Bryan Bishop January 5th, 02006 Shakespeare, oh, Shakespeare! Wherefore art thou history notes?! It is not uncommon to find authors writing about dramatic events for their characters in stories called dramas. These books spiral to the top of the charts whenever they are released, creating senses of tension in most readers. This sense of tension continues to be harder and harder to capture per author because the minds of theaudience are shaped and moved by the stories they have previously read. This leads to a challenge for authors: write the most influential story and capture the audience's attention. William Shakespeare, a playwright, took this to the extreme and decided to write a drama about Julius Caesar, a powerful politician from when the Roman empire was still really an empire. On further inspection of his play, one might find that Shakespeare did not write in his play every detail of Caesar's assassination from the historical sources available to him at the time. In the play, Casca summarizes the scene in which Antony offers the crown to Caesar: CASCA I can as well be hanged as tell the manner of it: it was mere foolery; I did not mark it. I saw Mark Antony offer him a crown;--yet 'twas not a crown neither, 'twas one of these coronets;--and, as I told you, he put it by once: but, for all that, to my thinking, he would fain have had it. Then he offered it to him again; then he put it by again: but, to my thinking, he was very loath to lay his fingers off it. And then he offered it the third time; he put it the third time by: and still as he refused it, the rabblement hooted and clapped their chapped hands and threw up their sweaty night-caps and uttered such a deal of stinking breath because Caesar refused the crown that it had almost choked Caesar; for he swounded and fell down at it: and for mine own part, I durst not laugh, for fear of opening my lips and receiving the bad air. (1.2.234-250) Through research, the following selection can be found: At the coming festival of the Lupercalia, the biggest test of the Roman people for their willingness to accept Caesar as King was to take place. On February 15, 44 BC, Caesar sat upon his gilded chair on the Rostra, wearing his purple robe, red shoes and a golden laurel and armed with the title of Dictator Perpetuus. The race around the pomerium was a tradition of the festival, and Mark Antony ran into the forum and was raised to the Rostra by the priests attending the event. Antony produced a diadem and attempted to place it on Caesar's head, saying "the people offer this (the title of king) to you through me." There was, however, little support from the crowd and Caesar quickly refused being sure that the diadem didn't touch his head. The crowd roared with approval, but Antony, undeterred attempted to place it on Caesar's head again. Still there was no voice of support from the crowd and Caesar rose from his chair and refused Antony again, saying, "I will not be king of Rome. Jupiter alone is King of the Romans." The crowd wildly endorsed Caesar's actions. (Julius Caesar) Interestingly enough, we can see that Shakespeare did not include everything in his scene. We can see that, for example, Shakespeare did not include a great description of the scene, however this is a trivial point. Not so trivial, however, are the quotes that Shakespeare cuts out of the scene. These are, specifically, Mark Antony saying, "the people offer this to you through me," and Caesar saying, "I will not be the king of Rome. Jupiter alone is King of the Romans". It's important to note that there is also only two cheers from the audience. The first time is when Caesar refuses the crown, the second is supposed to be the mentioned "wild endorsement" by the crowd in the last sentence of the above quote. If William Shakespeare had been writing a more-so historically accurate play, he would, perhaps, chose something like this for Casca's summary of Caesar's actions: CASCA I can as well be hanged as tell the manner of it: it was mere foolery; I did not mark it. I saw Mark Antony offer him a crown, "the people offer this to you through me," said he;--yet 'twas not a crown neither, 'twas one of these coronets;--and, as I told you, he put it by once; but, for all that, to my thinking, he would fain have had it but for his thus dulling crowd. Then he offered it to him the second time; and still as he refused it, the rabblement hooted and clapped their chapped hands and threw up their sweaty night-caps and uttered such a deal of stinking breath because Caesar refused the crown that it had almost choked Caesar, possibly baring the bad air in mind; but he recovered himself, lookedth out at that rabblement, then say he this, by my sworn ears: I will not be king of Rome. Jupiter alone is King of the Romans. Adding in the information about Antony's and Caesar's words increases the chances of it being historically accurate. Now would be a proper time to place emphasis on the fact that Shakespeare was not writing a history textbook, but rather, he was writing a drama, a play, fit for the stage. There are two obvious cases here: (1) Shakespeare knew about these events and neglected to mention them in the play, and, (2) Shakespeare did not know about these extra events. The case of #1 would not make much sense to us now. Revealing that Caesar refuses the crown and makes a statement would further enforce the concept of Caesar as an intelligent or powerful politician, yet, Shakespeare does not do this. Perhaps Shakespeare had other motives. The case of #2 seems more likely now if not only because there is little reason for Shakespeare to strip out vital information to the plot. There is a single case where Shakespeare would have to strip out information: whenever information clashed with public opinion or the opinion of Her Majesty. Remember, in the years that William Shakespeare lived, one could be killed for writing nonsense or something Her Majesty thought to be foul. At any rate, to take a quick look at what Shakespeare did write (instead of what he did not), a Roman in these days may point out that the falling action of Caesar would build on the Roman sense of mysticism. For example, in Act 1, Scene III, there is much mystical talk about the state of the city (politically). A great ruler falling down, no doubt, would not be a good sign. Though, indeed, Shakespeare wrote a play, and he did succeed in creating a sense of drama throughout, one should notice that he was also trying to write a play, and thus was not likely to have a soul intent of focusing on historical accuracy. In the attempt to write the best drama, at least one author has shrugged off selections of history. Bibliography "Julius Caesar." Wikipedia. Nov. 2005. WikiMedia Foundation. 26 Nov. 2005 . "The Tragedy of Julius Caesar". ~1599. Shakespeare, William.