ŷ������

Et tu Brutus. Then fall Caesar.
Whether or not Julius Caesar ever spoke these words, they contain a wealth of meaning like the rest of Shakespeare’s extraordinary play. Even if Cicero is speaking Greek, and for the hapless Casca, “but those that understood him smiled at
one another and shook their heads; but, for mine own
part, it was Greek to me,�� even for readers more than four centuries later, the Bard still speaks directly to us about pride and arrogance, about hope and despair, and about the struggle of one man, Brutus, against his conscience trying to justify what he though was a righteous murder. However, this is Shakespeare, and the murder of a monarch never,ever goes well. Brutus was dumb to not also kill Antony, to let Antony speak after him and to meet Antony on the field of battle at Philippi. For my money, this is one of Shakespeare’s most straightforward narratives, one which many Americans and Europeans learned at school. The epic performances of Charlton Heston and Marlon Brando both playing Antony and haranguing the crowd with “Brutus is an honorable man�� still haunt us today. When we think of the dreams and innocence that died when Kennedy was assassinated, we can try to approach the pathos that Shakespeare captures in this moment.
Truly worth reading again (and again.)

Fino's Reviews of Shakespeare and Shakespearean Criticism
Comedies
The Comedy of Errors (1592-1593
The Taming of the Shrew (1593-1594)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594-1595)
Love's Labour's Lost (1594-1595)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595-1596)
The Merchant of Venice (1596-1597)
Much Ado About Nothing (1598-1599)
As You Like It (1599-1600)
Twelfth Night (1599-1600)
The Merry Wives of Windsor (1600-1601)
All's Well That Ends Well (1602-1603)
Measure for Measure (1604-1605)
Cymbeline (1609-1610)
A Winter's Tale (1610-1611)
The Tempest (1611-1612)
Two Noble Kinsmen (1612-1613)

Histories
Henry VI Part I (1589-1590)
Henry VI Part II (1590-1591)
Henry VI Part III (1590-1591)
Richard III (1593-1594)
Richard II (1595-1596)
King John (1596-1597)
Edward III (1596-1597)
Henry IV Part I (1597-1598)
Henry IV Part II (1597-1598)
Henry V (1598-1599)
Henry VIII (1612-1612)

Tragedies
Titus Andronicus (1592-1593)
Romeo and Juliet (1594-1595)
Julius Caesar (1599-1600)
Hamlet (1600-1601)
Troilus and Cressida (1601-1602)
Othello (1604-1605)
King Lear (1605-1606)
Macbeth (1605-1606)
Anthony and Cleopatra (1606-1607)
Coriolanus (1607-1608)
Timon of Athens (1607-1608)
Pericles (1608-1609)

Shakespearean Criticism
The Wheel of Fire by Wilson Knight
A Natural Perspective by Northrop Frye
Shakespeare After All by Marjorie Garber
Shakespeare's Roman Plays and Their Background by M W MacCallum
Shakespearean Criticism 1919-1935 compiled by Anne Ridler
Shakespearean Tragedy by A.C. Bradley
Shakespeare's Sexual Comedy by Hugh M. Richmond
Shakespeare: The Comedies by R.P. Draper
Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics by Stephen Greenblatt
1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro

Collections of Shakespeare
Venus and Adonis, the Rape of Lucrece and Other Poems
Shakespeare's Sonnets and a Lover's Complaint
The Complete Oxford Shakespeare