Of course I know that JULIUS CAESAR was not a Frenchman--for the modesty
of his "Commentaries" is proverbial--and that SHAKESPEARE never so much
as heard of the Man of December. Nevertheless the two CAESARS were
inextricably mixed up in my mind. I know that two or three editorial
persons who sat close by me, were continually talking of NAPOLEON, and I
may possibly have confounded their remarks with those of the actors.
Still I could not divest myself of the impression that I was sometimes
in Paris and sometimes in Rome, and that the sepulchral voice of Mr.
THEODORE HAMILTON, was more often that of NAPOLEON than that of JULIUS.
The play presents itself to my recollection in the following shape. As I
said before, it was represented at the very moment that the French
republicans, being satisfied with the bees in their respective bonnets,
were obliterating the imperial bees from the doors of the Tuileries, and
being anxious to take arms against a sea of Prussians, were taking down
the imperial arms wherever they could find them. Remembering this, the
reader will be able to account for any slight difference in text between
my _Julius Caesar,_ and that of the respectable and able Mr. SHAKESPEARE.
ACT I.--_Enter various Irish Roman Citizens, flourishing the shillelahs
of the period._
1ST. CITIZEN. "Here's a row. Great CAESAR is going to march to Berlin.
Hooray for the Hemperor."
1ST EDITORIAL PERSON. "I grant you he was popular when the war began,
but to-day the people despise him.
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