caesar playJulius Caesar, tragedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, produced in 1599–1600 and published in the First Folio of 1623 from a transcript of a promptbook. Based on Sir Thomas North’s 1579 translation (via a FrenchRather than restoring Republican balance, Caesar’s murder unleashes a brutal civil war in which the self-interest and power of the warring parties are all that matter. The first scene of the play