What the electronic Julius Caesar site currently includes:

Shakespeare's Julius Caesar Extensive Scholarly Commentary from the date of the play's first publication (1623) through 1913 (links to right of dramatic text) Character Analyses Classical sources on Julius Caesar Sir Thomas North's 1579 translation of Plutarch's Parallel Lives Additional Critical Material on Shakespeare's Julius Caesar from the Variorum edition (a transcription of the 1623 First Folio): Brief Textual History of the Variorum First Folio transcription Date of Composition of the Variorum First Folio transcription Primary Source of the Plot: Selections of especially relevant portions of Plutarch's Parallel Lives Historical Textual Criticism: Includes, for example, a comparison of Brutus and Hamlet, Voltaire's comparison of Shakespeare and Corneille, and analysis by the nineteenth century critic William Hazlitt Stage History: When, how and by whom was this play performed? Other Dramatic Versions: Who else wrote plays on Julius Caesar in Shakespeare's day, and how do these plays compare? Time Analysis: What is the duration of each scene? Plan of the Work: Whose editions are collated in the Variorum edition of the First Folio? List of Books: A bibliography of pre-1913 texts used in producing the Variorum critical edition Tufts University Student projects

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1. The dramatic text of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is provided here in its entirety in several versions. Each text can be accessed from the others by selecting from the pop-up menu at the top of each screen within the play and clicking "Change Now."
   • Variorum Edition
     The original spelling and punctuation edition is a transcription of the First Folio edition of 1623, edited by the Variorum editor Horace Howard Furness, Jr. in 1913.

   • Kittredge Edition
     The modernized edition was edited in 1939 by George Lyman Kittredge.

   To simplify and standardize the reference scheme, we provide here both the Through-Line numbers that remain continuous throughout the play and the Scene-Line numbers that begin anew at each scene. Given that the First Folio is numbered with Through-Line numbers, this double numbering essentially provides a version of the First Folio edition simultaneous with the print Variorum edition that uses Scene-Line numbers. Eventually we will also provide a facsimile edition of the First Folio.

2. Extensive line-by-line scholarly commentary written by editors and critics over the past three hundred years is linked to the play in a column to the right of the text. The commentary and textual variants (apparatus criticus) appear in a pop-up box when these links are selected. The links located to the right of the dramatic text include the names of the scholars that produced each particular note. Much of this commentary in the original spelling/punctuation Variorum edition is structured as a "threaded discussion" among scholars over several hundred years, allowing readers to discern the important critical debates that have been pursued by critics historically.

3. We have reorganized some of the critical material in the Variorum edition to provide easier access to the critical discussions of many of the play's characters by the numerous scholars who have commented and responded to one another's ideas abot Julius Caesar.

4. This site also presents Shakespeare's primary Classical sources for his play: Sir Thomas North's 1579 translation of Plutarch's Parallel Lives. Eventually we will hope to link the relevant Lives, with Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Using Rev. Walter Skeat's 1875 edition, we have included the following Lives:
   • Coriolanus
   • Caesar
   • Brutus
   • Antony
   • Augustus
   • Theseus
   • Alcibiades

5. Student projects produced as part of the course at Tufts University entitled Literary Texts on the Web include the following:
   • Linking Plutarch's Life of Brutus and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
     
   • Linking Cicero's De Officiis (On Duties) and Julius Caesar
     
   • An interactive timeline of Julius Caesar's life
   • A map of Caesar's Gallic Conquest and the defeat of the Helvetii
   • Caesar Onstage: A Performance Study of Act 3, Scene 1
     
   • Another Classical Source: the Letters Between Brutus and Cicero
     
   • Historical Backgrounds of Selected Characters in Julius Caesar

   Included here as well is the critical material that makes up the extensive appendices from the Variorum edition of Shakespeare's play. See the index at the top of this page for a listing. Click here to learn what is coming soon to this site.

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