The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1910-04-12
Tells of Foremost Man in all the
World in His Time--JuIus
Caesar the Great
General
BRUTUs AND cAss1Us
Marc Antony---the Man Who Reckless
Iy Gambled Against Chance
and Opportunity and
Won.

DR.. Edward Howard Griggs gave a
lecture last night at the high school
which should have been heard by
every man, woman and child in Keo-
kuk, instead of the medium sized aud
fence that greeted him.
julius Caesar, the Individual and
the state, was the title of Dr. Griggs'
lecture which in substance was:
"Shakespeare's plays as whole
show a deep interest in and knowl-
edge of the psychological development
of human nature. His earlier plays
do not exhibit as great depth and
Interest in human nature as the later
ones. They are buoyant and lyrically
beautiful but that is all.
The Merchant of Venice marks
Shakespeares ethical awakening and
In the three years after that he pro-
duced his seven great masterpieces
of dramatic art, among which NUN
Der McBeth Lear, Othello
Hamlet and julius Caesar. The
greatest playwright had lost
something of that buoyancy of
youth which he betrayed in his young
er effusions. Nevertheless he always
retained a certain optimism as is por-
trayed in all his works. There is
nothing in the world of literature to-
day to be compared with his Hamlet
In it's battling depths of character
The ambition brought to bear in Nc
Beth. the Jealousy dealt with in
Othello and the great psychological
passions which contend in that final
drama Antony and Cleopatra.
The enthralling drama julius Caesar
brings us back to the most instructive
and interesting period of the worlds
history, it being the most faithful in
now in existence.
The divorce between the civil and
the military authority caused the day
to dawn when the man who command
ed the army dominated the world
The old stern virile character of the
Roman citizen gave way under the
luxurious seducing temptations and
environs of the east The populace
lived for the pleasure of the moment
alone so what was more natural than
that their character should rot away
The death blow was struck to the
republic when julius Caesar took up
arms against the republic In other
words, stabbed his mother.
Shakespeare was too keen stu
dent of human nature to present alb
stract ideas to his readers. His
ideas took shape and were represent
ed by men of action. who did things
and We're alive. Dramatic interest
centers itself about the struggles of
those individuals who incarnate them
selves in the great battles of life and
mastery
julius Caesar is then the psycolog-
ical masterpiece OF Shakespeare's
dramatic art. Whenever he speaks OF
Caesar he shows that he considers
him as the best symbol of a man OF
action in all history. And yet with
that consummate skill which is all his
own the dramatist depicts Caesar in
his true light, that of the vaccfllat
ing, somewhat tri1ing and wholly
superstitious man.
Then we have the character OF
Brutus, man who deplores the way
Rome is tending and man of noble
instincts. one who is brooding over
the degeneracy of the Roman people
at this time. At this juncture Cas-
slus meets him, a man who knows
just when to seize opportunity shrewd
and calculating but wholly without
the nobility of nature which crowns
Brutus. In ten minutes he has mould.
ed Brutus to the plan of assassina.
ton. Cassius hates Caesar as an in
dividual while Brutus loves the great
general as man while thinking that
It is for the best interests of the
country to kill him
Now which was the most danger
Gus man to the state? Brutus un
questionable because he went into
the plot with only blind vague ides
of what was involved He meant vel
but he did not understand the pawn.
on the chessboard of life. thinkins
chat all Romans had the same noble
aims and ambitions for the republi,
that he had Brutus condemned
Caesar as a serpent unmatched, TO
the wrong he was afraid the genera
might do. What would happen toda,
If We did likewise?
The kind hearted Brutus inter
cedes for Marc Antony, the friend o
Caesar, when that mans assassine
ton is suggested, little KNOWN
what would be the result of his fat,
Gus kindness. The practical iuds
ment OF Cassius is again right and til
generosity of Brutus has dire result,
The ldes of March has been Sc
as the day on which great Caesa
is to die Contrary to HE .is