50 Fun Facts About Julius Caesar (Shakespeare Play)

Which date does a soothsayer twice warn the dictator to beware in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar?

The ides of March is simply the 15th in the Roman calendar. When the day arrives he taunts the soothsayer that it has come, and gets the reply: 'Ay, Caesar; but not gone.'

Which Latin words does the dying dictator speak to a trusted friend in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar?

Et tu, Brute, meaning 'You too, Brutus?', comes just before his last line, 'Then fall, Caesar.' Ancient biographers reported that the real man died saying nothing at all.

Mark Antony begins his funeral speech in Julius Caesar by asking the crowd to lend him what?

Their ears are what he asks for in 'Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears', a line that runs straight on to his claim that he comes to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Cassius tells Brutus the fault that they are underlings lies not in what?

Our stars are not to blame, Cassius argues, but ourselves: 'Men at some time are masters of their fates.' He is working on Brutus to stop accepting one man's rule.

Which kind of look does the dictator in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar say makes Cassius a dangerous man?

Lean and hungry is how Cassius looks to him, a man who 'thinks too much'. He would rather be surrounded by fat, sleek-headed men who sleep soundly at night.

Which language does Cicero speak in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar that a listener says he could not follow?

Greek is what Cicero speaks after the crown is refused, and the baffled report of it, 'it was Greek to me', is the phrase English still uses for anything incomprehensible.

In Julius Caesar, Mark Antony foresees a vengeful spirit crying 'Havoc' and letting slip which creatures?

The dogs of war are loosed in a prophecy he speaks alone over the corpse. Moments earlier he was shaking the assassins' bloody hands; now he calls them butchers.

Who, according to the dictator in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, 'die many times before their deaths'?

Cowards die many times, he tells his frightened wife, while 'the valiant never taste of death but once'. Within the hour he has ignored her pleas and set off for the Senate.

In Mark Antony's funeral speech in Julius Caesar, the stab from Brutus is 'the most unkindest' what 'of all'?

Cut is the word, and the double superlative is deliberate: Brutus was 'Caesar's angel', so his dagger hurt most. Antony says it while pointing out each rent the blades made.

In Julius Caesar, the dictator's wife dreams of smiling Romans bathing their hands in blood pouring from what?

His statue runs blood 'like a fountain with an hundred spouts' in her dream. A conspirator talks him out of staying home by recasting it as Rome drawing new life from him.

Which tradesman jokes to the tribunes in the opening scene of Julius Caesar that he lives 'with the awl'?

A cobbler is his trade, though he teases the tribunes first by calling himself 'a mender of bad soles'. The first workman the tribunes question is a carpenter.

The tribunes who open Julius Caesar scold the crowd for forgetting which general they once cheered?

Pompey once drew these same crowds onto walls and chimney-tops just to watch him pass. Now they strew flowers for the man who 'comes in triumph over Pompey's blood'.

Shakespeare's Julius Caesar begins during which Roman festival, when Mark Antony runs a ceremonial race?

Lupercal was a fertility rite, which is why the dictator tells Antony to touch his childless wife as he runs past: a runner's touch was said to shake off 'the sterile curse'.

In Julius Caesar, Cassius complains that the dictator bestrides the narrow world like which giant figure?

A Colossus is his image for a ruler so vast that 'we petty men' can only 'peep about' between his huge legs. It borrows from the giant bronze sun god of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders.

Cassius tells Brutus in Julius Caesar that he once pulled the exhausted dictator out of which river?

The Tiber was running high on 'a raw and gusty day' when the two swam it on a dare. Cassius cannot stomach that the man who cried 'Help me, Cassius, or I sink!' is now treated as a god.

What happens to the dictator in Julius Caesar straight after he refuses a crown for the third time?

He faints in the market-place, foaming at the mouth and speechless, in front of the whole crowd. Brutus puts it down to 'the falling sickness', the Elizabethan name for epilepsy.

Which beast does a frightened Roman in Julius Caesar say he met by the Capitol on the stormy eve of the murder?

