Ancient World Now: Julius Caesar, Part I

Click here for direct link to audio podcast Episode #65. Julius Caesar First Folio

Click here for link to previous audio podcast episodes.

Shakespeare studied Plutarch’s keen commentary on the character of Julius Caesar and then wrote some of the most beautiful lines in all of literature. This is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays because the tragic main figure is rendered with such depth. I never tire of picking up my little palm-sized New Temple edition published by J.M.Dent & Sons, Ltd., with engravings by Eric Gill. One afternoon I read it straight through while waiting for some eighth graders on their Physics Day amusement park field trip. An unforgettable pleasure!

Today’s episode is from Plutarch’s Lives for Boys & Girls, retold by W.H. Weston, and illustrated by W. Rainey, published in London & Edinburgh in the early 1900′s.

Enjoy!

Litquake 2010

Once again, I’ll be doing a workshop for kids at this year’s Litquake. Kidquake & Teenquake are held at the San Francisco
Public Library’s Main branch at the Civic Center. Here are the deets for my Teenquake event:

THEATRE TERMINATE
Has Shakespeare gone mad? Everybody dies in a tragedy, so join the mayhem in this death scenes workshop.
Check it all out with Gwen Minor at www.gwenminor.com
Here is a challenge for those of you who have done Shakespeare with me. Match each Shakespeare character with his or her final words.

Desdemona “As sweet as balm, as soft as air, as gentle,—O Antony! —Nay, I will take thee too. What should I stay—“
Julius Caesar “O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.”
Romeo “Farewell: commend me to my kind lord: O, farewell!”
Cleopatra “The rest is silence.”
Juliet “Mine & my father’s death come not upon thee, nor thine on me!”
Hamlet “Here’s to my love! O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.”
Laertes “Et tu, Brute! Then fall, Caesar.”