First published in 1999 by I C Media Productions, UK
This edition published in 2015 by The Francis Bacon Research Trust (FBRT)
UK Registered Charitable Trust #280616
Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
Copyright © Peter Dawkins, 1999
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including these words being imposed on a subsequent purchaser.
The Wisdom of Shakespeare Series
Other Titles in the Series
The Wisdom of Shakespeare in ‘As You Like It’
The Wisdom of Shakespeare in ‘The Merchant of Venice’
The Wisdom of Shakespeare in ‘The Tempest’
The Wisdom of Shakespeare in ‘Twelfth Night’
ISBN: 9781483550800
About the Author
Peter Dawkins was educated at King Edward’s High School, Birmingham, and St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. He practised as an architect for ten years in both England and Scotland, until 1978, when he set out to devote himself full-time to research and educational work in connection with the world’s wisdom traditions, mythology, sacred architecture and sacred landscape.
Peter is especially involved in pioneering work in Zoence, a Western equivalent to the Chinese Feng-Shui, and with the Neoplatonic and Rosicrucian foundations of modern science and society. Author of many books, he teaches internationally through lectures and workshops, and by taking people on special journeys or pilgrimages to sacred sites of the world. He has studied Shakespeare deeply, and has given Shakespeare seminars and workshops for over fifteen years. He is an advisor to actors, directors and theatre companies, including the Globe Theatre, London.
www.peterdawkins.com
Dedication
This book I dedicate to the memory of Peter Caddy, a philanthropic Caesar and a good friend to me.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all my friends who have helped make this book possible, and in particular the following people: the ‘Roses’ team who have assisted me, edited, illustrated, and helped design and prepare the book for publishing—my wife Sarah, my son Samuel, Anne McQueen Johnston and Michèle Beaufoy; my ‘professional’ friends who have given me encouragement, information and ideas—Mark Rylance (actor and Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Globe Theatre), Claire Van Kampen (Director of Music and Artistic Assistant of the Shakespeare Globe Theatre), Richard Olivier (director), Hugh Young (actor-director of Daylight Theatre) and Jill Line (MA, Lecturer in Shakespeare); and my ‘supportive’ friends who have helped provide the means—Gay Browning, Brian Lascelles, Maggie Lascelles, Diana Myers, Mary Pout and Diana Tinson.
Illustrations:
Maps and diagrams by Samuel Dawkins.
Illustrations 4, 5 and 11 reproduced from The Hermetic Journal, by kind permission.
Illustration 8 reproduced by permission of the British Library.
Other illustrations from the libraries of The Francis Bacon Society and The Francis Bacon Research Trust.
Textual Note
All quotations from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (unless otherwise stated) are taken from the third edition of the Arden Shakespeare, edited by David Daniell.
All quotations from the Bible (unless otherwise stated) are taken from The Companion Bible (1974), being the Authorised Version of 1611 as published by the Revisers in their ‘Parallel Bible’ in 1885.
