The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1898-11-24
MOULTON'S LECTURE.
HE SPEAKS ON JULIUS CAESAR
AND ITS CHARACTERS.
A STUDY IN CHARACTE rs.
Interesting Discussion of the Characters
Of Brutus, Cassius, Antony and
Caesar and Their Connection
With the Play.

in the ShakeSpearean lectures given Oy
Prof. Moulton still continues to grow.
With each successive lecture the at
tendance increases and the anticipa-
ton with which the people look for
ward to the coming discourses becomes
more intense. Those who have before
shown but the most meagre liking for
the great English bard are developing
very scholarly interest in his immor-
tai productions; those who have stud
led them for years are filled with q
new zeal, a keener appreciation, and
the results plainly visible of Mr.. Moul-
toms occasional visits to this city are a
healthy growth of literary disposition
and refinement of literary taste. Dis
agreeable weather may be factor in
the public attention paid to an opera,
foot ball game G. anything OF that
sort, but be it said, the Areat credit
of Prof. Moulton and our citizens alike,
that unfavorable conditions have no
effect whatever upon the large num-
bers who defy storm and circumstances
to spend an evening with the sublime
dramatist of old Britain.
The subject Of Prof. Moulton's fourth
lecture was Julius Caesar" Among
the plays that bear Shakespeare's
name, this is one of the comparative
few which are purely Shakespearean.
1t is not founded upon any other, nor
is there in it a trace of any hand but
Shakespeare's. The substance of the
story is taken from the lives OF Caesar,
Brutus, Anthony and Cicero in NOrth's
Plutarch. In Plutarch also Shake
speare found the traits of character
that distinguish its various personages
1t is, strictly speaking, tragical
dramatic history rather than tragedy
pure and simple, like King Lear or
Hamlet; for it has no plot, and on other
dramatic moYemant than the simple
succession of historical events. These
are not grouped or modified by an
informing ideal; they are merely COM
pressed. 1t is notably short, being the
shortest of Shakespeare's work with
the exception OF Mac beth.
The lecturer treated the play as a
study of character. He said, in effect,
that interest of character is an obvious
side of Shakespeare study. A Shake
spearean play is an excellent and mex
haustible stOrehouse of material for the
discussion of character; even the minor
persOnages bringing light enough to
warrant speculation upon the whole
character from the small sample of it..
A valuable tombstone of character
is the Antithesis of the Practical and
Inner life. This belongs to all places
and times: in the Roman world of the
play it might manifest itself in conflict
ing claims of Public and Private life,
Policy and Friendship, the Cause and
the Self. Brutus, the central figure of
the play, represents a character in
which the Inner and the Practical life
are we'll balanced, but the Inner nature
yelled by Stoicism. This element in
his constitution gives him greater
weight in the affairs of the day than is
enjoyed by his tireless worker,
Cassius. In him the two lives are, in a
sense, at war. His purpose is in all
things only good. This his Inner Life
prompts him to. AS a conspirator
against Caesar he hesitates long as to
what course to take. He loves Cesar,
but as he said after the death of
Caesar, Not that I love Caesar less,
but Rome more" his two loves
we're conflicting. As he thus
wavers, Cassius says of him:
Three parts of him
Is ours already, and the man entire
Upon next encounter yield him ours. )"
And Casca follows by saying
90, he sits high in all peoples hearts. !"
Thus it appears that the strong, pure
Inner life of Brutus which made him
hesitate in the death of Caesar had
made him loved and esteemed by the
people of Rome. The softer side of
Brutus' nature is revealed in the scenes
with Portia and the Page. But finally
the outer life prevailed and the noble
DI uGuS lOuU LIS dIQ W Ol1O pLOb uuUlI
Even at the base of Prompy's statue
Which all the while run blood, great
Caesar fell"
The antithesis is complete. The
Practical life of Brutus prompted to
the wrong which he thought would
satisfy his Inner natures craving for
good.
Caesar, the speaker described as a
colossal type of the Practical life, with
the Inner nature undeveloped. Thus
in the scenes of this play his personality
appears under an eclipse. Caesar is
a pre- eminent example of Practi-
cal life. He is above all things
a man of action. But the crisis
in which the drama presents Caesar
is one involving, not great qualities of
action, but knowledge of his own and
others individuality. 1t stands out
cOnsricuously in contrast with the uni