determine. A few topics are here mentioned in connection with which a comparison between the drama and Plutarch will be found of especial interest. 1. II, i. The incident of Brutus and Ligarius. 2. II, iv. The conduct of Portia. 3. III, i. Is there any warrant in Plutarch for the offensive language of Cæsar just before his death? 4. III, ii. What suggestions are in Plutarch for the two speeches? 5. Is there any suggestion for the style of Brutus's speech? 6. When does Octavius come to Rome? 7. IV, i. The meeting-place of the triumvirs. 8. IV, iii. The incident of Lucius Pella. 9. IV, iii. The ghost of Cæsar. 10. V, i. The "three and thirty wounds" of Cæsar. 11. The attitude of Brutus toward suicide. 12. V, iii. The two battles of Philippi. General topics: 13. In how many places does Plutarch tell of Cæsar's comment upon the leanness of Cassius? 14. Can you find in Plutarch that contempt for the populace which appears in the play? 15. Is the close friendship of Brutus and Cassius in Plutarch? 16.* Point out some things on which Plutarch puts little stress and Shakespeare much, or vice versa. F. STYLE 1. Point out the most marked characteristics of the style of this play. Illustrate. 2. Select two metaphors which seem to you especially effective. Tell why you like each one. 3. Select two similes in the same way. 4. Are the sentences of this play predominantly long or short? 5. Simple or involved? 6.* Select some phrase, line, or short passage in which the sounds employed seem to you, by their natural expressiveness, to enforce the meaning. 7.* Can you point out some favorite words and expressions in the play? 8.* Point out in some short passage a number of words and expressions which have similar associations and suggestions, so that they all help to bring out and intensify the same emotion. Are any words present which thwart or oppose the emotional unity of the passage? 9. What characters in the play talk in verse? 10. In prose? 11. What characters talk in both verse and prose? Trace each character who does this through the play, and try to see what principle seems to govern the variation between the two forms. 12.* What subject-matter is put into verse? 13.* What into prose? 14.* What general statements can you make concerning the variation between verse and prose in this play? XIII. BOOKS OF REFERENCE Books especially useful to younger students are marked with an asterisk. The other references may be of service to teachers. The Text The Works of Shakespeare (Globe edition), Clark and Wright (Macmillan). Reprint of the First Folio, Lionel Booth, London. The Language and Grammar Shakespeare-Lexicon, Alexander Schmidt (Berlin and London). Concordance to Shakespeare, John Bartlett (Macmillan). Glossary of Words, Phrases, etc., by R. Nares, the edition of Halliwell and Wright (London). A New English Dictionary, edited by J. A. H. Murray (Clarendon Press). Vol. V, going through the letter K, is nearly completed. This work is the great authority on the history of the meanings and forms of English words. A Shakespearian Grammar, E. A. Abbott (Macmillan) The Diary of Master William Silence (a study of Shakespeare and of Elizabethan sport), D. H. Madden (Longmans). The Source *Shakespeare's Plutarch, W. W. Skeat (Macmillan). The Verse *A Primer of English Verse, H. Corson (Ginn). The portion on "Prosody" in Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar. Chapters on English Metre, J. B. Mayor (London, Clay and Sons). Der Vers in Shaksperes Dramen, G. König (Trübner, Strassburg). Editions of the Play Those of *Wright (Clarendon Press), *Odell (Longmans), *Rolfe (Am. Book Co.), *Craik (Ginn), and *Verity (Cambridge Univ. Press),* Hudson (Ginn), Hufford (Macmillan), Deighton (Macmillan), Beeching (Longmans), and Forsyth (Longmans). Questions on the Play How to Study Shakespeare, Series I, pp. 99-149, W. H. Fleming (Doubleday and McClure Co.). Study Programme on Julius Cæsar, in Poet-Lore, Vol. X, No. 4. Questions on Shakespeare's Julius Cæsar, John Lees (London, Allman and Son). These questions are mainly concerned with the language, grammar, and versification. Analytic Questions on Shakespeare's Julius Cæsar, L. A. Sherman (Paper, 15 cents, published by J. H. Miller, Lincoln, Nebraska). The present editor has received help from all the above-mentioned sets of questions. Dramatic Structure Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist, Part II, R. G. Moulton (Macmillan). The papers upon *The Merchant of Venice in Part I of this book constitute a brief and most helpful text-book upon some of the main problems of dramatic construction. The Drama, its Law and its Technique, Elisabeth Woodbridge (Allyn and Bacon). The Art of Playwriting, Alfred Hennequin (Houghton). Die Technik des Dramas, Gustav Freytag (Hirzel, Leipzig). Freytag's Technique of the Drama, translated by E. J. MacEwan, 2d edition 1896 (Scott, Foresman and Co). This translation is very faulty, but has a full index. Shakespeare's Life *Shakespeare, in the Encyclopædia Britannica, T. S. Baynes. Reprinted in the author's "Shakespeare Studies" (Longmans). *Chapter II, "The Life of Shakspere," in Dowden's Primer, to be mentioned later. *How Shakspere's Senses Were Trained, Chapter X in "The Education of the Central Nervous System," R. P. Halleck (Macmillan). *Shakespeare's Life and Work, Sidney Lee (Macmillan). Briefer than Lee's "Life of William Shakespeare." * William Shakespeare, Poet, Dramatist, and Man, — H. W. Mabie (Macmillan). Illustrated. Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare, two vols., J. O. HalliwellPhillips (Longmans). All important documents are printed in this work. The Earlier and the Elizabethan Drama A History of English Dramatic Literature, three vols., A. W. Ward (Macmillan). A History of Elizabethan Literature, G. Saintsbury (Macmillan). Specimens of the Pre-Shaksperean Drama, two vols., J. M. Manly (Ginn). A third volume will contain a general introduction, notes, and a glossary. |