Contents
Illustrations
Introduction to the ‘Wisdom of Shakespeare’ Series
Renaissance Neoplatonism
The Bible
The Teacher
Foreword by Mark Rylance
Author’s Preface
1. Background
2. The History behind the Story
3. The Story
Act 1, Scene 1—Streets of Rome
Act 1, Scene 2—Rome: a public place
Act 1, Scene 3—Rome: a street
Act 2, Scene 1—Brutus’ Orchard
Act 2, Scene 2—Rome: Caesar’s House
Act 2, Scene 3—Rome: a street leading to the Senate House
Act 2, Scene 4—Rome: a street leading to the Senate House
Act 3, Scene 1—Rome: the Senate House
Act 3, Scene 2—Rome: the Forum
Act 3, Scene 3—Rome: a street
Act 4, Scene 1—Antony’s House
Act 4, Scene 2—Military Camp near Sardis: before Brutus’ tent
Act 4, Scene 3—Military Camp near Sardis: Brutus’ tent
Act 5, Scene 1—The Plains of Philippi
Act 5, Scene 2—The Plains of Philippi: the field of battle
Act 5, Scene 3—The Plains of Philippi: the field of battle
Act 5, Scene 4—The Plains of Philippi: the field of battle
Act 5, Scene 5—The Plains of Philippi: the field of battle
4. Plots & Themes
The Main Plot
The Three Sub-Plots
The Three Supporting Plots
The Background Plot
Themes
The Ten Commandments
Perceiving Truth
Pride before a Fall
Strife & Friendship
Justice & Mercy
Forgiveness or Revenge
Honour & Ambition
Insurrection
Heaven and Earth
5. Passions, Dreams and Portents
Passions of Some Difference
Killing the Heart
Lucius, the light of the heart
Gentle, Constant Portia
Caesar’s Augury
Divine Messages
The Tempest Dropping Fire
The Fountain of Blood
6. Time and Sovereignty
The Deadly Heartbeat
Lupercalia
Midsummer
Polaris
7. The Double-Dealing Cycle
Fortune’s Wheel
The Alchemical Cycles & the Mysteries
The Double Cycle of Julius Caesar
A1. The Impulse is born (Earth)
A2. The Emotions are stirred (Water)
A3. The Plot is hatched (Air)
A4. The Murder is done (Fire)
B1. Birth of Revenge (Earth)
B2. Insurrection incited (Water)
B3. Proscriptions and Quarrels (Air)
B4. A Battle to end all (Fire)
C1. Conclusion (Earth 
new cycle, new story)
Table 1 – The Alchemical Cycles of Julius Caesar
Table 2 - Comparison of the Power Points of the Double Cycle
8. The Murder of the Master
Freemasonry
The Fellow Craftsmen
The Murder of the Grand Master
Brutus’ Masonic Lodge
The Perfect Lodge
The Canopy of Stars
The Brethren
Discovering the East
9. ‘Plus Ultra’ – More Beyond
The Great Pillars
The Secret of Shakespeare
Back Cover
Illustrations
1. Map of Rome (44 BC).
2. Fortune and the Globe: Illustration XL from George Wither’s Collection of Emblemes, Ancient and Modern, Book 3 (1635).
3. The Temple of Pansophia: Illustration in Compass der Weisen (Berlin, 1779).
4. Fortune and her Wheel: Title-page of Francis Bacon’s History of King Henry VII (Latin edition, 1642).
5. The Fountain of Life: Woodcut 1 from the Rosarium philosophorum, (Frankfurt 1550).
6. Mercury’s Caduceus: Illustration XXVI from George Wither’s Collection of Emblemes, Ancient and Modern, Book 2 (1635).
7. Map of London Theatres (16th/17th centuries).
8. The Wheel of Life and Initiation.
9. 16th Century Freemason (with Square and Compasses): Illustration in The Mirror of Policie (publ. by Adam Islip, 1598).
10. The Hermaphrodite Freemason: Illustration in Basilius Valentinus’ Aurelia Occulta Philosophorum (Theatrum Chemicum, Argentorati, 1613, vol. IV).
11. ‘Plus Oltre’: Emblem XLV from Andrea Alciati’s Emblemata (1577).
12. The Great Pillars: Title-page of Francis Bacon’s The Advancement and Proficience of Learning (1640)
13. The Cabalistic Tree of Life.
14. The Double A: Headpiece to Hugh Holland’s dedicatory poem in the Shakespeare 1st Folio.
15. The Seven Squares: Headpiece to Ben Jonson’s dedicatory poem in the Shakespeare 1st Folio.
16. Masonic Square and Compasses
17. The ‘B.I.’ Signature: Poem ‘To the Reader’, 1st page of the Shakespeare 1st Folio
18. Portrait of Shakespeare: Title-page of the Shakespeare 1st Folio.
Introduction to the ‘Wisdom of Shakespeare’ Series
This series on the Wisdom of Shakespeare is designed to investigate and make known some of the extraordinary wisdom, knowledge and philosophy contained in the Shakespeare plays.
