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Article: Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Erasmus's De Copia, and sentential ambiguity.
- Article from:
- Comparative Drama
- Article date:
- March 22, 2007
- Author:
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In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, immediately after the assassination, Brutus and Cassius make the following metadramatic allusion:
Caesar: How many ages hence Shall this our lofty scene be acted over, In states unborn, and accents yet unknown!
Brutus: How many times shall Caesar bleed in sport, That now on Pompey's basis lies along, No worthier than the dust!
Caesar: So oft as that shall be, So often shall the knot of us be call'd The men that gave their country liberty. (1)
The irony of this passage operates on several levels. There is the obvious self-referentiality of the actors, who emphasize the disjunction between the place and ...