SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDY OF JULIUS CÆSAR EDITED, WITH NOTES, OUTLINE STUDY BY MAUD ELMA KINGSLEY, A. B., A. M. AND FRANK HERBERT PALMER, A. B., A. M. BOSTON, U. S. A. THE PALMER COMPANY 120 Boylston Street 190 PREFACE. The plays of Shakespeare, as first produced under the direction of the author, were acted practically without scenery or stage accessories of any kind and in costumes differing from the ordinary dress of the sixteenth century only where the sense of the lines absolutely demanded some distinctive article of apparel. The play of JULIUS CÆSAR, however, follows so closely the actual events of an important crisis of the world's history, that it seems necessary to make some attempt to describe the actual costumes and surroundings of the living persons whose deeds and character form the groundwork of the drama. These descriptions are not, of course, put forward as a practical scheme for staging the play. It has, however, been kept in mind that it is Shakespeare's play and not Roman History that is being illustrated, and no more violence has been done to the ideas of the dramatist than is done whenever one of Shakespeare's dramas is produced on the modern stage. The authorities followed are Plutarch, Suetonius' Lives of Julius Cæsar and Augustus, and Cicero's Philippics, for the persons and events; Guhl and Koner's "Life of the Greeks and Romans" and Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, for the costumes and accessories; and various recent maps, |