Besides the plays themselves, a clue to the greatness of Shakespeare in this respect is given by Ben Jonson in his tribute to the Author prefacing the Shakespeare 1st Folio of 1623, as also by the inscription on the contemporaneous Shakespeare Monument.
On the Shakespeare Monument, erected c. 1620-23 in Holy Trinity Church at Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, to honour the memory of Shakespeare, the great Bard is referred to (in Latin) as ‘A Pylus in judgment, a Socrates in genius, a Maro in art’.
Pylus was the appellation of Nestor, King of Pylus, one of the Argonauts who went in search of the golden fleece and who was the most perfect of Homer’s heroes in the Trojan war. As a statesman, ruler and judge, Pylus was renowned for his eloquence, address, wisdom, justice and prudence of mind.
Socrates was the most celebrated philosopher of Greece and a renowned orator. The Delphic Oracle proclaimed him as the wisest of mankind. He was the principal instigator of the great philosophies that have constituted the major traditions of Western civilisation, and was the advocate of clarity and the inductive procedure, for which he was particularly famed. His great aim was the happiness and good of his countrymen, and the reformation of their corrupted morals. By introducing moral philosophy, he induced people to consider themselves, their passions, their opinions, their duties, faculties and actions. He used drama to aid him in this, and the tragedies attributed to his pupil Euripides are said to have been at least partly composed by him, although he remained hidden as a playwright behind the mask of his pupil.
Maro was the surname of Virgil, the greatest of the Roman poets. He was known as the prince of poets and Homer’s successor. He was not only a highly learned scholar and refined writer, but also a high initiate of the Orphic Mysteries as practised at Naples, where he lived for the last part of his life. His Æneid was based upon the Mysteries and Homer’s epic tales, the Iliad and Odyssey.
For Shakespeare to be likened to these three illustrious men—not just one, but all three—is an enormous compliment and says a great deal about the Bard.
This viewpoint is supported by Ben Jonson, a renowned playwright and poet in his own right. In his tributory poem to Shakespeare prefacing the Shakespeare 1st Folio, Jonson refers to his ‘beloved’ friend as an Apollo and Mercury, and as the ‘Sweet Swan of Avon’. Furthermore, implying that Shakespeare was, like him, a noted classical scholar, he declares in his tribute that even if Shakespeare had small Latin and less Greek, he (Ben) would still honour him, calling forth the great Roman and Greek tragedians to hear and applaud his tragedies. As for comedies, Ben can think of no one of the ancient Greeks or Romans who even approaches Shakespeare: he is alone, supreme.
To be likened to the gods Apollo and Mercury, rather than just inspired by them, is a mighty tribute, particularly as coming from the talented and critical poet laureate, Ben Jonson. Apollo is the god of poetic inspiration and illumination, and leader of the choir of Muses. Mercury is the god of eloquence and learning.
The ‘sweet swan’ is a reference to the singing swan, which is sweetest when singing its own ‘swan-song’. This was the symbol of Orpheus, musician to the Argonauts and the originator of the Orphic Mysteries that subsequently became the wisdom teachings and Mysteries of Classical Greece and Rome. These Mysteries formed a foundation of Classical philosophy and of all Platonic and Neoplatonic thought. Orpheus was considered to be the representative of Bacchus, the god of Drama, whose drama was in particular the Mysteries that were performed by the bacchants, bacchantes and eumolpoi (‘good singers’), the initiates and hierophants of the Orphic Mysteries. Both comedy and tragedy, and theatre as such, derive from the Bacchanalian Mysteries. Moreover, the white swan, symbol of Orpheus and the Eumolpoi, is an emblem of Apollo.
