h's lives of Julius Caesar, Brutus,
and Antony, Shakespeare based his historical tragedy of 'Julius Caesar.'
Weever, in 1601, in his 'Mirror of Martyrs,' plainly refers to the
masterly speech in the Forum at Caaesar's funeral which Shakespeare put
into Antony's mouth. There is no suggestion of the speech in Plutarch;
hence the composition of 'Julius Caesar' may be held to have preceded the
issue of Weever's book in 1601. The general topic was already familiar
on the stage. Polonius told Hamlet how, when he was at the university,
he 'did enact Julius Caesar; he was kill'd in the Capitol: Brutus kill'd
him.' {211b} A play of the same title was known as early as 1589, and
was acted in 1594 by Shakespeare's company. Shakespeare's piece is a
penetrating study of political life, and, although the murder and funeral
of Caesar form the central episode and not the climax, the tragedy is
thoroughly well planned and balanced. Caesar is ironically depicted in
his dotage. The characters of Brutus, Antony, and Cassius, the real
heroes of the action, are exhibited with faultless art. The fifth act,
which presents the battle of Philippi in progress, proves ineffective on
the stage, but the reader never relaxes his interest in the fortunes of
the vanquished Brutus, whose death is the catastrophe.

While 'Julius Caesar' was winning its first laurels on the stage, the
fortunes of the London theatres were menaced by two manifestations of
unreasoning prejudice on the part of the public. The earlier
manifestation, although speciously the more serious, was in effect
innocuous. The puritans of the city of London had long agitated for the
suppression of all theatrical performances, and it seemed as if the
agitators triumphed when they induced the Privy Council on June 22, 1600,
to issue to the officers of the Corporation of London and to the justices
of the peace of Middlesex and Surrey an order forbidding the maintenance
of more than two playhouses--one in Middlesex (Alleyn's newly erected
playhouse, the 'Fortune' in Cripplegate), and the other in Surrey (the
'Globe' on the Bankside). The contemplated restriction would have
deprived very many actors of employment, and driven others to seek a
precarious livelihood in the provinces. Happily, disaster was averted by
the failure of the municipal authorities and the magistrates of Surrey
and Middlesex to make the order operative. All the London theatres that
were already in existence we