Caesar, Julius | Mark Rose (essay date 1989)
Mark Rose (essay date 1989)
SOURCE: "Conjuring Caesar: Ceremony, History, and Authority in 1599," in English Literary Renaissance, Vol. 19, No. 3, Autumn, 1989, pp. 291-304.
[In the essay that follows, Rose draws a comparison between the political state in England at the time Julius Caesar was written and the political atmosphere of ancient Rome as depicted in the play.]
Julius Caesar opens with Marullus and Flavius rebuking the plebeians for transferring their allegiance from Pompey and making a holiday to celebrate Caesar's triumph. It is commonplace to remark that the plebeians in this scene, the cheeky cobbler who makes puns about mending bad soles and the other workmen, are more Elizabethan than Roman. But it is not usually noted that the tribune Marullus sounds strikingly like an indignant Puritan calling sinners to repent:
O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,
Knew you not Pompey? Many a time...
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