Mercury (Roman Mercurius) is derived from the Ancient Egyptian Maa Kheru, meaning ‘the True Word’ and ‘he who is of true voice’. It was a title bestowed on the high initiates of the Egyptian Mysteries—i.e. those who had sung their ‘swan-song’ and undergone psychological death and rebirth,—a title which was still used in the Classical Mysteries. Another Greek name for Mercury was Hermes Trismegistus (i.e. Hermes the Thrice Greatest), but this title was applied specifically to the greatest of all the initiates in any epoch. From this name comes the term ‘Hermetic’ for the great wisdom teachings and developing philosophical thought that have been handed on from the time of the Ancient Egyptians to successive generations and cultures, and of which we are inheritors today via the Neoplatonism of the Renaissance and the great poetry of Shakespeare.
The works of Shakespeare declare him to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of the Neoplatonists. His plays are suffused with Renaissance Neoplatonism. To understand this is to understand Shakespeare.
Renaissance Neoplatonism
The founders of Renaissance Neoplatonism were Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, both members of the brilliant circle of scholars, writers and artists associated with the Medici court in Florence in the 15th century, under the patronage of the great Cosimo de’ Medici.
Marsilio Ficino (1433-99), a scholar, physician and priest, was commissioned by Cosimo to translate into Latin the Hermetic writings and the dialogues of Plato, together with the Neoplatonic writings of Porphyry, Proclus, Pseudo-Dionysus the Areopagite and Plotinus. The translation of the Corpus Hermeticum was ready in 1464 and published in 1471 under the title of Pimander, and the translations of Plato’s dialogues, completed c. 1468, were published as the Platonic Theology in 1474.
Ficino’s understanding, as that of others including St. Augustine, was that a divine theology or wisdom tradition, based on love, began simultaneously with Zoroaster among the Persians and with Hermes Trismegistus (i.e. Thoth) among the Egyptians. They believed that this wisdom tradition led in an unbroken chain to Plato via Orpheus and Pythagorus. It is this wisdom which is reputed to underlie the Hebrew, Orphic and Christian teachings, all of which developed from the blended Hermetic and Magian origin.
Demonstrating that this wisdom tradition was associated with Christianity, with links via Moses and the Zoroastrian Magi, Ficino was able to reconcile Platonic and neo-Platonic philosophy with Christian theology. He regarded both philosophy and religion as being manifestations of a spiritual life, each needing the other in order to attain the summum bonum or greatest good.
According to the Neoplatonic philosophy which Ficino founded, love is the sustaining principle of the universe, and the attainment of the highest good is dependant not upon the Church but upon an impulse universal to man. The soul is not only immortal, but all souls by an inner urge naturally seek truth and goodness.
Ficino was immeasurably helped in the development of Neoplatonism by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-94). Pico joined Ficino’s circle in 1484 and introduced Cabala into Ficino’s Neoplatonism, being the founder or first great exponent of Christian Cabala. In this Pico was following in the footsteps of the poet-philosopher Ramon Lull, who in the 13th century, in Spain, brought together Jewish Cabala, Islamic mysticism and Christian revelation into a single method, which had an enormous influence on succeeding generations. As a result of Pico’s and Ficino’s partnership, Neoplatonism became a universal philosophy, which blended Hebrew Cabala with the Hermetic, Neoplatonic and Christian teachings, making a synthesis of them all. As a result, the spiritual, magical and scientific core of Renaissance Neoplatonism was born.
Having travelled from Italy into France, this Renaissance Neoplatonism took a strong hold in England in the 16th century, beginning in King Henry VIII’s time and reaching a zenith during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, particularly in the works of William Shakespeare.
The Bible
Shakespeare’s knowledge of the Bible is remarkably extensive and detailed. The teachings of the Bible pervade and underlie all his plays to such a degree that the plays seem, in fact, to be dramatised commentaries on and examples of the scriptural teachings, aided by Cabalistic philosophy and the Hermetic wisdom as well as by Shakespeare’s extraordinary observation, insight into and knowledge of human nature.
