Antony and Cassius

I recently reread Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. I have absolutely no idea how many times I have read this play. I know I have read Hamlet the most often, but after that, I have no guess as to how to rank the rest of his work in order of how many times I have read each play. Well, I suppose I know where to put the few plays I still haven't read. (I dread reading those plays, by the way--after I have read everything Shakespeare ever wrote, I'll never again be able to look forward to reading a Shakespeare play for the first time.)

Julius Caesar is, of course, great--what can anyone really add to an evaluation of the merits of the play?

This time I payed more attention than normal to the underlying motivations of the conspirators. Act IV took on some extra intrigue when thinking about the differences between Cassius and Brutus. Suddenly Cassius looked a lot more like Antony. Brutus still puzzles me--is he admirable or foolish? It's hard to decide.

Lily is going to see a production of this play sometime soon on a class field trip. How did Juilus Caesar become such a staple of high school? Acts I-III are fast moving, but in terms of pure drama, I suspect most high school students find Acts IV-V a real let down. I didn't read it in high school, so I am not sure about that assessment. If I were picking a first play for high schoolers and I didn't want to use the obvious candidate (Romeo and Juliet), I think I would go with Hamlet. If that is out, I'd pick Macbeth. Lots of people die in Macbeth, the witches are great, Lady Macbeth is evil and crazy, Macbeth is a tortured soul, and there is action all they way until the end.

I think it would be hard to teach Shakespeare's comedies in high school--the Puritans were right about that--Shakespeare is really rather bawdy.