Temple Shakespeare) that the original of the famous speech of
Brutus to the assembled Romans (III, ii) may be found in Belleforest's
_History of Hamlet_, in the oration which Hamlet makes to the Danes
after he has slain his uncle. "The situation of Hamlet is almost
identical with that of Brutus after he has dealt the blow, and the
burden of Hamlet's too lengthy speech finds an echo in Brutus's
sententious utterance. The verbose iteration of the Dane has been
compressed to suit 'the brief compendious manner of speech of the
Lacedaemonians.'"--Gollancz. As the English translation from which
Professor Gollancz quotes in support of his theory is dated 1608, and is
the earliest known,[1] it cannot have been from this that Shakespeare
drew any suggestions or material. The question arises, Did Shakespeare
read the speech in the original French? The volume of Belleforest's
_Histoires Tragiques_, which contained the story of Hamlet, was first
published in 1570, and there were many reprintings of it before 1600.

[Footnote 1: Reprinted in Collier's _Shakespeare's Library_. This
translation shows in more than one place the influence of Shakespeare's
play. For example, Hamlet's exclamation before he kills Polonius, "A
rat! a rat!" is in the English version, but there is no suggestion of it
in the French original.]

II. DATE OF COMPOSITION

Modern editors fix the date of composition of _Julius Caesar_ within
1601, the later time limit (_terminus ante quem_), and 1598, the earlier
time limit (_terminus post quem_). The weight of evidence is in favor of
1600-1601.

EXTERNAL EVIDENCE

1. _Negative._ _Julius Caesar_ is not mentioned by Meres in the
_Palladis Tamia_, published in 1598, which gives a list of twelve
noteworthy Shakespeare plays in existence at that time. This establishes
1598 as a probable _terminus post quem_.

2. _Positive._ In John Weever's _Mirror of Martyrs or the Life and Death
of Sir John Oldcastle Knight, Lord Cobham_, printed in 1601, are the
following lines:

The many-headed multitude were drawne
By _Brutus_ speech that _Caesar_ was ambitious,
When eloquent _Mark Antonie_ had showne
His vertues, who but _Brutus_ then was vicious?
Man's memorie, with new, forgets the old,
One tale is good, until another's told.

Halliwell-Phillipps was the first to note that here is a very pointed
reference to the second scene of the third act of _Julius Caesar_, as
the antithesis brought out i