SHAKSPEARE'S TRAGEDY OF JULIUS CÆSAR: WITH INTRODUCTORY REMARKS; COPIOUS INTERPRETATION OF Adapted for Scholastic or Private Study, and especially for the guidance of BY THE REV. JOHN HUNTER, M.A. Instructor of Candidates for the Military and Civil Service Examinations, &c.; and LONDON: LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS. School-Books by the same Author, ADAPTED FOR THE USE OF CANDIDATES FOR THE UNIVERSITY MIDDLE CLASS AND CIVIL SERVICE EXAMINATIONS. New and revised Edition, in 12mo. price 2s. 6d. HUNTER'S TEXT-BOOK of ENGLISH GRAMMAR, including Exercises in Parsing and Punctuation, Etymological SCHOOL MANUAL of LETTER-WRITING, 12mo. 18. 6d. London: LONGMAN, GREEN, and CO. Paternoster Row. LONDON PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE PREFACE. THE Editor's "Henry the Eighth" of Shakspeare was found to have successfully anticipated and provided for the requirements of the Oxford examination on that subject in 1860. The present edition, therefore, of the "Julius Cæsar" has been prepared, on a similar plan, for the special purpose of assisting those persons who are now qualifying for the Senior Middle-Class Examination of 1861. The Editor has with great pains sought to realise that purpose accurately and fully. In the notes, which include explanations of many grammatical difficulties and peculiarities, he has endeavoured to give careful and correct guidance, wherever any obscurity in the language of the play presents itself, or any failure of discernment on the part of the student may be supposed likely to occur. And he hopes that not a few of his numerous interpretations of the text will be regarded as developing the true sense of passages hitherto erroneously or imperfectly understood. From the biographies of J. Cæsar and M. Brutus, as given in Sir Thomas North's translation of "Plutarch's Lives," Shakspeare borrowed not only the incidents, but also a great portion of the language, of the present drama. An ample selection, therefore, of illustrative passages from North's "Plutarch is here presented; and the Editor strongly recommends an attentive perusal of these, in order that the play may be read with proper intelligence and interest. For the promotion of the same object it is desirable that the reader should know the leading facts and personages of the Roman History from 47 to 42 B.C., and that he should have some acquaintance with the nature of the Roman Calendar, the offices of Prætor, Tribune, &c., and the leading doctrines of the Stoics and Epicureans. The Examination Questions and Answers, forming the Appendix to the "Henry the Eighth," will be found to contain much that is suggestive of a profitable method of preparation on the "Julius Cæsar." INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON SHAKSPEARE'S JULIUS CESAR. THREE of Shakspeare's plays are on subjects belonging to the history of ancient Rome, viz., Coriolanus, Julius Cæsar, and Antony and Cleopatra. The first of these relates to a period 490 years earlier than the Christian era, and represents the young republic of Rome agitated by a contest for power between her patrician and plebeian classes. In the Julius Cæsar we see Rome arrived at a period preceding the Christian era by less than half a century; the republic has grown old and inefficient; it is ruled by a dictator who would be king; and the rival principles of republicanism and royalty divide the minds of the community. In the Antony and Cleopatra, the republic, now only a dozen years older, is in its expiring days; the state is verging towards a monarchy; and the action of the play relates chiefly to the rival claims and efforts of individuals who contend for the possession of the sovereign power. As the first triumvirate, consisting of Julius Cæsar, Pompey, and Crassus, had been reduced to a duumvirate, by the death of Crassus in the Parthian war, and led to that rivalry between Pompey and Cæsar, which was terminated by the defeat of the former in the battle of Pharsalia, his death by assassination in Egypt, and the ascendancy of Cæsar as sole master of the Roman world; so the second triumvirate, formed by Antony, Octavianus, and Lepidus, being reduced to a duumvirate by the retirement of Lepidus, left Antony and Octavianus to the influence of mutual jealousy, and brought on the defeat of the former in the battle of Actium, his death |