Shakespeare Uncovered

-Just over 150 years ago, president Abraham Lincoln was assassinated here in Washington. His assassin was an actor, an actor obsessed with a part in play. The part was Brutus, and the play was "Julius Caesar." To the actor, Lincoln had become Caesar and just like in the play, he as Brutus would murder him. "Julius Caesar" has come to represent the American experience -- Brutus and the Republic against Caesar and tyranny. But what exactly is a tyrant and who decides. Caesar's assassination cast the whole country into a bloody state of civil war. The scale is epic but the play is intimate, and it hinges on the relationship between a small group of men and a decision that one of them must make, And that decision is Brutus'. Should he kill Caesar? Should he kill his friend? -Funding for "Shakespeare Uncovered" -When Shakespeare wrote "Julius Caesar" for his London audience, he presented them with one of his most extraordinary characters -- not Caesar but Brutus. Moving on a grand political stage, Brutus is the axis of the play. He's charismatic, yet enigmatic. My relationship with the character goes back a long way, and he still intrigues me. When I was first asked to play Brutus, which was 40 years ago, I was 31. And the thing that appealed to me about the part was the fact that he was the still center of the play and that everything seemed to revolve around him. The other characters, they all spin off Brutus. Everything hinges on Brutus. The other characters look to him for his integrity, for his honesty. They'll look to him to lead the conspiracy against Caesar. But that doesn't make him a straightforward character. Far from it. It's a monstrously difficult part to play, but ultimately, it's an incredibly worthwhile role. I wish I was a little bit younger 'cause I wouldn't mind playing it again.

Chuckles

I performed Brutus in 1977, at the National Theatre in London. And now I want to take a fresh look at this play in the light of all that I've learned and lived since then. The play starts out in the midst of terrible uncertainty. Can the people of Rome trust their leader? Could Caesar become a dictator? We are living at a time of great political insecurity and so I think were Shakespeare's first audiences. I think they would have felt the play was about them too. I'm going to talk to a Shakespeare scholar. Julius Caesar could easily reflect on the Elizabethan situation, 'cause we have a queen coming to the end of her life... -Absolutely. -...so what's going to happen next. -I mean, the idea of Elizabeth getting towards the end of her life and not having produced an heir was something that really haunted the Elizabethans. -That's interesting. So the play really is about the time and really is -- I mean, or about a particular time when we're looking towards a future and we don't know what the future is going to be? -And of course, there are parallels which were inevitably talked about and thought about between Queen Elizabeth and Julius Caesar -- a leader who is very powerful, who can't be questioned -- this whole idea of the divine right of kings. -Yeah. -And it was something people were beginning to question, people were beginning to say, "well, actually, is that right?" -But there is another layer to this play which would have resonated with Elizabethans, and that's a sense that rare natural events may be warnings. Julius Caesar takes place in a world of signs and portents of "gliding ghosts" -- cosmic and political instability. It shows us the ultimate desperate act of a world pushed to extremes. For these reasons, the play reverberates through the entire world. Julius Caesar's Rome is more than a place. It's an ideal. And that's why whether we are in London or Washington, we see the signs of Rome. When I come to Washington, I'm struck how the city is full of neo-classical buildings -- it's deliberately echoing Rome, because for the founding fathers of America, and for that matter the Elizabethans, Rome meant law and order, civilization, good government. Rome was very much something to aspire to.

Fanfare plays

The play starts in the capital. Rome is a Republic, not an empire. Caesar is the elected consul, not a monarch. He is being celebrated for his conquests. But the enthusiastic crowd is treating him as if he were royalty, and certain politicians fear Caesar could be offered more power. They see that Caesar is perhaps being elevated to a position by the crowd and the crowd's, kind of, disregard for protocol, if you like, in the elevation of Caesar. And they are kind of seriously worried about it.

Crowd cheers

Right in the middle of this political uncertainty comes a warning from the realm of the supernatural. -Beware the Ides of March.

Crowd murmurs

-A soothsayer bids you beware the Ides of March. -Set him before me. Let me see his face.

