But Shakespeare does not try to render Republican Rome in faithful and accurate historical detail. "Peace! count the clock," says Brutus (2.1) although the play is ostensibly set during ancient times, and the practice of bear-baiting is referred to when Octavius says "We are at the stake / And bayed about by many enemies" (4.1)The entertainment of bear-baiting, a reminder of the brutality of the Elizabethan age, was even enjoyed by the queen and often took place near the Globe theater where Julius Caesar was first performed: "The bear was tethered to a stake in the middle of the ring, able to move only a short distance before being drawn up sharply when it got to the end of its tether. That's where the phrase 'at the end of my tether' comes from - the frustration and agony of not being able to go any further. Dogs would be released to taunt the bear, and the excitement came from the tension between the bear and the dogs. The most agile dogs would be able to spring away, out of the bear's range, but any mistakes would be fatal: a bear would kill several dogs before itself occasionally becoming the victim. The crowd would roar its encouragement to the bear" (Entertainment at Shakespeare's Globe Theater, No Sweat Shakespeare, 2004.). This common practice shows the acceptance of cruelty in Shakespeare's life, but also Shakespeare's skillful use of ordinary activities in the metaphors of his works to make analogies between Elizabethan's lives and the citizens of Rome.
This sense of an analogy between drama and life is explicitly alluded to during the assassination. As Cassius says: "How many ages hence / Shall this our lofty scene be acted over / In states unborn and accents yet unknown!" (3.1). Cassius states what is actually occurring -- this real historical event has become the subject of popular drama. This also implies that current Elizabethan history and its crises of legitimacy and succession will someday become the subject of drama. Elizabethan "social and political taste" for elaborate displays in the actions of leaders is transposed back to Rome (Greenblatt 192). Especially in these moments, Cassius and Brutus are more Elizabethan than Roman. Self-conscious dramatization of political affairs,...
Cassius and Brutus believe they will be praised -- of course, the opposite is true after Mark Anthony engages in his own political spectacle during his funeral oration. But showing how quickly politics could change, Shakespeare creates a bond between his contemporary audience, reveals and questions the spectacles of history and authority they witnessed in their daily lives, and draws parallels between their own and ancient Roman's complex negotiations regarding the nature of kinship.
Thus, Julius Caesar may be set in Rome, but it is very much about the politics of Shakespeare's day, almost more than it is a faithful account of ancient Rome. Shakespeare could address the ambiguities of kingship in a much less obviously subversive way in a Roman setting. Yet he used deliberate historical anachronisms like clocks and bear-baiting, as well as references to how politics was theater, and how theater makes use of politics, to encourage his audience to consider the degree to which their own religious and personal lives had been transformed by their leader's foibles.
Works Cited
Elizabethan education. William Shakespeare Info. 2005. April 16, 2009. http://www.ask.com/bar?q=Elizabethan+school&page=1&qsrc=2417&ab=0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.william-shakespeare.info%2Fwilliam-shakespeare-biography-childhood-and-education.htm
Entertainment at Shakespeare's Globe Theater. No Sweat Shakespeare. 2004. April 16, 2009.
http://www.ask.com/bar?q=Julius+Caesar+bear-bating&page=1&qsrc=2417&ab=2&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nosweatshakespeare.com%2Fresources%2Fglobe-theatre-entertainment.htm
Greenblatt, Stephen. Will in the World: How Shakespeare became Shakespeare. New York:
W.W. Norton, 2005.
Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar. Shakespeare Homepage. April 16, 2009.
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/julius_caesar/index.html
