om word to word, as so many
keen darts of poetic rapture shot forth in rapid succession. Yet the
passage, notwithstanding its swift changes of imagery and motion, is
perfect in unity and continuity.

III. EARLY EDITIONS

FOLIOS

On November 8, 1623, Edward Blount and Isaac Jaggard obtained formal
license to print "Mr. William Shakespeere's Comedyes, Histories, and
Tragedyes, soe many of the said copies as are not formerly entered to
other men." This is the description-entry in _The Stationers' Registers_
of what is now known as the First Folio (1623), designated in the
textual notes of this edition F1. _Julius Caesar_ is one of the plays
"not formerly entered,"[1] and it was first printed, so far as is known,
in this famous volume. It is more correctly printed than perhaps any
other play in the First Folio and, as the editors of the Cambridge
Shakespeare suggest, "may perhaps have been (as the preface falsely
implied that all were[2]) printed from the original manuscript of the
author."[3] It stands between _Timon of Athens_ and _Macbeth_, two very
badly printed plays. The running title is _The Tragedie of Julius
Caesar_, but in the "Catalogve of the seuerall Comedies, Histories, and
Tragedies contained in this Volume," the title is given as _The Life and
Death of Julius Caesar_.

[Footnote 1: This is strong evidence that the play had not been printed
at an earlier date.]

[Footnote 2: "... Absolute in their numbers, as he conceiued them....
His mind and hand went together: And what he thought, he vttered with
that easinesse, that wee haue scarse receiued from him a blot in his
papers" (Heminge and Condell's Address "To the great Variety of
Readers," First Folio).]

[Footnote 3: Mr. F. G. Fleay in his Shakespeare Manual (1876) argues that
"this play as we have it is an abridgement of Shakespeare's play made by
Ben Jonson."]

The Second Folio, F2 (1632), the Third Folio, F3 (1663, 1664), and the
Fourth Folio, F4 (1685), show few variants in the text of _Julius
Caesar_ and none of importance.

THE QUARTO OF 1691

In 1691 _Julius Caesar_ appeared in quarto form. This Quarto contained
one famous text variant, 'hath' for 'path' in II, i, 83. Though the
Folio text here offers difficulties, and modern editors have suggested
many emendations, no one has been inclined to accept the commonplace
reading of the Quarto.

ROWE'S EDITIONS

In the Folios and in the Quarto of 1691 the play is divided into acts,
bu