Crowd murmurs

-Look upon Caesar. -What sayst thou to me now? Speak once again. -Beware the Ides of March. -He is a dreamer. Let us leave him. -Caesar ignores the warning, but the ides of March, the sacred midpoint of the month, is just two days away. The sense of his future is seriously questioned, and that is what kind of guides Julius Caesar through the first part of the play. -Beware the Ides of March!

Crowd murmurs

-The play could be set anywhere. This version is set at the heart of African power politics.

Music plays

In the midst of these celebrations, a plot is brewing to remove Caesar. What it lacks is a leader. Brutus is the man Cassius wants for the job. -Brutus. -The sound of the crowd cheering makes the conversation more urgent. Is Caesar being offered a crown?

Crowd shouting

-What means this shouting. I do fear the people choose Caesar for their king -Ay, do you fear it? Then you must, I think, you would not have it so. -I would not, Cassius. Yet I love him well. -But during this celebration, roars from the crowd continually grab their attention.

Singing in native language

There is a sort of volatility which is constantly being interrupted by the noises offstage, and they are pre-supposing what those noises are. They haven't necessarily got it right, but they are imagining a kind of... There's a crisis looming. Cassius has Brutus' attention, but Brutus is wary of Cassius. -But wherefore do you hold me hear so long? What is it that you would impart to me? If it be aught toward the general good, set honor in one eye and death in the other, and I will look on both indifferently. For let the gods so speed me, as I love the name of honor more than I fear death. -I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus, as well as I do know your outward favor. -Cassius knows the way to tempt Brutus into the conspiracy is to exploit his sense of honor. -Well, honor is the subject of my story. -In this world of Roman politics, everyone has their own agenda and everyone has their own weakness. Cassius will give Brutus his own biased view of Caesar, while playing to Brutus' famous sense of honor. As the scene continues, yet more applause for Caesar gives Cassius the chance to press home his case -- Caesar must go. The Globe actors pick up the scene. -It's Cassius who is actively pushing. They've grabbed this opportunity, 'cause the coast is clear. So there's a pressure, there's a slight pressure of time, but you don't want to blow it. So we just go from, "another general shout," so there's a clamor and... -Another general shout -- I do believe these applauses are for some new honors heaped on Caesar. -Why man he does bestride the world like a Colossus, and we petty men must walk under his huge legs and peep about to find ourselves dishonorable graves. Men, at some time, are masters of their fate. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings. -Cassius is, for Shakespeare, both insecure and jealous. He's jealous of Caesar, he's jealous of Caesar's eminence, he's jealous of Caesar's rise, and he's jealous of Brutus' closeness to Caesar. -Brutus and Caesar -- what should be in that Caesar? Why should that name be sounded more than yours? Write them together, yours is as fair a name. Age thou art shamed Rome. Thou hast lost the breed of noble blood. -Brutus is obsessed with his honor, and in one sense, that makes him the moral center of the play. But his obsession with his honor, does it, in some sense, tip over into a kind of arrogance, a kind of pride. -How I have thought on this and on these times, I shall recount hereafter. -Brutus seems moved, though undecided. But he is about to be presented with an opportunity to hear firsthand what's been happening at the celebrations. Brutus spots Casca, who has been watching, but also has a reputation for spinning things. -Would you talk with me? -Ay, Casca. -Tell us what hath chanced today that Caesar looked so sad. -Why there was a crown offer'd him and being offered him, he put it by with the back his hand, thus. And then people fell ashouting. -What was the second noise for? -Why, for that too. -They shouted thrice. What was the last cry for? -Why, for that, too. -Was the crown offered him thrice? -Ay marry was't. -Who offered him the crown? -Why, Antony. -So, there's a rumor that Caesar has been offered the crown by Antony, Caesar's close ally. But should Brutus believe it? We have only one person's version of it, and this is politics. I'm meeting with an actor who recently played the role of Caesar. -What did you think about all that, the whole thing about the -- uh, the reported thing that happens when he's off stage, when he's at the, uh -- -Yeah. -When he's -- and he says he's passed the crown, he's passed the crown. -Did Caesar stage it? Did he say "come up and do this"? Is this a test? Was it an actual thing that happened just spontaneously in terms of the crowd and playing the crowd? All those questions, uh, uh, uh... you know, present themselves, and people have different answers for them. -It's Casca's view of something, as well, isn't that? That's the other element to it, because we don't see it. So you we have to decide, is this man telling the truth? What is his story? -What the exact truth of it is in terms of, uh... you know, how it -- how it began, uh, in terms of the action of the crown and all of that? We don't know. No one sort of knew whether Caesar put Antony up to it. -Right. Whatever the truth about Caesar, Cassius believes he's almost persuaded Brutus to join the conspiracy. So much he thinks for the noble Brutus. -Well, Brutus, thou art noble. Yet I see that honorable mettle may be wrought from that it is disposed. Therefore it is meet That noble minds keep ever with their likes, For who so firm that shall not be seduced?

Thunder rumbles

Bird caws

-It is the night before the Ides of March. Rome is struck by rare storms and unnatural events. -Aah. -Some Romans fear them as prophecy. -Never till now, did I go through a tempest dropping fire. I believe they are portentous things, unto the climate that they point upon. -As they are desperately trying to interpret the uncanny, Brutus is searching for the truth about Caesar. This is the night when a momentous decision has to be made. And it's Brutus'. Should he kill Caesar? Should he kill his best friend? Brutus has to piece together what he thinks he knows about Caesar with what he has been told about Caesar, to balance the man he believes he is with the man he fears he might become. The future of Rome depends on Brutus. And his first line is a shock. -It must be by his death, and for my part... I know no personal cause to spurn him. But for the general, he would be crown'd. How that might change his nature, there's the question. It is the bright day brings forth the adder, and that craves careful walking. Crown him? That? And then I grant we put a sting in him that at his will he may do danger with. -He has to discard this fellow patrician, this person he's known forever, whose ambitions he knows he doesn't really have a true bead on. What happens is that he then has to turn not from the Caesar he knows but from the Caesar he imagines, the Caesar he imagines as a snake. -And therefore think him as a serpent's egg, which hatch'd would, like his kind, grow mischievous, and kill him in the shell. -Brutus has made an extraordinary decision. But can we be sure he knows why he has made it? -I don't think Brutus knows his own motives very well at all. What does he really think, what really moves him, why is he really doing what he's doing? Is it because Cassius has persuaded him, is it because he fears Caesar, is it because he wants to take over as leader? I don't -- I think we have many answers, but I don't think we have a single persuasive one. -In my experience, people who plan acts of violence need a self-justificatory narrative to make it possible. It may not make sense to anyone else, but it makes sense to them and it enables them to keep an idea in their mind of themselves as good people. And I think that it's crucial that Brutus sees himself as a good person. -Whatever Brutus' motives, he's about to be visited by Cassius and the other conspirators. Cassius believes it's not only Caesar who should die. -Know I these men that come along with you? -Yes, every man of them, and no man here but honors you. -Cassius has secretly lined up a fellow conspirator to suggest they kill Caesar's closest ally -- Mark Antony. -Shall no man else be touched but only Caesar? -Decius, well urged. I think it is not meet Mark Antony, so well beloved of Caesar, should outlive Caesar. -Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius, To cut the head off and then hack the limbs, like wrath in death and envy afterwards. For Antony is but a limb of Caesar. Let us be sacrificers but not butchers, Caius. -Brutus has convinced himself that by killing Caesar alone turns a murder into a ritual sacrifice. -Gentle friends, let's kill him boldly but not wrathfully. Let's carve him as a dish for the gods. -Sacrifice is a time-honored Roman ritual. Sacrifice is what priests do. If you can persuade yourself, as Brutus clearly does, that this isn't a murder, this is a sacrifice, then he can give himself permission to do it. -Brutus' dilemma is that he wants to maintain a notion of honor and notion, above all, of loyalty to the state, and to avoid the risk of anarchy or civil war. So he wants to minimize the action. But, of course, once you cross a boundary into violence, then violence will breed violence. -It's not's going to be passionately done. It's not gonna be done in a frenzy That's why we are not going to kill Antony. It's going to be done calmly just as it needs to be, with just as much violence as needs to happen. And then we will calmly tell the people why. It's such a neat way of putting it, but it's so unrealistic. -The conspirators will stop Caesar as he makes his way to the capitol. The event took place 2,000 years ago, but the thought of a political assassination has a terrible resonance for Americans. Since the founding of America, four American presidents have been assassinated -- one of them here in Washington. This is the Ford's Theatre where in 1865, Abraham Lincoln was murdered. His assassin was John Wilkes Booth, an actor who was obsessed with the character Brutus. The night before he arrived at the theater intending to assassinate Lincoln. he wrote a letter to the papers. He quoted Brutus. "O that we could come by Caesar's spirit and not dismember Caesar! But alas, Caesar must bleed for it." And he concluded, "I answer with Brutus." 1,600 people were in the audience. It was absolutely packed. Wilkes Booth entered the presidential box and shot Lincoln on the left side here, behind the ear. He did say, in Latin, "death to all tyrants." The fact that a 400-year-old play may be linked to a 19th-century assassination is an astonishing thought. But it seems that in Lincoln's time, Shakespeare was something of a household name. -Between 1861 and 1871, there were thousands of productions of "Julius Caesar" in the United States, and particularly in New York. And it's because this was so part of American popular culture, sort of, wrestling with what it was to be a young democracy, how to achieve it. What is a tyrant, what is a hero, what is heroism, how you can determine those figures? All of those things were broiling in the midst of this political historical moment in the United States. -That's John Wilkes Booth. But he takes on the character of Brutus because he did write this thing, this letter the night before, didn't he? Which he clearly quotes from the play. -Yes. -I mean, that's a fact. -Yes. -That's there. -Yeah, absolutely. I think now we think of Shakespeare, and we experience Shakespeare, at least in the United States, as being part of high culture. In the early 19th century, that was not the case here. It was as popular as television shows. Everyone knew Shakespeare plays. Everyone went to Shakespeare plays quoting Shakespeare was everywhere, from political speeches to commercials to advertising to governors and people. Every kind of debate you can imagine, Shakespeare was employed. -The connection to "Julius Caesar" and the United States goes back even further. -America was becoming a republic, so the scrutiny of "Julius Caesar" must reflect on what's happening in the political life of America, the time with Franklin, with John Adams, with the whole creation of the Constitution. -Absolutely. It is about a republic. And, so, "Julius Caesar" was part of the American curriculum -- educational curriculum forever. -It is the Ides of March -- the morning after the night of the unnatural events and sightings. And Caesar is due to go the Capitol.

Crowd shouting

Despite a night of vivid dreams, Caesar sets off defiantly. -The ides of March are come. -Ay, Caesar, but not gone.

Crowd murmurs

-Caesar and his entourage continue towards the Capitol. As planned, Metellus waylays Caesar with a petition. -Trebonius knows his time. Look you, Brutus. He draws Mark Antony out of the way. -Most high, most mighty, and most puissant Caesar, Metellus Cimber throws before thy seat An humble heart. -I must prevent thee, Cimber. If I could pray to move, then prayers would move me. But I am constant as the northern star. -The murder is brutal and protracted with a final sting, as Caesar faces Brutus. -

Grunts

-Et tu Brute? Then fall Caesar! -Brutus has set himself on a course, and there is no going back. He knows that he has to deliver the final blow. That's what expected. He's the one who has to make the closure, as it were, the closure of Caesar's life. And it is two old friends, because they were very close, you know, and that's why "et tu Brute?" is one of the great lines of all time. So it's a very, very key line in the sense of that relationship coming to an end and then what's going to happen next.

All shouting

All grunting

-What we see, which is this gang murder, right, this gang murder of Julius Caesar, I think for Brutus, he is performing a ritual behavior. He is, in some ways, absolutely clueless as to the nature of the event that he has just led. -Stoop, Romans, stoop. And let us bathe our hands in Caesar's blood. Up to the elbows, and besmear our swords. Then walk we forth, even to the marketplace, and waving our red weapons o'er our heads, let's all cry, "Peace. Freedom!" -Within moments of the assassination, Brutus is forced to confront reality. Arriving at the scene of the crime is Antony, Caesar's close friend and ally. Antony knows he is in a precarious situation. He's walking on a knife's edge, he's walking on a tightrope. He is walking into a dangerous situation, so he has to be absolutely clear about what he's doing. And he is clear about what he's doing. -Oh, mighty Caesar. -Brutus then makes a surprising decision. He'll offer Antony an olive branch by agreeing to let Antony speak last at Caesar's funeral. -You shall Mark Antony. -Brutus, a word with you. -Cassius immediately sees a problem. -You know not what you do. Do not consent that Antony speak in his funeral. Know you how much the people may be moved by that which he will utter? -By your pardon. I will myself into the pulpit first, And show the reason of our Caesar's death. -Cassius' intervention is the right intervention. He's right. He shouldn't let Antony get away with it. He shouldn't. Antony should speak first and then Brutus should speak. And that's the mistake that Brutus makes. But Brutus is confident, some would argue for the wrong reasons. -We have nothing to fear from Antony, He's not an orator. He doesn't know -- he's not a rhetorician. He can't do these things. He doesn't know how to speak. He's a playboy. He's not my intellectual equal. He's not. And he's an upstart. So there's no reason for me to fear him. So he can talk to the people. We've got right on our side. And by the way, I'll be speaking. It won't be Cassius, who'll fly off the handle. It'll be me, and I'll give them a reasoned argument. And I respect the people, so I'll give them the choice. But I know what they'll choose. It'll be me.

Crowd shouting angrily

-At first, Brutus faces a hostile crowd. -If there that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, This is my answer. Not that I loved Caesar less......but that I loved Rome more. -And Brutus says, look, if you don't think it was right that I did what I did, I'll kill myself right here in front of you. -With this I depart, that as I salute my best lover for the good of Rome, I have that same dagger for myself when it shall please my country to meet my death.

Crowd shouts

-"No, Brutus! Live!" "No, no, make him the Caesar!" "He's gonna be our next..." And of course, he doesn't want that, necessarily, but he is glad that they're onside. -I do entreat you. Not a man depart, save I alone, till Antony hath spoken.

Man speaking indistinctly

-Brutus seems to have brought the crowd with him. -They are on side. So letting Antony speak feels like "I am such a --" He must feel, "I am such big man doing this. It's the right thing to do. I said I'd do it, I keep my word," and off he goes, expecting that Antony will speak for a few minutes and it'll all be fine. -So on walks Antony, who loved Caesar and has vowed to wreak revenge.

Crowd shouting

-Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones. So let it be with Caesar. He was my friend, faithful and just to me. -Antony's style of speaking, his rhetoric has stirred something in the crowd.

Crowd shouting

-Rhetoric sounds something very forensic. -It will enflame you.

Crowd shouts

it will make you mad. -Sort of cold, rationally organized. But the whole purpose of rhetoric was to create emotion, to use words in order to affect people emotionally. And that, of course, is what Mark Antony does with such supreme effect. -

Speaking indistinctly

-He will employ the most evocative image of all, Caesar's body. -You all do know this mantle.

Crowd murmurs

See what a rent the envious Casca made. Through this, the well-beloved Brutus stabbed. And as he plucked his cursed steel away, mark how the blood of Caesar followed it, This was the most unkindest cut of all. Here was a Caesar! When comes such another?

Crowd shouting

Crowd chanting indistinctly

-Antony's words have whipped the crowd into a fury. It is a fantastic display of rhetoric, but also terrifying. I wanted to ask an expert on speechwriting, whether he recognized these techniques. -There has to be something true at the center of it. -Right. -It's about persuasion. You're telling a story, but the story has to have enough truth in it that the audience can connect to you. People want to believe in great men. Brutus was asking people to say, "even though you love Caesar, he's not as important as the republic." But Mark Antony was saying to that audience, "you are connected to Caesar's legacy. He was you, you are him." And that is more powerful as a message than Brutus saying, "I did this dastardly thing, but it was necessary because of these ephemeral principles we believe in." Brutus failed to frame that speech in a way that was emotionally accessible to that audience. -Now that we live in a digital age -- you know, Twitter, and Facebook, and what have you -- do you think rhetoric still has its value in the way it has its value in these plays? -I think that it is important, but it's different, precisely because people are consuming such fractured information. When a speech does break through, it's almost that much more important. The desire for an audience to want someone to give meaning to an event that they don't understand is still with us. -Right. -When big events happen, when there's a large political event, there is still that desire for somebody to explain it. -I think we remember Caesar because as much for his assassination as anything else, because it was -- So do we have that in American history? For example, Kennedy. -If you look at both Lincoln and Kennedy, after they were killed, people felt like we didn't appreciate them enough while they were here. That's one emotion. Another emotion is, "somehow, we did this." -Yeah. -If the great man was killed, something must be wrong with us and we must therefore strive to be like the greatness inside the person we lost. And, you know, that's exactly what Mark Antony's message was. -That's his success. -And that's his success. He defines the meaning of Caesar's assassination, he defines the direction for the future of Rome, all in that one speech. -The theme of political assassination is so powerful that even staging this play can be a highly contentious act. In New York in the summer of 2017, a production of "Julius Caesar" with a Caesar dressed like President Trump caused an outrage. -Delta Airlines and Bank of America have exited stage left, dropping their support for a New York theater company's production of "Julius Caesar." In this version, Caesar looks a lot like Donald Trump, with a business suit and a tie too long, and of course, gets stabbed to death on stage. -A rather dramatic protest caught the actors by surprise. -We had done the assassination scene which was everybody stabbing, a huge fight. Quite a violent scene. There I am dead on the ground, and I start hearing somebody saying "this is violence against the right." -Stop the normalization of political violence against the right. This is unacceptable. -Like, what the heck? I'm dead, you know. -

Laughs

-I'm dead, and I'm hearing this, right? And I'm like, "what the heck is going on?" And I'm going, "well, they're just somebody in the audience, and you know -- "this is violent!" And I'm going, "they're getting closer, they're getting closer." And I'm going, "wow, they sound like they're on the stage." They grab her, and they start to haul her out. At which point, someone else starts yelling. "You are all Goebbels. You're Goebbels." -You are all Goebbels. You are all Nazis like Joseph Goebbels. -How did it feel then? because there you are, you've had this one disruption. It must be quite nerve-wracking, no? -Well, it is nerve-wracking, you know, because you don't know what -- How far are they gonna go? What are they going to do, actually? -It really is pure theater, isn't it? -Well, yeah, you're really in touch with the audience now. -I can't help thinking, if the protesters had stayed for the next part of the play, they would have felt differently. Like the tragic regime changes of our own century, the killing of Caesar has cast the country into civil war. Antony and his allies against Brutus, Cassius, and their conspirators. -The mood completely changes in the second half of the play. There is a sense that a line has been crossed, and then there is no going back. Once you unleash the act of violence and then once the crowd comes along with it, you get a terrifying sense of losing control and of irrational violence. --For your dwelling-briefly. -Truly, my name is Cinna. -Tear him to pieces. He's a conspirator. -I am Cinna the poet. I am Cinna the poet. -Tear him for his bad verses! Tear him for his bad verses! -I am not Cinna the conspirator. -It's no matter. -The crowd murders a man knowing he is innocent just because they want to kill. -Burn him, burn him!

All shouting

-While Rome burns, Antony and his allies are coolly condemning, with a stroke of a pen, all those who are no longer politically useful. -This many then shall die. Their names are pricked. -Your brother, too, must die, consent you, Lepidus? -I do consent. -Prick him down, Antony. -The murder of Caesar has called everything into question. Now Brutus and Cassius are no longer secure in their friendship, nor even about the meaning of what they have done. When they most need to stand together, they argue with a passion we have not seen before. What triggers it is Cassius' connection with a man who has accepted bribes. -Remember March. the Ides of March remember? Shall one of us that struck the foremost man of all this world but for supporting robbers, shall we now contaminate our fingers with base bribes. -Brutus sees the world falling apart, and he's saying "this is not going to work." -You do forget yourself to hedge me in. I am a soldier. I older in practice, abler than yourself to make conditions. -So to you are not, Cassius. -I am. -I say you are not. -Something has gone seriously wrong. Cassius feels misjudged. Brutus feels betrayed. -Urge me no more. I shall forget myself. Have mind upon your health, tempt me no further. -Away, slight man. -You wrong me every way. You wrong me, Brutus. -The world has become disestablished by what's happened, and they are in the middle of that. -When Caesar lived, he durst not thus have moved me. -Oh, Peace, peace. Thou durst not so have tempted him. -Do not presume too much upon my love. I may do that I shall be sorry for. -You have done that you should be sorry for. -When you kill somebody, it has a huge emotional impact on you. And if you've done that in collusion with somebody else, that can have a huge impact on your relationship. I think it's rare to see a homicide which has brought about the consequences that were anticipated by the murderer. And I think that that's what Cassius and Brutus find themselves in, that actually Julius Caesar's death has not been a solution of any sort. -Brutus and Cassius fall out. This is something one sees throughout history, if one thinks of the French revolution, the Russian revolution. The act of violence comes back in on the conspirators. -Brutus and Cassius make up, but they are about to face their great military adversary, Mark Antony. They will meet at Philippi, and Brutus is deeply troubled. It's the night before the battle. Brutus is still awake. He's not slept since he killed Caesar, and Caesar is still with him. -How ill this taper burns!

Gasps

Speak to me what thou art. -Thou evil spirit, Brutus. -Why comest thou? -To tell thee thou shalt see me at Philippi. -

Gasps

then I shall see thee at Philippi, then. -It's as if he has kind of recognized what's going to happen, Brutus. And kind of realizes that he's on a trajectory, that there is no going back, and that the ghost has clearly indicated something is going to happen. There is a sort of acceptance in the ghost's presence that's quite chilling. -Ghosts always tend to represent conscience. They represent the past coming back to haunt you. The ghost of Caesar is Brutus' realization that the act of assassination has, perhaps, not been an honorable act. And once he has that realization, he feels that he is doomed. -A sense of fatalism hangs over the conspirators as they prepare to part, ready for battle. Brutus and Cassius struggle to find the right words to say to each other. -Now, most noble Brutus, if we do lose this battle, then is this the very last time we shall speak together. -But this same day must end the work the Ides of March began. And whether we shall meet again, I know not. Therefore, our everlasting farewell take. Forever and forever farewell, Cassius. -Forever and forever, farewell, Brutus. If we do meet again, we'll smile indeed. If not, 'tis true this parting was well made. -They will never speak again. The men who killed Caesar will lose to Caesar's friend, Mark Antony. Cassius will kill himself, believing Brutus to be dead, and Brutus will choose to follow. -Lucius. Thou hast been all this while asleep. I prithee, Lucius, stay thou by your lord Thy life hath had some smatch of honor in it. -

Chuckles

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Laughs

Hold then my sword, and turn away thy face while I do run upon it. Wilt thou Lucius. -Caesar, now be still. I killed not thee with half so good a will. -Brutus has to hang on to honor, because it is the one thing that has given him his identity. It gave him the rationale for killing his friend. And if he doesn't hang on to it, he will be faced with the fact that he has done a dreadful thing to absolutely no purpose. -Brutus is the character on whom the fate of Rome depended, and, yet, he remains a mystery. We can't help wondering how well he ever understood himself or what he was trying to do. -What's compelling about Brutus is how deeply complicated he is. So, I think what we are left with is a very complicated judgment of Brutus as someone who was motivated by motives that he believed to be noble, that he persuades himself are noble, and yet at the end of the day, our judgment has to be how mistaken he really was. -Mark Antony will himself be defeated by his current allies. What we are left with is a sense of waste, of loss, and ultimately of futility. The play is heartbreaking, and it's heartbreaking in the sense that nothing is resolved, that everything stays the way -- And actually, everything goes from bad to worse. That unstable quality is what makes the play heart-breaking, because nobody wins in the play. Nobody wins. Everybody loses. -Next time... -A sad tale's best for winter. -...Simon Russell Beale on one of Shakespeare's final plays. -The king, Leontes, is seized by a fit of extreme jealousy. -Shakespeare's jealous characters are never funny. They're always tragic. -"The Winter's Tale," it's about the possibility of hope. -She embraces him. -"The Winter's Tale" with Simon Russell Beale... next time on "Shakespeare Uncovered." -"Shakespeare Uncovered" Series 3 is available on DVD. Series 1 and 2 are also available. To order, visit shop.pbs.org or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS.