David Lowenthal and Paul Cantor on Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar

Abstract

A comparison of David Lowenthal and Paul Cantor on Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. David Lowenthal’s essay on Julius Caesar seeks to “make Allan Bloom’s brilliant interpretation of Shakespeare’s Caesar more consistent by denying that Caesar, imprudently and in derogation of his own greatness, sought to become king of Rome.” He explains Caesar’s “true ambition,” which he sees as perfectly in keeping with his greatness. Paul Cantor argues that “Julius Caesar provides the lynchpin of a historical trilogy that begins with Coriolanus and ends with Antony and Cleopatra, a trilogy that portrays the rise and fall of the Roman Republic. In that story, Julius Caesar is central.”

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Paul Cantor. Book Review of David Lowenthal, Shakespeare’s Thought: Unobserved Details and Unsuspected Depths in Thirteen Plays. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2017: xvi + 313. Ben Johnson Journal 26.1 (2019): 153-156. Accessed September 13, 2022. DOI: 10.3366/bjj.2019.0245

2 The page references to Lowenthal’s essay are to the version as printed in Shakespeare and the Good Life: Ethics and Politics in Dramatic Form (1997).

3 Allan Bloom. Shakespeare’s Politics, 1964: 98.