Professor Spevack's critical discussion shows how private desires and public affairs are inextricable in Julius Caesar and how Shakespeare frames the world of this play - person, action, place, time - within the operations of larger forces, mysterious, ironical, and undeniable.

The result is the full impact of tragedy. The commentary is remarkable for its attention to questions of staging and to precise lexical glossing; the stage history supports and illustrates the rich implications and ambiguities of the play's design.