A lion glared at him and 'went surly by' without attacking. The same night he reports a slave whose hand blazed like twenty torches yet was left unscorched.

How does Cassius plan to win Brutus over to the plot as Act 1 of Julius Caesar ends?

With forged letters, written in different hands and thrown in at his window as if from ordinary citizens. Each one praises the name of Brutus and hints that Caesar is reaching too high.

Which Trojan hero does Cassius compare himself to in Julius Caesar for carrying the tired dictator to safety?

Aeneas carried his aged father Anchises out of burning Troy on his shoulders, and Romans claimed him as their ancestor. Cassius casts Caesar as the helpless old man.

Brutus recalls in Julius Caesar that his ancestors drove which royal house out of Rome?

The Tarquins were Rome's last kings, expelled by an earlier Brutus. Cassius works on that family pride, reminding him there 'was a Brutus once' who would never have borne a king.

Which young servant of Brutus in Julius Caesar is forever being woken, and nods off while playing music?

Lucius is the boy Brutus treats with unusual tenderness, easing the instrument from his hands as he dozes and promising 'I will be good to thee'.

Alone before dawn in Julius Caesar, Brutus resolves to think of the uncrowned dictator as what?

A serpent's egg is harmless until it hatches, so Brutus argues for killing him 'in the shell': not for anything he has done, but for what a crown might make him.

What does Brutus stop the conspirators doing in Julius Caesar when they gather at his house by night?

Swearing an oath is what Cassius proposes, and Brutus overrules him: Romans who have given their word need no other bond. It is the first of several times he gets his way.

Which famous anachronism is heard during the conspirators' night meeting in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar?

A striking clock sounds three and Brutus says 'Peace! count the clock', though such machines lay more than a thousand years in the future. The play's Caesar also wears a doublet.

What is the name of Brutus's wife in Julius Caesar, who claims a share in his secret as Cato's daughter?

Portia argues that a woman 'so father'd and so husbanded' is stronger than her sex. Shakespeare gave the same name to the quick-witted heiress of The Merchant of Venice.

Where does Brutus's wife give herself a 'voluntary wound' in Julius Caesar to prove she can keep a secret?

In the thigh, she tells him, and if she can bear that in silence she can bear his secrets too. Brutus is so moved that he prays to be made worthy of her.

What is the name of Caesar's wife in Shakespeare's play, who begs him on her knees not to go to the Senate?

Calpurnia has cried out three times in her sleep, and briefly wins: he agrees to stay home 'for thy humour'. Minutes later a visitor's flattery changes his mind.

What do the priests in Julius Caesar fail to find inside the animal they sacrifice on the morning of the murder?

Its heart is missing, a dreadful sign, yet Caesar turns the omen on its head: the gods, he says, are telling him that only a beast with no courage would stay at home.

Which conspirator in Julius Caesar recasts the wife's nightmare as good news and coaxes the dictator out?

Decius had boasted he could do it, since a man who says he hates flatterers is the easiest to flatter. His clinching argument is that the Senate means to offer a crown that very day.

Who waits outside the Capitol in Julius Caesar with a written warning that lists every plotter by name?

Artemidorus signs himself 'Thy lover' and begs to be read first, but his urgency backfires and he is waved away as a madman. The paper might have saved the dictator's life.

Which conspirator strikes first in Julius Caesar, stabbing from behind with the cry 'Speak, hands for me!'?

Casca is the blunt, sour gossip of the early scenes, and the others agree he will be 'the first that rears your hand'. Antony later sneers that he struck 'like a cur, behind'.

Why does the dictator in Julius Caesar refuse to read an urgent paper outside the Senate?

It concerns him personally, so he announces: 'What touches us ourself shall be last served.' The show of putting public business first costs him his life.

What job falls to Trebonius at the moment of the assassination in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar?

Leading Antony away keeps the dictator's strongest friend out of reach, so Trebonius is offstage when the daggers fall. He returns to report that Antony has 'fled to his house amazed'.

Which fault does Brutus tell the crowd in Julius Caesar was his reason for killing a man he loved?