Not for nothing then, it would seem, was an Englishman urged to possess a copy of both the Bible and the Shakespeare plays, and to always carry them with him when travelling.
The Teacher
Not only is Shakespeare a great poet, dramatist, Neoplatonic philosopher and Christian cabalist, but he is also a supreme teacher who teaches through entertainment, following the path of the ancients:
The wisdom of the ancients devised a way of inducing men to study truth by means of pious frauds, the delicate Minerva secretly lurking beneath the mask of pleasure.1
Minerva is the Roman name for the Greek goddess of wisdom, Pallas Athena, the Tenth (and Chief) Muse, and the especial Muse of Shakespeare. Her Greek name literally means ‘Spear Shaker’, and she was renowned for shaking her spear of light at dark ignorance, exactly as Ben Jonson says of Shakespeare in his Folio tribute:
For a good Poet’s made, as well as borne.
And such wert thou. Looke how the father’s face
Lives in his issue, even so, the race
Of Shakespeare’s minde, and manners brightly shines
In his well torned, and true filed lines:
In each of which, he seemes to shake a Lance,
As brandish’t at the eyes of Ignorance.
The intention and hope of this series is to help reveal to lovers of Shakespeare some of the extraordinary and brilliant light concealed in Shakespeare’s plays, and to pay homage to one who has been an exceptional friend and teacher to me and countless others—the great English Bard.
Foreword by Mark Rylance
Stoop then, and wash. How many Ages hence
Shall this our lofty Scene be acted over,
In States unborne, and Accents yet unknowne?
How many times shall Caesar bleed in sport,
That now on Pompey’s Basis lyes along,
No worthier than the dust?
So oft as that shall be,
So often shall the knot of us be call’d,
The Men that gave their Country liberty.
So spoke Cassius and Brutus as they stooped to wash their hands in the fresh blood of a murdered leader during the summer of 1599, at the Globe Theatre, and so they will speak again at the Globe in the summer of 1999, at the end of Shakespeare’s Millennium.
How many ages hence indeed, I wonder, did Shakespeare imagine, as he washed his pen in ink to address his troubled times, and fellow citizens concerned with Liberty?
As the sun lends colour to the world around us, Shakespeare might regret that his Tragedy continues to lend colour to a world still plagued, so many ages hence, with the question of what to do with a Tyrant.
The partly deaf, paranoid, friendly and ambitious, easily flattered, dream and prophecy inspired, martial dictator, husband, and possible father, Julius, still mounts to the Senate in our States, Families, Companies and selves. What are we to do?
At present, as I prepare to direct this Tragedy for the Globe’s 400th anniversary season, I rush home to catch the BBC nine o’clock news, and ponder what Mahatma Ghandi or the Dalai Lama would think of NATO’s aerial response to the reported atrocities of Slobodan Milosevic in Kosovo. Are we raising a sword that we ourselves will eventually fall upon? What options does Brutus consider and reject before he utters in his peaceful orchard, ‘It must be by his death…’?
Closer to home, though less threatening, the British Government has been led since the early eighties by a Prime Ministerial figurehead growing more and more Presidential in its use of power; limiting parliamentarian question time, staging its own semi-Lupercalian marketing exercises; not unlike the movement from consul to dictator to king which Julius is attempting, or the movement from queen to empress that Queen Elizabeth the 1st was attempting at the end of her long reign, when the play was conceived.
But Shakespeare’s play searches beneath these apparent historic currents and coincidences. No one production, even the first with Shakespeare in the cast, captures the essence of the play for all time, but is bound by the present nature of its audience.
