Julius Caesar (play)

play by William Shakespeare

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is a play by William Shakespeare. It is about the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. Shakespeare based his play on stories in Plutarch's Life of Brutus and Life of Caesar. The play was probably written in 1599.[1] It was first published in 1623 in the First Folio, a collection of all of Shakespeare's plays.

Julius Caesar
Ghost of Caesar appears to Brutus
Written byWilliam Shakespeare
CharactersJulius Caesar
Mark Antony
Octavian
Cassius
Brutus
Date of premiere21 September 1599
Place of premiereGlobe Theatre
London, England
Original languageEnglish
SubjectConspiracy
Assassination
Patriotism
Dictatorship
Republicanism
GenreTragedy
SettingRome, 44 BC

The play was probably one of Shakespeare's first plays to be performed at the Globe Theatre.[2] The theatre had just been built. A Swiss traveller saw a tragedy about Julius Caesar at a London theatre on 21 September 1599. This was probably Shakespeare's play.

The play has been made into movies three times. In a 1950 movie, Charlton Heston played Mark Antony. In a 1953 movie, James Mason played Brutus and Marlon Brando played Antony. In a 1970 movie, Jason Robards played Brutus, Charlton Heston played Antony again, and John Gielgud played Caesar.

References

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  1. Shakespeare, William (1994). Julius Caesar. A. R. Humphreys. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-281445-1. OCLC 30027160.
  2. Evans, G. Blakemore: "The Riverside Shakespeare", page 1100, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974.

Other websites

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