Shakespeare's Apology and Julius Caesar

Shakespeare's Oblique Apology

Bill Long

The Role of the Poet in 4.3.129-138

The quarrel between Cassius and Brutus broke forth very rapidly in the first 90 lines of 4.3 and then was quickly defused when both of them admitted some personal weaknesses or tendencies toward anger. After they make up, their conversation is interrupted through the insistence of a poet. The poet comes in to upbraid the generals on their quarrel, but then he is ushered out of Brutus's and Cassius' presence before he can say much more. The scene ends, and the conversation turns to other things.

Why the Poet?

In an earlier passage (3.3), the poet Cinna is introduced as he feels drawn to go outside even though he has premonitions of disaster. In that scene his role is crucial to the development of ideas of the play: it shows the irrationality of the people ("Tear him for his bad verses"--3.3.30-31)," and it demonstrates that chaos, rather than a new world order, greets the efforts of the conspirators. But here things are different. The poet interrupts after reconciliation has taken place and gives advice that is curiously inappropriate. All he says is, "For shame, you generals! what do you mean?/ Love, and be friends, as two such men should be,/ For I have seen more years, I'm sure, than ye (4.3.129-131)." Cassius has previously asked Brutus whether he has enought "love" to bear with him, and Brutus answers, "Yes, Cassius (4.3.119,121). Thus, the poet's request is shown to be untimely. Insertion of the poet in 4.3 has no apparent purpose.

Who is the Poet?

My thesis is that by inserting the poet with untimely advice, Shakespeare is really alluding to himself and his awareness that he is not doing a very good job in crafting this scene. I have already pointed out that there are at least three things in 4.3 that either strain credulity or appear to be imperfect editing of the scene. Rather than trying to read 4.3 as a wonderfully noble scene, which the old commentators do, but ignore the obvious problems with the scene, I see it as something that Shakespeare knows is not particularly well-crafted, and he is trying to tell the reader that he knows this is the case.

This becomes a more plausible reading when we continue to read after the lines quoted above, where the poet gives untimely advice to the conspirators to "love, and be friends." Cassius tells Brutus, "Bear with him, Brutus, 'tis his fashion (4.3.135)," and then Brutus responds, "I'll know his humor, when he knows his time (4.3.136)." The latter line is interpreted by the Riverside Shakespeare editors as, "I'll indulge his odd behavior when he chooses an appropriate time to exhibit it." Brutus is saying that poetic license and "interruption" may be appropriate at another time.

If my interpretation is granted, and some scholars do recognize Shakespeare referring to himself in the poet, the meaning of the untimely-uttered line, "Love, and be friends" would be, 'I, Shakespeare, am giving untimely "advice." I know I am writing in an "untimely" fashion, by not developing ideas in a very thorough sense here.' Then, Brutus's line, as applied to Shakespeare himself would mean, 'At a more appropriate time (i.e., when I understand better how to master this fairly new medium of tragedy, and deal with my sources) I can 'interrupt' as I please---I can be more "timely" in my putting scenes together.'

Conclusion

The problem for those who do not adopt an approach like this is how to explain why the poet even appears and, when he appears, why he speaks in an untimely fashion. By reading this brief passage the way I did, it makes it like the closing passage of Tempest, where Shakespeare appears to be giving his own valedictory as a dramatist, or the conclusions of many of the plays, where Shakespeare begs the audience's indulgence. Shakespeare, thus, realizes what we have shown, that he is not at his best in 4.3 But, he also expects that he will rectify that in future plays, which he certainly does.