CONSPIRACY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18891, 13 December 1924, Page 1 (Supplement)

CONSPIRACY.

BRUTUS AND CASSIUS.

B\' KOTAB.E.

Out of Egypt conies the news of foul assassination, of conspiracy on conspiracy. widening out into who knows what tragic ramifications. Some peoples are temperamentally luilt for this sort of thing. It is their peculiar form of rational selfassertion, a sort of despairing thrust for a place m the sun by a submerged and decadent people. That may be the case with Egvpt. But very often among more vigorous races, conspiracy finds its opportunity through the perversion of the strong elements in the national character, through the accidental focussing in one individual or group of several lines of grievance or protest, or through the sheer power of one dominant personality who sweeps into a unity a multitude of small, vague discontents till they darken the lace of the sun Shakespeare realised that, and has embodied the classical picture of conspiracy in his ••Julius Caesar." Here, once again, we have demonstrated the power of the poet to fix his interpretations indelibly in the mind.'; of a nation. Kveiybody knows that Cassar was struck down by Brutus and Cassr'us, and that Antony swung the bewildered Roman mob into step behind him as he set out on the path of vengeance. Cwsar' . death was of no great historical importan ;■?. The ideals he stood for and that ha . made him., were not his own, and did not die with him. He was in part the product of his time, and the forces operating irresistibly in the national life could not be frustrated of their inevitable goal by the removal of one man or any group of"men. Far more important assassinations in their influence on the course of history have been forgotten. But when the poet lias captured the. nation's imagination, the vision that he saw and painted will dominate the public thought and emotion. Our poets are our greatest teachers.

Essex. So Shakespeare has determined that for all time the men and women of our race shall be more interested in the death of Julius Caesar than in any other assassination of history. The closing years of the life of Elizabeth were darkened with many a grim shadow of conspiracy. The old Queen had made many enemies. The consolidation of England, alter many bitter years of religious and political strife, had submerged but had not killed many a cherished ambition, many an intense devotion. Driven underground, they worked tortuously, with growing venom and an ever-deeper sense of injustice. The Queen in her last years kept a sword always on her table, and stabbed through the arras from time to time for a possible lurking enemy. It was the arrogant Earl of Essex. however, thai brought the Queen the darkest hours of all her tempestuous life. Ho the beloved, the incredibly spoiled successor of Leicester in her favour, marched on Eondot: to raise the city against the Queen and her advisers. It vas a hopeless business from the start. He had anticipated in his unbalanced optimism that London would be with him to a man. But London showed not the Slightest interest. It simply ignored him. Bacon in his " Account of the Treasons," bis deliberate attack on the friend whose benefactions had enriched him, gives a graphic picture of the ill-omened raid. " There was not, in so populous a city, one man from the chiefest citizen to the meanest artificer or prentice that armed with him;, so as being extremely appalled and almost molten with sweat, though without any cause of bodily labour, but only by the perplexity and horror of his mind, he came to Smith's house, the Sheriff." Surely one of the greatest fiascos in our history.

lii great grief of mind Elizabeth signed Ihp death warrant of her favourite. She never recovered from the shock. "She sleepefch not by clay as she used; neither taketh she rest by night; her delight is to sit in the dark, and. sometimes with shedding tears to bewail Essex." It is at least possible that Shakespeare set himself to depict the psychology of conspiracy, partly to clarify his own views on Essex and partly to prove to llie Que°n and the public that a, man might even go the length of assassination, from the highest motives and from a sincere desire to serve the State. This a.l any rate is what he does succeed in demonstrating in the character of Brutus.

Brutus. There is nearly always a Brutus in every conspiracy. He. is the high-souled idealist. He comes to his conclusions in (he study, in a world aloof from the practical'life of men. In that calm upper air he vie«vs life as it ought, to be. He weaves his perfect theories and then tries to make life fit them. Your philosophical assassin is always the most dangerous type. He is sure of himself, sure pf his theory. Life can be forced into his idealistic mould. He is noble; he seeks nothing for himself; it is the highest part of him that drives him on. If any man could make conspiracy respectable Uie Brutuses would do it.

There is at the root of his attitude, a profound faith in himself. He cannot lie wrong. What has seemed so clear in the study is bound to be clear to everybody else once he has carefully explained it. As there is no, personal feeling in the matter, there can be no appeal to mercy. He must march right on relentlessly to his goal. His faith in bis idea makes him an easy tool in the hands of baser men ; they acknowledge the idea : declare their allegiance to it, and under its shadow work their own infamous ends.

Brutus is so wrapt up in his idea that he smites down his dearest friend to prove il true. It is the old conflict of the Creek tragedies, duty versus love: and with Brutus duty as he conceives it, is bound to win. The modern world has seen conspiracy on conspiracy, assassination on assassination; and back of most of them you are sure to find a. Brutus. There is no need to revise Shakespeare's psychology of conspiracy.

Cassius. But Shakespeare saw plainly that all conspirators were not of the tribe of Brutus; lie gives us the other type in Cassius. Cassius is as direct in his own way as Brutus. But he. represents the man with a personal grievance. It is a very small affair to begin with, hardly a grievance at all. Ctesar and he have been companions, friends since, boyhood. In their youth Cassius was physically the stronger. He came to look upon Ctesar as an inferior, as young men in the pride of athleticism will. But as years passed C':esar showed qualities that soon left Cassius far behind, lie refuses to admit the facts. Caesar is a weaker man than himself, and Caesar has risen to be the greatest man in Home He broods over it; he can't get away from it; it haunts him night and day. Envy, jealousy, and finally hatred corrupt all the better part of him. The of Caesar rises before him to embitter every experience, all his own triumphs turn to ashes in his mouth. One stern tyrannic thought has made all other thoughts its slave. So he becomes an incarnate hate. He lihs magnified his imaginary grievance until it tills all his world. Any man can lose his sense of proportion if he dwell.-, too insistently on one idea, especially if it relates to what he deems a personal injustice. Cassius becomes a man of one idea; all his faculties of mind and soul are subordinated to it. Lean mid worn with mental conflict, hatehet-faoM. with burning eyes; within, a soul already in the tortures of hell—such is the Cassius Shakespeare paints. The others arc the. mere rag-lag and bob-tail, some sincere, some drifting into the conspiracy they know not how, some ready for any enterprise with a. spico of danger in it. But Cassius is the driving power, and the noble. Brutus is but a tool in his hd'.iu.