Lately I look at the Thames when I go to work, and wonder if Shakespeare imagined Cassius’ competitive swim with Julius across the Tiber in the dangerous undercurrents of this tidal Black Isis river that connects the City of London with the world’s oceans and, for that matter, with their lover, the moon. Sam Wanamaker’s appeal to rebuild the Globe in London was successful because of his vision of Shakespeare as a world poet, international, slipping like the oceans’ currents under boundaries, expressing truths or sooths, as universal in different people’s minds as the moon or the tide or oceans. I believe, when we decide to ‘act over’ one of his Tragedies, we must search as carefully for the universal undercurrents, as we would were we attempting to ‘leap into the angry flood and swim to yonder point’ across the Thames.
I therefore feel particularly blessed to have scholars and philosophers such as Peter Dawkins who, like river pilots, sound out the depths and shallows of our crossing, and help me to make the most of the natural force and form underlying the words of The Tragedy.
Alchemy, Freemasonry, Time, the Pillars of Hercules, the Renaissance and Plato; these springs of thought flood into Shakespeare’s mighty stream and deposit jewels of perception for those of us who love to gather them at Bankside.
Imagining you reading this book on Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, I see the so-called ‘mudlarks’ across the Thames from the Globe, who, under the silhouette of St. Paul’s, armed with spades and metal detectors, hunt about for hidden treasure, be it Roman, Elizabethan, or just something precious someone lost at the end of a Millennium. I hope this book will provide as useful a spade and metal detector for you as it does for me.
Yours from a many-sided round place,
Mark Rylance, 1999
Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe (1995-2005)
Author’s Preface
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is a powerful and challenging play based on a famous episode in history concerning a famous man, and written by a world-famous author. This alone is sufficient to give it a great name. But there are other reasons too, one of which is that the play would seem to have been composed partly for the purpose of opening the newly built Globe Theatre in London on Midsummer’s Day 1599. This book, a commentary on the play, is written to commemorate the 400th anniversary of that occasion, as a complement to the first production of Julius Caesar at the new Shakespeare Globe Theatre on Bankside which is being staged to celebrate that anniversary.
The play is a vehicle for esoteric wisdom teachings, incorporating important elements from the great Mystery traditions, especially Freemasonry. It is a tragedy, and it deals with the prime tragedy enacted in Freemasonry in the Craft’s third degree of initiation. It also makes a pointed and deliberate analogy with the Christian story concerning the murder of Jesus. It is a story which is just as relevant today, both individually and on the world stage, and poses major questions that we need to be able to answer satisfactorily.
This book is written to provide an insight into these matters, so that the wisdom and philosophy of Shakespeare may be more easily grasped and the play more richly enjoyed.
For the plan of the book, I begin with a sketch of the play’s background history, which for this play is immensely important. It sets the drama in the context of its time and helps to show why it may have been written. This is followed by a chapter outlining the actual history upon which the play is based, so that the story of the play may be better understood and comparisons may be made between the actual history and the dramatic inventions of Shakespeare. The third chapter summarises the story of the play, scene by scene. This is for the benefit of the reader who might not know the play very well, but also for others, as it picks out the key points of the story which will be discussed in the book.
After laying down this foundation, the fourth chapter takes a look at the basic plots and themes which underlie the main story, whilst the remaining chapters are designed to take you, the reader, ever deeper into the hidden stories and meanings of the play. Chapter six, for instance, focuses on the importance of time and the festivals that form such a key part of the drama; whilst chapter seven deals with the alchemical and initiatic cycles embodied in the play as its underlying structure, together with their ‘power points’. Chapter eight looks specifically at the Freemasonic aspect of the play, and the final chapter gives hints at what more there is to be found in this play and in ‘Shakespeare’ generally.
I have used both the second and third Arden editions of Julius Caesar when quoting from the play, which I recommend both for their text and their notes. As with the other books in this Wisdom of Shakespeare series, I have placed all references to the text of the play in brackets in the main text of the book, to make it easier to look up the passages in question as you read this book, whilst all other references are added as endnotes printed at the end of the book. Many of the references are to books which I have used for research or to quote from, and can be used as a short bibliography.
