Summary

A poet named Cinna enters a street packed with citizens, recalling an ominous dream in which his feast with Caesar ended unluckily. Even though there is foreboding in his heart, he says, something draws him out to the street. The citizens begin questioning Cinna aggressively, asking him his name, his destination, where he lives, and if he is married. Cinna answers that he is a bachelor on his way to Caesar’s funeral. However, when he reveals his name, the citizens mistake him for Cinna the conspirator and raise the terrible cry:

Tear him to pieces.

Even though Cinna repeatedly insists that he is Cinna the poet, the citizens attack and kill him to satisfy their bloodlust. “Firebrands” in hand, they split into groups to burn down the homes of the conspirators.

Analysis

The murder of Cinna the poet illustrates the way the human mind can work when part of a mob. Fear and rage take over like a fever, and the mob loses all rationale, ignoring Cinna’s cry of “I am Cinna the poet.” Why does Shakespeare make Cinna a poet? The choice is deliberate and meant to examine a poet or writer’s role in society. Through Cinna, Shakespeare seems to be asking his audience the same questions he would have often faced: is art useful? What purpose does poetry serve? Tellingly, even after learning his true identity, the crowd kill Cinna for his “bad verses,” highlighting an artist’s precarious position in Elizabethan society. “Tear him up,” the crowd chants, as if what they also want to destroy is pages and manuscripts. Again the deliberate choice of phrase draws the reader’s attention to Shakespeare’s anxiety about his position as a writer.