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.

For this updated edition, Marga Munkelt has added a new section and new pictures to the Introduction, surveying stage and critical interpretations since the 1980s of Shakespeare's most famous Roman play.

The reading list has also been brought up to date.