Ambition is the whole of his case: 'as he was ambitious, I slew him.' Antony then spends his own speech picking that one word apart with examples of the dead man's generosity.

Which word does Mark Antony keep applying to Brutus in his Julius Caesar funeral speech until it turns sour?

Honourable is repeated until the crowd hears it as mockery, and one listener finally spits back: 'They were traitors: honourable men!' Antony keeps using the word even after he has uncovered the body.

Besides money, what does the will read out by Mark Antony in Julius Caesar leave to the people of Rome?

His walks and orchards, with their private arbours, are to be public pleasure grounds for ever. That and seventy-five drachmas a head send the crowd off to burn the conspirators' houses.

Which item does Mark Antony show the crowd in Julius Caesar, pointing to the holes the daggers made?

His cloak, the 'mantle' of the speech, comes with a memory: Antony recalls the summer evening it was first worn, after a great victory. Only then does he uncover the body itself.

In his Julius Caesar funeral speech, Mark Antony slyly tells the crowd that, unlike Brutus, he is no what?

Orator is the one thing he claims not to be, 'but, as you know me all, a plain blunt man'. He says it in the middle of the most effective piece of public speaking in the play.

Why does the mob in Julius Caesar tear apart a harmless poet heading to the funeral?

He shares a killer's name, Cinna, and protesting that he is only a poet does not save him. 'Tear him for his bad verses,' one of the crowd shouts.

After Brutus defends the killing in Shakespeare's Roman tragedy, which cry from a citizen misses his whole point?

Let him be Caesar, shouts one man, while another wants Brutus crowned with the dead ruler's 'better parts'. He has just killed to stop Rome having a king.

Which fellow triumvir does Mark Antony dismiss in Julius Caesar as fit only for running errands?

Lepidus has barely left the room when Antony likens him to an ass carrying gold, to be turned out to graze once the load is delivered. Octavius defends him as a tried soldier.

In their quarrel in Julius Caesar, Brutus accuses Cassius of selling offices and having an itching what?

Palm is the word, and 'an itching palm' is still everyday English for a hunger for bribes. The charge stings Cassius so badly that he bares his chest and offers Brutus his dagger.

How does Brutus's wife die in Julius Caesar, as he tells Cassius once their quarrel has cooled?

She swallows fire while her attendants are away, driven 'distract' by his absence and his enemies' growing strength. Brutus has kept the news to himself all through the quarrel.

The ghost that visits Brutus by night in Julius Caesar promises to see him again at which battlefield?

Philippi is where the republican army is broken, and Brutus dies there sure that the ghost has come for him: 'I know my hour is come.'

Brutus argues for marching to battle in Julius Caesar by saying there is what 'in the affairs of men'?

A tide, he says, which 'taken at the flood, leads on to fortune'. Cassius wanted to sit still and let the enemy come to them, and gives way for the last time.

Which servant, taken prisoner in Parthia, kills Cassius at his own order in Julius Caesar and so goes free?

Pindarus was spared on a promise to do whatever he was told, and Cassius calls the debt in. The blade he guides is the very one that stabbed Caesar.

In Julius Caesar's final scene, which tribute does Antony pay over Brutus's body?

The noblest Roman of them all, Antony says, because Brutus alone acted from 'a general honest thought' while the rest killed out of envy.

Shakespeare drew Julius Caesar mainly from Thomas North's translation of which ancient biographer's Parallel Lives?

Plutarch supplied most of the plot, though Shakespeare squeezed the murder, the funeral and the arrival of Octavius into one day. In reality they were spread over about two months.

Julius Caesar was probably one of the first plays staged at which newly built London playhouse in 1599?

The Globe went up on Bankside that year, and a Swiss traveller, Thomas Platter, noted seeing a tragedy about Julius Caesar at a Bankside theatre that September: the earliest record of the play.

Which actor played Mark Antony in an 1864 New York Julius Caesar, sharing the stage with two brothers?

John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln less than five months later. It was the only time he acted with his brothers: Edwin played Brutus and Junius played Cassius, in a benefit for Central Park's Shakespeare statue.