I hope you enjoy reading this book and that it proves helpful to you. Shakespeare is one of the great masters of our time—‘our’ time because his poetic and dramatic works are, like those of Homer, embued with a wisdom, relevance and interest that stretches over centuries, perhaps millennia. He dramatises human behaviour and opens doors to the mysteries of life so that we might see and understand more clearly, yet at the same time he remains an enigma. I hope that this book will help you to discover a little more about Shakespeare as well as about his play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar.
P.D. (March 1999)
1. Background
Shakespeare’s great Roman play, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, is a powerful drama based upon the pivotal event in the history of classical Rome—the assassination of the Roman dictator, Julius Caesar, in 44 BC, and the subsequent civil war that took place which ended the Roman Republic as such and led directly to the installation of the first Roman Emperor, Augustus Caesar. The play was first printed in the 1623 Shakespeare 1st Folio of Comedies, Histories & Tragedies under the title of The Tragedie of Iulius Caesar, but referred to in the Folio’s Catalogue as The Life and death of Julius Cæsar. There is no record of the play existing in print before then.
Julius Caesar was most probably written in the first half of 1599. Certainly it was unlikely to have been composed before the Autumn of 1598, since it does not appear in Francis Mere’s famous list of Shakespeare plays which Meres gives in his Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury, registered on the 7th September 1598 and published shortly after. In fact, Julius Caesar appears to have been written in the same period as the writing of Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing—the sequence and dates of composition possibly being Much Ado About Nothing (Winter 1598), Henry V (Spring 1599) and Julius Caesar (early Summer 1599), to be followed soon after by As You Like it. All these plays refer, in oblique ways, to the newly opened Globe Theatre, in which they would have been performed by Shakespeare’s company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men.
In addition, both Henry V and Julius Caesar have political overtones relating to the military expedition into Ireland led by the Earl of Essex. When Essex left London on the 27th March 1599, with a royal commission to crush the rebellion led by the Irish leader, the Earl of Tyrone, his public popularity was still running high. He had been for many years the darling of the Queen and a good many of her subjects, all of whom entertained high hopes of his performance. As the deputy of the sovereign, he could indeed, on Elizabeth’s behalf, be likened in their dreams to a victorious Henry V. Such a play, therefore, could well have been used as a statement of people’s hopes, including the Queen’s, as also to help gain the necessary support and taxes for such a costly venture. In the Prologue to the last act of Henry V, for instance, King Henry is compared to Caesar, and both are likened to the Earl of Essex:
…But now behold,
In the quick forge and working-house of thought,
How London doth pour out her citizens!
The mayor and all his brethren in best sort –
Like to the senators of th’antique Rome,
With the plebeians swarming at their heels –
Go forth and fetch their conqu’ring Caesar in:
As, by a lower but by loving likelihood,
Were now the general of our gracious empress,
As in good time he may, from Ireland coming,
Bringing rebellion broached on his sword,
How many would the peaceful city quit
To welcome him!…2
At the same time, however, such an analogy had dangerous overtones and could conjure up the ghost of Shakespeare’s earlier play, Richard II, which in 1597 caused such agitation to the Queen, who was being likened to King Richard by certain of her courtiers who followed Essex, whilst Essex was being likened to Henry Bolingbroke who deposed and murdered Richard, supposedly for the good of the country. In February 1599, just before Essex left for Ireland, a book referring specifically to the deposition of Richard II (and which seemingly derived much of its textual material from Shakespeare’s play), The First Part of the Life and Raigne of King Henrie IIII, was published. It was written by a young doctor of civil law, John Hayward, who dedicated the book to Essex, associating the Earl with the popular usurper Henry Bolingbroke and seeming to hint that Essex should do as Bolingbroke did. The Queen was incensed by this book. Its second edition was suppressed and the author was arrested on a charge of treason.
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar