Introduction to the play
Shakespeare may have written Julius Caesar as the first of his plays to be performed at the Globe, in 1599. For it, he turned to a key event in Roman history: Caesar’s death at the hands of friends and fellow politicians. Renaissance writers disagreed over the assassination, seeing Brutus, a leading conspirator, as either hero or villain. Shakespeare’s play keeps this debate alive.
The Folger Shakespeare
Our bestselling editions of Shakespeare's plays and poems
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 interrèd with their bones.
—Antony
Act 3, scene 2, lines 82-85
There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune
—Brutus
Act 4, scene 3, lines 249-250
From the audio edition of Julius Caesar
Full recording available from Simon & Schuster Audio on CD and for download.
Julius Caesar in our collection
A selection of Folger collection items related to Julius Caesar. Find more in our digital image collection
Essays and resources from The Folger Shakespeare
Julius Caesar
Learn more about the play, its language, and its history from the experts behind our edition.
About Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
An introduction to the plot, themes, and characters in the play
Reading Shakespeare’s Language
A guide for understanding Shakespeare’s words, sentences, and wordplay
An Introduction to This Text
A description of the publishing history of the play and our editors’ approach to this edition
Textual Notes
A record of the variants in the early printings of this text
A Modern Perspective
An essay by Coppélia Kahn
Further Reading
Suggestions from our experts on where to learn more
Shakespeare and his world
Learn more about Shakespeare, his theater, and his plays from the experts behind our editions.
Shakespeare’s Life
An essay about Shakespeare and the time in which he lived
Shakespeare’s Theater
An essay about what theaters were like during Shakespeare’s career
The Publication of Shakespeare’s Plays
An essay about how Shakespeare’s plays were published
Related blog posts and podcasts
We know you think Julius Caesar is boring
We ask theater artists across the country to tell us why it isn’t.
Order It: Mark Antony's "Friends, Romans, countrymen"
Interested in politics and communication? Try our quiz and rearrange the lines of Mark Antony’s “Friends, Romans, countrymen” speech from Julius Caesar, a famous passage from Shakespeare’s plays and a brilliant example of political oratory.
‘Julius Caesar’ and Shakespeare’s change in the American curriculum, from rhetoric to literature
Early 19th-century American students would study speeches from Shakespeare’s plays as examples of good public speaking, not as literature. How did Shakespeare’s place in the school curriculum change?
Beware the Ides of March — and confusing interpretations of 'Julius Caesar'
Brutus (Anthony Cochrane, left) and Julius Caesar (Michael Sharon, right), Julius Caesar, directed by Robert Richmond, Folger Theatre, 2014. Photo by Teresa Wood. In 1599, in the 40th year of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, when she had no heir or obvious…
Harriet Walter
In 2012, London’s Donmar Warehouse opened an all-female production of Julius Caesar, starring Dame Harriet Walter as Brutus and directed by Tony Award-nominated director Phyllida Lloyd. The production was set in a women’s prison, and it was the first of a trilogy of all-female productions, all starring Walter, that The Guardian would call “one of the most important theatrical events of the past 20 years.”
Drawing Shakespeare: Julius Caesar
Artist Paul Glenshaw describes drawing the Folger bas-relief of “Julius Caesar,” in which assassins with their knives start to turn away as Caesar dies. He pairs the image with a painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme at the Walters Art Museum in…
Teaching Julius Caesar
Use the Folger Method to teach Julius Caesar. Become a Teacher Member to get exclusive access to lesson plans and professional development.
The Key to Getting ALL Students Understanding and Interpreting Complex Texts
The Key to Getting ALL Students Understanding and Interpreting Complex Texts
Free resource
Cutting a Scene: Julius Caesar 3.1
Cutting a Scene: Julius Caesar 3.1
Creating a Promptbook: Julius Caesar 3.1
Creating a Promptbook: Julius Caesar 3.1
3-D Shakespeare: Julius Caesar 3.3
3-D Shakespeare: Julius Caesar 3.3
Introducing Julius Caesar with 2-Line Scenes
Introducing Julius Caesar with 2-Line Scenes
Julius Caesar Promptbooks: Marking Up Antony’s Speeches for Performance
Julius Caesar Promptbooks: Marking Up Antony’s Speeches for Performance
Directing Julius Caesar: An Interview with Michael Tolaydo
Directing Julius Caesar: An Interview with Michael Tolaydo
Abraham Lincoln, Macbeth, and Julius Caesar, 1865
Abraham Lincoln, Macbeth, and Julius Caesar, 1865
Master Class: Teaching Julius Caesar
Master Class: Teaching Julius Caesar
Early printed texts
Julius Caesar was published for the first time in the 1623 First Folio, and that text is the source of all later editions of the play.
