Julius Caesar
by William Shakespeare · first published 1656
22mentions
2recommended by
21HN commenters
2010–2024first – last mentioned
10% recommend86% neutral5% critical
Presents the original text of Shakespeare's play side by side with a modern version, discusses the author and the theater of his time, and provides quizzes and other study activities.
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…Miranda which alone is worth a few books of education alone. On the birth of modern india: Herman: Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age On the roman world: Julius Caesar: Gallic wars. This is a surprisingly readable book given that it's a propaganda piece written two thousands years ago. Highly recommended as it gives insight to just how organized-yet-cruel the ancient…
on “Ask HN: What, in your opinion, are the greatest and most useful textbooks?” ↗…turn to Shakespeare and get so much from the plays without studying literature in college? I doubt it, though that's just me. [0] Without knowing the reader's experience with the Bard, let me recommend Julius Caesar especially, also Henry VI Part 2 and Part 3, and of course their sequel, Richard III. Richard II is good too. I'd skip Henry VI Part 1 but read a synopsis as context for Part 2: Part 1 is clearly substandard…
on “I think US college education is nearer to collapsing than it appears” ↗…where the actors and director have done the "translation"." Very true, every once in a while we had a troupe called The Young Shakespeare Players come to the school and perform everything from Lear to Julius Caesar to The Scottish play to the comedies and they performed them in ways that would bring out the best for school kids. I suppose I'm sensitive to the way Shakespeare is introduced to schools because I'm…
on “My ranking of every Shakespeare play” ↗…professors, were being drilled in French and Latin and Greek before we turned seven, > ... > Marcus Aurelius had given me all kinds of wisdom for dealing with loss – impeccable in theory – and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar had taught me about the fury of the irrational. But when I thought of texts like that, I was back in the mind of my schoolboy days, and that was the structure that now lay in rubble. > ... > As a writer,…
on “Out of the Cell” ↗…For those that don't know, it's a derogatory term used by the upper class for the working class. It means commoner. Most people first hear it in high school english class... for me it was Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.
on “Naughty words: What makes swear words so offensive?” ↗Just a couple of examples I happened to come across while researching for another comment: In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare makes a pun which only works if "Rome" is pronounced like "room". Also, in Henry IV, Part One, there's a pun resting on the similarity of "reason" and "raisin".
on “Did Americans in 1776 have British accents?” ↗> Early idealists saw TV as bringing Shakespeare to the masses. We know how that went. Yes. The masses got to see Shakespeare. At school we spent a year on Julius Caesar. Now, the problem with these plays as literary material is that they're intended to be performed. The school was able (with support from parents) to ship students to see one performance of the play they…
on “William Gibson Predicts in 1997 How the Internet Will Change Our World (2019)” ↗…manipulate you would be an excellent class for teenagers. But devoting time to that comes at the expense of something else. Therefore, I'd recommend substituting Shakespeare's plays Romeo & Juliet and Julius Caesar with "Media Manipulation Studies" but of course, some people would complain "how can you possibly understand Western Civilization and humanities without studying Shakespeare?!?". Maybe true but making…
on “California tries to close the gap in math, but sets off a backlash” ↗…perhaps) is something heavily defined by its context - the book (or any art) is defined by its specific words, the world around it, and the person reading it. Its content is almost unlimited. Shakespeare's Julius Caesar means something much different in 2022 than in 1822, and something much different to you than to me than to Shakespeare than to George Bernard Shaw, and it there is so much to explore that you will never…
on “Long-standing literary magazines are struggling to stay afloat” ↗It seems like the question "who invented modern political satire?" can be refined to "at what point does political satire become modern?" Dante's Divine Comedy and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar both offered satirical perspectives on their politician contemporaries, but we aren't considering those to be modern. The article offers: >differentiated from earlier political prints by iconography,…
on “Who invented modern political satire?” ↗As others pointed out it's (mis)quoting shakespeare's Julius Caesar. It is worth mentioning that I hope one day we (HN?) will be quoting code - that some portions of code (maybe elegant implementations of encryption or quadratic voting) will become canon just as shakespeare…
on “I have come to bury the BIOS, not to open it [video]” ↗…iPhones. Now that Apple doesn't need that any more, and wants to move a bit upmarket, they put me in the mind of my favorite lines from Shakespeare (part of Brutus' soliloquy in Act 2, Scene 1 of Tragedy of Julius Caesar): That lowliness is young ambition's ladder, Whereto the climber-upward turns his face; But when he once attains the upmost round. He then unto the ladder turns his back, Looks in the clouds, scorning…
on “Did Apple just ban sexual content from the AppStore?” ↗I think that last one was Shakespeare: "Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once." - William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act II, sc. ii (1599)
on “On the Shortness of Life - Seneca (50 AD)” ↗"This was the most unkindest cut of all." - William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar. If it's good enough for Shakespeare, by God it's good enough for me!
on “Digg To Lay Off 37% Of Staff, Product Refocus Imminent” ↗"Time and tide waits for no man" (Quote from Shakespeare, Julius Caesar) You have to make things happen, not wait for the things to happen.
on “When we have money we'll do X” ↗