Tragedy of Julius Caesar

Description

Jan Blits' edition represents something new among editions of Julius Caesar. In addition to textual glosses and explanatory notes focused on the rhetorical, historical, and political contexts of the speeches, it includes a wide array of quotations and citations from writers of classical antiquity chosen to illuminate passages of special pertinence to the Roman world represented in the play. Highlighting Shakespeare's significance as a political thinker, it also demonstrates his deep understanding of Roman antiquity, its competing worldviews, and the demise of its Republic. Intended for a broad readership, the edition also includes a Preface, Introduction, Bibliography, and a topical Index.

William Shakespeare (c. 26 April 1564 - 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, renowned by many as the world's greatest writer in the English Language. Among his plays are "Romeo and Juliet", "Hamlet", "Macbeth" to name but a few.

"As satisfying an edition of a Shakespeare play as I have on my shelves. The brief introduction mounts a crisp critique of Shakespeare scholarship on Julius Caesar insofar as it sees the play as unhistorical, as presenting Elizabethan gentlemen in Roman costume, because the author, a busy and not so well-read actor, would not be familiar with the facts that, for this scholarship, constitute history. Part of the wicked pleasure in reading Blits' footnotes is to see the evidence for how wrong this line is. Of most interest are the explanatory footnotes. Shakespeare is at his most artful in writing speeches whose intellectual structure mirrors the speaker's nature. These late Republicans and first Caesarians are one and all duplicitous, rent in soul or deceitful in intentionand they are educated. Hence their speeches use and abuse the trivium, its grammar, logic, and rhetoric, for all it is worth. Without the explanatory notes I would have missed the characters' craft and Shakespeare's art. Would that there were more such editions!" Eva Brann, St. John's College "I could not put the book aside on account of the pleasure it gave me in reading it. All other editions of the past century with which I am familiar assume Shakespeare's knowledge of things Roman extended hardly further than what he could gather from Plutarch's Lives. Focusing almost exclusively on the Plutarchian source material results in neglect of the extent and depth of Shakespeare's learning. To remedy this defect, Blits draws throughout his notes upon his wide readings in authors of classic antiquity. He thereby provides context for reading particular speeches or for discerning the significance of portrayed events. Among philosophers, he cites Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Epictetus, Lucretius, Epicurus; among rhetoricians, Tacitus, Cicero, and Quintilian. He turns to such historians as Livy, Tacitus, Sallust, Suetonius; to the poets Ennius, Virgil, and Catullus. Blits' running commentary looks not just to classical thought but proceeds by cross-references to Shakespeare's other Roman works. In every respect this edition makes a most signal contribution to our understanding of Shakespeare's play and, as well, to our grasp of the realities that, through his writing of the play, Shakespeare himself sought to understand." John Alvis, University of Dallas "Jan Blits has done teachers, students, and scholars an invaluable service. His lucid introduction and copious notes provide helpful clarification and useful elaboration. The work is clearly the product of a lifetime spent with Shakespeare as well as the ancient sources so meticulously documented. His attention to detail, careful references, and suggestive comments provide the reader with all the tools needed for exploring the play's political, historical, and philosophical riches. With references to Plutarch, Cicero, Virgil, Lucretius, Homer, Diogenes Laertius and the Bible, Blits brings Shakespeare into dialogue with the great tradition of classical learning. Blits, thus, brings to light the tremendous depth and breadth of Shakespeare's philosophic poetry, enabling the reader to marvel at and learn from Shakespeare's timeless wisdom." Paul T. Wilford, Department of Political Science, Boston College "For scholars, and more importantly, for ordinary readers interested in Shakespeare's plays this edition is welcome news. The scholarly footnotes written with an eye for understanding 'Shakespeare's research' that informed the writing of this famous tragedy is invaluable. It is enlightening to realize that Shakespeare carefully followed his source materials, but also altered these same sources in a way that allows readers to see Shakespeare's own intellectual intentions. Reading this play with Blits' notes is like peeking into the Bard's workshop and witnessing the discernible choices as the poet plied his craft. It truly makes an old play look new again. I hope Hackett has plans for more plays by Shakespeare edited in this style. . . . It is also worth pointing out that the extensive scholarly apparatus is not obtrusive in the text, and readers need not refer to the notes unless they are curious to do so. This edition really is a superb volume for both scholars and students. I will likely never assign another edition of Julius Caesar to my classes again." Rafael Major, Honors College, University of North Texas "Hackett Publishing's Julius Caesar , edited by Jan H. Blits, has carved out a new niche in its classical humanist presentation of the tragedy. Blits's Introduction and notes link the play's history, rhetoric, and political philosophy to an impressively broad array of Greek and Roman sources, embedding Julius Caesar within the cultural tradition that it depicts." Ellen MacKay, University of Chicago, in SEL "What if, instead of making Shakespeare's historical dramas into tortured analogues for our present moment, we considered them as earnest attempts to penetrate the issues of the past? That is the premise behind Jan H. Blits's new annotated editions of the Roman plays: Julius Caesar , out last year (2018); Antony and Cleopatra , which appeared this September (2019); and a forthcoming Coriolanus . Blits treats the trilogy not as a parable for 16th- or 21st-century politics, but as a searchingly philosophical depiction of the pagan world's anguished transformation into Christendom. "Blits sees in the Bard a serious scholar of antiquity grappling with the same question that haunted Edward Gibbon and Friedrich Nietzsche: how did the noble champions of Roman liberty succumb to the universalizing quietism which made both Augustus and Christ into plausible rulers of the world? "Blits therefore juxtaposes each play with primary texts from the Roman imperial period in notes at the bottom of each page. He frequently cites the 1st-century-A.D. essayist Plutarch, whom Shakespeare read carefully in Sir Thomas North's translation. Blits points out that even small details (e.g., the 'distinctive mincing diction' of the minor lackey Gaius Maecenas) are faithfully drawn from ancient accounts. Because these parallels between history and drama are so closely observed, the editions also reveal meaning and significance in moments when Shakespeare does depart from his source material. "Ironically, Blits's excellent reading of the play turns out to be deeply "relevant" after all. What happens when a ragtag rebel nation sprawls outward into a globalist superpower whose newfound dominance dilutes the fellow feeling of its citizens? What force is strong enough to unite the hearts of countrymen separated by geographical and ideological chasms? These are Shakespeare's real questions. They are also our own." Spencer Klavan, in The Claremont Review of Books , Fall 2019