It is bad enough, I say, to know that Shakespeare could
play flunkey to this extent; but after all, that is the worst that can
be urged against him, and it is so much better than men have been led to
believe that there may be a certain relief in the knowledge.
CHAPTER VI
THE FIRST-FRUIT OF THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE: BRUTUS
The play of "Julius Caesar" was written about 1600 or 1601. As "Twelfth
Night" was the last of the golden comedies, so "Julius Caesar" is the
first of the great tragedies, and bears melancholy witness to us that
the poet's young-eyed confidence in life and joy in living are dying, if
not dead. "Julius Caesar" is the first outcome of disillusion. Before it
was written Shakespeare had been deceived by his mistress, betrayed by
his friend; his eyes had been opened to the fraud and falsehood of life;
but, like one who has just been operated on for cataract, he still sees
realities as through a mist, dimly. He meets the shock of traitorous
betrayal as we should have expected Valentine or Antonio or Orsino to
meet it--with pitying forgiveness.
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