Forty-Seven

“Shakespeare never clarifies what type of tribune Flavius might be. He might be a military tribune; that is to say, an official embittered over a loss of power in the hierarchical structure of Rome. Messenger from the central government in the midst of the legions, his position would have been weakened by an imperial leadership arising over every segment of the machinery of war. Julius Caesar’s leadership, of course. This had become an ideal position for children of patrician families without a lot going for them but who wanted a place in the State. I am inclined to think that Flavius was not one of those. I think he was more likely a tribune of the plebs. That is, a representative of the people before the Senate. The position of tribune of the plebs was created by popular pressure: a way of seating a commoner in the capital of the empire. An ordinary man invested with a political position conferred by the delegation of territorial sovereignty. To every tribe, a tribune elected by franchise. Flavius strikes me as one of those.

“His reaction, however, is completely alien to the feelings of the Roman people. He rebukes the citizens, censures their joy, lectures them. He nods as his companion Marullus qualifies those who celebrate the arrival of Julius Caesar: ‘You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!’ He assents when Marullus blurts: ‘O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome.’

“So what is it this play is trying to tell us in its very first scene? It doesn’t matter. The author is Shakespeare, and he, like Isaac Newton, does not formulate hypotheses: he limits himself to describing the psychic mechanisms of man. That is something to keep in mind when the curtains open and you, young actor, must speak your line: ‘Hence! Home, you idle creatures, get you home!’”