Julius Caesar

(i) By changing the accent, sometimes once and sometimes twice in a line :

(ii) By adding extra syllables, either at the end of a line. or elsewhere:

These extra syllables may be slurred in pronunciation, as in the case of the second syllable of general above. Other instances of slurring are

Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds (ii, 2, 19).
His corporal motion govern'd by my spirit (iv, 1, 33).

A barren-spirited fellow; one that feeds (iv, 1, 36).

(iii) By making a foot consist of a single syllable, specially stressed in reading:

In general, then, it may be said that Shakspere conforms to the model of the ordinary blank verse; but he writes so freely that one is sometimes tempted to believe it a matter of indifference to him, so long as he has five accented syllables, where the accents fall. There are in his verse numerous shorter, incomplete lines, and it will be seen that occasionally lines rhyme; but rhyme is found with much less frequency in his mature work and hardly ever in his latest work. The chronological study of his poetry shows constant gain on his part in freedom and vigour, and a superb facility in making the verse take any variety of form he wished.

Let the reader note, too, whether in general in the play the sentence ends with the end of the line; if the beginner

cannot at first see the immense gain in sonority and ease that results from the method of closing the sentence in the middle of a line, he is recommended to read aloud long passages from some dramatist who habitually stops his thought at the end of the line. This treatment is warranted to cure even the tone-deaf.

In closing this discussion, I should like to advise the student to consider the effect in Shaksperian verse of the placing of the so-called cæsural pause-a breathing-place, as it were, in the body of the line. The lines quoted above will illustrate. Much of the melody of these comes from the variety in placing the pause, and the student may get both pleasure and profit from finding the number of kinds of musical phrases, as it were, this variety leads to. It is impossible to say how much of the dreadful effect of many poems is due to the monotony of cæsural habits or the complete absence of any such habit. The student should never read a line without providing for the cæsura; he should never write out the metrical scheme without indicating the place where the pause falls. A line is completely scanned only when it receives the double line of the cæsura, thus:

Did I' | the tir']ed Cæ'|sar. | And this' | man' (i, 2, 115).

In great poetry the pause is likely to come in the middle of a foot rather than at the end, the divergence subserving variety.

SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHERS

THE object of the preceding introduction has been simply to interest the student in Shakspere and his work. Too often the literature read in schools is regarded by the classes as only a row of hooks to hang facts on against that dismal day when a college examination is to settle one's fate once and for all. The headlong way in which in some schools prescribed books are read, and the needlessly unintelligent manner in which they are studied and commented on in others, are further aids to disgusting pupils with many of the choicest products of the creative mind. Better the quickening of the spirit than the successful cramming for fifty examinations. The introduction has sought, then, to show that "Julius Cæsar" is alive, and no mere literary husk of linguistics and references. To this end Shakspere has been presented as humanly as possible. The analysis of the Shaksperian language and metre, on the other hand, may tire many young readers, and seem a hindrance to the interest desired; let them but be patient, however, and even this hindrance will drop away. If the student does not quite understand why Shakspere uses certain expressions and certain rhythms, he will be balked of just so much enjoyment in the reading of the play; his attention will be distracted. Once mastered and understood, the seeming queerness acquires a charm of its own by falling into its place as part and parcel of this big, human fact, this Shakspere, that every educated man or woman should know something about.

Every teacher, in working over this play, should strive so to interest his class that the members of the class will be desirous of reading other Shaksperian plays. Study that leads to any other result is practically fruitless. How is this interest to be awakened? First and foremost, the play in hand should be read for the story pure and simple; no reader chronically addicted to reading from childhood ever began in any other way. Let the class read the play through once, as rapidly as possible, to get the excitement of it, to see "how it comes out." Naturally the intelligent teacher will call attention to unusual things in the text, in so far as that will help the understanding of the story; even an occasional illustration from other works will help; but nothing must check the forward rush of the narration. Read thus, Shakspere will seem human and delightful to all but the dullest; read in petty fragments two or three times a week—especially if every linguistic or rhythmical i is dotted by a painstaking teacher-he will probably become an unmitigated bore. Perhaps before the reading begins in earnest it would be wise for the teacher to call the attention of the class to the most frequent of the Shaksperian locutions now obsolete or passing away, and practise the members in the Shaksperian verse. Let the class understand what verse is not a queer sort of writing that breaks off into set lines, but a consistently exalted, emotional speech, in power and sweep far beyond the attainment of prose; let the student get the rhythm of the thing-and then trust the rest to Shakspere. That is the way to begin. This particular play, with the prose of the cobbler and the poetry of the tribunes, offers a test at the very beginning. A teacher may from time to time wish to inquire why people in the play are doing certain things. or why they did not act otherwise. Such interruption is legitimate and stimulates interest, but it may easily be carried to excess.

Up to this point the method of procedure will probably be identical, whether the play is merely to be read or whether it is to be minutely studied. In the latter case, of course, the second reading will necessarily be a more protracted and serious affair than in the former. It is sufficient for reading that the pupil thoroughly understand the story as a whole and in its parts; he should know pretty well the conditions under which Shakspere wrote, and he should be able to recognise Shaksperian expressions in other plays; in other words, the charm of Elizabethan writing should be not entirely lost on him in future. Let him analyse the plot in writing, or write themes on various subjects suggested by the plot; but never let him do this to the point of boredom. Let him never grow to dislike "Julius Cæsar."

In this work, but especially in the more analytical reading for study, the teacher must follow the bent of his own individuality. An intelligent and magnetic instructor could, conceivably, attain the end-the interesting of the pupil in Shakspere and in things of the spirit generally— as much by talking of Shakspere's conception and treatment of ancient Rome or of the England of Elizabeth as by talking of things more intimately connected with the structure and language of the play. To give advice to such a guide is little short of impertinent; he accomplishes his end by a kind of divine right. But for the great body of his faithful, if less inspired, fellows, it may be suggested that no study of "Julius Cæsar" is adequate which does not include a knowledge of most of the things treated in the introduction to this edition of the play. The student need not become a pedant; but he must know how to explain the comparatively difficult points of Shaksperian diction, syntax, and verse; he must know the structure of the play and he must know in most cases just what Shakspere was aiming at. "Julius Cæsar"

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