Julius Caesar is yet another Shakespearean tragedy that has been taken whole from North’s Plutarch’s Lives. The play is a scene-by-scene remake of North’s chapters on Julius Caesar and Marcus Brutus. Note in the picture above, not only is the playwright closely following North’s Plutarch, he also borrows material from North’s Dial.
We will discuss the tragedy in greater depth sometime in week 5 (of 12 weeks of borrowings from North) — a week devoted to “North’s Stories in the Canon.” During each day of week 5, we will explore a Shakespearean scene in which a character refers to or recounts a story from North’s earlier writings.